Gauthama 5

"secondly even if you take my elephant to Samyamani, the capital city of Yamadharma, a place where lie has no place, wherethe weak and the truthful always get justice, and hide it there I am going to search for it and get it from there.""Thirdly, even if you hide my elephant in the waters of the holy Mandakini in which bhogis, gandharvaas, Yakshas and apsarascome for joyful activities, I am going to find it its depths"

"Fourthly, even if you tie my elephant to jumbo tree on the slopes of mount meru where kinnaras go and sing sweetly, wheretrees bloom all the year round bear fruits, I am not afraid of going there to get my son."

"Fifthly, even if you hide my elephant in the garden of Nandana which is full of beautiful flowers out sweet fragrance, aplace the king of Kinnaras haunts for seeking pleasure, I will go there and get him back."

"Even if you take my little elephant to an impregnable place beyond the north pole I will unearth him. It is a divine placewhere the devas and great humans frequent and live amicably without jealously or hatred, where humans feel equal to Indraand live with him happily, I can scale that impregnable place."

"You might think of taking my dear son to Sanathana Somaloka where there is no smoke, nor there is sorrow, a place whichis always full of divine fragrance, I will not keep quiet I will go there and get him back."

"You know that there is the Suryaloka above the Somaloka already referred to. It is filled with satvaguna to the total absenceof rajoguna nd tamoguna. Even if you take my elephant and try to hide it in some corner there I an going to get my elephant.""You have the abode of Varuna above the Suryaloka. You may try to take the elephant to that place to make my task difficult,but get my elephant even from that place."

"There is another place where everyone desires to go but journey to that place not that easy. That is heaven ruled by Devendra. People call it Swarga. If you are capable of going there and take my elephant and hide it there I am going toget my animal even from Swarga."

"there is a greater place higher than all these where the Prajapathis live. You may have access to that place and if you take my loving young baby to that palce, don't think I am incapable of going there I am sure I can get him from there also." "There are places higher than the place where the Prajapathis live. They are the golokas where it is not possible forordinary people even to dream of going. If you take my loving young elephant, there I am capable of getting him even fromthat impregnable world-"

"I know, you may also plan to take my beloved son, this paragon among elephants to that land of plenty, which has everythinggood and beautiful and we can it Brahmaloka. I won't leave you there. I am quite capable of going there. You will see thatyou are going to return my loving little elephant sooner or later. Please remember that I have just given you a briefaccount of ability and power and also my great love for my little elephant."

By then Sage Gowtham realised that the person in the guise of Dhritharashtra was none other than Devendra himself. He askedhim earnestly to return his ten year old elephant without delay. Devendra felt very happy to know about the sages greatlove for the little elephant. He returned the animal to the sage. He made obeisance to the sage and begged for his blessings.Gauthama who was kind, mercy incarnate and all-knowing wished Devendra well by saying 'Shivam Sadaiveha Surendra' andadded that he would always respect him highly. He added,'Twaya dattam pratigrihnami nagam'(I am going to receive the elephantyou are going to give me).

I am going to conclude the story of sage Gauthama who loved his disciples. He had great strength of tapas. His love, compassionand his character are of the highest order. There is a story of one of his disciples by name Uttanka which brings out thegreat sage's best qualities.

Gauthama's gurukula was well known at that time. He was one of the greatest scholars of his time and he had thousands of disciples.As it was the custom, they all stayed in the gurukula. They had to serve their guru and his wife, they also had to studythe vedas with devotion and lead pure and clean life of barhmacharya.

Among his disciples there was one by name Uttanka, the best among the Brigu clan. He had certain special personal qualitiesand he served the guru and his wife with great devotion. As a result he won the love and affection of his teacher.At the end of his education, when he became well-versed in all the Shastras and vedas he should have left the gurukula, gonehome, accepted girhasthashrama and served his aged parents, but Gauthama did not permit him to go. He had to spend severalyears, serving his guru and his wife. He became old and his skin wrinkled and hair had gone grey still he continued toserve his guru. The pity of it was that he was not aware of the fact that he had grown old.

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