Narahasura - The Beginning - Part 1
Narahasura – The beginning
It was the Krita Yuga. There was
complete silence in the Brahmand. The various worlds were distressed as the
balance was upset. Why? Because Mother Earth or Bhudevi was held captive in the
primordial ocean There were no yagnas on earth. The regular pujas and sacrifices
had stopped. There were no seasonal cycles.
The Devas together prayed to Lord
Vishnu for deliverance. Vishnu took pity on the plight of the inhabitants of
the various worlds. In order to save his beloved, Bhudevi, he took the form of
a giant boar. The boar looked huge and majestic and its roar made all the
worlds tremble. The Devas rushed to pay their respects to the majestic boar and
sang its praises.
The boar jumped into the primordial ocean liquid and went straight he to the bottom of the ocean. He looked around the murky liquid for his Bhudevi. After searching for a long time, he finally found her in a cave under the water. The cave was guarded by the dreaded Hiranyakshasa.
With a big war cry, Hiranyakshasa
attacked the boar. The boar turned its attention from the Goddess to the asura.
A very fierce battle ensued and after a lot of struggle, Lord Vishnu in the avatar
of Varaha managed to kill Hiranyakshasa.
Then lookingand at the Goddess
Bhudevi with affection and kindness, he lifted her and himself out of the
primordial ocean. They surfaced and balance was restored.
In this whole process of the
Varaha appearing, entering the ocean, fighting the asura and exiting with the
Goddess the only exertion he had exhibited was the spilling of a drop of sweat.
From this sweat, emerged a boy who was lustrous and had warrior like features.
Goddess Bhudevi who was the
mother of all living things had always yearned for one person who she could call
her son exclusively. She looked at the young warrior born of the sweat of her
Lord Vishnu. She wanted to adopt him as her own. She looked at Lord Varaha and
said “Can we keep him as our son, my Lord? After all he was born of your sweat
and my vision.”
Lord Vishnu smiled and said that
she could. The Devi then asked Lord Varaha “Can you bless him to have a long
and famous life, my lord. Also as a father bless him with powerful weapons that
can support him. We will call him Naraka”
Lord Vishnu looked at Bhudevi
and saw the affection of a mother towards her son. He said “So be it.” He
removed one of his tusks and gave it to Naraka with the words “This will always
protect you. But use it only for good purposes.”
Naraka took the blessings of his
father Lord Varaha and mother BhumaDevi and went to explore the worlds. Bhudevi
looked at him in admiration and said “I am sure my son will be a powerful yoddha
(warrior) in all three worlds with our blessing.”
Lord Varaha smiled and said “He
may be powerful but will he protect dharma?” He looked into the future and
decided not to tell the Goddess anything more that may distress her. This was
in Krita Yuga.
Time rolled by. Krita yuga
became Treta yuga and then moved to Dwapara Yuga. Naraka had become very
powerful. He was ruling the world from his capital city of Pragjyothisapura,
the land of the rising sun. He snatched much of the wealth of the Devas and did
not even spare Mother Aditi, the mother of the Adityas. He snatched her
earrings much to her distress.
He took the form of an elephant and
cheated a pious woman called Chaturdashi, the daughter of Twastha. He also imprisoned
16000 women from the various worlds and kept them in his much dreaded prison.
The women waited to be freed. The
world wanted to be rid of this Asura who was none other Narayana and BhumbaDevi’s
son and had gone down the path of adharma. The Devas were helpless and watched
the deterioration of their world and that of others in silent misery.
(To be continued......)
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