Long Long Ago

అనగా అనగా ..........
Long long ago; there was a village. One day a young Brahmin approached a house and urged for food. The house wife had given him food in a bamboo basket. He took it and reached village tank. As per his custom, he wanted to have a bath before taking food.

He kept his food basket under the shade of a big banyan tree, on a bank of the tank and he was taking bath in the water. At that moment, an eagle came on to the branch of that banyan tree. If caught hold of a poisonous snake in its paws. By sitting on the branch, it started to kill the snake to eat it.

Under that branch only, our young man kept his food basket. When the eagle was tearing the snake, with death pain, the snake vomited poison. That poison had fallen on the food. After taking, both the young Brahmin ate that food, because he didn’t know what happened. Immediately he died.

After telling this story Bhethala asked the king “Oh! King! Who is the cause of the death of the Brahmin young man? Who is responsible to the sin of assassination of the young man? The housewife, the eagle, the snake or Brahmin boy himself? If you break silence, I’ll disappear from here. If you don’t give reply by knowing the answer, your head break into thousand pieces.

” Oh reader! Can you tell the answer? Please wait! Before you say the reply, I narrate the king’s answer to you.

The king replied “oh! Bhethal, when a hungry person ask for food, being host, by giving food to him, there was faith, but nothing sin with house wife. So she would not liable to that Brahmin hatya Patakam [In Indian believes, Brahma hatya patakam means killing of a ‘Sadhu’ i.e. Brahmin person i.e. not by birth but by nature, is greatest sin] for the eagle, snake was its food given by nature or by God.

So eating a snake on the branch of the tree was not sin. So eagle was not liable to sin. Being killed by eagle, while experiencing the pain of death, spraying of poison by snake was natural phenomena. So snake was not liable to the sin. Being Brahmin, with good habits, before taking food, taking bath was good. With hunger also, the young man didn’t forget his good habit. Without knowing the poison mixing in food, he ate it.

So he was not liable to the sin. It was only fate. But after hearing this story, if any listener say that somebody like house wife or eagle or snake or young man himself is liable to this sin, without thinking properly such listener is liable to this sin.”

Because the answer was correct, Bethal disappeared from the shoulder of the king and appeared as corpse on the banyan tree.

This is the story!
Note: To read the application of this story to our life, click here: Mother’s Lap