Story 1
1. Listen now, you hearers, to a most extraordinary story. Ab one drinks the supreme nectar of the story of the bkaktaa he will at once experience their value. Diseases of this earthly experience will immediately disappear.
SATVIK'S LEFT HAND
2. At Jagannath there was a King hy name of Satvik. Nothing aside from God was pleasing to his heart.
3. This sacred city of Jagannath Vadaya is truly a heavenly city amongst mortals. There the Life of the world lives in the avatarship of Buddha and there He performs all His lila
( voluntary deeds ).
4. That king living by the Eastern sea was rightly called /So/wA; (truthful). The eagle-bannered
One was always very favourable to him.
5. Three times a day at the time of worship the king came and seated him- self at the temple. Receiving as his favour a tulsi leaf he afterwards would sit down to eat.
6. Garments, ornaments, adornments and daily food he offered to God. If uninvited guests should come, the king himself gave them food,
7. He kept a light burning night and day in the temple. He provided a place for free food and gave to those he thought were worthy. Food and water he gave to every creature.
8. Now it happened on a certain day that the king sat by the great door of the temple. In order to pass
the time, he began to play some gambling game.
9. Laughingly he threw down the dice and had no consciousness of what he was doing. Just then at the great door of the temple a priest came to distribute favours.
10. In order to receive a favour the king put forward his left hand. The priest felt that this was a very strange act.
11. Because he presented his left hand the priest went hack again in the temple. When the king had finished his playing dice he asked the people regarding the favours which
the priest had been distributing.
12. They replied, 'When he distributed them around you put out your left hand. Therefore the priest went back again into the temple. '
THE KING'S REPENTANCE
Hearing this the king was startled.
13. ' My former deeds were wrong I know. Later they have appeared in the form of a dice. Discarding nectar, I have drunk intoxicating liquor, so I think.
14. Or it is as if I had allowed the wish-tree to wither away and gave water to the sindi tree; in playing with dice the same thing happened to me, I think.
15. Just as if in picking up charcoal a treasure of money should be lost, so the same has happened to me, I think, in playing with the dice;
16. or as if someone should take a handful of ashes and the kasturi ( musk ) paste should disappear ; I think the same has happened to me in playing with the dice.
17. Driving away the royal swan, I kept a crow ; I cut down the sandalwood tree, and planted a hingan; so I think the same has happened to me while playing with the dice.
18. Or just as when a Brahman gets up and goes away when he sees a Mang; so it had happened to me in playing with the dice. '
19. The king was very repentant and did not go again into the temple. As one who listens surrep-
tiously to the service, tUe king sat quietly at the door of the temple.
THE CCLPRIT PUNISHED
20. He said, ' My hand has committed a great wrong and I must punish it. ' Saying this he devised a plan.
21. He called his minister, and told him his thought. * When sleeping at night in my palace I am visited by a ghost
CULPRIT PUNISHED
22. he puts his hand in through the window and I become greatly frightened ; so you remain by my bed and cut off his hand.'
23. The minister replied, 'Your wish is my command. When the ghost appears I will cut off his hand.'
He then took a sharp instrument and at night be sat hiding himself.
24. The lights were burning in the palace and the minister remained awake, waiting for the ghost. He
proposed as soon as the ghost appeared that he would out off his hand.
25. At that moment the king put out }us cum hand through a window and the minister took his instru- ment and immediately cut off the hand.
26. The moment the hand fell down the minister recognized it. He was over-whelmed with sobs and threw himself down upon the ground.
27. He mourned aloud. Just then the king came inside and said, ' My hand was my enemy, therefore I had it cut off.
28. Let your mind be at rest.' He then placed his hand in a palanquin, and sent it by the harfd of
messengers to the great door of the temple.
29. The king said to them, ' Qo now to the great door of the temple and say to Jagannath, "Thou, O Husband of Rukmini, listen to the list of my many transgressions.
30. With an evil heart I played with dice, therefore I did not receive Thy favour; that which has transgressed Thy command I have sent to Thee in the form of my hand.
31. I find that among my organs of action my hand was the transgressor. I have therefore punished it, and sent it to Thee.
32. It may have killed some and they were innocent. It may have stolen some time from Thee. Therefore I immediately punished my hand and have sent it to Thee.
33. Intoxicated with pride, it may have hunted in the forest. That trans- gressor I send to Tdee. 34. It had not worshipped Thee. It has been a great killer, an evil-doer and evil-minded. O Being of goodness, Thou knowest how great an erildoer it is.
35. It has not served the saints. It has not worshipped Thee, O Keshav. So I have sent this evil hand to Tiiee.
36. O Jt^annath, punish it as it may seem right to Thee." ' Giving this message to the messengers he sent them to the door of the temple.
THE WRONGDOER BEFORE GOD FOR DECISION
37. They took the hand to the great door of the temple and told God in reference to it.
There were cries of ' Victory, Victory ', and the Vai^hnavas showered upon it flowers and fragrant powder.
38. They exclaimed, ' Blessed is the king. Although engaged in domestic affairs he is indifferent to all worldly things. Putting the responsibility upon God he cut off his own hand.
39. Innumerable men and women receive their perishable bodies, but they do not complete the full purpose of life, because not holding in their hearts the Husband of Janaki ( Rama ).
