Bhasmasur performed extreme ascetic yoga sadhana for years to please god Shiva. He wanted to become the most powerful person on earth. When Shiva found that he had accomplished the sadhana worthy of receiving a boon, HE appeared before Bhasmasur in person and inquired his purpose.
Bhasmasur requested Shiva to bless him with such power as to burn anyone to ashes by putting his hand on his head. As per the Law of Nature, Shiva granted him the power because of his devout, arduous sadhana, but warned him that he could use this power only for destroying the evils. He told him that if he used this power for an immoral purpose, this power was going to destroy him.
God blesses extraordinary capabilities to only those persons, who do not become greedy and arrogant upon becoming more powerful and talented, God also sees to it that the powers acquired by such qualifications are used only for the welfare of mankind. The moment one uses them for immoral purposes, the extraordinary facilities given by God become the cause of one’s own destruction. Acquiring this extraordinary boon, Bhasmasur became very egoistic. He thought, if with this extraordinary power he killed Shiva, there would be none left after him to grant this boon to others. He decided to destroy Shiva by placing his hand on the head of Shiva.
Shiva is known to honour his word. Bhasmasur knew that for keeping the sanctity of his word, Shiva would not save himself and thus he will become like the Almighty and own Goddess Parvati too. However, no thought remains secret from God. The moment this immoral thought occurred to Bhasmasur, God devised a plan to make Bhasmasur destroy his own self with his own extraordinary power. God created a clone, looking exactly like Parvati.
This double of Parvati approached Bhasmasur and agreed to marry him on the condition that he learnt to dance in her style. Bhasmasur readily agreed to her proposal and asked her to teach him dancing in her style. The double of Parvati asked him to imitate her postures during the dance. While the clone Parvati danced, Bhasmasur began to imitate her posture. In the course of dancing, the double of Parvati casually placed her hand on her own head. In his excitement and anticipation of having Parvati as his wife, Bhasmasur forgot about the power given by God. Imitating the teacher, he also kept his hand on his own head and was burnt to ashes.
Moral
An extraordinary talent should be regarded as a special gift of God for the service of mankind. When a talent or extraordinary position in society is used immorally or for one’s own vested interest, avarice or ego, it ultimately becomes the cause of one’s own downfall.
Source: Pragya Tales Part 2
