Nala Damayanthi - Part 3

After wishing the couples well, the gods were returning from the Swayamwaram and they saw Kali (sani). 

And Kali was rushing, the other gods asked kali, oh Sani where are you rushing. Kali said, I am going to the swayamwaram as you. 

And the other gods smiled and said, the swayamwaram is over, damayanthi has choosen Nala for her husband. And we are returning from there.

Now Kali was enraged, how can Damayanthi select a mere mortal when the gods were present.

Drunk with pride, Sani was determined to punish Nala.

So Sani starts watching Nala for any deficiency. 

And one day Kali found, that Nala after answering nature's call went home without washing properly. And Sani catches of Nala.

Now Nala under the influence of Sani, challenges Pushkara (his brother) to a game of dice.

Sani helps Pushkara, and defeats Nala. Nala looses everything, Nala is worth nothing. 

So Nala is exiled from the country, along with Damayanthi.

Nala Damayanthi - Part 2

When the suyamvaram of Damayanthi was announced,

All the kings were eager to attend Damayanthi's suyamvaram. And also the gods.

All the living creatures are traveling towards the kingdom of Vidharbhas.

The Gods (Indiran, Agni, Varuna, Yama & Kali) knew that, Damayanthi would not be willing to marry anyone but Nala.

So they made a plan and visited Nala. Nala upon seeing the gods, worshiped them. The cunning gods, asked a favor from Nala. Nala said, I will do anything you ask. The Gods told him to go to Damayanthi and ask her to marry one of the Gods.

Now Nala was conflicted, he himself being in the race to marry Damayanthi, how can he fulfill the Gods demands. And he tells the gods the same, I am going to the suyamvaram, how can I recommend my competitor.

The gods remind him that he had promised to do anything that they ask, now how can you say I will not do what you ask. The cornered Nala goes to Damayanthi, introduces himself to be Nala. The love struck Damayanthi was excited, she expresses his love for him and tells him that she will select only him in the suyamvaram. Nala tells her the purpose of his visit, and asks her to select one of the gods for husband. He further tells her that, he is only a human but if she were to get married to a god she would be very happy. And what woman would choose a human, when the gods are interested in her.

The adamant Damayanthi tells Nala that she will only choose him to be her husband. Nala tells her that having come as a messenger of the gods, he cannot pursue his own interest. Now Damayanthi has a plan, she tells him ok. But you also come along with the gods to the suyamvaram I will select whom I want.

Afterwards Nala goes back to the eagerly waiting gods and tells them that Damayanthi have asked me to come to the suyamvaram along with you and she wishes to select me with your presence.

Then at the hour of the suyamvaram, King Bhima invites all the kings who have arrived. The suyamvaram hall was filled with all the illustrious kings and waiting to see who Damayanthi selects.

Now the gods were clever too, they all changed their appearance to Nala. Now Damayanthi saw 5 Nalas (only Indiran, Agni, Varuna & Yama could make it to the event) in the suyamvaram. Damayanthi prays to the gods, "if my love towards Nala is true, please reveal him to me".

Because of her prayer, purity of her heart & the strength of her love, reveals Nala to him (as he is only one standing on the ground and the other four are floating above the ground). Damayanthi selects Nala and all the present gods wish them a long happy life and depart. Nala & Damayanthi gets married and they start to live happily. 

Nala Damayanthi - Part 1

Long long ago, so long ago, nobody knows how long ago. (because it was ancient history, when Mahabharatham was current affairs)

There was a king of Nishadhas, named Virasena. He had a son of the name, Nala. Nala was well versed in virtue & wealth.

Nala was strong, handsome, intelligent, and a man of horse powers (he had vast knowledge about the horses, to leverage their powers to the fullest extent).

Nala was a good king, in fact a great king. He loved his people, he was truthful & importantly, he had a mighty army. He was the protector of the weak, he was loved by all his citizens, in short he was like the Manu. And he was also fond of the game of dice.

