Banarasidas ARDHAKATHANAK (A Half Story) Read online

  Banarasi rose from his sickbed, bathed and dressed, and now fully recovered,

  Gave the barber many gifts,

  Which, with folded hands, he begged him to accept, and said,

  ‘You are as a friend to me.’(191)

  The barber was very pleased

  And returned home content.

  Ten days more in Khairabad

  Banarasi rested.(192)

  Then, riding in a palanquin, he returned

  To Jaunpur city.

  His mother-in-law and father-in-law did not send their daughter

  Back with him.(193)

  Returning home, Banarasi fell at his father’s feet.

  His mother beat her breast and cried

  Like the kurari bird

  When she saw her son’s condition.(194)

  Kharagsen was ashamed of his son

  And called him many names.

  Banarasi wept and wept.

  He was in shock and could not say a word.(195)

  He remained miserable for some ten or twenty days,

  Then he again returned to the upashraya,

  Learning and Love.

  He went back to his old ways.(196)

  Four months passed in this manner.

  Then Kharagsen went away to Patna.

  Banarasi returned to Khairabad,

  Ashamed and unhappy.(197)

  On this second visit he stayed for a month.

  He stayed at home and did not step out even to the marketplace.

  Then he left Khairabad, this time with his wife,

  A palanquin and a horse for the journey.(198)

  Banarasi returned to Jaunpur city.

  The members of his family sat him down

  And the elders lectured him on the error of his ways,

  ‘Listen, you dervish in love!(199)

  ‘Learning is meant for brahmins and bards;

  The sons of merchants sit in the marketplace.

  Those who spend all their time in learning go hungry.

  Listen, son, to what your elders tell you.’(200)

  Many such words for Banarasi’s good

  Were uttered by everybody.

  Banarasi paid no heed to them,

  But stayed immersed in the two passions which came naturally to him.(201)

  He returned to the upashraya and began to study under Bhanchand again.

  His amorous ways increased daily.

  No one listens to anyone else’s advice;

  One’s own actions determine what one believes.(202)

  Banarasi remained subservient to his karma.

  Came the year Samvat 1660.

  The events of Samvat 1660,

  Banarasi will now relate to you.(203)

  In ’60, setting out from Patna,

  Kharagsen came back home.

  In ’60 he married off his older daughter,

  Using wealth he had saved and hidden underground.(204)

  A daughter was born to Banarasi;

  She died within six or seven days.

  Banarasidas fell ill;

  He fasted for twenty days.(205)

  He would feel hungry and call out in distress,

  But the elders would give him no food.

  In desperation he begged, if not to eat, then to look at food.

  He was given two rotis, each weighing half a ser.(206)

  Banarasi hid the rotis under his bed

  And ate them secretly.

  This unusual diet cured him.

  Everybody marvelled at this new wonder.(207)

  Also in Samvat 1660, with firm resolve

  Did Kharagsen enter into a new business deal,

  In which he made a hundredfold gain.

  His family rejoiced and celebrated his gain.(208)

  These were the events of Samvat 1660.

  That which Banarasi saw, he has related here.

  Sometime during Samvat 1659,

  A crooked sanyasi(209)

  Suddenly came and met him.

  He said to Banarasi,

  ‘I have a mantra,

  Which if recited properly by someone(210)

  ‘For an entire year, everyday,

  With firm and unwavering belief,

  In the solitude and secrecy of the privy

  So that no one comes to know of it(211)

  ‘Will, at the end of the year, when the mantra is completed,

  Yield a reward to the man who recited it:

  In the morning, upon his doorstep,

  He will find a dinar.(212)

  ‘He will find a dinar in this manner, every day for a year.

  If he repeats the mantra, the same will happen again.’

  Banarasi heard what the sanyasi had to say

  And believed him to be great and learned.(213)

  In greed, he fell at the sanyasi’s feet

  And beseeched him to give him the mantra.

  The sanyasi taught him the mantra

  And helped him write it down as well.(214)

  The sanyasi ran off, free.

  Banarasi, the blockhead, recited the mantra in Samvat 1660

  For a whole year, taking the trouble to do so exactly as the sanyasi had said.

  He did not tell anyone about this.(215)

  When the year was complete

  Banarasi went to his door

  And examined the ground carefully.

  He found no dinar anywhere.(216)

  The next day he went to his door again,

  He couldn’t see a dinar even in his dreams.

  Agitated and troubled by greed,

  He became increasingly anxious and lost his appetite.(217)

  He told Bhanchand of his dilemma.

  When Bhanchand explained that such matters are false and illusory,

  Banarasi realized the truth.

