Jarh Bharat, the unletterd Saint

Suman K Sharma
Jarh Bharat was a simple man and lived a simple life.  Unlettered, he was not given to undue physical or mental exertions and grew up into a fairly strong youth, thriving on whatever food that was available to him. Peace and non-violence were the principles that ruled his life.  He was conscious always not to harm any creature, even involuntarily. Once, Raja RahuganSauveer was travelling in his palanquin through a forest to listen to Kapil Muni’s discourse.  The raja caught the sight of stout Jarh Bharat who was meditating under a tree.  As one of his palanquin bearers was ill, he ordered the saint to replace him.  Jarh Bharat got up from his seat and willingly obeyed the royal command.  While sharing the burden on his shoulders, he was careful to avert any ants or other small creatures on the jungle floor from being crushed under his feet.  This caused disturbance in the even movement of the palanquin.  The angry raja shouted at Jarh Bharat to be cautious as he was bothering the king of the land.  Jarh Bharat did not respond.  Rahugan threatened to kill him for his nerve to have ignored him. Jarh Bharat then addressed the raja, ‘I was not ignoring you, but paying attention to the ground lest any creature should be killed under my feet.  Mind you, raja, an ant loves its life as much as you do yours.  And if you talk of killing me, I am not afraid of death.  Death makes all of us equal, be it an ant, a fakir like me or a king like you.’  Listening to Jarh Bharat, RahuganSauveer got out of the palanquin and fell at his feet asking for forgiveness.  He relinquished his throne and became a sanyasi.
A flourish to the story is that Jarh Bharat was a pious goat in his previous birth that ate only dead leaves fallen on ground as it did not want to hurt the live shrubbery.  ‘Jarh’ applied as a prefix to a man’s name would mean that he is a dolt, a simpleton.  Here lies the bite in the story – a homeless dolt putting a swollen headed ruler to place. Little wonder that democracy has been there in India since ages.
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