There was another king named Bhima of the Vidarbhas (no relation to Mahabharatham's Bhima). He was also a good king, but he was childless. He came upon a brahmarishi named Damana, and asked for a boon to become a father. The rishi gratified with the king, granted him not one, but four children. One daugther & three sons. Daughter was named, Damayanthi, sons were named Dama, Danta & Damana.

Damayanthi was very beautiful, like Sachi (wife of Indiran). Her beauty became world famous. Nobody, not even the Yakshas, Rakshasas, or goddesses could rival her in beauty. Every living man desired her, to be his wife.

Nala, the peerless king in three worlds, was also aware of the beauty of Damayanthi. Though he have not met her, he fell in love with her, because of all the poets. Nala, lovesick of Damayanthi, could not eat or sleep.

While roaming in his garden, one day he saw swans with golden wings. He caught the king of these swans with his hands. The sky ranging swan told Nala, "I dont want to be killed, release me. I will do something in return, to alleviate your pain. I know of your love for Damayanthi. I will go & talk to her about you in such a way that, she wont marry anyone else but you". Nala being lonely because of his love, was happy to hear someone talk to him about Damayanthi & he released the swan.

Thus released, the swans flew and reached vidharbhas, as promised.

The swans alighted before Damayanthi. Damayanthi on seeing these beautiful swans with golden wings, was stunned by their beauty. She asked her maids to catch them.

All the swans feigning freight, distracted the maids to their way. King swan, led Damayanthi on its course, once they reached secluded spot, the swan told her about Nala & his love for her.

Upon hearing about this good, handsome king, and his love for her, Damayanthi also fell in love with Nala.

Damayanthi asked the swans to communicate her love back to Nala, and they did. On hearing the words of Damayanthi from the swans, Nala was happy and was already in heaven.

Now the lovestruck Damayanthi, was not eating properly, or sleeping soundly. She had lost her peace.

This sickness of Damayanthi, reached king Bhima through her maidens. The king of Vidharbhas, correctly deduced the reason for her sickness (but completely missed the plot) , and announced her swayamvaram.

The announcement of Damayanthi's swayamvaram reached all the kingdoms & also the Gods.

War of the worlds - Part 2

As Agasthiyar was helpless, all gods went to Brahma.

Brahma told them, all of you gods go where your pleasure leads you. It will take a long, long time for the oceans to resume it usual state. This task will be fulfilled by the king Bhagirathan.

So all the assembled gods, went to their place, biding their time for the ocean to be ocean again.

As it was told, after a long,long,long time there was a king named Sagara, born in to the family of Ikshaku. He was very powerful, he brought under subjugation a many kingdoms. He had two wives, but was without a son.

As he was without a son, he went to practice a severe thabam praying Shiva. His sincere prayers were answered by the god with three eyes.

Shiva, the wielder of Pinaka, gave Sagara a boon. You have two wives, one of your wife will give birth to a sixty thousand valorous sons, but they will die the same day the same way. The other wife, will give birth to a son, he will be the perpetuator of your name.

So it happened that one of the wives gave birth to something like a gourd. And the other one gave birth to a beautiful boy. The dejected king made up his mind to throw away the gourd. Then an asariri (a voice from sky) told the king to preserve the seeds of the gourd in individual pots filled with ghee & rice and the boon of Shiva will come true.

The king collected individual seeds from the gourd, 60000 of them, and maintained them in 60000 individual pots as told. And he had one nurse to take care of each of these pots. Then after a long time, 60000 sons were born.

But they were terrible & ruthless. They could fly & roam in the sky. And as they were numerous themselves, they despised everyone else. Gods, ghandarvas & rakshasas are valiant & addicted to fighting, but these 60000 sons would fight & chase even the gods, ghandarvas & rakshasas.

And as fate would have it, that only son (Asamanjas) of his other wife, perpetuator of the king, was a sadist. Asamanjas would drag unsuspecting children, by their throat & throw them into water and drown, till they begged for their life. People, overwhelmed with terror & grief, went to the king. They told him, you are our protector, please protect us from your son.

