31 verses
One day, having performed his daily rites, bodily needs and taken bath, he was sitting on the bank of the river chanting Kṛṣṇa mantras for three muhūrtas.
O King, a doe, being very thirsty, came near the water.
While the doe was drinking water, the roar of a lion, fearful to all, arose nearby.
Pepīyamāne meansdrinking with great attachment. Mṛgapateḥ is a lion.
Hearing that sound, the doe, whose nature was to be alarmed, with restless eyes, with fear of the lion entering its agitated heart, with irresolute gaze, in terror leaped over the stream in the same instant, without satisfying her thirst.
Sahasā means at the same time as the roar. Bhayāt means in terror. She jumped over the river.
When the pregnant doe jumped up, her fetus came out, pushed out by great fear, and fell in the river.
Antarvatnyāḥ means pregnant.
Afflicted by exhaustion, fear, the jump, the discharge of her fetus, and separated from the flock, the black doe fell down in a cave and died.
Utprasava1 means giving birth from a high placean abortion.
The great King Bharata, seeing the helpless fawn floating down the river, out of compassion, as a friend, thinking its mother had died, took the fawn which had no friend, to his hermitage.
The deer was a baby, separated from its kind. Because it was small, helpless and separated from its kind, he felt compassion.
Taking the fawn as his own child, the King daily fed it, protected it, caressed it, and pleased it. Becoming absorbed in the deer by these activities, he gave up his own regulations and rules of conduct, and his worship of the Lord, bit by bit, in a few days. Everything became neglected.
He fed the deer grass, protected it from wild animals, gave affection by petting it, and fondled it with kisses. By these he became attached to it. Udavasan means destroyed.
Alas, this helpless young deer, by the force of the turning of the Lords wheel of time, has now lost its relatives and friends and has taken shelter of me. It does not know anyone but me, as I have become its father, mother, brother and relatives. It has faith in me. Therefore I, without envy, knowing the fault of neglecting one who approaches in surrender, should raise, protect, gratify and fondle this deer who has surrendered to me.
From this verse till verse 11, his attachment is shown. The deer has been separated from its kind by the force of the rotation the Lords wheel of time. Mā means me. Being without envy, I see no fault in giving up my own interest for that of the deer, whereas neglecting one who has come for shelter is a great fault.
Those who are detached, who are cultured and saintly, friends to the helpless, neglect their own important interests for such purposes.
This is actually for my own good.
Having developed attachment, he became bound by affection to the young deer while sitting, sleeping, walking, bathing and eating.
Anusaḍgaḥ means attachment. Mṛga-jahunā means with the young deer.
When he went to collect kuśa grass, flowers, wood, leaves, fruits, roots and water, fearing danger from monkeys, jackals and wild dogs, he would enter the forest with the young deer.
This verse describes his affection. Śālāvṛka means a jackal. He feared the monkeys, jackals and dogs.
His mind filled with affection and attachment as he walked here and there in the forest, unaware of the dangers, he would carry the deer on his shoulders since it was helpless, or keep it on his lap or chest. Petting the deer, he felt great bliss.
He would walk on the muddy earth, where there was grass for the deer. He was unaware that the he may sink in the mud (mugdha-bhāvena). He was attached (viṣakta).
When, in the midst of performing worship of the Lord, he would rise and gaze at the deer, Bharata would offer blessings to the deer with mind joyful on seeing it. O young deer! All blessings to you!
While performing worship of the Lord he would think, I do not know where the deer has gone. He would rise and look. Prakṛti-sthena means recovering himself, gaining bliss on seeing the deer.
Sometimes, not seeing the deer, his mind would become pitifully disturbed, like a miser who has lost his wealth. He would become greatly bewildered and lament. His heart was pained by pangs of separation from the small deer, with longing to see it. He would speak as follows.
Sometimes, not seeing the deer, he would become bewildered out of longing to see it.
Perhaps this young, helpless deer whose mother has died, having faith in me though I am actually cruel like a cunning or low class person and have no pious credits, will not consider my offense and will return out of kindness.
Api indicates possibility. Bata indicates compassion. Aho indicates surprise due to lamentation. I have the cruel mind of a cheater or low class persons. I am heartless, being inattentive to feeding and protecting the young deer (anaryasya). What is the cause? I have not done pious acts. I am without good fortune. Will the deer return, not considering the offenses I have committed out of cruelty? What is the cause of his offense? The deer considered that I was pure like it was, according to the rule One thinks the world like oneself. It had faith in me, who cannot be trusted.
Perhaps I will find that the deer has been protected by my Lord and is grazing fearlessly on grass in the garden of the hermitage.
Maybe the deer has been protected by my merciful Lord (deva-guptam).
Perhaps a wolf or jackal, or a tiger or in a group of animals has eaten the deer.
