IN the Naimisharanya forest, there lived a young sage. This sage had no name. The sage said “Why is the name required? Cows, dogs, in fact all animal kinds as well as the birds are not assigned the name. even then they fly, flourish and enjoy.”
Some hermits called him Anaam (anonymous). The sage did not object. You may call him by any name. He will respond. No name or any name for him it was the same thing.
The sage practiced penance. He used to dive deep into meditation. He used to enter into a trance quite often. He prayed God deep from the heart. He did not demand anything from the God. He himself liked sweets. More so he liked to distribute sweets to all.
Once the sage had a long spell of samadhi. At that time a miracle happened. Not known wherefrom, the bees started swarming around the sage. They started building honeycomb over the body of the sage.
The bees were busy day and night. They constructed a beautiful octagonal honeycomb and started storing honey from different flowers inside the octagonal pearl-colour cups.
The sage almost became invisible. In fact from a distance he looked like a honeycomb hill.
The honey was sweet no doubt. And the song of the bees too was equally sweet. However, the excessive growth of combs over all sides disturbed the samadhi of the sage. His samadhi which entailed him a great joy started getting hindered.
The sage was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. The bees went on pestering the sage. The bees chased the sage wherever he sat far a samadhi.
Greatly disturbed, the sage surrendered before Lord Vishnu. The sage prayed Lord Vishnu for a quiet place where the bees wont disturb him.
Lord Vishnu heard the prayer of the devotee-sage. He laughed a little. He said to the sage, “You love sweet. You want sweet for everybody. The bees too want to distribute the sweet to each and all. Your desire is dissolved in the bees’ desire. So the bees have love and attraction for you.”
“But the bees are building colonies after colonies over my body. And their multitude is disturbing my attention which I want to fix at your holy feet” said the sage.
“So you want to fix your attention over me. For that purpose, it is not necessary to sit at one single place for hours together and remain in samadhi” said Lord Vishnu.
“What else can I do?” asked the sage.
“You can keep on moving. You keep walking. You can keep remembering me every moment while walking, sitting, eating and even in dream. I assure you I too will move to a place you want to. That is my promise” said Lord Vishnu.
The sage heard the words from the Lord. Those words kept ringing in the ears of the sage.
From that day onwards the sage went on roaming from place to place remembering his dearest Lord at every step.
The devotion of the sage was unparalleled. Slowly his body went on dissolving in the body of his deity.
He moved from place to place all over the surface of the earth. The trees, the birds, the ponds smelt the arrival of the sage. The leafless forest bustled with foliage. There was a huge play of colours everywhere. Sweet smell emitted from every corner of the region. So long as the sage was treading the region, the trees, birds, animals all tried to catch hold of the sage who chanted the Lord’s name. The sweet festival kept on moving from place to place wherever the invisible sage was walking. In this way the sage covered the whole round of mother earth. His parikrama is characterised as a Vasant Ritu (Spring time). And till this day the sage is continuously walking and walking.
The disciple of the sage has composed a sweet song in praise of his Guru. That song is famous by name Madhumati Sookta in Rig Veda. The song run thus- <!–
Å¡ eèkq okrk _rk;rs eèkq {kjUrq flaèko%A
ekèohuZ% lURoks”kèkh% eèkq uDreqrks”kfl eèkqer~ ikfFkZoa jt%A
eèkq |kSjLrq u% firkA eèkqekUuks ouLifreZèkqeku~ vLrq lw;Z%A
ekèohxkZoks HkoUrqu%A
–>
Let sweet winds blow all through. Let lakes, rivers, oceans flow sweet. Let herbals viz. medicines taste sweet. Let nights be sweet. Dawns too sweet all. Let the dust spread sweetness. Let our resplendent holy father shower sweetness on us. Let plants be sweet. Let Sun God shine be sweet. Let our cows bestow on us with sweetness.
Leave a Comment