33. FRUITLESS PENANCE :

IN the course of their wanderings, the
Pandavas reached the hermitage of
Raibhya on the banks of the Ganga.


Lomasa told them the story of the place:
"This is the ghat where Bharata, the son of
Dasaratha, bathed. These waters cleansed
Indra of the sin of killing Vritra unfairly.



Here also Sanatkumara became one with
God. Aditi, the mother of the gods,
offered oblations on this mountain and
prayed to be blessed with a son. O
Yudhishthira, ascend this holy mountain
and the misfortunes, which have cast a
cloud on your life, will vanish. Anger and
passion will be washed off if you bathe in
the running waters of this river."



Then Lomasa expatiated in greater detail
on the sanctity of the place.
He began the story thus: "Yavakrida, the
son of a sage, met with destruction in this
very place."



He continued: "There lived in their
hermitages two eminent brahmanas,
named Bharadwaja and Raibhya, who
were dear friends. Raibhya and his two
sons, Paravasu and Arvavasu, learnt the
Vedas and became famed scholars.



Bharadwaja devoted himself wholly to the
worship of God. He had a son named
Yavakrida who saw with jealousy and
hatred that the brahmanas did not respect
his ascetic father as they did the learned
Raibhya. Yavakrida practised hard
penance to gain the grace of Indra. He
tortured his body with austerities and thus
awakened the compassion of Indra, who
appeared and asked him why he so
mortified his flesh."



Yavakrida replied: "I wish to be more
learned in the Vedas than any has ever
been before. I wish to be a great scholar. I
am performing these austerities to realise
that desire. It takes a long time and
involves much hardship to learn the Vedas
from a teacher. I am practising austerities
to acquire that knowledge directly. Bless
me."



Indra smiled and said: "O brahmana, you
are on the wrong path. Return home, seek
a proper preceptor and learn the Vedas
from him. Austerity is not the way to
learning. The path is study and study
alone." With these words Indra vanished.
But the son of Bharadwaja would not give
up.



He pursued his course of austerities with
even greater rigor, to the horror and the
distress of the gods. Indra again
manifested himself before Yavakrida and
warned him again:



"You have taken the wrong path to
acquire knowledge. You can acquire
knowledge only by study. Your father
learnt the Vedas by patient study and so
can you. Go and study the Vedas. Desist
from this vain mortification of the body."



Yavakrida did not heed even this second
warning of Indra and announced defiantly
that if his prayer were not granted, he
would cut off his limbs one by one and
offer them as oblations to the fire. No, he
would never give up.



He continued his penance. One morning,
during his austerities, when he went to
bathe in the Ganga, be saw a gaunt old
brahmana on the bank, laboriously
throwing handfuls of sand into the water.



Yavakrida asked: "Old man, what are you
doing?" The old man replied: "I am going
to build a dam across this river. When,
with handful after handful, I have built a
dam of sand here, people can cross the
river with ease. See how very difficult it is
at present to cross it. Useful work, isn't
it?"



Yavakrida laughed and said: "What a fool
you must be to think you can build a dam
across this mighty river with your silly
handfuls of sand! Arise and take to some
more useful work."



The old man said: "Is my project more
foolish than yours of mastering the Vedas
not by study but by austerities?"
Yavakrida now knew that the old man was
Indra. More humble this time, Yavakrida
earnestly begged Indra to grant him
learning as a personal boon.



Indra blessed, and comforted Yavakrida
with the following words:
"Well, I grant you the boon you seek. Go
and study the Vedas; you will become
learned."