Uñchavṛtti Brāhmaṇa Saktu Dāna

This account is told in the Aśvamedhika Parva of the Mahābhārata. It is about Saktuprastha, a poor brāhmaṇa (priest) of Kurukshetra, and his family. In a terrible famine they gave away their last food to a hungry guest. The guest was Dharma himself.

The golden mongoose of the Nakulākhyāna tells it at the end of Yudhishṭhira’s Aśvamedha. The mongoose declares that this gift outweighs the whole great yajña (fire ritual) of Yudhishṭhira.

The gleaner’s household

At Kurukshetra lived a brāhmaṇa called Saktuprastha. He kept his family alive by uñchavṛtti, which means gleaning, or picking up the grain left in the fields, ear by ear. He did not farm, trade or take gifts he had not earned.

He lived with his wife, his son and his daughter-in-law. All four were firm in tapas (austerity), pure in conduct, dharmic and masters of their senses. His rule was to eat only once in three days, at shashṭha-kāla (the second meal of that day).

Then a bitter famine struck the land. The fields dried up. For a long time the family had no food when their hour came, and all four went hungry together.

The guest at the door

One scorching midday in the bright half of the month of Jyeshṭha, after great effort, the family at last gathered four mānikas (measures) of grain. They ground it into saktu (parched flour), finished their evening observances and fire-offerings, and divided the saktu into four equal shares, one for each of them.

Just as they were about to eat, a guest came to the door, very hungry. The family were starving themselves, but they received him with joy. They honoured him with water for his feet, a seat and respectful words. The householder gave him his own share of saktu. The guest ate it and was still not satisfied.

Each gives in turn

The householder saw that the guest was still hungry and did not know how to satisfy him.

His wife then offered her own share. She said that dharma and artha (wealth and its use) were hers to bear as much as her husband’s. She said that a wife’s highest devatā is her husband, and she wanted her old and weak husband to eat rather than herself. The householder was moved and gave her share to the guest. The guest ate it and was still not satisfied.

The son then offered his share. He said that a son’s duty is always to protect his old father, and that by this gift he would be doing that very duty. The father said that his son was young and needed strength for his own tapas. The son replied that keeping the body strong serves dharma itself. The father was persuaded and gave the son’s share to the guest. The guest ate it and was still not satisfied.

Last, the daughter-in-law came forward with her share. She said that her father-in-law’s grace alone would give her children in the future. She said he was the devatā of her devatā, and so her own highest devatā, and that her whole being, body, prāṇa (breath of life) and dharma, belonged to his service. The father-in-law praised her firmness in her kula-dharma (family duty) and her devotion to the household of her guru. He took her share at last and gave it to the guest.

The revelation

All four shares had been given. The guest was Dharma himself, who had taken a human form. He was satisfied not by how much he had eaten, but by the whole of the gift. A brāhmaṇa family in the depth of famine had given away every last portion of food they had, keeping nothing back, from pure and steady dharma-buddhi (right judgement).

Dharma was pleased beyond measure. He told the householder that he had been won over by this dāna (gift), which was pure, honestly earned and given with a dharmic mind. He said that the devas in svarga themselves sang the glory of this gift.

Dharma showed the family a divine vimāna (flying chariot) coming down from the sky. He told them that their pitṛs (ancestors), and the generations still to come, were already freed by their brahmacarya (self-control), dāna, yajña and spotless dharma. He told the brāhmaṇa to go up to svarga with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, in their own bodies.

Dharma’s teaching

Before the family left, Dharma spoke. Hunger destroys buddhi (judgement) and drives dharma far away. One who conquers hunger conquers svarga itself. A gift given at the right time, out of what one has earned justly, outweighs a far greater gift given carelessly, however small it is. Śraddhā (faith) in giving is greater than the gift.

As proof he gave three examples:

• Rantideva was a king who owned nothing. He gave away his own water with a pure heart, and reached svarga.
• Nṛga was a king who gave thousands of cows to brāhmaṇas. He fell to naraka because he gave away again, without knowing it, one cow that was not his to give.
• Śibi, son of Uśīnara, gave his own flesh as dāna and reached the highest puṇyaloka (world won by merit).

Dharma said that wealth given does not by itself make puṇya (merit). Only what is earned and given justly, with full effort and without anger or greed, brings the giver to svarga.

This account was told by the golden mongoose at the end of Yudhishṭhira’s own Aśvamedha. It was offered as proof that even the greatest rājasūya and Aśvamedha yajñas do not equal, in merit, the saktu gift of this gleaning brāhmaṇa.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 90