Hunter Recounts His Curse and Favor from a Rishi
A hunter tells a brahmana how he was cursed in a past life by a rishi he accidentally shot with an arrow — and how the rishi, in his mildness, granted a favor that turned the curse into a path of redemption.
The hunter told the brahmana the full story of his curse.
In a past life, he had been a hunter — or perhaps something else, something that had drawn a rishi's anger. He had shot the rishi with an arrow. He had not known what he was doing. It was ignorance, not malice.
When the rishi pronounced the curse — that he would be born as a shudra — the hunter fell at the rishi's feet.
"O rishi! Please show me your favours. O sage! I performed this act out of ignorance today. O illustrious one! Please pardon me. Please show me your favours."
The rishi was stern but not cruel. "There is no doubt that the curse that I have pronounced cannot be negated. But because of my mildness, I will now show you a favour."
The favor was this: even when born in the womb of a shudra, the hunter would be learned about dharma. He would serve his mother and his father. Through serving them, he would achieve great success. He would remember his earlier birth. And when the curse had run its course, he would again become a brahmana.
The hunter extracted the arrow from the rishi's body. He carried the rishi to the hermitage. The rishi did not lose his life.
"These are the details of everything that befell me earlier," the hunter said. "O supreme among brahmanas! I will go to heaven in the hereafter." Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 503