Sibling rivalry and giant birds

 

Of sibling rivalry, giant birds and scheming reptiles

Sage Kashyapa had two wives – Kadru and Vinata. Once while retreating to the forests for tapasya, he asked his wives what they wanted. Each of them asked for a boon from Kashyapa. Kadru asked for 1000 sons. Vinata asked for two children who were valorous.

As per the blessing, Kadru’s eggs hatched after 500 years and her thousand naga sons were born. Vinata who was guarding her eggs was upset that her eggs had not hatched.

She tried poking one of the eggs and a bird came out. Unfortunately, due to her premature poking the lower portion of his body was not developed.

He looked at his mother angrily and said “Because of your impatience, I am not fully developed. You will serve as a slave for 500 years.” Regretting his outburst, he tells Vinata that she should wait another 500 years for the other egg to hatch naturally. Then she will beget a magnificent son.

Saying so he flew off and became the charioteer of Lord Surya. He is considered to be Aruna the charioteer of the Sun God. Having learnt her lesson, Vinata waited for the other egg to hatch by itself.

One day, the sisters were walking near the shores of the ocean. They saw the divine horse Uchchaihshravas at a great distance.

Kadru told Vinata “What a milky white horse. Sad its tail is black.” Vinata said “No, I don’t think so. It’s a fully white horse.”. They started fighting about this. The scheming Kadru said “If it turns out that the tail is black, you will become my slave for 500 years.” Vinata without thinking agreed.

As it was late and the sun had set, they decided to check the horse the next day. But Kadru had a devious plan. She asked her naga sons to tightly coil around the tail of the horse to make it look like a black tail.

While some of her sons agreed to do this, others protested saying it was dishonest. Angry with them for refusing to obey her, Kadru cursed them saying that they will die when the Sarpayagna is conducted by King Janamejaya.

Next day when the sisters came, they saw the horse and found a white horse with a black tail. As agreed, Vinata became the slave of Kadru. Kadru treated her very disrespectfully and rudely.

In the meantime, the other unhatched egg of Vinata’s hatched. She was rewarded when a glorious bird came out of the egg – The Garuda. 

Since Vinata was a slave of Kadru, Garuda too became a slave of Kadru. She bade him to do many tasks and he patiently did them for the sake of his mother.

One day he asked his mother “Why are we slaves to Kadru and her sons?” and Vinata narrated the story. Unable to see his mother being treated badly, Garuda went and asked Kadru, “What will it take for you to release my mother from bondage?” The Nagas and their mother replied “Bring us the Amrit from the heaven and we shall free you and your mother.”

Garuda decided to set forth in his quest for the nectar or the Amrit. But he had to feed himself and gain strength first. He asked his mother what he could eat. She told him that deep down in the ocean there existed Nishadas who will satiate his hunger. She also warned him not to swallow some of their species that made his throat burn as they were poisonous.

Garuda first goes to the land of the Nishadas and eats his fill and flew towards the heavens to get the Amrit to free his mother. Indra, the king of the heaven, who hears of this powerful bird coming towards his realm, tries to hide the amrit.

A fierce battle ensues between the devas on one side and Garuda. At the end, the Devas realise that Garuda is looking for the Amrit only to free his mother. Hence, they enter into a truce with him.

Garuda agrees to return the Amrit once he frees his mother. Vishnu, who is very impressed with Garuda’s might, takes him as his vehicle.

This should explain the deep-rooted hatred between the nagas and garuda.

This story will be incomplete without talking about the Sarpayagna which Kadru curses her sons with. Amongst the many sons Kadru had, the foremost is Takshaka who later on became the Lord of the Nagas. Takshaka is featured in many short detour stories in the Mahabharata.

Let us start with the root cause of enmity between Nagas and Janamejaya’s ancestors.

King Janamejaya was the son of King Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna and son of Abhimanyu. Once Parikshit went hunting in the forest. He was very hungry and was looking for food. He saw a sage who was in meditation and was observing mounavrat (silence). Without understanding the vow of silence, Parikshit kept asking the sage for a place where he could get something to eat. The sage kept quiet. Angry with the man, Parikshit picks up a dead snake lying nearby and hangs it on the sage.

Seeing this unnecessary rudeness, the sage’s son cursed Parikshit to die of a snake bite within seven days. Parikshit goes back to the palace and protects himself with many layers of security.

