“This fawn is my entire wealth. Separated from it I have now become helpless. The entire area has been rendered so pure due to its hoof prints that Vedic scholars desirous of heaven or liberation can perform Yagnas.

This pleasant Moon is a friend of the helpless. Will this Moon, who is the Lord of all stars, protect this motherless fawn that has sought refuge in me? O Moon, with your illumination please protect to my fawn.

I have raised this fawn like a dear son. Now these pangs of separation burn my heart. My heart which is like a lotus flower is submerged in grief and is burnt by a huge forest fire. I am unable to withstand this separation. Will the pleasant Moon, with his extended love, shower his nectarous cool rays upon me and put off these flames that torment my heart?” In this way the saintly King Bharata who was submerged in uncontrollable grief wept profusely. The king who was immersed in limitless penance in the past was now completely drowned in grief. His desire remained unfulfilled. With this his grief further intensified.

His destiny (prārabdha karma) had come in the form of the deer. It caused him to fall from his spiritual austerities. It made him give up his disciplines. If not, how could this king who had distanced himself from his own sons, family and kingdom with a desire to obtain liberation be totally infatuated by a mere animal so much so that he could give up his austerities?

He was a king who had given up palatial luxuries believing that liberation is the ultimate goal in life. He had left behind his sons. At this stage when he had offered everything to God, this deer became a cause of bondage. It trapped him in infatuation and rendered his mind chaotic. Normally it is difficult to leave one’s own sons. The King who had successfully broken his attachment with his own sons was trapped by a mere deer. His severe yogic austerities were thus destroyed. Meanwhile just a snake tactfully enters a hole drilled by the mouse death came and stood in front of him.

Conquering the all-powerful time is an impossible task! Just as the dying person concentrates totally upon his son who is grieving by his side, at the time of death Bharata’s mind was totally fixed upon the fawn. While thinking of the fawn he left this body.

Thereafter just like the ignorant people who die, Bharata was reborn as a deer. As his mind was focused upon a deer’s body at the time of death, he acquired a deer’s body. In the normal course a living entity does not have any memory of its past births. However in this case Bharata, who was reborn as a deer, remembered his past.

He knew exactly why he was reborn as a deer. The intense austerities taken up in his past life were responsible for the memory in this birth. Recollecting all the deeds of his past life, Bharata regretted them. He thought,

“Oho, what calamity has befallen me! I slipped from the path of great sages who take up rigorous austerities. With great courage I distanced myself from all forms of attachments in my past birth. I gave up every form of luxury for the sake of God. I took refuge in the ever-pure forests. With pure concentration I listened to the glories of Vāsudeva and was endlessly recapitulating them. Thinking of Him, singing His glories, chanting His names I was totally dedicated towards Him. I utilized every moment of life solely to develop intense concentration upon Him. I fixed my mind firmly upon the Lord who resides as the Self within the heart of every living being.

However due to my foolishness I distanced myself completely from that Lord. Why and how I developed ignorance I do not know. Fixing my attention upon that fawn I slipped from my goal”.

In this way, Bharata who was in the body of the deer scrutinized his past birth and analyzed his mistakes. His limitless austerities of his past birth enabled him to have this discriminatory intelligence in this birth. They enabled him to remember that past birth. Through this discriminatory analysis he developed detachment. He distanced himself from the mother deer. He left the Kālanjara Mountain where he was born and returned to Maharishi Pulastya-Pulaha ashrama.

This ashrama located near the Saligrama forest. It is a sacred place of God. It is the residence of the great sages who are eternally peace loving.

In this ashrama, Bharata lived all alone. He was totally established in the Self. He was wary of developing friendship with other animals in the ashram. Eating dried leaves, roots and grass, he sustained the life-force within. He lived in the body of the deer until the completion of the destiny which had bestowed him this body. At the time of his death he stood in the waters of River Gandaki and gave up his body. He now merged completely into the Lord.

From this we should learn not to develop any attachment towards any object other than the Lord. Hari Om Krishna