(5) Quenched Quest

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Deities' Manifestation Anniversary festival, Siliguri, 1 May 2019, morning, part 5
Translated from Bengali

Vidyapati went to search for the Lord in the east. One evening, he found himself amidst a jungle. Suddenly, he saw a thatched hut and a beautiful unmarried girl coming out of it. Seeing her, Vidyapati got scared, 'A girl alone in a jungle? And I am a man... It is not good for me to be here!' He turned round and started walking away, but the girl had noticed him.

'Hold on! Why are you leaving?' she asked him. 'We are sabars, is that why you will not take even a glass of water from my hand? I do not know who you are and where you come from, but you look like a very good brahman. We are of a lower caste, but will you not take even water from us?'

'No, no. Your parents are not here. If they see me here, they will beat me. I should not be here.'

'No, no. If Father knows you left like that and that I could not do any service to a brahman, he will be angry.

As they talked, the girl's father came back home.

'Father, look,' the girl said, 'this man has come, but he does not want to have a seat at our house. I told him to drink some water, but he is refusing even from water.'

'Oh, but why?' the girl's father asked. 'You look like a brahman's son. What are you doing in this jungle so late in the evening? Stay here for the night. We are poor sabars by caste, but you can have whatever we cook.'

Vidyapati agreed. He was searching for the Lord, so he thought, 'Since they are insisting that I stay here, let me stay here and see. The king wants me to find the Lord, so let me stay here and try to find something out.'

He stayed the night at their house. He tried to gather some news from his spies, but there was no news. So, he ended up staying there longer. The name of the girl's father was Visvavasu. He left home early in the morning to offer worship to the Lord and came back only in the evening. Vidyapati noticed that when Visvavasu came back, there was a very nice fragrance of camphor and sandalwood coming from his body. He wondered what it was.

In the meantime, the girl (her name is Lalita) served Vidyapati in every way, and he was very pleased with her. One day, he proposed her, 'Will you marry me?' Visvavasu agreed, and he was happy to get a nice brahman as his son-in-law. So, Lalita and Vidyapati got married. One day, Vidyapati asked Lalita, 'Your father leaves home every morning and comes back only in the evening. Where does he go?

'He goes to some place, but I am not allowed to say anything about it.'

'What happens if you tell me? I live at your house anyway. I am family.'

'Yes, you are right... but Father prohibited me to tell anybody. All right, I will tell you. Father goes to worship a Deity every day.'

'Oh?!'

'That is why he brings all that prasad in the evening?'

'Yes...'

'Can he take me with him?'

'I think that it is not possible. If Father knows that I have told you about it, he will be angry, but I will try to ask him...'

So, one evening, Lalita came to her father and said,

'Father, your son-in-law was asking me where you go every day. I told him that you go to worship a Deity.'

'What? You have told him?! What have you done?! The Lord told me in a dream that He would not stay with me long, that is why I never tell anybody about it. I do not want the Lord to leave. If the Lord leaves to eat opulent offerings, then I will not be able to worship Him. What will become of me then? But now you have told him everything – I will kill him this night, and you will become a widow!'

Lalita began to cry.

'Father, please do not do this. I am clasping your feet – he is my husband!' Lalita begged him. 'I am the one who did wrong, so punish me instead.

Hearing his daughter cry, Visvavasu softened. He also thought, 'I worship the Lord, I cannot murder a man. It is a sin. I cannot stoop so low.'

Lalita kept asking her father every day, and in the end Visvavasu said, 'All right, I will take him there, but I will not show him the way. I will take him there blindfolded – I will take him there by the hand, open his eyes so that he can take the darshan of the Lord, and then I will tie his eyes again. He will not know the way there.' Lalita agreed and explained it to Vidyapati. At night, she told him, 'Father can cheat you, but I am your wife, I cannot cheat you. I will tell you what to do. I will tie some mustard seeds in a cloth – when Father pulls you to the place, you must take those seeds and throw them behind you. You will be able to find the way on your own later.' Vidyapati was impressed with her idea.

So, the next day Visvavasu ties Vidyapati's eyes, and Lalita secretly gave him some mustard seeds. Taking Vidyapati by the hand, Visvavasu started walking to the place. As Vidyapati walked, he threw the seeds one by one on the way. When they came to the Deity, Visvavasu untied Vidyapati's eyes and after he got the darshan of the Lord, he tied his eyes again and took him back home. Some time later, it rained, and the seeds sprouted. Lalita told Vidyapati, 'Father has left to worship the Deity. Go, now you can get there yourself. Go and see where that place is.' Vidyapati did that and learned the way to the Deity.

Actually, he had not told them why he was there – he did not tell even his wife that he was on a mission to find the Lord. But now his job was done, so one day he told his wife, 'Lalita, I have been staying with you for a long time now. I also have parents. I want to see them. Can I go to see them? I will come back.' So, taking his wife's and his father-in-law's permission, Vidyapati started his way back to Puri to see the king.

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