Roger Rodpush posted Panchali Dasi For this Story. Thank You, Hare Krishna.
November 8 at 11:31pm·

*POOR BRAHMANA AND VAISHAK MONTH*
(Falls in April-May)

Sage Narada explains the story of a brahmana, Devasarma. Devasarma was very poor and had no children.
He was very frustrated and told his wife Sumana: “We have no money and children. What is the use of living without them? Our whole life is empty.”
But his wife Sumana was very intelligent. She adviced him that it is not so bad to not have children.
There are five kinds of people who could be born as our children. There are children who come because we had an unpaid debt from a previous life. So the person to whom we owed money takes birth as our son or daughter. He is so determined to get paid back. He gets paid back as our child. We may have a child who was our enemy in a previous life and had prayed to become our son simply to trouble us. Or because of some bad karma, we did something in such a way that as a reaction we get that person as a son. All these three types of children are a big trouble. So Sumana explained that it is rare to get a suputra, ie, a very good child. A suputra is someone who helps his parents, very cooperative, Krsna conscious, good, well behaved, intelligent and not having too many diseases. There is also the fifth type of child who is neutral. A neutral child does not take any interest in the mother or father, neither for nor against, not of much use.
Sumana told him,” Only one out of the five will be good, so it is not always bad to not have children. If one were to have children who are not good then it is a problem.”
But the husband was very determined,” I want a child”.
So the wife said,” Why don’t you go to Vasistha muni and ask him the reason why we don’t have money or children?”
Devasarma went to see Vasishta muni and offered him all respects.
Vasistha muni explained to him,” You have already heard about the different kinds of children from your wife. Now I can tell why you have become a poor brahmana without any children. In your previous life, you were a sudra who was working very hard, making a lot of money, which you invested in cows. You sold the milk, made profit, bought more cows and got more milk. In this way you became very rich. But you never gave anything to your wife or took proper care of your children. They were suffering so much. Even when you were dying, you didn’t tell your wife where you hid the money. You didn’t keep it in a bank. All the time you were making money but you never spent it for any purpose. You were given wealth, but you misused it and didn’t spend it for any good purpose. Therefore in this lifetime you are poor. Since you didn’t take care of your children in your previous birth you don’t have any children in this birth.”
“Oh well, this makes sense. One thing I don’t understand, though I was so sinful, how did I take birth as a brahmana with such a good wife?”
Vasistha muni replied,”There is a cause for that. One day in the month of Vaishak a Krsna bhakta – a preacher – visited your house. At that time you lived next to the river Reva. He convinced you to bathe in the holy river. There were five days left in the month of Vaishak. For five days you bathed in the holy river and worshipped Visnu because of the good association of that devotee. For the rest of your life you did absolutely nothing. Only for those five days you did something good. Because of that you are born as a brahmana and also got a good wife. It is very powerful to do spiritual activities in the month of Vaishak. This month is very dear to Lord Madhava. Any spiritual activity done in the month of Vaishak has multiple benefits.”
Devasharma asked,”What can I do now to correct the sins committed in my previous life?”
Vasistha muni said, “This is the month of Vaishak and now more than half the month is still remaining. If you have a bath in the holy river, pray to and remember Visnu, then you can get His blessings. Anyone who lives within a 1000 yojanas of the Ganges and remembers the Ganges in the morning, noon and night can get delivered. All you have to do is to say the name of Ganga 3 times. Ganga, Ganga, Ganga. In this way he got purified.”
The brahmana went back and told his wife and they worshipped Lord Krsna and took bath in a holy river. In this way not only did they get a son, but also at the end of their lives they went back to Krsna. Vaishak is a very good month to begin devotional service. In this month one should fast. It is recommended that one should be a pure vegetarian, study the holy scriptures, chant the holy names and engage in devotional services during this month.
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