Marm ni vaat (Gujarati) - Bhagvat Puran - Devi Bhagvat

The four first sons of Brahma visit Maharaj Pruthu and offer his sagely advice. They explain what should an individual do to be on the path of dharma and moksha ultimately. They also explain why the soul falls from grace. We also hear about the karma of Maharaj Pruthu after the sages leave. 

Maharaj Pruthu arrives back in his abode and after sitting with his subjects and many other rishis he explains his views on the role of a ruler and what his subjects should be doing. He also explains the role of the leader and the importance of Dharma at individual and societal levels. 

Seeing the forgiveness demonstrated by Maharaj Pruthu, Lord Vishnu appears and explains the role of a king and the path of moksha. The Lord also requests Pruthu to ask for a boon. Listening to the Lord's advice, Pruthu pleads to the Lord that he offers him a place in his heart. The Lord praises Pruthu and everyone leaves the Yagya. 

After seeing that the people under his rule are well settled, Maharaj Pruthu focuses on his spiritual self and decides to carry out 100 Ashwamedh Yagya. Bitten by jealousy, the mercurial God, Indra feels that Pruthu will gain even more of a status than him by completing the 100 yagyas. Hence, he tries to disrupt the process disguising himself in different identities. The son of Pruthu, stops Indra...

Earth who has taken the shape of a cow explains to Maharaj Pruthu why she is hiding the different types of fauna, flora and other good things. She requests that Maharaj Pruthu finds the right calf and the right shepherd to milch this cow and also provide flat lands to people by demolishing some of the hills. Following that mother Earth provides what is required by different types of beings. Mahara...

When Maharaj Pruthu finds out from his citizens that the Earth has stop offering them the resources, he gets ready to fire a metaphorical arrows to the Earth. The Goddess Earth takes the shape of a cow and runs from the Maharaj Pruthu. However, she realises that there is no way out and so takes refuge with Pruthu himself. She understands that Maraharj Pruthu is another incarnation of Lord Vishnu a...

When Maharaj Pruthu explains his views about why he should not be praised early, the people feel grateful and offer his stuti that reflects the expectations of the people from him. Moreover, in doing so, vyasji explains the role of and expectations from a good leader.

When the sages try again, they get two bodies from the arm of the dead king Ven. Two beings emerge from that as Pruthu and Archi, who are identified as the incarnation of Lord Shri Vishnu and Laxmi ji. As people start praising Maharaj Pruthu he stops them and explains that they should not praise him before they see his karma. We learn some leadership lessons through his sentences. 

In this episode we hear about the king Ven, who is full of self-praise and asks everyone to stop their devotion of the Lord Vishnu. He wants to everyone to divert their devotional activities to him only. Seeing this, the sages attempt to reason with the king, however, the king gets angry at them. Thus, in retaliation, the sages put him to death. The sages realise that Ven having no sons, the linea...

We hear about the sons and grandsons of Dhruv leading to the story of Mahraja Ang and his son Ven. We hear how leaders' performance is affected when they are blinded by love. The clash between love and duty leads Maharaj Ang to leave his kingdom and Ven (who is a cruel and deceitful) becomes the king.

Dhurv gets to meet Kuberji and gets a boon that Sri Hari will always remain in his mind and heart. Dhruv remains as a king for 36000 years as the lord ordered and he leaves for the Vishnu lok when the time arrives. The whole story of Dhruv makes us think about bhakti and nishtha again. 

A horrific battle rages between Dhruv and the Yakshas. Some sages advice dhruv to use Narayanastra. As Dhruv uses the divyastra the Yakshas start losing the battle. At that moment, the grand father of Dhruv, Svayambhuv Manu, appears and attempts to persuade Dhruv to stop the battle. He explains the reasons why Dhruv should stop and what he should do next. 

We hear about Dhruv's life, marriages and progeny. As Uttam, brother of Dhruv, gets killed by a Yaksha, Dhruv gets angry and fights with the whole Yaksha army. He kills thousands of Yaksha and as they start losing, the Yakshas use illusions (which is one of their weapons). 

Lord Vishnu appears in front Dhruv and gives him a place in the Dhruv loke. Dhruv returns to his home wherein the king Uttanpad and all others welcome him with open arms. However, Dhruv remains upset that when he had the opportunity to be with the lord, he asked for material aspects. 

We start with a new story line in this adhyay of Dhruv. Having scolded by his step mother for attempting to sit into the lap of the king Uttanpad, the 5 year old Dhruv follows his mother's advice and goes to the forest for tapasya of Lord Vishnu.

With Daksha and all those who were present being forgiven by Mahadev Shiv, everyone is led by Brahmaji to Daksha's yagya place. There, as instructed by Shiva, Daksha is made alive and after the first yagna, Lord Sri Vishnu appears and everyone offers a stuti to him.

Having seen the destruction of Daksha's yagna and Daksha vadh, the rishis and gods are afraid of Shiva's anger. They go to Brahamaji who recommends them to go to Shiva and ask for forgiveness. Brahamaji also comes to Kailash (Shiva's abode) and we hear about the wonderful environment there and the stuti by Brhamaji of Shiv. 

Hearing the news of Sati's death, Mahadev Shiv gets furious and sends Virbhadra to destroy Daksha's yagya. Virbhadra also kills Daksh Prajapati. 

With Shiva suggesting she should not go, bound by father's love, Sati still visits the yagna organized by Daksh Prajapati. She is insulted there and then she observes the insult to Lord Shiva (her husband) there. Unable to control her emotions and out of her sheer anger, she immolates herself. 

We hear about Sati asking Shiva's permission to visit Daksha Prajapati's yagna. Shiva explains why she shouldn't go and we discuss the challenge of 'negativity bias' within us. 

In this episode, we hear about the yagna where when Daksha arrives, Brahmaji and Shivji do not stand up and so Daksha gets really irritated with Mahadev and uses foul language and curses Shivji. We hear the story behind that. We also listen to the curses and counter curses that occur in each camp which follows Shivji and Daksha accordingly. 

At this starting episode of the 4th Skandh, we hear about the family tree of Svayambhuv Manu. This sets up the scene for the story of Sati, the daughter of Daksha Prajapati who was married to Mahadev Shankar. 

In this last episode of Skandh 3, we hear how mother Devhuti follows the advice offered by Kapil bhagvan and achieves moksha.

In this episode, Bhagvan Kapil dev ji explains the nature of movement a human soul will have depending on their way of living. 

Kapil bhagvan explains the whole process of human conception to birth to death and warns against diverging from the path of the soul enlightenment.