Story of Pushpadanta
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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.
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