A long time ago, a great hermit named Jaratkaru lived. He did lot of goodness. He was a good hermit since he never forgot about his responsibility as a hermit. Alas, he was too firm of his conviction that he would not marry any women.

When he graduated from ascetic academy he became the best hermit. What he did everyday in his simple life was praying and japa (belt out a religious song) and doing some other religious activities. He understood clearly all the function of mantra. Those things engrossed him. As a consequence, he had no desire to have a woman beside him.

His great attention in asceticism led him to get more and more abilities. One day, he could reach the junction between hell and heaven. At there, he saw decrepit man hung on brittle bamboo which was being bitten by the rats. If the bamboo was not strong anymore then apparently the man would fall down; to the hell. The man looked very hurt and tired. Jaratkaru was very sad and thought that the man must be has many sins to be paid.

Then he offered to give him half of his merit he got from his good deed in the earth in order to pay a half sin of that man. Unpredictably that man refused it. The man asked Jaratkaru to tell his son which was still alive to get marry since all the man’s agonies occurred because his son did not want to marry. Jaratkaru promised help him and forward a question about his son’s name. Jaratkaru was very surprised when he knew that the man’s son was Jaratkaru himself.

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Dozens of fancy cars, a grand mansion or two with millions of dollar in your bank account just dust in your mouth when you do not have any cattle, in Botswana how wealthy you are is determine by the number of cattle you have, of course the wealthiest person owns more cattle than everyone else. In Sumba, the horses do the talk while in Bali it is the children.

Of course, the number of the children does not have anything to do with how wealthy a person is. Two children is excellent especially when there is a son or two, three children are fine but for the fourth one you have to take your financial capability into consideration. So why a child is considered a great wealth in Bali?

In this case, first let us hear what a Balinese who does not have any children use to say: “When I meet my friends the first think they ask is not ‘how many car or how many house do you have?’ but ‘how many child do you have?’ or ‘how is your child’ or ‘how is your child?’, so what the use of having so many cars or houses”.

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A holy Brahmin named Jaratkaru had been practiced yoga for hundreds of years, he remained un-married as a part of his yoga practice. As a result of this long ascetism he had a power to roam freely into heaven or hell.

One day he came on his wandering to hell (Tamariloka), and saw many souls of sinful undergoing penance; amongst others a rishi (hermit) hanging head downwards over a precipice by a creeper which mice are gnawing. Jaratkaru was moved by his lamentations and offered to share his spiritual power with him. It turned out that the hermit was his own father, and can only be saved if his son Jaratkaru will stop mortifying the flesh and take a wife. Jaratkaru promised to marry if he can find a wife of the same name as himself whom he need not support.

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