  He stopped worrying and regained his appetite.(218)

  Then Banarasi met a jogi,

  Who also made a fool of him.

  He gave him a conch shell,

  And all the materials needed for a puja,(219)

  And said, ‘This is an image of Sadashiv,

  And he who worships it will attain Shiva’s abode.’

  Banarasi believed the jogi

  And, taking the conch, worshipped it every day with all his heart.(220)

  He would take a bath and then, with devotion in his heart,

  Perform eight kinds of ritual puja.

  He would chant ‘Shiv Shiv’ a hundred times

  And eight times more, with unparalleled joy in his heart.(221)

  He would perform the puja, and only after that would he eat.

  If he could not perform the puja some day, he would be overcome by guilt.

  He would punish himself the next day

  By eating plain and unseasoned food.(222)

  This state of affairs continued for a long time.

  He continued to worship Shiva in secrecy.

  Then came Samvat 1661

  And the second day of the bright half of the month of Chaitra.(223)

  Sahib Salim Shah had

  A mukim called Hiranand

  Who was an Oswal, from a family of jewellers.

  He was also extremely rich.(224)

  From Prayagpur he

  Collected people

  And formed a company to go on pilgrimage to Sammed Shikhar.

  This company of pilgrims crossed the river Ganga close to Jaunpur.(225)

  They sent letters everywhere;

  News of the pilgrimage spread.

  A letter came to Kharagsen as well,

  Inviting him to join the pilgrimage.(226)

  Kharagsen, receiving the invitation, left.

  He mounted his horse

  And went to meet Hiranandji,

  Leaving behind his family and his household.(227)

  Kharagsen left on the pilgrimage.

  Banarasi became unruly and self-willed.

  He began fighting with his own mother,

  Saying that he
too wanted to go on pilgrimage to Lord Parshvanath.(228)

  Curds, milk, ghee, rice and gram

  Oil, betel, and many kinds of flowers—

  Banarasi took a vow to give up all these things

  And insisted childishly to go on pilgrimage.(229)

  He took the vow in the month of Chaitra

  After which six to seven months passed.

  Then came the purnima of the month of Kartik,

  And people began leaving for pilgrimages.(230)

  The followers of Shiva went to bathe in the Ganga;

  The Jains went to offer puja to Lord Parshvanath.

  With them to Banaras

  Went Banarasidas.(231)

  Upon reaching the city of Kashi,

  Banarasi first bathed in the Ganga,

  Then offered puja to Parshvanath and Suparshvanath,

  With devotion in his heart.(232)

  All the things he had vowed to give up,

  He had them bought from the marketplace

  And placed them as offerings

  At the feet of Lord Parshvanath.(233)

  Banarasi stayed for ten days

  In Banaras city.

  He offered puja at the temple

  Every day, rising at dawn to do so.(234)

  In this manner he worshipped Parshvanath

  With faith and devotion.

  He then returned home,

  Bringing with him the white conch shell of Shiva.(235)

  He would perform the puja to the conch shell of Mahesh,6

  And only after that would he eat.

  Wherever he might have travelled

  He never forgot to perform this puja.(236)

  Shivdev in the form of a shell,

  And the great shell7 Banarasi,

  Both came together,

  The Lord and his servant, alike.(237)

  Meanwhile, in Kharagsen’s absence,

  In his house,

  A son was born whose life was very short.

  There is little point in talking about him.(238)

  Samvat 1661—

  The company of pilgrims returned, worn out and weary.

  Some returned safely, some had died on the way,

  Others had fallen very ill.(239)

  Kharagsen reached Patna.

  There he fell ill and suffered a great deal

  With a stomach ailment that caused him much pain.

  But he was destined to live longer, and he recovered.(240)

  He returned home with the company of pilgrims.

  Hiranand set up camp in Jaunpur for a while.

  On the way, Kharagsen had been ill again;

  Upon coming home, he took to his bed once more.(241)

  Hiranand was a man of great charm.

  He stayed in Jaunpur for four days.

  On the fifth day he crossed the Gomti and stopped at a garden on the other side;

  On the sixth day he left for Prayag.(242)

  The company of pilgrims broke up and dispersed in all directions,

  Each person once again on his own.

  They were like travellers who meet each other by chance midstream on a boat,

  And, once they part ways, never meet again.(243)

  In this manner several days went by.

  Kharagsen became well again.

  Many days passed in a state of happiness and content,

  There were some sorrows in between, but none of any importance.(244)

  At this time a son was born

  In Banarasi’s home.