Sagara had enough of this and he expelled Asamanjas, from the kingdom into the forest. But Asamanjas had a son, named, Ansuman by that time. And Ansuman lived with his grandfather Sagara.

After many years had passed, the king Sagara decides to conduct the ashvamedha yagam. And the selected horse was set free to roam where it pleases, protected by the 60000 sons of the king. The horse roaming the earth reaches the ocean bed, and it vanishes. The sons are dumbfounded, they did not know what happened to the horse. They search all over the place, but could not find it.

They go to their king & father, inform him of what happened. The king gets very angry & tells them not to come back without the horse. Even though they are atrocious, they could never disobey their father.

The sons of Sagara, went to the spot where the horse vanished. There they found some cracks on the ocean bed, they decided that the horse might have slipped into one of these cracks. So they started digging, and some digging it was.
While undertaking such a huge digging, there came out rakshasas, nagas, asuras and all other animals. They were all slain by the sons of Sagara and they continued digging. They kept of digging for a very long period and as far as the lower world.

There they saw the horse, in the adobe of the sage Kapila. Due to their excitement on seeing the horse & because of their natural disdain towards other people, they set forth to recover the horse. They caused a great raucous and a heavy damage to the environment of Kapila. Kapila got anygry and burnt them all down, with his flaming eyes.

After a while, the news of his 60000 sons death reaches Sagara, he grieves his sons' death for a time. But the sacrificial horse needs to be retrieved to complete the Yagam. So calls his grandson Ansuman, and tells him that I had forsaken your father & expelled him because of my duties as a king. Now you are all I am left with, please go and retrieve the horse.

Ansuman proceeds to the adobe of Kapila, through the earth excavated by his fathers. He bows before Kapila and informs him the reason for his visit. Ansuman prays to Kapila to grant him, his wishes. Kapila pleased with Ansuman, lets him take the horse. Kapila also asks Ansuman, if he wishes for anything else. Ansuman asks Kapila to forgive his 60000 fathers, so they could all relieved from their untimely death, so they could attain moksha.

Kapila says, I have forgiven your fathers and they would reach heaven when their ashes were sprinkled with the holy water of Ganga. And this will be done because of the actions of the son of your son. Now take the horse and finish the grand sacrifice of Sagara.

Ansuman takes the horse to Sagara, Sagara finishes his horse sacrifice. Before dieing, Sagara makes Ansuman the king. Likewise, Ansuman also ruled righteously, he had a son Dilipa. Ansuman on completing his sovereign duties, made Dilipa the king and went to heaven.

Dilipa on hearing the fate of his forefathers, tried very hard through sacrifices & penance to bring Ganga, but he could not. A son was born to Dilipa, named Bhagirathan. Dilipa appointed him as king & he also went to heaven.

Bhagirathan, on learning about his forefathers, handed over his kingdom to his ministers and went to the forest. There he prayed to Ganga sincerely, and did a very severe thavam to get her attention. And he did this for a thousand years, then Ganga assumed a human form and answered Bhagirathan. "Bhagiratha, what do you want from me?".

Bhagirathan answered, "my forefathers were reduced to ashes by the sage Kapila, and they can attain moksha only when I sprinkle your waters on their ashes, please grant me this wish". Ganga said, "I have no problem, but when I descend directly on earth the force of my fall will be difficult to sustain, the earth cannot stand that upheaval. So you need someone to support me when I land".

Bhagirathan asked, who is that mighty person that can stand your landing. Ganga, told him that only lord Shiva is capable of that, you pray to him.

Bhagirathan then went to pray Shiva & did severe penance to get the attention of lord Shiva, for another thousands of year. Shiva answered his prayers, asked him what did he want. Bhagirathan told Shiva that, when Ganga lands on earth you please hold her. Shiva said, "ok I will support Ganga, when she lands on earth. please call her"

Bhagirathan called Ganga, she descends, descends & descends. On seeing that Ganga had taken a leap from the sky, all the Gods, Gandharvas, Nagas, Yakshas, Rakshasas, sages all assembled there as spectators.

