A Page from the Ancient Literature

Many ages back, sage Durvasa born in the image of lord Shiva wandered around with a specific objective on earth. While he walked on earth, Vyasa saw a divine rosary of flowers eternally blossoming in the hands of a charming and good-looking girl of Vidyadhara. The divine rosary emitted sweet, enchanting fragrance and appeared quite suitable for the delight and pleasure of the people of forest. A brahmin of crazy and little sagacity requested the beautiful girl of vidyadhara to give the celestial rosary. She did not resist, paid respects to the brahmin and handed over the beautiful rosary to him.

A brahmin of little intelligence and wisdom, adorned the forehead with the rosary and wandered around with a kind of pleasant insanity and pleasure. At that time, he saw lord Indra, the lord of the worlds and the god of gods, and swamy of Sachi, mounting a vehicle the legendary Airavata -an elephant. Holy brahmin Durvasa in a frolicking and irrational inner sparkle and a little absurdity, saw Indra. He took off the rosary from the forehead, threw it at Indra. Indra put the rosary on the head of Airavata. It adorned the head of the elephant brilliantly, enhanced its beauty, and appeared as if holy Ganges were ensconced on Kailasa Mountain. Elephant of Indra was also in a humorous frame of mind, and in light heartedness, he was attracted toward the rosary, smelt it with the trunk and threw it on the ground.

Durvasa noticed the injudicious throw of rosary. He was very annoyed and to him, the act demonstrated disregard for the gift the sage had got from a celestial beauty.

He said in anger, “You are proud of wealth, magnificence and power and it has contaminated you, O Indra. You did not give proper respect to the rosary -an object of divine beauty, and it reveals your arrogance. O Indra, you did not respect and express gratitude, and thereafter, you were quite insolent. You did not put it on head. It humiliates the man, who gives a gift. O fool, you did not value a sacred rosary I gave. Therefore, O Indra, the ghastly and imprudent act will destroy the prestige and honour you enjoy in the three worlds. It is certain you considered me equal to Brahmins, and so, you were audacious and proud of ‘the self’ and glory you enjoy, and therefore, hurt a monk. Look, you threw away the rosary on the ground, and hence, very soon the wonderful palaces in which you live will be devoid of glory and brilliance. O lord of gods, you humiliated a sage, who instills fears in all animate and inanimate beings but because of conceit and impertinence, you offended and insulted me.”

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Durvasa’s anger awakened Indra, who realized the enormity of affront heaped on a holy man, and therefore, without loss of time, he got down from Airavata, tried to please the monk, and made modest entreaties.

Sage Durvasa was now quite happy with a sense of high regard lord Indra showed, and therefore, said, “O Indra, I am not of a generous and munificent nature and I find no reason to forgive anyone. Monks are different you understand. I am Durvasa you know. Sage Gautama and many other monks unnecessarily gave you status and importance, which is quite futile. A waste of blessings I say. However, you remember, O Indra, I do not pardon an impolite fellow. Sages of generosity and compassion unjustifiably magnified your ego and conceit, and so you are profusely egoist, and so have tried to belittle. O Indra, you will find none in the three worlds, who is not afraid of the gleaming cluster of hair and twisted eyebrows -bhrikuti. Why do you try to dramatize pleadings continually? What is the use of the words you speak? I do not listen to the solicitation.”

Not for a moment, Durvasa appeared relenting, and in fact, tried to expose Indra and also did not fully admired other monks, who gave Indra a supreme status among the created beings, the celestial beings and the gods.

Sage Durvasa uttered words of disapproval in extreme anger and went away to attain a predefined objective. Indra mounted Airavata, went to Amravati, the wonderful celestial capital of the lord, and thought of amazing grandeur and divine magnificence of the city and the status unruffled even if Durvasa was hostile and indignant.

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In the beginning, Indra appeared quite indifferent to the harsh and unsympathetic words of sage Durvasa but soon he realized the terrible sin of committing an act of impetuosity in front of a holy man. Dreaded impact of the curse was visible on trees, creepers, flowers and objects of nature as the divine things of beauty and glory began to shed sheen and brilliance. Right from the day of curse people stopped holding sacred yajnas and men of tapa left meditation and penance, and people no longer took interest in the acts of charity and various acts of dharma. Greed and passion overpowered the three worlds, and thus, lost sattva, truth and virtues of life. People lost the aptitude to act righteously, and were always eager to possess belongings of trivial worth. Material greed ruled minds of people with little respect for principles.

