राम
Sacred Tableau

Bhushundi Begins His First Birth in an Earlier and Darker Kali Yuga

Uttara Kanda, Doha 97

Doha 97 · Movement 2 of 2

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Bhushundi invites the king of birds to hear the story of his first remembered birth. Its hearing will awaken love for the Lord's feet, and through that love sorrow will dissolve.

The account begins in a previous kalpa, during a Kali Yuga thick with the root of impurity. Men and women have turned toward adharma and live in opposition to sacred teaching.

The blue mountain and pure lake remain around the listeners, but Bhushundi's voice opens upon a harsher world. This is not a tale of devotion appearing in favorable conditions. It begins where moral order has weakened and collective conduct moves against the Vedas. The contrast prepares the wonder: the crow-sage whose presence now dispels delusion once began within an age of confusion, and the path between those conditions will reveal the patience of grace across many lives.

From the clear air of the blue mountain, Bhushundi's memory descends into a Kali Yuga where sacred order has nearly vanished.

Read the passage from the Manas

प्रथम जन्म के चरित अब कहउँ सुनहु बिहगेस। सुनि प्रभु पद रति उपजइ जातें मिटहिं कलेस।।96(क)।। पूरुब कल्प एक प्रभु जुग कलिजुग मल मूल।। नर अरु नारि अधर्म रत सकल निगम प्रतिकूल।।96(ख)।।

Now I shall tell the story of my first birth; listen, O king of birds. Hearing it, love for the Lord's feet shall arise, and through that love, all sorrows shall be destroyed. In a previous kalpa, O Lord, in one age, the Kali Yuga, root of all impurity, men and women were devoted to unrighteousness, all opposed to the sacred scriptures.