Post by jksivan on Aug 14, 2013 20:22:14 GMT 5.5
VITOBA THE NECTAR 11
11. A Horse named Vittal
Dear children!
The boy you met in the previous story Banudasan is now a big grown up man in this story. After returning from the forest, Banudasan changed completely. He spent his time by doing puja and singing bhajans to Pandurangan. Everyone in the town liked him very much. Time went fast. Banudasan became an adult and got married. However he did not have any job. His father was a priest but Banudasar, as he was called, out of respect, did not learn anything from his father either. As a result, he did not have any means of income. Both his parents died of old age worrying about Banudasar. He became very poor.
People in his town were mostly cloth merchants. So they all decided to invest some money and help Banudasar to start his own cloth business. They bought a small cart with horse for Banudasar and gave him cloth materials also. They said " Banudasa! Go in this cart with these clothes. Singing your bhajans, you go around the town and sell these clothes. You have to mention the price for each cloth four times more. Then only you can make money for yourself". Thus they taught him the nuances of business.
Banudasar took their advice and went into the town in the cart. He sold the clothes at the correct price. Even if people gave him extra, he refused. However, people gave him more for his bhajans and annadhanam. As the days went by, people were very happy with Banudasar and waited for him to bring clothes. Compared to other merchants, his clothes were sold very fast. The other merchants were very jealous of him.
Soon the merchants decided to go to other town for getting new clients. All of them went with their carts including Banudasar. They made an agreement to go in various directions with their clothes and return at night together.
Accordingly Banudsar went to a place where there was a Pandurangan temple. That day being Ekadasi, many people were there. He ran and invited the other merchants to go along with him to the temple. They all refused. They decided to go ahead with their work. Banudasar gave his cart with clothes to them and requested them to sell for him. He then went to the temple.
As it is, the merchants were very jealous of him because he was earning more than those people, without much difficulty. They got an opportunity to deprive him of his earnings. So they removed the horse from his cart and let go. It ran away. At the same time, they removed all the clothes from the cart, bundled them and hid them. They decided to lie to Banudasar that robbers took his cart and clothes away.
Here Banudasar went to Pandurangan Temple. After praying, he prostrated to the devotees there and gave all the money he had to them. Had excellent darshan of Vittalan. He totally forgot about his family, business, horse, cart everything. His mind was filled with namasankeerthanam (songs in praise of God's names) only.
At night he came out and remembered his cloth business and merchants. He went in search of them. At a distance, he saw a young man sitting on a horse, waiting for him. He recognised the horse as his own, because he had written on the horse's forehead "Vittal". But he wondered about his cart and cloths.
He went near the man and said "Sir! This is my horse. There was a cart with clothes. I gave them to my friends. But where are they? I can't find them." As he looked around and saw all his friends sitting under a tree.
As soon as they saw him they cried out of shame and one of the merchant said "Banudsa! we did not realise your virtues. We were jealous of you. So we removed your horse from the cart, hid all the clothes and sold the cart. But you know what happened to us? A group of robbers beat us and took all our possessions. We wanted to cheat you but we ourselves lost everything. We have learnt our lesson." and begged "Please forgive us".
Remember Banudasar met a young man on his horse Vittal. Now that man spoke:
"Sir! This horse ran towards the Mirasdar's (a land lord) house. His wife saw the horse's name Vittal written on his forehead and told me to return it to the temple. In the meantime, his daughter who prays to the pipal tree saw a bundle of clothes and gave them to her father. He felt that all the clothes have been stamped with the name "Hare Vittal" and being a Vittala devotee, he gave everything to me. He asked me to find out the owner and return them. The moment you recognised your horse, I realised the horse and the clothes belong to you. Please take these sir. The Mirasdar also gave me a small bag to hand it over to you". Banudasar took the bag and found a handful of gold coins in it.
He thanked the young man and asked "Son! how did you find me? You know I do not belong to this town". Hearing this, the young man said "Sir! I have seen you as a young man in the forest and used to give you food. Besides your voice is very familiar to me. Don't you recognize me?" Thus saying, he vanished.
Banudasar realised who he was. Then guess what Banudasar did with all the money? Did he return home with the money? No. He was not an ordinary person like us. He distributed the money to all the merchants who came with him and went back to Pandurangan temple.
Now what is the moral we learn from this story? As we sow, so we reap. The merchants wanted to cheat Banudasar and ended up losing everything. So let us be honest, do good to others and leave the result of our actions in Vittal's hands. Shall we?
Read more: amrithavarshini.proboards.com/thread/96/vitoba-nectar-11#ixzz2bxIYrsLQ