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It was not a small matter. When sage Prasara related the tale of angry outbursts of Durvasa against Indra, the gathering of holy brahmins continued to listen with rapt attention. He told the incident so vividly the fall out of the words of curse. Slowly, the words disturbed truth and principled living of people. He further told that it was the end of truth. Wherever, a life of sattva existed, goddess Lakmi resided. In fact, sattva was a true friend of Laksmi. He continued with the narration.

In people, who are bereft of glory and grandeur, no sattva - truth and righteousness exists. Prasara, further speaks out that in the absence of qualities of sattva, nothing stays. Without the qualities of sattva, power, grandeur and glory of men are absent or begin to deplete gradually. Therefore, its non-existence humiliates the feeble and the powerless persons everywhere.

At last, he told, “On being humiliated, the intellect of an honoured man is contaminated.”

Naturally, the listeners began nursing premonition of disastrous and discomfiting happenings in the three worlds in the near future. Now, the loss of power and glory was obvious to demons. They harboured enmity for the gods, a deadly continuance of eternal hostility. When the daityas observed that the gods had lost old glory and sattva - truth and virtues, they invaded the kingdom of gods. Undoubtedly, the demons were devoid of the virtues of truth and compassion, and therefore, absolute feelings of greed and covetousness overwhelmed, and they decided to attack the gods. They wanted to defeat and take possession of the land of heaven after they were able to throw out the gods.

A fierce war broke out and soon the mighty daityas defeated the gods. Under the leadership of lord of fire, lord Indra with all the gods, went to seek help and guidance from the Supreme Brahma. Brahma heard the tale of intense agony of gods and said, “O gods, you seek refuge at the feet of annihilator of daityas, who is the cause of creation, preservation, situation and destruction of the Cosmos, and still he is not the cause. He is Ishwar -the supreme lord of the animate and the inanimate, the lord of Prajapatis, all pervading, the eternal and the unconquerable. He is birth less and still he is the primordial Nature -prakriti and Purusa, and is the guardian of devotees seeking shelter at his feet. You go and he will bless you.”

Brahma assured and then, accompanied the gods and goddesses to the shore of the great Ocean of Milk. Brahma reached at the resting place of lord Vishnu and then, along with the gods, he spoke pleasing words to please Sri Vishnu.

Now, the gods felt comfortable because it was time for recovery and getting back to heavens lost to demons.

Brahma said, “O great god, you are the tiniest particle of an atom and you are also the heaviest part of earth among the heaviest. You are the guru -mighty and profoundly affectionate among the gurus. You are the shelter of all the lokas -regions and heavens and the foundation of earth. You are the self-illumined, the incomprehensible, the image of all, the god of the gods, timeless, steady, beyond birth, and you are infinite. I offer prayers and salute O Supreme God. The entire universe and I exist in you, for you situate everything animate or inanimate in you. The cosmos is born out of you. You are the past, the present and the future, and you are beyond Prakriti and Purusa.”

He continued to say reverently, and glorified the lord, “You the great god on whom galaxy of monks meditate in the hope of getting moksa and glory. Therefore, you bless noble souls and devotees with mukti -liberation. You are beyond qualities nature bestows. You are beyond the purest of the pure and you exist in the Supreme Soul and the eternal. O god, you are beyond time and causality, and therefore, are kind and happy. You are the most sacred and the lord of Laksmi, and you are the soul of all beings, who move with bodies on earth and elsewhere. You are the life and the breath. O god, be happy. You are the cause of causes and the doer of doers. O Sri Hari, be happy and shower mercy.”

 Brahma extols virtues of Sri Hari, the cause of everything. If Brahma is the creator of the world, he is the creator of Brahma. He is the cause of five elements, the primordial principles. He is also the cause of ego. He is the enjoyer of the world and he is the object of joy. He is the creation and the creator. Enumerating various attributes of the great lord, Brahma pleases while the gods stand to pay respect to the lord. He finds Sri Hari wields the supreme power to create the cosmos in one particle out of ten thousand particles.

 “He is the infinite power and before him we bow”.

Brahma continued to praise Vishnu for a long time.

At last, he said, “We salute lord Vishnu and the exalted status of the lord, whom even the gods, the monks, Sankara and I, cannot comprehend. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are embodiments of the powers of Sri Hari, and he is the Supreme lord. O the god of gods, O the soul of all created beings, O lord, the image and foundation of all livings, O the eternal, O Vishnu, please be happy with devotees and bless with holy darshana -sacred glimpse and vision.