When she reaches earth, Shiva stands there and receives her on his head. Ganga teeming with fish, tortoise, sharks & all aquatic animals asks Bhagirathan to direct her. Bhagirathan directs her to where the ashes of his forefathers are (ie the ocean bed). On reaching there, Ganga immerses all the ashes of Bhagirathan's forefather and gives them mukthi.

And as a side effect, the ocean is again filled with water, becomes an ocean again.

War of the worlds - Part 1

Once of upon a time,in the krita yugam, there was an asuran king called vritra. He was very powerful, strong & had a huge army of danavas known as Kalakeyas. They were invincible in battle.

He assaulted the devas and made them run for their lives. And he ruled all the three worlds.

The devas, headed by Indra, went to Brahma and cried for help. Brahma said, i know the reason for your sorrow and also the means to end it.

Brahma told the devas, there is a powerful rishi named Dadhicha. You all go to him and ask him to help you. Being big hearted he will say yes, then you ask him to give you his bones to be made as a weapon.

So the devas went to Dadhicha's aashramam, which was on the banks of saraswathi. There they fell on their knees and prayed at his feet to grant them a boon to end Vritra. Dadhicha being satisfied with the prayers of the devas, asked them what they wanted. The devas said, we want your bones to kill Vritra.

Dadhicha, renounced his life then & there and let devas take his bones. Devas took his bones and went to Twashtri (the weapon maker of the Devas). He made a very powerful weapon from the bones of Dadhicha known as "Vajrayutham". Having manufactured this weapon, he told Indra "Now go and conquer your enemies"

Indra armed with Vajrayutham, along with the other devas, went to fight Vritra.

There was a fierce battle between the devas & the Kalakeya army. The Kalakeyans were huge, powerful and the devas were no match for them. The Kalakeyas using their superior weapons destroyed the deva army, deva heads were rolling like dice. The Kalakeyas went on to crush the deva army, everyone fled.

Indra got dejected by the force of the Kalakeyas, fled and was trembling in fear. Seeing this, Vishnu went to Indra and told him that I will give you some of my power. All the devas & rishis also came forward and gave Indra a part of their powers to him.

Indra armed with Vajrayutham & powers of all the gods again went to fight Vritra. Vritra learning that all gods & rishis have given their powers to Indra, became furious. He let out a big roar and went to face Indra. Indra on hearing this loud roar, became terrified, hurled the Vajrayutham towards Vritra and ran. Indra did not stop to see the result. Vritra was slain by the Vajrayutham. Indra stopped running, only when, he heard others praising his valor for killing Vritra.

After Vritra was fallen, the devas started fighting spiritedly. The Kalakeyas on learning that their leader has fallen, fled to the depths of the ocean.

The devas & Indiran seeing no resistance, proclaimed their victory and went to their place to celebrate.

But the Kalakeyas, hiding under the ocean, had other plans. They would emerge from ocean under the darkness during night and kill, then go hiding under the ocean during day time.

People were getting slaughtered, no one knew why or how it was happening. The devas were concerned, because without the human beings serving them, they would not be able to sustain.

So they again went to Brahma, Brahma said I know why you are here and I also know the remedy. The Kalakeyas are hiding under the ocean, where you cannot go, so you need help.

Brahma says go to the great rishi Agasthiyar, he will help you.

The devas go to Agasthiyar and asks for his help, Agasthiyar says ok no problem. Lets check it out. The devas along with Agasthiyar go to the ocean. Agasthiyar says beach is great, whats your problem? The devas say, we need to get our enemies under this water. Can you help us?

Agasthiyar says, ah that is easy.