Those traveling in groups are wild boars. Those traveling alone are tigers and others. Will they not eat him?
The sun, which rises to give benefit to the whole world, composed of the three Vedas, is setting. The young deer entrusted to me by its mother has not returned.
The sun now sets. By rising it gives benefit to the whole world. But to me alone there is no benefit, since I am unfortunate. The sun is the form of the Vedas and reveals the Vedas. I alone opposed to its dharma of mercy. The deer has been entrusted to me by its mother.
Perhaps the prince among deer will return and, driving away my grief by his pleasant deer actions, give happiness to me, who have not done any pious acts.
Out of affection he glorifies the deer while lamenting.
When I would close my eyes and fake samādhi in jest, the deer would approach in great alarm and out of anger in love butt me with the tender tips of his horns which felt like water drops.
Kṣvelikāyām means while playing. He will approach me with my eyes closed in false samādhi. O fool! Though I nourish you, I will not give up my daily duties of remembering and chanting. I am giving you up. Go wherever you want! Pretending to be angry I would then fake samādhi, out of desire to see what the deer would do. Out of anger in love, the deer would butt me with the tips of his tender horns which felt like drops of water (pṛṣat).
When the deer would contaminate the ingredients for sacrifice placed on kuśa grass, I would scold it. Fearful, it would immediately stop playing and like the son of a sage would sit with restrained senses.
The deer would contaminate the ingredients places on the kuśa grass by touching them with his teeth. Another version has dūṣitvā: having contaminated the kuśa. I would scold the deer. Ah! What have you done? It would give up its play and remain with motionless senses.
What penance the earth must have done! The earth is indicating the path to wealth for this miserly person who suffers from poverty, by the small, graceful, auspicious foot prints of the humble black deer The earth has made itself a place of sacrifice for brāhmaṇas desiring to attain Svarga or liberation by ornamenting itself with these foot prints.
Talking in this way, he would then rise up and go outside. Seeing the earth marked with its footprints, he then criticizes himself while glorifying the deer out of love. O Bharata is unfortunate! He is a useless performer of penance. What penance the earth has done that you have not done! Or, O people of the fourteen worlds! Say among you, who has done penance like the earth. You have not done as the earth has done. By describing the deer, he indicates the pleasure he derived from it. The foot prints show the way to wealth. O miserable Bharata! Why do you weep? You will obtain your treasure of life, the small deer, which has entered the forest by following the trail of its foot prints. In this way the earth is merciful to me and is pacifying me. By spreading out these foot prints as its ornaments, the earth has made itself playfully into a place of sacrifice. Smṛti says yasmin deśe mṛgaḥ kṛṣṇas tasmin dharmān nibodhata: Know that there is dharma, a place of sacrifice, where the black deer resides.
The Lord in the form of the moon, affectionate to helpless persons out of mercy, is protecting this young deer, whose mother died out of fear of a lion and who has now left my hermitage.
Looking in the sky, and seeing the moon, he thinks that he sees his small deer on the moon. The deer has left my hermitage since I, a most sinful person, have been inattentive. O moon! You are the Lord (bhagavān). Otherwise, who could you have the fortune to have the mark of the deer on your surface?
When will the moon give me pleasure by its rays of cool, peaceful nectar flowing from its mouth out of attraction for me as I pursue the deer, while my heart, like a land lotus, burns with the feverish flames of the forest fire of separation from my son?
Noticing that the rays of the moon are burning him, he expresses his desire. In separation from my son the cool rays of the moon have become hot. Ah! When will the time come when the young deer will come back to me? The moon will then cool me down. Will the moon turn me, who pursues the deer, into nectar (sudhayati)?2 Will it turn me into nectar by inundating my limbs burning in separation from the deer with its nectar, by its rays made of nectar flowing as water constantly from its mouth, cool and peaceful, intensified by attraction for me? The verb sudhāyati is formed by taking sudhāvat (like nectar) and dropping the suffix vat according to the rule vinmator luk (Pāṇini 5.3.65) Just as persons skilful in mantras cool fever by applying water from their mouths, the moon should apply water from its mouth on me. Another version has upasṛta-mṛgī-tanayaḥ. The meaning would then be When will the deer pacify me out of affection by the touch of his mouth on my limbs?
His heart afflicted by unfulfilled desire, Bharata fell from his practice of yoga, from his detachment from material enjoyment achieved by bhakti, and even from his worship of the Lord, by the Lords special arrangement of prārabdha-karma through the appearance of the young deer. How else could he develop attachment for the young deer? While Bharata, who had previously rejected his own sons as an obstacle to the highest goal, and who now produced an obstacle to his practice of yoga, forgot himself by petting, showing affection for, protecting and nourishing the young deer, inevitable death with great speed approached him, just as snake approaches a mouse hole.