Vishnu was delighted to hear words of honor from the Supreme Creator, who was yet to finish reverential eulogies. When he stopped for a while, the gods standing beside also said, “O god, we want holy darshana. Be happy. O, the living place of cosmos, the eternal and the ever present, you are the infinite. Even the Supreme Brahma does not know fully while all the gods of heavens bow to the great seat. Please give darshana.”

After Brahma spoke for the gods, the lord of gods also made an earnest appeal to lord Vishnu, and the sages like Brihaspati and other holy men pleaded before the Supreme lord Vishnu.

They said, “O god, who is immensely worth worshipping, a god of sacred yajna, the ancestor of ancestors and the creator the world, we pay obeisance to you. You are unique and still beyond the special, and so, to the great lord, we salute. You are the image of past, future and yajna. You exist in everything and nothing exists without you. O lord, the eternal and the infinite, shower mercy and generosity on all, who come to seek shelter at the holy feet, and oblige the gods of heaven with darshana.”

Sages pleaded before the great lord and told that Brahma, Rudra, Sankara, Adityas, Surya, the god of fire, Ashwinikumaras, Vasus, and many gods with devotees and disciples, lord Indra and various gods and goddesses stood before him after the gods and the celestial souls suffered a humiliating defeat and so were present to seek refuge. In fact, the holy sages made an exhaustive supplication before Vishnu and gave full picture of the gods’ disturbed mind, the gods who were present and sought protection from the probable attack of demons in future.

All the gods, the sages, the saints and the devotees accompanying the holy souls under the leadership of the lord of Fire requested Brahma and then, they went to Vaikuntha to implore before lord Vishnu. Brahma now, vehemently spoke for the cause of the gods and the celestial beings. They spoke for a long time but were still not in a position to enjoy glimpses of Vishnu. Everyone eagerly waited for the Supreme blessing. The great lord did not disappoint the sacred souls under threat from the dreadful demons, who had defeated them. The Supreme god was now happy with earnest pleadings. Adorned with a discus in hand, he appeared. Everyone present was wonderstruck to see the Supreme Divine, and therefore, the divine glimpses, the hallowed darshana of Vishnu filled each with ecstatic pleasures.

The gods with one voice praised lord Vishnu, “O god, we salute you again. You are the Supreme lord, beyond Brahma. Still, you are Brahma. You are lord Shiva and you are the lord of gods Indra, the lord of Fire, the Air, Varuna -the god of water, Surya and Yama. O God, you are Vasus, Marutas, siddhas and the gods of the cosmos and just behold the great lord, the crowd of gods, who you see before you, are also your images and all exist in you. O creator of the universe, you are present everywhere and exist in everything. Nothing can exist without you and nothing lives without you. You are yajna and you are Onkara and Prajapati. O soul of beings, you are the image of scriptures and knowledge, and all the worlds and the regions exist in you.” They continued to shower abundant deferential words of praise, and still, it appeared, the gods were not satisfied.

Lastly, they said, “O great Vishnu, the demons defeated the gods, and therefore, it distresses, and is a cause of anguish and so, come to seek refuge in you. O the god of all, bless and strengthen the entreating gods with the supreme grace.

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The humble prayers delighted lord Vishnu -Sri Hari. Genuine entreaties of gods, sages and Brahma highly impressed and pleased the Doer of the World, Sri Hari, and therefore, he said, “O holy souls, I shall enhance glory, radiance and prestige of gods. Now, you do what I want.”

The Supreme lord observed gods closely and said, “If you wish to get nectar, you must seek help of daityas. With the help of daityas bring medicinal herbs and put the curative in the ocean of milk. Then, seek help of Mandrachal Mountain and make it a churning prop -mathani. Then, request Vasuki - the king of snakes to function as a big and strong cord for churning the ocean. With the help of daityas, O gods, you stir up the ocean where I shall also assist, and thereafter, extract nectar. Under a clever policy - samaniti and astute wisdom, you convince demons. If they support you in the efforts to extract nectar, you also assure equal share of extracted nectar to asuras.”

After a pause, the lord said, “If you convince demons, it will facilitate. After adequate churning, nectar will come out, and when you drink nectar, you’ll be powerful and immortal.”

“O gods, I will devise a plan where demons do not get even a drop of nectar. They will get part of sufferings and pains through immense efforts in the churning process of ocean.” He said.

The gods of heavens were happy. They took leave of the great lord and went back to their respected abodes. The minds of the gods were at peace now but still they wanted some settlement with the great daityas who appeared very powerful and strong.