Wise Man Utatthya and the Power the MantRam “Ai”
या पश्यति न सा ब्रूते या ब्रूते सा न पश्यति ।
अहो व्याध स्वकार्याथिन्किं पृच्छसि पुनः पुनः ॥
Retelling by Shloka-s in Sanskrit with Stories
Once in the Kosala kingdom, there lived a learned man called SRee-dEvadatta. He had married a lady by the name of rOhiNi, but they did not have any children even after many years. The couple were very sad about it. One day they decided to perform a worship ritual — Yajn^a—named PutREshTi. SRee-dEvadatta assembled priests and materials on the shores of the river tamasA. He arranged to have a vast Yajn^a-maNDapam built and invited the head priests such as suhOtRa, YaajN^avalkya, BR^haspati, Paila, and GObhila. At the astrologically auspicious time, the Yajn^a started.
On the platform of Yajn^a, GObhila began to recite sAmavEda chants and reached a segment named rathantara. His voice faltered a little and that angered dEvadatta, who said: O Sage, you are a man of great learning, and you know that I am doing this Yajn^am for being blessed by a child, but you have made errors in uttering the MantRam, which is the soul of the ritual. This shows that you are not fit to perform this holy rite.
The harsh words of dEvadatta angered the R^shi. He responded: "You wicked man, you should know that air in the form of breath enters and exits the bodies of each living being, and sometimes, the voice is affected by an irregularity in the breathing pattern. This is normal and natural. It is not a grave problem. Without realizing that, you used sharp words against me. You will indeed have a child, but I curse you that your child will become very ignorant and stubborn as you yourself are."
Hearing GObhila's curse, dEvadattta became very scared. Asking for the R^shi's forgiveness, he said: O Great Sage, please forgive my wrongdoing. I was so upset by the lack of a child and in my eagerness to get a child, I lost self-control. I also forgot that during a Yajn^am, the priests are full of divine energy, and I should have been brimming with respect for all of you. Please have pity on me. If my son is stupid, it will be very hard for him because living in this world requires intelligent thought. Without intelligence, my son will never become learned, gain social respect, and obtain rewards and awards. O MahaRshE, you are a great man of spiritual learning. It is your duty to uplift people of lesser intelligence such as myself and my future son. Forgive me."
Saying thus, SRee-dEvadatta fell at the feet of GObhila MahaRshi and asked for his forgiveness with genuine tears of contriteness in his eyes. By the sincere apologies, GObhila calmed down, and said: "Dear son, you have to remember that once words are out of your mouth, you can never take them back. And I cannot take back my cursing words either. Whatever I said will definitely come to pass, but I hereby give your future son a way out of his cursed status of stupidity. He will be stupid for a while, but a miracle will happen that will make him a learned man well-known in the world.
Receiving the blessing from the R^shi, dEvadatta became happy again and the Yajn^a was completed and all the Priests received generous and respectful GurudakshiNa-s and all ended auspiciously.
Soon dEvadatta's wife rOhiNi gave birth to a handsome boy on the day of rOhiNi asterism and his name was chosen to be Utatthya. The parents gave away much food and clothes and money and jewels to all people in need and to all learned people in honor and celebration of the childbirth.
At the appropriate time, Utatthya's education began. But, however hard his guru tried, the child could not even learn or say a single word correctly. Twelve years went by in this manner, and it became well-known in that village and everywhere around that the learned BrAhmaNa dEvadatta's son was a completely stupid boy. Some people started making fun of the family.
Hearing all this, Utatthya's heart became filled with Vairagyam -- a spiritual disinterest in the ordinary world and its activities and pleasures. He gave up everything and entered the forest to live alone in harmony with nature.
In the forest, Utatthya made a tapasvi's hut on the shores of river Gan*gA and started living on fruits and nuts and roots keeping the vow of celibacy. He developed some rules for himself such as : NEVER TELL A LIE. This vow is known as satya-vRatam.
Fourteen long years of Brahmacharyam and satya-vRatam went by. During that time, Utatthya did not worship any deity or use any MantRam or perform any ritual. And he did not receive any UpadESam from any holy man. But his reputation spread all around as a man of TRUTH. Everyone knew that a falsehood never came out of his mouth. People forgot his real name, and started calling him “satya-vRata,” meaning “a person who keeps the vow of always speaking the truth.”
One day, a hunter entered the area of the forest where SRee-satya-vRata lived. He was looking for a prey and saw a wild boar, He shot an arrow and wounded the boar, but the animal did not die. The boar in pain started running with the arrow sticking out of its body and reached Utatthya's hut and it took refuge in a bush nearby.
Seeing the animal in pain, Utatthya was filled with compassion and in a natural way, the sound of "Ai" came out of his mouth. He did not know that the "Ai" sound is the Beeja-mantRam for Goddess SRee MahA sarasvati and no one had ever advised him to chant that mantRam. For him that was the natural vocal outburst of compassion.
Just as Utatthya also known as satya-vRata uttered this very sacred beejamantRam with the spiritual power of both Brahmacharyam and satya-vRatam backing up his utterance, Goddess sarasvati became very pleased with him and instantaneously gave him all the knowledge in the world as a blessing from the divine realm of omniscience!!!!
All of a sudden the stupid man became the most learned man in the world!!
A moment later, the hunter reached there, running, looking for the animal that he had wounded and he did PRaNAmam to Utatthya and asked him if the sage had seen a boar pass by.
This put Utatthya in a dilemma. If he told the truth to the hunter, he would kill the poor animal, but if Utttthya did not tell the truth, then he would be breaking his vow of satya-vRatam.
In an instant, his immense learning gotten as a blessing of SRee-mahA-sarasvati came to his help. He said: O hunter, if my eyes saw the boar on the one hand, they cannot report to you what they saw because eyes do not have the speaking power.
On the other hand, if my tongue tells you that the boar was seen, you should not trust it because it does not have the power to see.
Under these circumstances, I cannot answer your question effectively.”
या पश्यति न सा ब्रूते या ब्रूते सा न पश्यति ।
अहो व्याध स्वकार्याथिन्किं पृच्छसि पुनः पुनः ॥ (देवीभागवत महापुराण devI bhAgavatam 3/11/41)
yā paśyati na sā brūte yā brūte sā na paśyati ।
aho vyādha svakāryāthinkim pṛcchasi punaḥ punaḥ ॥
“He who sees does not speak. He who speaks, does not see. Selfish hunter, whom and why do you ask again and again?”
Hearing Utatthya's clever words which did not give out any information, the hunter stopped his search and went home believing the sage. Utatthya did not speak the truth, but neither did he say anything false. Thus the life of a poor animal was saved, and so was Utatthya's vow of speaking the truth always.
As a result of Bhagavati VANee-dEvi's blessing, Utatthya became as learned as Sage VAlmeeki and his fame began to spread everywhere. In religious festivals and Yajn^a-s he became a main speaker and discussant and his father dEvadatta also began to hear about a sage called satyavRata. The father's happiness had no limits when he heard that satya-vRata was none other than his own once stupid son, Utatthya!
This is how a mantRa can become so potent backed by the vows of celibacy and truth-speaking!!