He fell from his position in yoga and worship of the Lord by the influence of karmas of this life which manifested a small deer to him. Prārabdha-karma is of two types: auspicious and inauspicious. The first type occurs by the will of the Lord to increase longing for devotion to the Lord, like sharp ointment applied to the eyes. This is accepted favorably by the devotee. Being similar to prārabdha-karma it is accepted as such. That which creates more intense bhakti in the future takes place in those who already possess rati or bhāva. The second type consists of results of actions of previous lifetimes which manifest later as absorption in material life. In the verse the first type is indicated by the word su in svarabhda-karmanā. He fell from his austerity of rejecting material enjoyment which was produced by bhakti-yoga (yoga-tapasaḥ). The word ca means even. Even though bhakti does not have great obstacles, he fell from worship of the Lord by the will of the Lord. How else could he fall (itarathā), except by prārabdha-karma arranged by the will of the Lord? He had already given up his sons (hṛdaya-abhijātasya). Or he fell by the semblance of karma in the form of the deer. Though the jīvanmuktas do not have any false identity, they have a semblance of false identity. Similarly those who have developed rati do not have prārabdha-karma, but have semblance of prārabdha-karma. Or he fell down because of the inferior (ābhāsena) fawn, through auspicious prārabdha-karma. Under the influence of his good prārabdha-karma, Bharata took care of the deer. Otherwise if there had been no good karma, he would not have a desire to care for the deer. Bharatas fall however was arranged by the Lord for the purpose of increasing his longing for bhakti after taking birth as a deer and a brāhmaṇa. The Lord has said:
nāhaṁ tu sakhyo bhajato 'pi jantūn
bhajāmy amīṣām anuvṛtti-vṛttaye
yathādhano labdha-dhane vinaṣṭe
tac-cintayānyan nibhṛto na veda
But the reason I do not immediately reciprocate the affection of living beings even when they worship Me, O gopīs, is that I want to intensify their loving devotion. They then become like a poor man who has gained some wealth and then lost it, and who thus becomes so anxious about it that he can think of nothing else. SB 10.32.20
He did not think of himself. Death (kālaḥ) arrived, like a snake approaching a mouse hole.
Seeing the deer lamenting by his side like his son and absorbed in thinking of the deer, he gave up his body in the company of the deer. After the death of his body, without loss of memory of his previous life, he attained the body of a deer as if undergoing karma.
He saw the deer by his side lamenting like his own son. Giving up his body (lokam) in the presence of the deer, he attained the body of a deer, like a person afflicted by karma (itaravat). After his body died, his memory of his previous life was not destroyed. However Bharata was above karma. It has already been explained that he had no prārabdha-karma (it was a semblance of karma only).
By the influence of his worship of the Lord, he could remember the cause of becoming a deer in this life and he was greatly repentant. He spoke as follows.
I have fallen from the path of the great devotees into a miserable condition. I, being intelligent, had renounced material association and had alone taken shelter of the pure forest. My mind was absorbed completely and continuously in Paramātmā, the soul of all souls, Bhagavān Vāsudeva, by hearing, contemplation, chanting, worshipping and remembering, but then my mind foolishly became absorbed in a young deer and fell down.
Ātmavataḥ means wise. I was absorbed in Paramātmā (ātmani), the soul of all jīvas (ātmānām). My mind was fixed (samāhitam) in taking the processes of bhakti such as remembrance, but fell down (susrāva).
Becoming very disgusted, he gave up his deer mother and went from Kālañjara Mountain to Pulahāśrama, the place of the Lord, the place called Śālagrāma, dear to the sages with controlled mind.
Kālañjarāt means from his birth place on the mountain called Kālañjara. Śālagrāma is the name of the place to which he returned.
In that place, waiting for his death, greatly disturbed by bad association, taking Paramātmā as his companion, subsisting on dry leaves, grass and bushes, bathing in the holy water, and calculating how to end the cause of taking a deer body, he finally gave up that deer body.
Thus ends the commentary on the Eighth Chapter of the Fifth Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
The Eighth Chapter describes how Bharata raised a fawn, and meditating on it, attained the body of a deer in his next life. Kṛṣṇa, an ocean of cleverness, protected this deer who was previously Bharata to show that compassion, if it is an obstacle to bhakti, must be given up. The Lord shows his affection for his devotee by protecting Bharata in the form of a deer, so that he would fall in the ocean of remorse in order to drown in the ocean of prema.
He had performed his daily rites, necessities like passing urine and bathing. Abhiseka is placed first in the dvandva compound because of having less syllables and being similar to words like aja in usage. Brahmāksaram means the syllables of a Kṛṣṇa mantra. Abhigṛṇāhaṇ means uttering.