THE STORY OF ATMA DEVA

 

My Humble Pranams to All. Srimad Bagavata Maha puranam is believed to be one of Lord Krishna’s avatars and it’s written by Rishi Vyasadeva and it contains 18000 verses in twelve cantos. Simply listening to it is believed to get rid of all our sins and attain solace of Lord Krishna. So here is one such story to highlight the essence of sacred purana. Once on the banks of a river Tungabadra lived a man name Atmadeva. He was a pious and good-natured person but to the contrary his wife, Dunduli always liked to gossip and cause chaos in other families. They were not blessed with a child and this made Atmadeva sad. He lived with a ray of hope that someday he will have a child. However,  years passes by and his hopes were lost. He went to a jungle lost in his emotions and there he met a saint. Atmadeva was so depressed that he enquired the saint when will his desire come true of having a child.  But saint could forsee that Atmadeva was destined not to have any child not only in the present birth but also in all his future births. Hearing this atmadeva broke down inconsolable. The sage then explained to take a religious path of guru shisya as only that has eternal happiness where as other relationships in world do not bring upon permanent happiness and are accompanied with sorrows as well. Atmadeva begged to saint to bless him with a child as he was so desperate. The saint gave him a fruit and said that he will be blessed with child if his wife will have the fruit. Atmadeva was overjoyed and he quickly returned home and asked his wife to eat the fruit. His wife was not happy and she devised a plan to send off her husband to pilgrimage and then threw the fruit to cow shed. Cow had the fruit and it gave birth to a human who had ears like cow just like how a cow is designed to hear good things. Meanwhile Dunduli sister also gave birth to a child and she then lied to her husband that her sister’s child was their child who was born after eating the fruit given by the saint. Atmadeva who returned from his tour and was very excited to hear the great news. He named his first son as Dundukari, who was born through his sister-in-law and named the other son who had cow’s ears as Gokarna. As expected, Gokarna had all divine qualities while Dundukari had all the vices. Over time, Dundukari started to abuse his parents and this really worried Atmadeva. One day he kicked Atmadeva from his home. Atmadeva cried to Gokarna on the same and Gokarna advised him about the unfortunate family bonding that he had and explained him the futility of material life, requested his father to renounce the world and read  Srimad Bhagavatam everyday. It is interesting to note that this was exactly what the Saint had earlier advised him! As years pass by, Dundukari commits more sins and brings home women of illicit character and eventually those women kill him. Gokarna who visits home after pilgrimage to gaya where he performed final rituals for his brother Dundukari gets haunted by a terrible voice. He sprinkles holy water and finds out that it was nothing but the spirit of his brother Dundukari which was in terrible state and crying for help. He realised that he was suffering due to the sins he has committed. Gokarna went on asking eveybody on how to provide liberation to his brother but none had solution to it. Finally, the lord of sun, Surya bhagavan tells him to listen to Bagavata saptaha and so Gokarana makes necessary arrangements for the Sapatha and it’s believed that the conclusion of the Sapataha, Vishnu dootas arrived in a vehicle and carried Dundukari to Vaikunta. Such is the power for Srimad Bhagavatha Saptaham and its Sanatkumaras who narrate this story on the glory of the Bhagavata Saptaham to Sage Narada. I hope everyone who read this story atleast experienced an instant bliss. Sri Krishnatpanamatsu..!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                 -Sowmya Raghavan