40. Many men wander from country to country in order to gain their livelihood. They spend
their lives in all kinds of ways but they do not die worship- ping God.
41. The moment they are afflicted with a nine days' fever, they go through fourteen different fasts; but these unfortunate ones do not perforrtf good deeds in this world by observing the ekadashi ( eleventh day of the fort- night).
42. Even those friends quarrel if in their business a shell's worth is lost; but the shameless ones who have no good in them from their former births do not sing of the good qualities of Hari.
43. If robbers rob them of their wealth they wring their hands, and take no action; but the evil-minded do not make their lives at all valuable by spending their wealth on those who are worthy of it.
44 Such is the condition seen in the practices of this KaliYugcu Many are desirous of these illusory things, aut we know that King Satvik is a man of great devotion, *
45. Thus spoke the Vaishnava saints to one another. Suddenly an extraordinary thing took place. Let good people listen to it with love.
46. The hand which the king had cut off turned suddenly into a damna plant. It was taken at once and pls^nted In a garden.
47. Priests then in their love brought the favours of Hari. The king had lost all concern for his body and he put out just the stump of the hand he had cut off.
48. But as soon as he put it out, it became just as it was before. The bhaklas therefore shouted, ' Victory, Victory, * and were greatly astonished.
Story 2
17. There was a King in Jagannath whose name was Satvik. He also composed a book similar to that of Jayadev.
18. He had copies made of his book, sent them to people and ordered it to be read by all.
19. When the pandits heard this news, they were very angry. These wise ones assembled at Jagan-
nath and said to the King,
20. ‘ You have composed a book which is pleasing to yourself. You have even put it
on an equality with that of Jayadev, and are therefore talking nonsense.
21. But those who are really wise never praise their own works with their own lips. But you are
telling all men to commit your book to memory.
22, If you shout out, “ Take this knowledge, take this divine service, this mantra of a particular guru, and this knowledge of Brahma, this garland, and this great diamond,” it loses its value.
23. With your own lips to praise your own cleverness and the beauty of your own poetry, is as foolish as it is to praise the musk, the sandalwood of Mount Maila, or saffron, or the odorous testicle of a wild cat.
24. If you also try to fix the value of a daughter or a pearl, of a book or a rich cloth, of black ambergris or the wind on the Mount of Malaya, it is really lowering their true value.’
25. The Brahmans continued, ‘ O King, you have composed this book in vain. You are holding pride in your heart. This is not plea.sing to God.’
26. The king replied, ‘ Bring both books here at once, and we will place them for the night before the idol of Jagannath.
27. Jayadev sang the praises of God’s goodness, and I also did the same. The book that is not acceptable to God, He will throw out of the temple.’
28. Both books were immediately brought and placed before the idol. The doors were locked,
and the priests came out of the temple.
29. On the next morning early all the Brahmans assembled together, and at the time of wickwaving all the priests also came into the temple.
30. There they saw the superior book of Jayadeva. This book was placed near Him, by the Supreme
Being. The king’s book was treated with contempt and tossed outside the temple.
31. Hands were clapped with shouts of ‘ Victory, Victory. ’ The assembled Brahmans rejoiced and the king had to hang his head in shame.
32. The pandits said to the king, ‘Milk and water have now been separated. How can a book on the Vedanta philosophy and an immoral book be placed on an equality?
33. How can a royal swan and a crow, or a learned pandit and an out-caste Mang, or tinplate and pure gold be considered as of equal value ?
34. How can the babhul tree and the sandlewood tree, the sandalwood on Mount Maila and the fruit hivgav, a good man and a bad man, be considered equal ? ’
35. How can a saint and a reviler, a deceiver and a pious man, the god Indra and a pauper, be
evenly matched ?
36. So your poem and the Gita-Govinda of Jayadev, could not be brought to any equality, and
yours was therefore thrown out by Jagannafh. ’
37. When the king heard them say this he was greatly ashamed. He went and stood before the image of Jagannath.
38. Joining his hands palm to palm, he said to God, ‘O Jagannath, I now understand the meaning of the names you bear.
39. Your name is Purifier of the Sinful. I think this is not true in that you discard one, and call another your own.
40. You are alike to every being, pervading everything, O God. One who is a bhakta and one who is not a bkakta both live by Thy power.
41. The sun shines in every vessel. Just as water is to a cow and a tiger, so Thou, O Lord of the Yadavas, art alike to every being.
43. Just as to a locust and an eagle all space is the same, so art Thou. 0 Lord of the universe, alike to every living being.
43. A child is the same to its mother, whether ignorant or wise; so Thou, O Purifier of the Fallen, art alike to ail.
44. The moon is the same to both king and despised pauper; so Thou, O Husband of Rukmini, art alike in every one.
45. O Jagannath, Thou didst cause Jayadev to utter his poem in the world. Then, 0 Infinite One, tell me who is the mover of /«!/ heart.
46. This being so, O Jagannath, you threw my book outside. I therefore shall now commit suicide.’ Thus spoke the king.
47. As God heard his pleading words. He was pleased and He took from the king’s book twenty-four verses
48. The Life of the World then wrote them down in Jayadeva’s book. By doing so the King was comforted.
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