Pages From The Bhaagvad
Since the fruit given by the Sage was given to a cow, the cow had a child, who was human, except for his ears which betrayed his ‘cow parentage’. His name was kept ‘Gokaran’ The latter grew up to be an epitome of wisdom and kindness. THE SYMBOLISM SO FAR: Atmadev: means Pure Spirit The Sage stands for the guru, by whose Grace we achieve a son. The ‘Son’ stands for ‘Vivek’ or the Power to discriminate. Dhundhula (Atmadev’s wife) is the mind. Dhundhula’s sister stands for ‘Intellect with no Wisdom’ When the mind listens to only the intellect, without the use of the ‘power to discriminate’, one learns to deceive the world. That is what Dhundhula and her sister did. The child that is born through deceit is Dhundhukaari. Later in the narrative it is mentioned that Dhundhukaari fell prey to bad habits and lived with 5 prostitutes, who eventually brought him total ruin. These 5 prostitutes stand for the 5 senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch) that Dhundhukaari was a slave to. It is written that Dhundhukaari used to eat with the hands of a corpse. A corpse’s hand cannot provide any subsistence. One who does not perform good deeds with his/her hands, is no better than a corpse. Observing the misdeeds of his son, Atmadev felt that having no child would have been better, than having fathered the son that he had. Dhundhukaari started to illtreat his parents while he frittered away their wealth. Not surprisingly Gokaran, the humanlike son of the cow, gave solace to Atmadev. Gokaran told Atmadev not to feel too unhappy due to the misdeeds of Dhundhukaari
Page 8 of 39