Goutama's Arrangements

Suta said

One day Goutama sent his disciples with their water pots to fetch water. Many wives of other rishis had gone there for water too. When the disciples reached the water and saw them, the women stopped them: "We are the wives of rishis. We take it first. Go away; you may take the water later." So they scolded the disciples, who went back and told the rishi's wife. The ascetic lady comforted them, went with them, took the water herself and gave it to Goutama, who used it for his daily rites. The angry rishis' wives rebuked her and went back to their cottages with crooked minds. In front of their husbands they told the opposite of what had happened. Under the control of their own karma, the rishis grew angry at Goutama on hearing their wicked wives. Angry and wicked in mind, they worshipped Ganesha with many offerings, wanting to make trouble for Goutama.

Ganeshvara, pleased, appeared. Subject to his devotees, he said, "I am pleased. Ask a boon. What shall I do for you?" The rishis answered: "If you will give a boon, have Goutama driven out of the hermitage, and let the rishis condemn him." The elephant-headed one laughed, and, destination of the virtuous, gently tried to make them understand. "Rishis, listen. It is not right to do this. Anger where no offence was done leads to harm. It is not good to distress those who have done you a favour; such distress leads to ruin. One strives in austerity to win fine fruits, and having thrown away those good fruits, one should not on one's own seek what hurts." But their minds were clouded, and they replied, "This is what you must do and nothing else." Ganesha said: "'A wicked person never becomes virtuous, a virtuous one never becomes wicked.' Brahma spoke these decisive words. Earlier, when food was lost, you met hardship, and it was the great sage Goutama who gave you this happiness. Now you want to inflict misery on him. This is not right in this world and needs thought from every side. Deluded by your wives, you do not act on my words. All this will lead to his welfare, and the great sage will again bring you happiness. To cross him is not right. Ask for another boon." The rishis did not heed even this great-souled god. Then Shiva's son, bound to his devotees but indifferent to rishis who wanted something wicked, said, "I will do what you ask. What is to happen will then happen." And he vanished.

Goutama did not know of the sages' wickedness. Happy, with his wife, he performed his daily rites. Lords among sages, hear what followed from the power of the wicked rishis and the boon they had been given. Goutama's field had rice and barley. Ganesha took the form of a feeble cow and went there. By the boon, he went trembling and began to eat the rice and barley. As fate would have it, Goutama arrived at that moment. Compassionate, he tried to drive the cow off with a blade of grass. At the touch of the grass the cow fell to the ground and died at once, while the rishi looked on. The rishis and their inauspicious wives had been hiding nearby, and all shrieked, "What has Goutama done?" Goutama was astonished and distressed. He called Ahalya and said miserably: "Lady, what is this, and how did it happen? Maheshvara must be angry. What can be done? Where can one go? The sin of killing has come upon me." Then the brahmanas reproached Goutama, and their wives hurt Ahalya with harsh words. The evil-minded disciples and sons also reviled him, crying, "Shame!" The rishis said: "We cannot look at your face. Go, leave this place. If one sees the face of a cow-killer, one must at once bathe in one's clothes. As long as you are in the middle of the hermitage, the fire and the ancestors will not accept our offerings. So take your family and go elsewhere without delay. You have committed the sin of cow-killing." Saying this they threw stones at him, hurt him and spoke harshly to Ahalya.

Struck and reviled by those wicked ones, Goutama said, "Sages, I will leave this place and live somewhere else." And he left. With their permission he made his hermitage a krosha away. "You can do no rite as long as this curse is on you," they said. "You have no right to the Vedic rites for gods and ancestors." Goutama, the noble sage, was deeply miserable. After a month there he appealed to the sages: "Have compassion on me. Tell me what to do, and how my sin may go." They said nothing at first. Then they gathered and conferred among themselves, while Goutama waited at a distance with bowed head. Humbly he asked again, "What shall I do now?" The rishis answered: "Until you are free of the sin you will never be pure. To purify your body you must do atonement. Go round the earth three times, proclaiming your sin aloud, then return and keep a vow for a month. It is also laid down that going round Brahmagiri a hundred and one times will purify you. Or go to Ganga and bathe. Make a crore of earthen lingams of the god and worship them, then bathe in Ganga, and you will be purified. Or go round this mountain eleven times and bathe an earthen lingam with water from a hundred pots. That too will purify you." Goutama agreed. "Best of sages, I will go round the mountain and worship an earthen lingam. Illustrious ones, grant me leave." The noble rishi circled the mountain, then made an earthen lingam and worshipped it. The virtuous Ahalya did all this too, and the disciples and their disciples served them both.