  He died as soon as he was born,

  Leaving behind this precious human existence.(245)

  Samvat 1662.

  Came the month of Kartik and the end of the rainy season.

  The great Emperor Akbar

  Died in the city of Agra.(246)

  The news of his death reached Jaunpur.

  The people, bereft of their emperor, felt orphaned and helpless.

  The townsfolk were afraid,

  Their hearts troubled, their faces pale with fear.(247)

  Banarasi suddenly

  Heard of Akbar’s death.

  He had been sitting on the stairs,

  The news struck him like a blow upon the heart.(248)

  He swooned and fell,

  He could not help himself.

  He cracked his head and began bleeding profusely.

  The word ‘God’ slipped from his mouth.(249)

  He had hurt his head on the stone floor

  Of the courtyard, which turned red with his blood.

  Everyone began making a great fuss;

  His mother and father were frantic.(250)

  His mother held him in her arms,

  Applied a piece of burnt cloth to his wound.

  Then, making up a bed, she laid her son upon it

  His mother wept unceasingly.(251)

  Meanwhile there was chaos in the city,

  Riots broke out everywhere.

  People sealed shut the doors of their houses,

  Shopkeepers would not sit in their shops.(252)

  Fine clothes and expensive jewellery—

  These, people buried underground.

  Books recording their business transactions they buried somewhere else,

  And hid their cash and other goods in safe and secure places.(253)

  In every house, weapons were gathered.

  Men began to wear plain clothes

  And casting off fine shawls, wrapped themselves in rough blankets.

  The women too began to dress plainly.(254)

  No one could tell the difference between the high and the low.

  The rich and the poor were alike.

  No thieves or robbers were to be seen anywhere,

  People were needlessly afraid.(255)

  The chaos and confusion continued for ten days.

  Then peace returned:

  A letter came from Agra saying that all was well.

  This was what the letter said—(256)

  ‘The great Akbar was emperor

  For fifty-two years.

  Now in Samvat 1662,

  He died in the month of Kartik.(257)

  ‘Akbar’s oldest son

  Sahib Shah Salim,

  Has, in the city of Agra, assumed the throne

  In Akbar’s place.(258)

  ‘He has taken the name of Nuruddin

  Jahangir Sultan.

  This news is being given all over the kingdom,

  In every place where the emperor’s authority holds sway.’(259)

  This was the news contained in the letter

  Which was read from house to house

  And spread round Jaunpur

  Causing the people to give thanks in relief.(260)

  There was joy in Kharagsen’s house

  A state of well-being prevailed, gone were sorrow and strife;

  Banarasi recovered, and bathed;

  The family rejoiced and gave alms generously in their joy.(261)

  One day Banarasidas

  Was sitting alone on the terrace of his house,

  When he began to think,

  ‘Why did I worship Shiva?(262)

  ‘When I swooned and fell,

  Shiva did not help me then.’

  Thinking this, he stopped performing his daily puja of Shiva.

  He had begun to feel a lack in this worship.(263)

  From that day on, he found no pleasure in the puja.

  Finally, he put the conch shell away.

  One day, with his friends,

  And holding his newly written manuscript in his hand,(264)

  He went to the Gomti River.

  There, sitting upon the bridge,

  He began to recite his new composition to his friends.

  As he read, confusion and turmoil arose in his heart:(265)

  ‘If a man utters a single lie,

  He suffers in hell.

  I have written so many false words—

  All are lies, not even one is tr
ue.(266)

  ‘So how will I ever make good?’

  These were the thoughts that came suddenly to Banarasi.

  Thinking thus, he stared at the river

  And threw his manuscript into it as though it were waste paper.(267)

  His friends protested.

  But the river was deep and all were afraid.

  The pages of the manuscript were floating upon its surface;

  No one wanted to venture into the water to collect them again.(268)

  They felt regretful and sad for a moment or two,

  Said that the ways of karma were strange,

  Thus saying, they went their own separate ways.

  Banarasi too went home.(269)

  Kharagsen heard of this incident

  And rejoiced in his heart.

  If his son was seeing some sense at last,

  Then perhaps the boat, that was the family, would find an anchor.(270)

  From that day on Banarasi

  Began to yearn for righteousness and virtue.

  He gave up love and its pursuit,

  And began to follow the ways of his family.(271)

  No man will give up his faults and vices merely because they are pointed out to him.

  It is only when his condition changes that he changes.

  As the childish behaviour of a child

  Disappears upon the child becoming a youth.(272)

  As good karma dawns

  So bad karma is destroyed.

  Which is why Banarasi immediately