In the Paushya Parva of Mahabharata’s Adi Parva, the suta narrates an interesting story on the origin of many a problem we face in life. They can indeed be simple and we need to be careful about even little things such as beating a dog.
The suta said that once Janamejaya, son of King Parikshit, was attending a lengthy fire sacrifice with his three brothers Shrutasena, Ugrasena and Bhimasena (not Arjuna’s brother Bhima). The son of Sarama, a celestial dog, came by. He was beaten up by Janamejaya’s brothers and he went crying to his mother. She enquired if he had committed any fault of licking the sacrificial ghee or looking at it with longing. Hearing this, Sarama went to the place of sacrifice and asked why they beat him who had done nothing wrong. Janamejaya and others did not even reply, and so Sarama cursed them saying that as they had beaten the dog who did not do anything wrong, they would encounter fear when they were unaware of it.
On hearing this, Janamejaya was alarmed, and went to Hastinapura to search for a priest who could mitigate the curse. He saw a hermitage in his kingdom. A rishi called Shrutashrava lived there. He had a son called Somashrava, who revelled in austerities. Janamejaya asked Shrutashrava if he could take his son as a priest. He addressed the king saying that Somashrava was a very wise person, born to him of a snake who swallowed his vital fluid. He will be able to help you absolve all your sins, except those committed against Mahadeva.
However, Somashrava observed only one rule. He would grant a Brahmin, whatever he asked for. If you agreed to that, you could take him. Janamejaya agreed and introduced the priest to his brothers, asking them to follow whatever he said. He marched towards Takshashila after that.
The warp and weft of the stories of the Mahabharata begin here. There was a rishi called Ayodha Daumya. He had three disciples: Upamanyu, Aruni and Veda. He asked Aruni of Panchala to go to the field and stop a breach in the canal abutting the field. The boy went there and could not stop the breach. He simply got into the water and lay down so as to arrest the flow of water outside.
The teacher and the other students went in search of Aruni and called out to him. The boy got up and narrated what he did and added that he came out only to answer the teacher’s call. The happy teacher gave him the name Uddalaka as he got out of the ditch preventing the flow of water in the field. The teacher also blessed him saying the meanings of Vedas and the dharma shastras would reveal themselves to him. This story conveys the benefits of implicit obedience to the words of the teacher in revelation of knowledge.
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