Bhavana Bodh

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

Page 49

BHAVANA BODH
they tied me many a time and pulled me hither and thither, causing me extreme pain. I was being pressed like a sugarcane many of time and all this I suffered as the fruits of my evil deeds. In hell one denizen turned me in the form of dog, the other denizen threw me on ground, torn me like a tatter, cut me like a tree. At that time I was very much tossing about with restlessness.
I was torn into pieces by terrific denizens of hell by a deadly sword, by a spear and by such other weapons; there was no end to my adverse sufferings as results of my bad deeds in a number of births; I was yoked like an old animal Yakin Horse to bear and draw fiercely burning chariots; I was roasted like a dead buffalo in fire. I was crying when many vultures pierced my body with their bikes like pinsers to eat my flesh. When I ran to satisfy my thirst, I got bitter water of painful Vaitarni river and suffered much thereby. I was pierced by many brambles of trees in the jungles, my limbs were powdered by deadly maces and similar instruments. While suffering this way, I had no place of shelter of relief. I was linched many a times, cut by sharp knives and scissors. I was caught like a deer in a net in my form of an alligator. I was caught in a net and tortured much in my form of bird, I was killed after hooking me in a net. I was powdered into pieces like the powdering of a tree. I was pressed as ironsmith presses the iron by strokes of hammer. I was made to drink the hot liquid of copper, iron and lead, and I was offered my own flesh to eat as I may have liked flesh eating in my some previous births. I was heavily punished for my liking of drinking wine in some previous births. In short, I have suffered much beyond all description of hellish life. Even not for a moment, I have cherished any happiness in the hell.
Thus Mrugaputra addressed his parents with a strong aptitude of renunciation, describing his sufferings of his various previous births. By way of reply, his parents said as under :
O son! If you have strongly determined to become an ascetic, then get initiated to asceticism. But in your ascetic life, who will act as a physician when you suffer from a disease? Who will relieve you off your pains? It is very difficult to lead an ascetic's life