On the seventh day, Takshak goes towards the Hastinapur palace in human form. He meets a brahmin who is carrying a cure for snakebite to the king. He bribes the brahmin and takes the cure so that there is no obstacle in his job of killing the king.

On seeing the many layers of security at the palace, Takshak becomes a small worm and enters a fruit. The fruit is taken to the royal kitchen and then on to the king’s chambers.

King Parikshit picks up the fruit and bites into it. Takshak comes out in his full form and bites the king. Unfortunately, the palace doctors are not able to find the brahmin (whom Takshak bribed) who was supposed to get the cure for snake bite. King Parikshit hence dies of snake bite as prophesied. Parikshit’s son, King Janamejaya becomes king.

He does not think of revenge against Takshak as he thinks that his father was destined by fate to die that way. He goes about his regular duties such expanding and managing his kingdom. So, who or what makes him start the sarpayagna??

So now you have a hero (Janamejaya) and the villain (Takshak) and a cause for revenge. In order for the plot to develop you need a catalyst or trigger.

This leads to another story in the Mahabharata.

In the Ashrama of Sage Veda, there was a disciple by the name of Uthanka. Uthanka was very obedient and polite and did whatever his Guru commanded. On finishing his mandatory stay at the Gurukul, Uthanka asked his Guru what he would like as a Gurudakshina.

Sage Veda told him to ask his wife and give whatever she asked for. Sage Veda’s wife when asked, requested that Uthanka bring her the earrings worn by King Pushya’s queen within three days.

Bowing before her, Uthanka sets forth towards the king’s palace. Enroute, Uthanka say a giant seated on a giant bull. 

The giant called Uthanka by name and said he was a friend of his Guru Veda. The giant then asked him to eat the dung of the bull and drink its urine. Gross?? For us, maybe.

Uthanka, did this unquestioned as the giant cited the name of his Guru. Seeing his unquestioning obedience, the giant blessed him. Uthanka then proceeded towards the palace.

At the palace, the king was pleased to receive the learned brahmin. When Uthanka placed his request, he directed him to go to the queen and ask her. He warns him that if he is impure in any way, the Queen will not be visible as she is a devout person. Uthanka goes to the queen’s chambers but is unable to see her. He realises that he did not do his ablutions that day as he was walking. He goes to the nearest pond and cleans himself. He goes back to the Queen’s chamber and she is visible now. He puts in his request and she gladly gives him the earrings. She has a word of warning though, “Takshak, the Lord of the Nagas, has always coveted these earrings. He will try his level best to take it from you. Be watchful.” Uthanka thanks her and takes leave. He starts towards his Gurukul as the three-day deadline is approaching.  

On the way, at sunset he stops to perform his sandhyavandanam. Takshak who was following him in the form of a naked mendicant, snatches the earring. When Uthanka chases him, he takes his original serpentine form and goes underground.

Uthanka doesn’t know how to follow him. Seeing his trouble, Lord Indra opens a portal using his Vajraayudha. Uthanka follows Takshak into the nether world. He starts by flattery and tries to sing the praises of Takshak and the nagas to get back the earring. No response.

Uthanka also sees a strange sight in the Naga world. He sees two women weaving black and white threads on a wheel fixed on the wall. Six boys were trying to turn the wheel with 12 spokes. He also saw a rider and a horse standing there. Uthanka praised the rider and his horse and requested them to get him back the earrings.

The rider, pleased with Uthanka’s words asks him to blow on the back of the horse. When Uthanka does that and flames emerge from the horse’s body. It spreads through the nether world. Unable to bear the heat, Takshak emerges and hands the earrings back to Uthanka.

Uthanka comes back to his Ashram and hands over the earrings to his Guru’s wife just on time. He then recounts the various happenings along the way and asks him for explanation.

Guru Veda replied, “The giant man who came on the bull was none other Lord Indra on the Airavata (the divine elephant). The dung you ate was the amrit, which helped you survive in the Naga world.

The wheel that you saw being turned by the young people is the wheel of time with 12 months and 360 turns indicating a year. The six young people were the seasons. The white and black thread woven on the wheel indicates the day and night.

