Uttar Kaanda
214 - Kakabhusundi approaches the sage Lomasa, who first pronounces a curse on him but later on showers his grace and bestows a boon on him
Chaupais
Description
"Can suffering ensue from solicitude for others' well-being? Can anyone possessing the philosopher's stone suffer from want any longer ? Can the malevolent be free from anxiety? Can the sensualist escape obloquy? Can one's posterity survive even though one has persecuted the Brahmanas? Can one continue to perform actions (with attachment) even after attaining Self-Realization? Has anyone acquired sound wisdom while living in the company of the vicious? Can an adulterer attain a happy destiny? Can those who have realized God fall again into the ocean of transmigration? Can the revilers of Sri Hari be ever happy? Can a kingdom stand without a knowledge of statecraft? Can sins persist even after one has commenced narrating Sri Hari's exploits? Can one enjoy sacred renown without religious merit and can anyone earn a bad reputation without a sin? Is there any gain as valuable as Devotion to Sri Hari, which is glorified alike by saints as well as by the Vedas and Puranas? And, brother, is there any loss in the world as grievous as that of the man who fails to adore Sri Rama even after obtaining a human body? Is there any other sin so bad as backbiting or any virtue so great as compassion, O mount of Sri Hari?" In this way I mentally advanced numberless arguments in my favour and did not listen to the sage's teaching with any reverence. Again and again I maintained the cause of the Saguna form of worship (the worship of an embodied Deity), till at last the sage uttered these angry words : "Fool, you refuse to accept the supreme lesson I have been inculcating on you and indulge in endless arguments and counter- arguments. You give no credence to my authentic words and, like a crow, look on everything with distrust ! Fool, you are exceedingly self-opinionated; therefore, you shall at once take the form of a crow (the pariah among birds)." I bowed to the curse prohounced by the sage but felt neither alarmed nor humbled.