The
half-golden mongoose had gone to an “Ashvamedha yajna” (horse
sacrifice) which had been performed by the eldest Pandava brother,
Yudhishthira. This sacrifice had been mocked at by the mongoose and he
had said that the sacrifice was an impure one. It was nothing compared
to a Brahmin’s sacrifice where, rolling on the few grains of “powa”
(puffed rice) lying on the ground, half his body had turned to gold!
And from then on the mongoose had been present in many sacrifices,
hoping that the remaining half of his body would turn to gold. But
till now nothing happened. Saying this, he left the sacrifice and
scampered away.
After travelling for some time, the mongoose reached the banks of the
river Yamuna. A stork was feeding on fish from the river and the
mongoose went up to it and related his story to the stork.
But while relating his story he had not noticed that the remaining
part of his body which was flesh, was slowly turning into gold. After
having related his story, he suddenly started to abuse the stork, but
before he could finish, his body changed into a lifeless statue of
gold.
All this time the stork had been standing quite close to the mongoose
and, seeing his body change into a golden statue, he became very
inquisitive. The stork went to touch the mongoose. Just as it touched
him, its mind was filled with uncontrollable rage. And it started
tearing the fish of the river apart with its beak, although it was not
hungry. After some time it flew away.
At that time a hunter who had been living in that area for quite some
time saw the mongoose lying on the banks of the river. As it was made
of gold it interested him and he picked it up eagerly. Then, all on a
sudden he went mad and ran to his home. Reaching his home he took up a
scythe and slaughtered his wife and son. The neighbors saw this and
rushed to see if they could help the son and wife. But when the hunter
saw them coming, he instantly picked up his bow and arrow and ran at
them for more blood and he even succeeded in killing some of them.
Someone ran to inform the “kotwal”. The “kotwal” immediately rushed to
the scene, arrested the hunter, took his belongings and threw him into
prison.
The law in those days was that until a person had his or her trial and
had been punished, his belongings were to be kept in the royal
treasury by the “kotwal”.
In the dark prison the hunter kept his head on the cool stone wall and
instantaneously felt a great peace. He remembered his son, his wife,
and his friends. “Oh God! Why did I ever do this?” he cried out, and
wept silently.
Meanwhile the “kotwal” saw the golden mongoose and could not overcome
his greed. He did not want to hand over the golden statuette to the
king. He put the mongoose inside a bag and was going home cautiously
when, suddenly, he went mad. He took out his sword from his belt and
started to abuse and kill everybody he saw.
The news spread like wildfire and reached the palace. Everybody ran to
Bhima and begged him to save them from the mad “kotwal”. Bhima set off
immediately, armed with his mace. It took Bhima just a fraction of a
second to throw the “kotwal” down on the ground. And then he asked his
subjects why such a good officer had gone mad. Some of them told Bhima
all about the golden mongoose.
He ordered some people to search for it and it was found some time
later under a banyan tree. It didn’t take Bhima any time at all to
recognize the mongoose which had been at the “yajna” a few days ago.
“This mongoose came to the ‘Ashvamedha yajna’ a few days ago. How did
it turn into gold?” Bhima asked. One of the people offered the
statuette to Bhima to hold and see what it was like. Bhima said, “I
won’t touch a dead thing! You keep it.” The man became furious and
said (he was holding the golden mongoose in his hand), “What a pure
man! You did not hesitate to kill poor injured Duryodhana. Or to drink
blood by tearing open a man’s chest. And now you pretend to be
revolted by a dead animal. A Rakshasa is behaving like a sadhu.” While
shouting, he threw the golden mongoose at Bhima. Suddenly, out of
nowhere an arrow flashed past the man and pierced the golden mongoose,
making it fly far away from Bhima and it soon was out of sight. The
arrow was shot by the divine hand of Sri Krishna as he stood smiling
sweetly. “Bhima, if the mongoose had touched you then you would have
gone mad and you would have killed hundreds of people. I arrived here
just in time to save you,” Sri Krishna said. He explained, “The
mongoose was Anger and Greed. It was cursed by a rishi to be re-born
as the mongoose.”
“Where will it land, Krishna?” asked Bhima. Sri Krishna replied, “It
will land in a jungle which is far from this country. After some
decades the forest will be cut down for building a huge city. The
people of the city will be very cruel; they will respect murder;
hatred will be their law. After some more years due to a war and
famine the city and its people will cease to exist. Only then will the
curse end.” Saying this, Sri Krishna smiled sweetly and said, “But
remember! I had nothing to do with this.’
Greed leads to anger without any reason. And this makes as hurt
others, even our loved and most beloved ones, unless we are careful to
avoid being greedy, like the “kotwal”.
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