Bhagavatam

Fruits of Attachment - III

Jad Bharat

JKP - Team

07 Jun 2025 — 3 min read

In our previous blogs, "Fruits of Attachment - I and II", we left Bharat in the forest, a noble king who is reborn as a deer due to a fateful attachment. Can you even imagine the turmoil? The king, once commanding armies, now nibbling grass and fleeing from shadows! But hold on, Bharat's saga is far from over! Today, we delve into a new chapter, a new beginning – Bharat's third birth!

Bharat's third birth

Bharat was born into a prestigious Brahmin family from Angira's lineage. His father, a man of notable standing, had two wives. While his first wife bore him nine sons, his second wife gave birth to Bharat and a sister. By the grace of the divine, Bharat was once again granted the remarkable gift of the human body.

Hidden Identity

Bharat was haunted by the memories of his past two lives, disgust surged within him as he recognized the fall from divine grace to a mundane existence. Determined not to tie himself to the weight of earthly attachments, he forged his path. Even though he possessed complete knowledge of the scriptures and was an intelligent person, he acted in a way that ensured people would feel ashamed to be around him.

Bharat's father had high expectations for him and was filled with hope and determination, spending countless days trying to teach him the sacred texts.

Bharat's Father: "Bharat, my son, repeat after me: 'Om...'

Bharat: "Umm... Mnooo..."

Bharat's Father: (Sighing deeply) "No, no, my son, it is 'Om'! Try again.

Bharat: (Reciting completely out of tune) "Ooooohmmm..."

Bharat's deliberate mispronunciations and recitations were always out of tune. Bharat's father was extremely unhappy that he could not make a good Brahmin of his son. Bharat convinced the world that he was a troubled soul.

Unaffected by the World

The people around him were quick to judge; they called him names and mistreated him, but he was not affected by how people perceived him. People would refer to him as Jad Bharat, the dull-witted Bharat.

Villager 1: "Did you see Bharat today? Muttering nonsense again!"

Villager 2: "Yes, such a shame for a respected family. It's as if he's deaf and mute."

The Harsh Reality

Bharat's father passed away, and his mother followed him onto the funeral pyre, leaving Bharat in the care of his stepmother and stepbrothers.

Bharat's brothers did not think very highly of him and mistreated him; they felt they had no responsibility towards Bharat and made him do menial work, such as work in the agricultural land as a labourer. Bharat never protested and worked as an ordinary workman day after day with no complaints. He was weathered by exhaustion because he worked long hours, and he would satisfy his hunger with whatever food was given to him, whether old, musty flour, burned food, or just husk from the grains. All the food tasted the same to him. He spent all his spare time thinking about the Lord.

Bharat remained unaffected by external circumstances because he held onto the Vedic wisdom imparted to him by his father, Rishabh, in his first birth. He viewed himself not as the physical body but as the eternal soul, free from the limitations of the five senses. As a result, he was indifferent to insults and bad or stale food. His identity as a Brahmin, or even working as a labourer, did not matter to him as he was beyond identification with the body.

To be continued in the next blog............

Summary

This blog continues the story of Bharat, a noble king reborn as a deer, and now in his third birth as a Brahmin. Despite being born into a respected family and possessing Vedic knowledge, Bharat intentionally acted in ways that made others scorn him, earning him the name Jad Bharat. He acted in this manner to avoid earthly attachments, so people would leave him alone and he could continuously think about the Supreme. He was unfazed by societal expectations or mistreatment from his family.