The Importance of the Eleventh Chapter of Bhagwat Gita. (Ch-11)
On the banks of the Praneeta river, there was a beautiful city called Meghankar. In this city, there was a sacred temple dedicated to Vishnu in Vamaan avtaar. The mere darshan of this murti was capable to rid anyone from the life & death cycle. In this city there was an important tirth known as Mekhla, a dip in its pond or darshan of this tirth was magical. Meaning that all the accumulated sins from previous births too were destroyed. In such a spiritual & sacred town, all its inhabitants too were pious and religious. Distinct amongst them was a Brahmin named Sunand. He had total control over his senses, he was always in a state of Samadhi. In other words, he was a Mahayogi.
Once he went on a pilgrimage in the area of Godavari. He visited all the sacred places like Viraj tirth, Kapila Sangam, Ashth tirth, and Ambikapuri. Once he along with his group reached a place called Vivah Mandap. They asked the whole village for a place to rest at the night. But no one obliged. In the end, the Mukhiya of the village chief directed them to stay in a Dharamshala. All stayed inside this rest house for the night. Somehow Sunand found himself out of the rest house although there was a full group inside during the night. He was puzzled. He was busy chanting the Vishwaroop from the eleventh chapter of the Gita. The village chief came near him and started showering heaps of praises on the Brahmin. He then requested the Brahmin to stay permanently in the village.
The Brahmin agreed. Regarding the missing group, the chief informed that the demon must have eaten each and everyone present inside now. After more prodding, the chief informed that they had a pact with the demon as to whom he should eat. Since the demon was attacking and eating the villagers, in order to provide protection to villagers the demon was requested to eat only those people who were outsiders. The demon did not touch the person who read the eleventh chapter of Gita. So the Brahmin was saved. He stayed back in that village.
Once the village chief came to Sunand early in the morning requesting him to save his son. Further, he stated that one of a friend of his son had come to visit this village. The chief not knowing this identity unknowingly sent him to the guesthouse where the demon had eaten him. The son too was eaten by the demon when he went inside the rest house to search for his friend. When the chief questioned the demon as to why he ate his son, the demon said that he unknowingly had done so. When the chief asked him for a way to keep his son alive and be rescued, the demon had informed the chief that one day he had not swallowed a person from a group since that person read the eleventh chapter of Gita. So the demon told the chief that the same person would not only rescue the son but also would be able to relieve the demon from his past sins. So Sunand decides to go to the demon and talk to him. He then goes to the demon and inquiries about the reason for his becoming a demon.
The demon replies that in his previous birth he was a farmer from this village. Once he was sitting in his fields to protect the crops from animals that he saw a vulture attack a person nearby. He did not take any effort to protect the man. But a tapasvi traveling on the road noticed the attack and came forward to rescue the person. But the vulture had already killed and eaten the person. He flew away. The tapasvi then came near the farmer( who now was a demon) and cursed him to become a demon for not helping the dead man. The farmer then pleaded that he was engaged in protecting his fields. Hence he was late in noticing this incident. So he (the farmer) should be excused.
The tapasvi suggested that he would be relieved from the demon form only if a regular reader and saintly person who read the eleventh chapter of Gita and would take a few drops of water in his hands and chant the eleventh chapter of Gita seven times and sprinkle the same water on the demon, not only demon but the others too also would be rescued. Sunand agrees and completes the procedure. Not only the demon but all the persons that the demon had eaten emerged from within the body. All were in the form of Chaturbhuj carrying a lotus in their hands. The chief wants to take his son home. But the son is now a devta. A Vimaan had come to carry them to Vishnudham.
The son advises the chief to listen to the eleventh chapter of the Gita regularly in order to get relief from the birth and death cycle. It is the destroyer of fear, diseases, and difficulties. It is a step towards Moksha.