Audacity at its peak !
Volume 1, Chapters 55-59
There are two words we often see but haven’t really thought about the differences. The words are Brahmarshi (Brahma Rishi) and Devarshi (Deva Rishi). We need to know the difference between these two before we go ahead with our article today. One thing that we see in common is the word Rishi, i.e., a Sage. A common intuition we would have is that Brahmarshi sounds a bit more superior to Devarshi. So probably Brahmarshi is a senior Rishi. This is almost true. There exist two main ways in which a Rishi could progress. One is Jynanamarga (the path of knowledge) and the other is Karmamarga (the path of Karma). Devarshi is the one who has gained ownership in the path of knowledge and roams around freely in the realm of Gods (Swargaloka). The best example would be Sage Naarada. Brahmarshi is the one who has gained ownership in the path of Knowledge as well as the path of Karma and roams freely on the earth (realm of matter). An example would be Sage Vasishta. Apart from these two, there is also another word, ‘Rajarshi’ which means a royal sage. This sage would have good control over the senses. Highly spiritual and highly capable (not easy to achieve).
In the last article, we saw that Vishwamitra wanted revenge. He headed towards the Himalayas to perform Tapas seeking the blessings of Lord Shiva. Hearing the story of Vishwamitra, Rama and Lakshmana were awestruck. They were just seeing Sage Shataananda with eyes wide open. The sage continued, “Vishwamitra continued his Tapas for a long time. After a while, Lord Shiva appeared to him and asked him what he wanted. Vishwamitra was pretty sure what he wanted. He said, ‘O Lord Shiva, please bless me with the complete knowledge of archery. Bless me with all the mantras that are associated with this. Bless me with all the powerful arrows that I could use’ Lord Shiva accepted his wish and blessed him. In no time, Vishwamitra began to feel the power he had gained. Not only had he gained the energies by doing Tapas, but he now had the power of archery. With the blessing of Shiva, Vishwamitra rose with the arrogance of being a warrior. He took his bow and started walking towards the ashrama of Sage Vasishta. Every step he took recited ‘Vengeance’. He finally arrived at the entrance of Vasishta’s ashrama. He tensioned his bow and began to shoot arrows. With the new power he had, arrows were flying as no one had seen. The speed of the arrows began to cause fire around the ashrama. All the other sages began to run away. Sage Vasishta noticed his ashrama burning and the sages running away. He shouted, ‘O my dear sages, come back. The guy who is shooting arrows is just a fool. I will extinguish his anger in no time. Come back !’ Saying this, Vasishta stepped out of his ashrama. There stood the warrior with the mighty bow shooting arrows at godspeed. Vasishta’s anger began to rise. He felt bad looking at his ashrama the way it had turned into. He upheld his sacred staff and provoked Vishwamitra ‘O Vishwamitra, you are so inferior. Is that all you have got? Don’t be kidding. This is nothing. Show me what you have really got. I will shoo off your arrogance’ Vishwamitra’s eyes turned red. He shot the Aagneyaastra at Vasishta. All the power associated with the arrow was just absorbed by the energy of Vasishta’s staff. Vishwamitra couldn’t believe his eyes. He shot more than 25 powerful arrows one after the other at Vasishta. All these were also just absorbed by the energy of the staff. The staff was heating up, and so was Vasishta. He provoked again, “Is that all? Is that the best you have got?” Vishwamitra closed his eyes, extended his arms backwards to his quiver, picked his last arrow, chanting the mantra and shot the mighty Brahmaastra. This was believed to be the most powerful of all weapons. The moment he released it, all the Gods began to see it with fear creeping all over their bodies, not knowing what would happen next. The mighty arrow rushed towards Vasishta, breaking its path in the air. Just like a sponge absorbing all the water, Vasishta’s staff absorbed the Brahmastra as well. The sages who tried to flee watched this. The Gods who were the spectators couldn’t believe their eyes, for Sage Vasishta was a Brahmarshi. He had extreme powers. Vishwamitra was in mixed emotions. His anger had not yet cooled, nor could he suppress the feeling of defeat. He bowed his head down, turned towards the way he came, and went all the way back. Every step he took questioned ‘Why’. On his way, Vishwamitra realised that the knowledge of weaponry was just a shame. ‘A simple staff just absorbed the Brahmastra. Just a simple staff. It was nothing in front of Vasishta. The knowledge of Brahman would be the most powerful weapon that I can possess. I need to earn that. I will have to control all my senses. I am currently a Kshatriya (a warrior). I will have to become a Brahmin. I will do that!’
The next few days, Vishwamitra kept thinking about ways to achieve this. He had now developed a hatred towards Vasishta. This time, Vishwamitra, along with his wife, went to the southern region. He began to perform Tapas. It was much more powerful. He just ate fruits for a living. In a few years, his wife gave birth to three sons. They were named Havishyanda, Madhushyanda and Dhridanetra. His wife took care of the children while he was completely involved in gaining what he wanted. It was just Tapas, Tapas and Tapas. After a few years, Brahma appeared to him. He told Vishwamitra, ‘O Vishwamitra, you have performed a very nice Tapas. You have indeed overtaken the rajarshis. From today, you will be known as Rajarshi Vishwamitra,’ and disappeared. Vishwamitra bowed his head in disappointment and said, ‘What a shame. All this hard work I did, all the time I spent, just gave me the results of being a Rajarshi. I deserve more’ He then began to do Tapas again, but this time even more powerful. He continued to do this for several years.
