15th STORY OF BHETHALA

THE STORY OF REBIRTH OF A TIGER

Vikramadithya again afforded to bind Bhethala. He was walking with silence towards Bruhadaranyam by keeping the corpse on his shoulder. Bhethala started to tell a story.

Bhethala said, “Oh. Vikramadithya! Your determination is marvelous. I tell a story. Listen it to forget your tiresome.

He continued …

Once there was a Brahmin colony by name Brahma Puram. In that colony, there was a Brahmin by name Vishnu Swami. He had no children. He felt unhappy. He had done penance to God Shiva. With God’s boon, he had four sons. He taught education to them. To learn much they had gone on country tour. At abroad they had met a saint. They had joined as disciples to that saint. They had served him as their guru i.e. teacher with obedience and sincerity.

The saint was pleased with them. He had made taught them some mantras i.e. magic words including Mrutha Sanjeevani. [In Indian Mythology, Mrutha Sanjeevani Mantra means by chanting that magic word, the dead people or living being can become alive] After completion of their education, they had taken send off from their Guru i.e. teacher. They were travelling towards their native. On the way, they had seen the ruin of a dead tiger. The four brothers had observed it. They wanted to test the impact of their learnt mantras. The first brother had gathered its bones and chanted some mantras. The skeleton of tiger had framed. The second brother had chanted some mantras and created nerves and organs to that tiger’s body. The third brother had created skin, flesh and blood. The fourth brother had given life to the dead tiger with his mantras. The tiger had got up as if it had got up from sleep. As it was with great hunger, it killed all the four brothers and ate them.

Bhethala asked “Oh King! Say, to whom this sin goes?”

Vikramadithya said, “The fourth brother who had given life to the dead tiger should bear this sin.”

Again the silence had broken.

Again the Bhethala had escaped.