A person who does Vidyaa-daanam to a satpaatra (deserved one), is considered to be a Shreshtha.

Because of such a Vidyaa-daata, 100 Vamshams will be saved. Of the daatas a Vidyaa-pradaata is like Mahaavishnu in Devatas, Shri Mahaalakshmi in strii-jaati. In the previous Kalpam, there used to be a braahmana by name Sangira. He used to do dustarkam with Panditas. Though he didnt have enough gnyaanam he used to have durahankaaram that he was a Gnyaani. He was a Hetuvaadi. He never thought about paramaartham and always tried to do dustarkam and show his greatness. He used to do Veda-ninda! He used to say Vedas were written by humans!! Similarly Smrutis. He also used to do Puraana-ninda and Itihaasaparihaasam. Without Lajja and Bhayam he used to take wrong meanings of Sadvishayams and do their duushana. Panditas used to close their ears unable to bear the words of this fellow. In those days, the shiksha for such people was Desha-bahishkaaram, since if he is left, he will spoil the others too. Thus Sangira was pushed out of Bhaarata-desham. Sangira reached Mleccha-desham. There also he continued his Kutarkam and finally vidhivashah died there only. Reaching Yamalokam, crossing the Vaitaranii-nadi, itself was difficult for this paapi. Finally he reached Yamalokam. Yamadharmaraaja, the Samavarti, ordered that he must experience all the shikshas that were there, since there is no paapa-kaaryam which he didnt do! The klesham Sangira experienced in Naarakam is undescribable. There was no end to these shikshas. Howmuch ever the Yamakinkaras tortured, Sangiras paapam was not decreasing. Even the others in the Narakam used to say he is a mahaa-paapi (because he was experiencing many new shikshas which they never experienced). Once, Shataananda, the putra of Gautama maharshi and Ahalyaa Devi, and the Purohita of Janaka maharaja, came there. Being a Dayaardra-hrudaya, he was not able to see the difficulties of the people in the Narakam. He also saw Sangira, due to the small Punyam Sangira did. Shataananda then did bodha of Shiva-vidya to the people in the Narakam. Just because of Shiva-vidyaa-shravanam, Narakalokam became Naakalokam (Svargam)!! Sangira did pranaamam to Shataananda, the Shiva-vidyaapradaata and became a Punyaatma.

Our Shaastras say: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Shilpa-vidyaa-daanam gives Brahmaloka-praapti Kalaa-vidyaa-daanam gives Vishnuloka-praapti Aayurveda-vidyaa-daanam gives Ayaachakaloka-praapti Tarka and Miimaamsa shaastra bodha gives Vaarunaloka-praapti Dharma-shaastra bodha gives Swargalokam and saves Pitru-devatas from Narakam for 10 Manvantarams 6. Veda-vidyaa-daanam gives Swargaloka-nivaasam for 3Kalpams 7. Aatma-vidyaa-daana phalitam cannot be counted (Sankhyaatiitam)! 8. Brahma-vidyaa-daanam gives phalam of doing all daanams!! Vidyaa-daana-phalam is got by following things too: an Upaadhyaaya who makes Vidyaarthis study well, giving Anna-daanam or Vastra-daanam to Vidyaarthis, Grantha-daanam to a satpaatra, organizing puraanapravachanams by Panditas etc. Morals in the story: 1. The greatness of Vidyaa-daanam is well shown in the story. Even a Mahaapaapi like Sangira can be saved by doing Vidyaa-bodha. 2. Veda, Puraana, Itihaasa duushanam is a Mahaapaapam. We must be very careful to be away from these. 3. Ahankaaram is the root cause of everything. Due to the Ahankaaram of being a Pandita, Sangira tried to de Kutarkam and show his greatness. Hence we must always have Vinayam.
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