So he dips his hand in the ocean and starts drinking it. And he drinks all the water in the ocean, the devas are happy. The devas now could spot the Kalakeyas, they slay all of them. Once all the casualties are over, the devas ask Agasthiyar to release the water back again.

Agasthiyar, Oh I am sorry, I have digested it all. You only asked my help in clearing the ocean. And I have done that.

Now you are asking something different, please wait for the oceans to be filled, I am beyond helping you.

Eating Vathapi

Once upon a time, there was a rishi called Agathiyar.

Agathiyar was a short guy, but powerful. No one could dare him, not even the mighty Vindhyas.

But then, there were rules, that even the mighty Agathiyar cannot disobey. Without an offspring, you cannot save your ancestors. (The philosophy of our Hindu religion is that, when you are born, you are indebted to your ancestors. The only way you can repay your birth debt & save your ancestors from hell is to, raise an offspring)

So Agathiyar started searching for a suitable girl to marry. He could not find one, so created one. And he gave that girl child to a king, for upbringing.

While that girl was growing up.................

There was an asura named, "Ilvala". He was childless, so he prayed to the gods, and invited the priests to fulfill his yagams. But for some unknown reasons, they refused to do his bidding.

Now Ilvala was very angry with these priests people, so he decides to kill all the priests coming to him.

Ilvala has a good plan, his brother Vathapi can take any form at will. And he can be summoned, no matter where he is.

So Ilvala's plan is to make Vathapi to assume the form a goat, and give the vathapi biryani to the priests who visit him. After the priests eat the Vathapi biryani, Ilvala will call his brother. Then Vathapi will tear open that unfortunate priests stomach and come out, while killing that priest.

Like this, Ilvala was killing the priests and taking his revenge.

Now the Agathiyar girl has grown up ....................

Agathiyar goes to the king and orders him, to get that grown up girl and let him marry her.

The king is frightened, to say no to this powerful muni. The girl more frightened, so they get the girl married to Agathiyar.

But the marriage is only for namesake, the girl does not let Agathiyar near her.

The frustrated Agathiyar asks, why wont you love me?

She tells him to get a luxurious bedroom, lot of wealth & be rich like my father, before I love you.

So Agathiyar goes to a king, thats known to him. And Agathiyar asks that guy for all this. That poor king tells Agathiyar, you measure my earnings, measure my expenditures and measure what you are asking for, and take whats left.

Agathiyar realizes that, this king cannot help him. So both Agathiyar & the king goes to another king to get all these stuff.

So it goes on.....

And finally one king says that Ilvala, has got all we need. Lets go to him.

So they all go to Ilvala, to get wealth.

Now Ilvala is happy, he gotta bigger fish to fry (Agathiyar)

So Ilvala, goes and prays to Agathiyar & the kings following him to eat in his house.

Everyone knows what they are getting, (Vathapi Biryani), so all the kings are sad.

Agathiyar tells them not to worry, and that he will eat the full biryani.

Ilvala serves the Vathapi biryani to Agathiyar, he eats it.

Then Ilvala, calls his brother. Then comes the sound of burping from Agathiyar.

Ilvala calls Vathapi, Agathiyar burps.

Now Ilvala is confounded, asks Agathiyar "What have you done?"

Agathiyar tells him "Digested Vathapi"

Burning the forest

After the Pandava's were banished from hasthinapuram, they were given a new territory to rule.

Pandava's made their new territory a promising country, where everyone was happy and all thrived.

Once they were done, they went on a picnic.

Arjunan & Krishnan went to the Khandava forest to hunt. There, they saw one destitute person. They were moved by that person's plight.
He looked poor & very hungry, they asked him, do you want anything to eat.

That person, yes I want to eat. They asked him, what do you want? We have lot of delightful food, fruits & meat. That person said, no matter what you feed me will not be enough, until I eat this forest.

Now they are perplexed, who would want to eat a forest? So they asked him, why do you want to eat this forest and how can you?

That person transformed to Agni deva & said, I have stomach trouble and Brahma suggested me to digest this forest to get myself back in action.