During this time, Rama, one of your ancestors, Trishanku, approached Sage Vasishta who was the ancestral sage. Trishanku wanted to do a ritual, a Yaga. And what was the goal of it? He wanted to enter into the realm of the Gods (Swargaloka) with the body he then had. Vasishta looked at him and simply said, ‘Not possible by you!’ Trishanku was disappointed. But having a desire to fulfil, he then travelled southwards. He met the disciples of Sage Vasishta. There were a hundred of them. He said, ‘O sages, my name is Trishanku, and I belong to the Ikshvaku clan. I have been wanting to do a Yaga. I would like to enter into the realm of Gods with my body. I approached Sage Vasishta, and he denied. I am therefore requesting you all to help me with my Yaga so that I could fulfil my desires.’ One of the sages who was sitting there replied, ‘O King Trishanku, have you lost your mind or what?! Once Sage Vasishta has already denied, what’s the whole point of coming here? How dare you do that? You think we are capable of overstepping the words of our teacher and performing this Yaga for you? I think you have lost your wisdom. Please walk back to your kingdom. We cannot perform this Yaga.’ Trishanku, who was already disappointed, felt extremely sad, bowed his head and replied, ‘O sages, my teacher disappointed me. I came here. His disciples as well disappointed me. Now I will have to go search for someone who would perform this Yaga for me. Let you all be blessed’ and he started walking. These words of Trishanku felt sarcastic to these sages. With anger, they cursed him to become an inferior, low-level person, something like a vagabond. As the night transformed to day, Trishanku, who was walking with his ministers, began to notice his skin colour turning blackish. It looked as if he belonged to a worker in the cremation ground, smeared with ashes. His clothes started turning dark; his hair started tangling; the jewellery he wore became iron. Looking at his wild appearance, his ministers ran away. Now Trishanku was all alone, preserving his courage, walking all the way, in search of that Sage who would fulfil his wishes. After a while, he found Sage Vishwamitra, who was doing Tapas. He approached him with pleading arms and explained his story. Trishanku cried and said, ‘O Sage Vishwamitra, my teacher disappointed me, his disciples too. Not only did they disappoint me, but they also cursed me to have a body the way I have now. Till this day, I have performed hundreds of Yagas. None of them really gave me any results. I swear on the Kshatriya Dharma I come from. I have never told a lie till this day. Whatever be the situation, I have always been honest. Would not lie in the future as well. I have taken care of my citizens as my duty. I have respected all my teachers. I have always followed the path of Dharma, and now, I just had a single wish of entering the realm of the Gods with my body. My teachers don’t really want to fulfil that either. I guess I am unlucky. If there was a question of ‘human efforts vs Daiva (luck)’, I am currently of the opinion that human efforts don’t matter at all. I am really drowning in the well of sadness. You are the last one who could help me. Please! help me’
The incidents that had happened with King Trishanku touched Sage Vishwamitra’s heart. He said, ‘O King Trishanku, don’t worry. You have come to me now. You are under my guidance. All of them denied your request. I will not. I will help you perform this Yaga. I will make sure your wish is fulfilled. I promise you that.’ Sage Vishwamitra (who was a king himself) was able to understand the problems of Trishanku and advised all his disciples over there, ‘O my dear sages, I would like to help this King in performing his Yaga. I would also like you all to help me. Just you people would not be sufficient; please go around the states to invite the other sages to my place and let them know about what we would be performing. If anyone denies my request, let me know who they are’ His disciples nodded a yes to Vishwamitra and went ahead to invite. The sages came back with many others whom they invited. They said, ‘ Oh Vishwamitra, almost all the sages accepted your invite except Sage Mahodaya and the disciples of Sage Vasishta’ Vishwamitra raised his eyebrows and said, ‘Uh huh! Did they tell you why?’ They began, ‘Yes. They criticised your act. They said, “A Kshatriya leading a sacred ritual and a vagabond trying to reap the fruits of it!” They also said that the Gods would not be willing to accept the offerings you will be giving. They said, “I guess everyone who just wants to visit the realm of God should visit Vishwamitra” and laughed out loudly.’ Vishwamitra’s eyes turned red like flames after hearing these words. He immediately cursed, ‘O these disciples of Vasishta !!!! The ones who said this, let them burn into ashes. Not just that, in all the lives in the future, let them be born in Vagrancy. They should roam around eating human flesh and dog flesh as their source of food. And that Sage Mahodaya!!!! He too criticised me, right? Let him be born as a hunter in the next life and be a victim of all the sins’”
He said this and the curse did not take long to come into effect. All the sages who were there were awestruck. No one could stop Vishwamitra from his anger. What happens next? Does he perform the Yaga? Will Trishanku make it to the realm of the Gods? Let’s see that in the next article.
Key pronunciations
1. Aagneyastra (Aa-gne-yaas-tra)
2. Havishyanda (Havih-shyanda)
3. Madhushyanda (Madhu-shyanda)
4. Dhridanetra (Dhr-da-nae-tra) – the ‘da‘ is to be pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the rear end of the palate and not the front two teeth.