Agasthya drinks up the ocean

 

Agasthya drinks up the ocean

We have already done a couple of stories about Sage Agasthya. (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/05/lopamudra-and-agasthya.html; https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/03/agasthya-and-vindhyas.html). Let us do one more story about this great Sage Agasthya.

Once upon a time, Indra had committed the sin of killing a brahmin - his Guru Visvarupa over a minor grouse. (https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2024/05/indra-and-viswarupa.html). Visvarupa’s father Twasta got angry with Indra on hearing of his son’s death. He created a demon Vritra to avenge his son’s death. Vritra along with the Kalakeyas attacked Indra and the other Devas. A huge battle ensued between the Devas and the Asuras. After many set-backs, the Devas managed to overcome Vritra with the help of a weapon (Vajra) made from the bones of Sage Dadichi.

After the death of Vritra, their king and head, the Kalakeyas were very disheartened. They retreated to the bottom of the ocean and hid there. While they were biding their time, the Kalakeyas came to the conclusion that the ascetics and people of virtue should be destroyed to weaken the Devas. They discussed “It is the ascetics and the learned people who are guiding the kings and the Devas. If we destroy the perceptors (Gurus), the brahmins who perform the rituals and the sages who do yagna for the betterment of the world and humanity, automatically the humans and the Devas will be weakened. And it will be easy for us to regain power by defeating them.”

As the Asuras were hiding under the ocean, implementing this resolution became very easy for them. Every night they came out of the waters, went to the ashrams, hermitages and paatashalas. In the dead of the night, they quickly and silently killed the learned gurus, teachers and even some of the younger students in these places of learning, hermitages and in pilgrimage spots.

They killed nearly two hundred brahmanas in Vasishta’s ashram and also many people in Chyavana’s ashram. Many of those killed were harmless people who had lived a lifetime of penance and prayers surviving only on roots and fruits. In the Bharadwaja ashram they killed another set of brahmins who were just surviving on air and water.

Despite the atrocities of the Asuras, the protectors of the brahmins, kings and kshatriyas, were unable to find the culprits. At day break, the Asuras went to their watery holes under the ocean and hid themselves. Every day the hermitage and paatashaalas got up to a grotesque and gruesome sight of learned and wise men killed and maimed. The yagna fire in the brahmin homes was trampled upon, the ladles used for offering of ghee broken, pots of ghee spilt everywhere and the sacred plants uprooted and stomped.

When things went on in this fashion, the brahmins and the Sages lost their will to do their daily duties. Some went to places inside the forest where they felt they were safe and went into a meditative state. A few decided to stop the regular rituals. Others went to distant lands. Slowly the intention of the Asuras was realised. Sacrifices, yagnas and vedic rituals took a back seat in the struggle for daily survival.

This deterioration and movement away from the vedic path not only weakened the human race but also the Devas who depended on the yagna fires. The worried Devas went to Lord Vishnu and requested him to help them. They told Lord Vishnu, “You are the all seeing one and the protector of the many worlds. With your help and advice, we have overcome the Asuras in many wars. As per your advice, we vanquished Vritra with the vajra made from Dadichi’s bones. With the head of the Asura clan killed, we thought peace will prevail.

Now we are faced with the strange problem. There seem to be some unknown killers, who are killing learned brahmins and sages living in ashrams. Instead of focusing on their duties of doing yagnas and studying the scriptures, these learned brahmins and sages are living in constant fear of attacks from unknown beings in the night. The attacks on and death of these innocents has to be prevented. It is our duty to protect these brahmins from further harm. But with the killers going and hiding somewhere, we are unable to do anything.”

Lord Vishnu thought for some time. Then he said “The killers of the brahmins and the innocents are none other than the Kalakeyas who are the relatives of the slain Asura Vritra. They are killers and are creatures of the dark. They have taken refuge under the ocean and after they maim and kill the brahmins they hide under the ocean. That is why you are not able to find them.

If you want to prevent further killings, you should get them from under the water. But they may not come out on their own. You need to drain and dry the ocean waters to force them out.”

The Devas were perplexed. They asked Lord Vishnu “How can we drain and dry the ocean?”. To which Vishnu replied “Take the help of Sage Agasthya. If anyone can perform this feat, it is only him.:

The Devas went to Sage Agasthya’s ashram in the southern regions. On seeing all of them coming together, Agasthya asked them what they wanted. They paid their respects to him and reminded Agasthya as to how he has come to the rescue of the innocents in the past like killing of the Asura Vatapi or by tricking the Vindhyas from growing further.

They told him “Respected Sage. In each of these instances, you did what was beneficial to all of humanity. Now we are finding that an unknown enemy is attacking and killing innocent brahmins.  We went to Mahavishnu for his help and advice. He suggested that the Kalakeyas who are behind the killing are coming out at night and attacking the brahmins and hiding under the ocean during the day. Lord Vishnu said that draining the ocean was the solution to force the Kalakeyas out and you were to request you to accomplish this difficult task.”

Sage Agasthya was angered when he heard of the massacre of the innocent brahmins. He was happy to be of help. Sage Agasthya then proceeded towards the ocean accompanied by the Devas, the kshatriyas and the brahmins. All the worlds watched Sage Agasthya going towards the ocean as they wanted to witness this great event.

Sage Agasthya stood at the shore of the churning ocean. Sage Agsthya then addressed the kshatriyas and the Devas. “I am going to drink up the waters of the ocean. You be ready with your weapons to go to war with the Kalakeyas when they come out of the ocean bed.” Sage Agasthya then opened his mouth and drank the entire ocean. The Kalakeyas found that they could not hide under the water any more. In the war that followed, the Devas and kshatriyas managed to kill all the Asuras.

Once the Asuras were killed or maimed, the Devas went to Sage Agasthya and thanked him for this great service. They then requested him to recreate the ocean. Sage Agasthya told them with a smile “Oh, I have digested the waters of the ocean. You will have to create a new one.”. He then left for his home.

The Devas then consulted amongst themselves and then went to Lord Brahma. Brahma, of course knew everything that had transpired. He told the Devas “It will take many eons for the oceans to regain their glory. It will happen at the time of the rule of Bagiratha.” The Devas went back to their world knowing that the ocean bed will be dry and come back to its glory during the reign of Bagiratha.