Story of Pushpadanta

Story of Pushpadanta

 We have seen earlier the story of Sukeshi who went to the ashram of the sages in the Magadh forest and learnt many dharmic concepts. (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/02/pious-asuras-and-worried-gods). Amongst the many things he learnt from the sages, he also got the knowledge of the ten basic principles of Dharma that is common to all people irrespective of their occupation (varnas). We had already covered two of these Dharmas through relevant stories. Please see the link below.

Dasha Dharma

1.         Dhṛti – Patience (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/02/dashdharma-patience-shabari.html; https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/02/dash-dharma-patience.html)

2.         Kṣhamā – Forgiveness (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/03/dashadharma-story-of-kaakasura-from.htmll)

3.         Damo - Calmness

4.         Asteyaṃ - Not coveting/ stealing

5.         Saucam – Cleanliness (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/04/dashadharma-story-of-shitala-ma.html)

6.         Indriya nigraha – Control of senses (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/04/narada-understands-power-of-maya.html)

7.         Dhīr – Righteous Action (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/03/dashadharama-kacha-and-devayani.html)

8.         Vidya – Pursuit of knowledge

9.         Satyam – Truthfulness (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/03/harishchandra-test-and-triumph.html.)

10.       Akrodho – Control of anger

daśakaṃ dharmalakṣaṇam।।

Story on Asteyam – Not coveting / Stealing

Story of Pushpadanta – The author of Shiva

There was a Gandharva in the court of Indra called Pushpadanta. He was a fantastic singer and a great scholar. He was well liked by everyone in the court of Indra for his pleasing temperament and lovely rendition of songs. He did have one fault though. He was such an ardent devotee of Shiva that he forgot everything when he was doing Shivapuja or when he was singing about Shiva. Pushpadanta also loved to do his Shivapuja using rare flowers. He went to great lengths to collect flowers of different varieties for his daily puja.

 

Once Pushpadanta was flying through the air. He was crossing a prosperous and beautiful kingdom. Pushpadanta descended to explore the kingdom. It was the kingdom of King Chithraratha. Pushpadanta was taken in by the beauty and tranquillity of the place.

 

Pushpadanta wandered around the kingdom and came to the palace garden. It so happened that King Chithraratha was himself a great devotee of Shiva and had collected many rare flowering plants and nurtured them. He personally collected them for his daily Shivapuja. So, the garden was blooming with beautiful, rare and fragrant flowers that were sight to behold. Pushpadanta had never seen such flowers even in the garden of Indralok.

 

Pushpadanta decided to help himself to the flowers for his daily worship. He plucked as many flowers as he could and flew back to Indralok. Being a celestial Gandharva, he was invisible to the guards. Due to that, he was not caught while plucking the flowers.

 

A little later, King Chitraratha came to the garden to collect flowers for his daily puja. He was surprised to see the garden bereft of flowers despite it being spring. He was sure that someone had plucked the flowers. He asked his guards if they caught anyone stealing the flowers. The guard answered in the negative. King Chitraratha went back disappointed.

Pushpadanta could not forget the garden in Chitraratha’s kingdom and the rare flowers. He made it a habit of coming everyday and stealing flowers from there for his puja. Pushpadanta, as a celestial, being invisible to the human eye, had a great advantage. This went on for a few days. The routine was the same. The king came, asked his guards who took the flowers, but unfortunately, they had not seen anything.

King Chithraratha finally had had enough. He decided to find out who was behind this flower theft. He asked his guards to cover the entire path towards the green house containing the exotic flowers with bilva leaves. King Chithraratha thought, if someone were to walk the path of the leaves there will be foot prints and more importantly the guards can hear the rustle of the leaves. The guards did as they were told and waited.

 

As usual, Pushpadanta came to the garden. He saw the bilva leaves but did not think much about it. By now, he was confident that he will not be caught stealing as he was invisible to humans. He started walking confidently towards the rare flower garden. The moment he started walking on the bilva trees, it disturbed Shiva who was meditating in Kailash.

 

Lord Shiva opened his eyes and realized that Pushpadanta was the cause of the disturbance. Shiva thought to himself “If a human stomps on the bilva, I can forgive his ignorance once or twice. But Pushpadanta is a celestial being and a Gandharva. He should know that the bilva is sacred. He has been stealing the flowers for the past few days for my puja. I had forgiven him for the theft as I thought it was because of his affection towards me. Pushpadanta has now become arrogant as he is invisible and can fly. I will take away his cloak of invisibility and the power to fly.”

 

Thinking thus, Shiva went back to his meditation. The moment Shiva said this, Pushpadanta became visible to the human eye and to his shock his wings disappeared. The guards who were waiting to catch him took him to the king. King Chitraratha punished him with 50 lashes and threw him in prison.

 

As he was languishing in jail, Pushpadanta wondered how he lost his celestial powers. Thinking back, it suddenly struck him. The bilva leaves. He thought “Of course. I stomped on the bilva which is my Lord’s favourite. He had forgiven my stealing the flowers but was not happy with this.”

 

Now that he knew the reason for his fall from grace, Pushpadanta was very repentant. He begged for Lord Shiva’s forgiveness. He composed the Shiva Mahimnastava stothram. (Please click on the link if you would like to read the shloka with meanings. (https://shaivam.org/scripture/English-Script/178/shiva-mahimna-stotra/#gsc.tab=0))

 

Shiva was moved by the Stotra and gave back Pushpandanta his powers. Once he got his powers, the guards saw a celestial being inside the prison and ran to their king. Pushpadanta sought the forgiveness of King Chithraratha and promised not to steal anymore. The king gracefully gave permission to Pushpadanta to take flowers from his garden anytime he wanted. Pushpadanta returned to Indralok.

 

Although humbled with the experience, Pushpadanta still carried a pride that he wrote a shloka that moved Lord Pashupati himself. He even told a few in Indralok how his shloka moved Lord Shiva while underplaying his thievery. Lord Shiva heard about this and called him.

 

Lord Shiva told Pushpadanta “Why don’t you go and look inside the mouth of the Nandi sitting in any Shiva temple?” Pushpadanta was surprised by this strange request. He was curious, though. He went to the Shiva temple and peered into the mouth of the Nandi. He found the entire Shiva Mahimnastava stothram written in the teeth of the Nandi.

 

Shocked, Pushpadanta went back to Lord Shiva and said “Who wrote that my Lord?” Lord Shiva smiled and said “It was already written Pushpadanta. You are not the author of anything. It is the Brahman. The universe chooses to reveal certain things at a certain time. You were only an instrument to bring the Shiva Mahimnastava stothram for the benefit of humanity”. Truly humbled and wise, Pushpadandta paid his respects to Lord Shiva and Nandi and went back to his universe.