The barren woman past sixty bears children

Siddhamuni continues narrating to Namdharak the Leelas of Guru Nath. In Gangapur there lived a Brahmin named Samnath Sarma and his wife Gangabai. They had no children and very therefore very unhappy. The woman reached the age of sixty years and they felt a sense of desolation and frustration in life. Gangabai used to visit the Math daily and have the Darshan of Guru Nath. She used to wave lights before him and offer Karpura Aarti (camphor flame) along with prayers. She kept up this practice for years. One day Sri Narasimha Saraswati asked Gangabai why she always looked so sad. She told him she was sad because she had no chil all other women looked at her with contempt. Being childless, she lost her status as a Grihini. A house without a child is like a dungeon or a barren desert. There would be no joy in that house. Besides, all the scriptures also proclaim that the doors of heaven are for ever barred to childless couples and therefore life beyond also would be as gloomy and joyless to them as life in this world, and may perhaps be even far more worse. She had seen how happy, contended and joyous, the women who had children were. She undertook many fasts, many vigils and vratas and also made many pilgrimages, hoping that she would be able to earn the merit to be blessed with a child. But all her prayers and vigils were futile. And now that she had crossed her sixties, there was no hope at all of her having a child. That was why she was seized with despair and gloom. Sri Narasimha Saraswati, looking at her with deep compassion, said she was not to loose hope at all. He told her to visit the Sangam daily and offer he r worship with single-minded devotion to the Aswatha Tree there. He assured her that the Aswatha Tree would certainly fulfill her desire. The woman prayed to Sri Narasimha Saraswati to enlighten her on the Aswatha Mahima. Guru Nath said that he would narrate to her what Brahmadeva told Narada Rishi about the Aswatha Mahima. At the foot of the Aswatha Tree live all Deities including Brahmadeva. It is indeed KalpaVriksha. When the Rishis requested Narada to teach them the Achara Vidhi (the method and mode of worship), i.e., regarding the worship of the Aswatha Tree, Naradmuni taught them as follows: The worship of the Aswatha Tree should be started on an auspicious day. The days on which there is no backing of moon (i.e., Chandra Bala), the days on which Shukra is not on ascent, especially during the months of Ashad, Paush (Pushya) and Chaitra, are not auspicious days for beginning the Aswatha worship. The worship is to begin in the morning. The worshipper should take bath first, then place two Kalasas (vessels) filled with water near the tree. Worship is to be offered to the two Kalasas while reciting Purusha Sukta. This is to be done seven times and then they should take a bath again. After this Lord Vishnu (as Datta), holding the divine weapons in his six hands, has to be remembered and homage paid to him. Then a cloth or thread is to be wrapped around the tree, while again reciting the Purusha Sukta. This Pradakshina is equivalent to Pradakshina around the supreme Purusha, Lord Vishnu, the Virat Purusha Himself. It would sanctify the worshipper completely, expiating all his/her sins and conferring immense spiritual benefits, besides material prosperity. Brahmadeva explained the Aswatha Mahima thus to Narada Rishi, who in turn related the same to the Rishis. Sri Narasimha Saraswati now related the same to Gangabai. Thereafter, everyday Gangabai used to go to the Sangam, take bath in the holy waters of the confluence there, and then offer her worship to the Aswatha Tree. On the third night in her dream, a Brahmin appeared and told her to go to the Math and do seven Pradakshinas around Guru Nath himself and to eat whatever prasad Guru Nath would give her. Next day she did accordingly. Guru Nath gave her two fruits as prasad and told her that a son and daughter would be born to her before long. Two beautiful children , a boy and a girl, were born to her as per Guru Nath's blessings. And the Brahmin couple were immensely happy. Thus ends the Thirty Ninth chapter of Sri Guru Charitra. Glory to the All merciful, the Omnipresent and the ever responsive Guru Nath!