The man with the horse who was waiting there was none other than Agni. Agni has his own issues with Takshak as when Takshak was residing in the Kandav Van region of the Indraprastha, he did not allow Agni to consume the Kandav Van. He conspired with Lord Indra and Agni went hungry for many many years.

Agni then took the help of Arjuna who created a tent with arrows on top of the Kandav Van thereby preventing rains from stopping Agni from devouring the Kandav Van.”

The Guru further said “Your destiny was to overcome all these and bring these earrings. These experiences and your learning will help you achieve greatness.” So blessed, Uthanka left his Gurukul very pleased.

He could not forgive Takshak for making a simple task difficult and nearly getting him cursed by his Guru’s wife. He left the ashram of Veda and straight went to King Janamejaya.

Know your Dharma

Content Courtesy Mr.GaneshKalyan #ganeshamarkalam

 

Is there a single main book for Hinduism? That one thing anybody can read and get most of it?

I guess each of us will select one and may argue that is what everyone should read. Bhagavat Gita probably would be choice of many. Probably true. But interestingly, Hindus believe Brahman is present in every person. We believe anything we call “good” resides in these texts. This plurality is fundamental to our religion.

If you see the above pictorial, there are two broad sub-divisions/ classifications of the ancient texts – Shruti and Smriti. Before hierarchy of our scriptures and texts it is important to know that the core of these is developed through the “shruti”, “smriti” tradition. It simply means details are propagated by “that which is heard” – Shruti, and “that which is remembered” - Smriti. When Universe was born it occurred with a Big Bang. Imagine a huge ball of light accompanied by enormous sound an instant after that. The reverberating primal sound, Om is thus the origin of all Hindu scriptures (one school of thought) and ancient sages interpreted this into Vedas.

There are 4 Vedas, 13 Upanishads, 6 Vedangas, 18 Puranas, 24 Sastras and Sutras. It is believed that many more were there but were lost to us. Rig Veda, the oldest amongst Hindu scriptures is dated 1500BCE and its evident that somebody or other has tried to preserve the tradition and carry forward these for posterity. We should be thankful for those people as the body of knowledge we have is still considered a fraction of what was original available.

The Vedas have four distinct content sections, namely:

·        Samhitas – Mantras and benediction;

·        Brahmanas – Rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices

·        Aranyakas – Commentary on samhitas

·        Upanishads – Meditation, Philosophy and spiritual knowledge. Upanishads have stayed and influenced our living. Some erudite scholars of later years expanded the Upanishads into Upasanas (ways of worship). There are 13 well-known Upanishads under the 4 Vedas. The Bhagavad Gita and the Agama Sastras are also considered to be equal to the Upanishads.

The six Vedangas deal with the entire process of transmitting knowledge flawlessly both with reference to the language, grammar and meaning

Next comes Puranas which cover a wide range of topics, particularly myths, legends and other traditional lore. The Puranas are categorised into 3 broad categories: Brahma puranas, Vaishnava Puranas and Shaiva puranas. Of these 18 exists today- Bhagavata, Shiva and Markandeya, Skanda Purana to name a few. I suppose at level of Puranas, common man starts to mingle easily with Vedic scriptures of our religion, things become easy to understand and interpret.

At a layer below in this hierarchy are epics or itihasa, Ramayana and Mahabharata, so well-known, popular. I had these as part of my school lessons. Even the novice must know something about these, the manner in which these two are intermingled with our life. In addition to providing many life lessons, these epics are colourful, fun and have a myriad of characters that can put Pixar to shame.

The Sasthras and Sutras come next. While there are quite a few, some 24 are well known. You can refer to things like Ardha Sasthra, Kamasutra, Yoga sutra, Panchatantra, Divyaprabhandha in this context. Sastras are treatises about precepts and rules, Sutras are supplementary reading material on the subject, like Notes.

The term scriptures only refer to the first two layers, Vedas and Upanishads, but the rest falls under the broad category called Texts. Together these demonstrate the great deep thinking behind what we are as Hindus.

Here we have only referred to texts that are there in Sanskrit. There could be numerous texts by scholars in regional languages. The ancient Tirukkural written in Tamil by Thiruvalluvar is one such treasure of knowledge. Am sure there are many more gems across Bharat in various languages.

We are like standing in an ocean and if one wave can touch our feet, we should consider ourselves blessed.