Arjunan & Krishnan asked, what is the cause of your stomach trouble?

Agni told them the story of his stomach trouble.

There was a king named Swetaki, he was notorious for conducting very long & arduous yagams. His priests conducted these yagams, till they got very tired & were practically blind from the smoke of the yagams. And they retired to their ashrams.

But Swetaki was not satisfied, he wanted to conduct a great yagam that no one has ever attempted. The king decided to conduct a 100 years long yagam, his priests were furious. They told him, you are too much & refused to conduct or help him. And they told him "may god help you".

The king took it literally & did a hard penance to get an appointment with Shiva, Shiva was pleased with his penance and appeared before him. Swetaki, asked Shiva to help him conduct the 100 years yagam. Shiva told him, the gods do not do yagams to satisfy themselves.

Shiva told Swetaki that, you lead a brahmachari life for 12 years, and conduct a yagam pouring Ghee continuously 24/7 in to the fire. Then I will show you the way ahead.

Swetaki embarks on this journey & he succeeds in satisfying all the conditions set by Shiva.

Shiva is pleased, he appears before Swetaki and says that he still cannot help Swetaki to conduct the 100 years yagam, Shiva tells Durvasa to conduct Swetaki's yagam.

Swetaki with the help of Durvasa completes the yagam. The yagam was a great success. When Swetaki's time came, he dies & goes to heaven because of the fruits of his yagam.

Now because Swetaki poured Ghee 24/7 for 12 years into fire, Agni is unable to digest all this Ghee. So he is very uncomfortable, and he rejects all that is Ghee. Because of this others are unable to conduct yagam, cook food & so on, otherwise life simply could not sustain.

When Agni is not himself, all that depends on fire & heat comes to a standstill, that is everything.

Agni goes to Brahma and asks him for a remedy. Brahma says, eat the Khandava forest for your digestion problem.

Agni tells Arjuna & Krishna, that is the reason I have come here to eat the Khandava.

So Arjunan asks agni, you are fire & the forest is wood, why dont you consume? Whats the difficulty & why need our help?

Agni tells them that a friend of Indra, namely Takshaka, is staying in this forest. So whenever I try to consume this forest, Indra pours rain and stops me. So I want you guys to stop Indiran from doing this.

So they say "ok we will do this", but you need to give us the weapons to stop Indiran.

So Agni gives Arjunan the Kandibam, two inexhaustible quivers & Krishnan the Sangu & Chakaram.

Agni then says to them, I have given you the weapons you wanted. Now I am going to proceed.

After that Agni starts to consume the forest.

There were many animals, birds, snakes in that forest. They all start fleeing from the fire, but they are unable to escape the arrows of Arjunan or the chakra of Krishnan. They both slay, all the living beings that tries to escape from the forest fire.

Indiran tries douse this fire by pouring rain, but Arjunan with his Kandibam and unlimited supply of arrows, stops the rain from reaching the forest fire.

Meanwhile, there were hordes of animals being killed either in the fire or by the arrows of Arjunan & the Chakra of Krishnan.

In the animal kingdom, the fathers die protecting their wives, the mothers die protecting their children, uncles, aunts all die.

And when this fire was raging on, the chief architect of the asuras called Maya, came out asked for the protection of Arjunan. Arjunan granted him protection, saying  you asked for my protection, so you are me now.

And all the children cry for help were futile, when the elders come, both the children & elders are killed.

It was a cruel killing field.

Takshakan, father of the snakes, was unfortunately not in this forest at this time. But his wife & son are in the forest. Takshakan's wife is desperate to save her son, so she swallows her son head first and tries to escape. But the cruel arrows of Arjunan cuts her throat while escaping, since she had swallowed her son head first, he escapes with his life.

So the complete forest was consumed by Agni, with the help from Arjunan & Krishnan.

And from this fire only 6 living beings escape, 1 Takshakan's son, 2, Maya the architect of the Asuras, +4 Swans.