Episode # 98 – Children experiencing premature death might’ve been great “Mahatmas” in the past – Sage Parashara explains!!

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We’re amidst an enthralling section of the “Jada-Bharata-Upaakhyaanam”, wherein we’ve witnessed how Sage Bharata was caught up in his own trap of having an attachment or possessiveness towards the deer. Ultimately we’ve witnessed that Sage Bharata was overly concerned about the deer and when he breathed his last, his mind was full of thoughts about the deer’s welfare. Because of this, Sage Bharata had to take a rebirth as a deer itself. This is where we had witnessed a couple of important messages throughout the past couple of episodes – First one is that, we would take a rebirth only according to the thoughts we have at the time when we breathe last. Bhagawan Krishna Himself has established this fact in His Bhagawad Gita. Secondly, in the course of yesterday’s episode, we had witnessed the stark contrasting differences between a “Bhakta” and a “Sharanagata”. Whereas, a “Bhakta” is dominated by the “I” attitude throughout the journey of exhibiting Bhakti, the “Sharanagata” is confident that by surrendering to Bhagawan’s lotus feet, it is His duty to take us to Vaikunta or Moksha. Unfortunately, we had witnessed how Sage Bharata got into the first classification and had to take a rebirth as a deer. 

Moving on further thus, Sage Bharata – The deer took birth and spent just a few years in the world. Post that, he passed away as a deer and once again with the grace of Bhagawan, he was able to take another rebirth as a human being and most importantly as a sage again! How fortunate one can be – To take a rebirth as a sage again? Because of his truckloads of “Tapas” and the strength that is associated with it, Sage Bharata was able to achieve a rebirth as a sage again. At this point, Sage Paraashara explains a very important point to all of us here – We might have seen some small children dying at a tender age of say 3 or 4 or 5. Some kids die even when they are just months old. Or, some die even while inside the mother’s womb. Why is this happening? There is a big narrative behind this. We’ve previously witnessed during our discussion on the “Naraka Lokha” as to how Bhagawan and Yama-Dharma-Raja keep exact accounts of all our “Paapas” and “Punyas” (Good and bad deeds) and decide our subsequent births and punishments accordingly. But now, there might be some peculiar cases here – There might be some people who might have done all “Punyas” throughout their lifetime, however, due to some unforeseen or compelling reason, they might have committed a small “Paapa” to someone. Bhagawan obviously has to punish them for this “Paapa” as per the rulebook. However, Bhagawan thinks thus, “Oh! All through these years this fellow has committed only “Punya Karmas” and just for this small mistake, should we make him experience another full birth and undergo the entire cycle once again?” Thinking thus, Bhagawan gives this person a small birth of a very little span, perhaps with all possible sickness or whatever might plague the living condition of this person. Within just a few months or years, Bhagawan might even pave the way for this child to finish off with this birth too, so that the “Paapa Karma” is washed away. Once again these people would take a rebirth to experience all the fruits of their good deeds that they had committed in their previous birth. 

Thus, we should understand here that those people who’ve had short lifespans are actually equivalent to “Mahatmas” or “Spiritually realized souls”. They’ve been doing all the right things at all times during their previous birth. Somehow or the other, they might have slipped off for a very small moment, and this would have resulted in their short tenured birth. The reason why I’m narrating this accord here is that, Sage Bharata too was exactly the same case – Since he had just committed that one mistake of not thinking of Bhagawan during his last breath, he had to take a rebirth of a deer, however, that didn’t last very long. It was just for a short period of time, and eventually he again took a rebirth as a great sage! 

So from today, we should realize that those who’ve had very short lifespans are great “Mahatmas”, who have just come to this world to empty their miniscule “Paapa Karma”. In fact, if we’ve had such people in our families, we should be proud of it. Of course, there would be that sadness for the parents of this child, but all what I’m trying to say here is that, the parents who’ve had such experiences should consider themselves extremely fortunate that Bhagawan had given an opportunity to be the parent of such a great “Mahatma”, even if it is for a short duration of time. So for today, let us realize this point and let us wait till the next episode to witness how the “New Bharata” or “Bharata – 2.0” is going to be! An absorbing episode awaits us tomorrow! Stay tuned! 🙂