Glimpses of The Devi Bhagavatam: 34. A TRICK PLAYED ON SUKANYA

 

INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

Glimpses of The Devi Bhagavatam:

34. A TRICK PLAYED ON SUKANYA

A swini and Revanta looked at each other. One of them said, “O princess, you’re a beauty non-pareil. You might have been obliged to marry the old sage in some unusual circumstance. Such a marriage need not be binding on you. We are Aswini and Revanta. Why not marry one of us?”

“Since you are godly beings, you should be able to know the truth if you try. Nobody had compelled me to marry the sage. I married him of my own free will. I feel honoured to serve him and help him in his Yoga. What you say is improper. Don’t repeat it, unless you aren’t afraid of being cursed,” said Sukanya in a stern voice.

“We’re sorry,” said the two brothers. “As a penalty for our improper conduct, we offer you a boon: we’ll transform Sage Chyavan into a youthful man. For that to be possible, he should have a dip with us in the lake.”

Sukanya asked them to wait and went to her hut and put forth their proposal before Chyavan. He had no objection to having the boon. He went along with Sukanya and met the two brothers.

Aswini and Revanta led him to a lake. Before taking the dip, they told Sukanya, “When we emerge from the water, you take hold of your husband and go home.”

They had the dip and came out of the lake. Only then did Sukanya understand the significance of what the clever youths had said before the dip. All the three now looked handsome–and all looking exactly the same! It was impossible to know who was who.

Sukanya at once closed her eyes and concentrated on the Divine Mother. “I must not go wrong in identifying my husband, O Mother!” she said. She opened her eyes and knew who among the three was Chyavan. She held him by the hand. The two gods were amazed.

“You’ve done me a good turn. What can I do for you?” asked Chyavan.

“O great sage, Indra never lets us have a taste of the celestial drink, Soma. Can you kindly get it for us?” asked the brothers.

“The Soma can be had only during the performance of a Yajna. I shall perform a Yajna for King Saryati. I shall offer you the drink on that occasion,” said Chyavan. The two brothers left for their abode happily.

A few days later King Saryati and his queen paid a visit to their daughter. The queen saw Sukanya talking to a young man. She was surprised. Where had the old sage gone? Who was this young man?

Sukanya fell into her mother’s arms and narrated all that had happened to them. The joy of the king and the queen knew no bounds.

Soon thereafter the king performed a Yajna under the direction of Sage Chyavan. Duly invoked, the gods came there.

At the time for the distribution of the soma, Chyavan gave a share of it to Aswini and Revanta. “Don’t do so!” cried out Indra. But Chyavan ignored his warning. Soon a quarrel broke out between the two. The furious Indra applied his thunderbolt to crush the sage. But the sage rendered the thunder ineffective by his spiritual power.

Then it was Chyavan’s turn to create a terrible being named Kritya out of the flames of the Yajna.

As Kritya was about to pounce upon Indra, Brihaspati, the guru of the gods, advised Indra to make peace with the sage.

Indra did so and the Sage recalled Kritya.

Long long ago, there was a king named Arun who hailed from the Surya dynasty. He had a son named Satyavrata. As the boy grew up, he proved to be the cause of the king’s sorrow. The prince had become notorious as a mischief-maker. One day a number of Brahmins complained to the king about the prince’s cruelty towards them. The king grew furious. He summoned Satyavrata and ordered him to leave his country.

“Where do I go?” asked the prince.

“An evil youth like you does not deserve to live in any human locality. The forest is the place for you. Go and live amidst the beasts.”

The Rajguru Sage Vasishtha supported the king’s decision. The prince had no other option than to leave for the forest. After the prince left, the king grew very remorseful. He realised that the people of his kingdom had become sinful. There was no peace or amity in the atmosphere. He decided to spend time in the forest so that he could ardently pray to God to change the situation.

The king left for the forest. Soon afterwards the country was threatened by a famine as there had been no rain for a long time.

In the forest lived the family of Sage Viswamitra. The sage was away in some unknown place, engrossed in a trance. His wife and three sons faced great difficulty as there was nobody to look after them. The lady did her best to collect roots and fruits for the boys, but her efforts yielded little result.

She went to meet the king, but found that the king was not there. It was the Rajguru, Vasishtha, who was managing the affairs of the kingdom. She did not feel like telling him of her woes, as she knew that the relation between him and her husband was not good.

One day her sons were crying for food. She took a grim decision. “Let me sell one of them to a rich man in the town. While he will be provided with food, with the price I receive I can feed the other two,” she told herself and began dragging her second son.