Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
Once, the head of a Bheel (tribal)
community by the name of Bheelkumar Kannap landed up in a temple located in a remote
jungle after hunting.
Temple housed an idol of Lord Shiva. And upon
noticing the idol of Shiva in a degraded state Kannap got a little emotional.
He was simple at heart and felt—‘Shiva is alone in this jungle with countless wild
and notorious animals. Hope no animal comes in the night and attacks him.’ By
now it was evening and obviously getting dark. Concerned about Shiva, Kannap loaded
his bow with an arrow and decided to guard the temple by standing across the
door, where he spent the entire night.
At
dawn, Kannap thought of doing puja in the temple; but truly speaking he didn’t
know how to perform a puja. So he went to the jungle and killed an animal and
roasted its flesh on fire for prasad. He then climbed a tree and broke open a honeycomb
and collected honey. Thereafter he collected everything in a leaf-bowl and then
plucked some flowers and stuck them on his unruly hair and plaits. He then
filled his mouth with water from the nearby river and reached the temple to
perform his puja. The idol had some dry leaves and flowers rotting around it. Kannap
removed them with his feet; because his hands were tied up, because with one
hand he was holding his bow and with the other he was holding the leaf-bowl
filled with roasted flesh and honey. He washed the idol with the water in his
mouth. And then he pulled out the flowers from his hair and started
respectfully placing them in front of Shiva and thereafter he placed the leaf
bowl in front of the idol. And in his simplicity he thought the puja is over, and
then with his bow and arrow he started guarding the temple.
In all of this Kannap forgot his home, his
family, and so much so that he even forgot his hunger and his sleep. In his
endeavour to safeguard his beloved God and performing the puja he as if forgot
his world and his own self and even his body.
But, surprisingly, in that very temple every
morning, a Brahmin also used to come from a distant village to perform puja and
after the ritual he used to go back. He normally came when Kannap was away in
the forest, hunting. And on finding morsels of flesh in the temple the Brahmin
was saddened. He walked up to the river and got some fresh water and cleaned
the temple. And he bathed again to perform the puja. But this was not a matter pertaining
to a particular day. When the Brahmin found the temple in this condition every
morning he decided, ‘today I’ll hide and see as to who is this person who is
polluting and soiling the temple every day.’
Brahmin hid himself in the temple and started
gazing to and fro from the camouflage. After a little while he was astounded to
see a scary appearing bheel (tribal) carrying a bow and arrow on his
shoulders. And after seeing him he did not have the guts to say anything. And
when Kannap entered the temple he was shocked to see that one eye of the idol was
bleeding. He slowly kept the leaf-bowl on the ground and started weeping—‘Who
is this devil who has hurt my God in the eyes?’
Immediately, Kannap loaded his bow with an
arrow and ran out of the temple. He wanted to kill the person who had inflicted
injury upon the idol; but he could find no one, soon he kept his bow and arrow
on the side and started collecting some grass and leaves. And in a little while
he had collected a heap. He then returned to the temple and started crushing
the grass and the leaves that he had collected, and started applying it on the
eyes of the idol. But even by doing so Kannap was not successful in stopping
the bleeding. This made Bheelkumar Kannap extremely uneasy. But just then he
remembered what another bheel (tribesman) had one told him—‘In the wound
of a person if the same body part of a different person is placed then the
wound heals immediately.’ Kannap was happy to remember it and he decided to act
immediately. From his quiver he quickly pulled out an arrow and with that he
scooped out his own eye even when it pained to the hilt and placed it on the
eye of the idol and pressed it hard. And, from his own wound, from where he had
pulled out his eye blood had started oozing out but he was unaware of the pain.
On the contrary he was feeling happy that it had stopped the bleeding from the
eye of the idol.
But the
agony was not over as just then the other eye of the idol too started bleeding.
But Kannap by now had the therapeutic solution for it. He kept the toe of his
foot on that eye of the idol, so that after he scoops his second eye and goes
blind it will not be difficult for him to find the second bleeding eye in the
idol. And with his arrow he scooped out his second eye. But before that suddenly
there was divine illumination in the temple, and from the idol Lord Shiva
emanated and embraced Kannap; and said,
‘Dear Brahmin! Puja and its complex methods
don’t make me happy. What really, makes me happy is the earnest and respectful feelings
of a devotee towards me.’ Lord Shiva addressed the Brahmin hiding there. And by
now Kannap’s eyes had healed as that became Ashutosh’s (Shiva’s) prasad, and
along with him he went to his divine abode. The Brahmin too because of
Bheelkumar Kannap’s simple ways that God liked got darshan of Lord
Shiva.
And that is
why it is said, ‘it is so simple to be happy, but so difficult to be simple.’
*****
