Adi Parva
Episode - 2
About Rishi Udanka: A saint who's equally powerful as Brahma and didn't commit even one mistake in his life is rishi Pyla. One of his disciple is saint Udanka. He use to service the elders, throughout his academic life in the ashram of rishi Pyla. In this way, the disciple won Animadi ashta siddis. As mentioned in the Upanishads, after the completion of education in gurukul, the disciple need to give the Gurudakshina which would be asked by his Guru.
As the rishi Pyla doesn't have any wishes to fulfill, he asked his wife to express her wish, so that it would be fulfilled by his disciple Udanka. Therefore, the rishi Pyla's wife asked to bring the ear rings of the king Poushya's wife.
To fulfill the wish of his Guru's wife, Udanka started travelling towards the king Poushya's palace. On the way of his travelling, he saw a deity sitting on a white Ox. Udanka greeted the deity and explained the reason behind his travel and requested him to help to finish his work successfully. Then, the deity asked him to eat the Ox dung and as a result he'll be able to complete his work. As instructed by the deity, Udanka ate the Ox dung and reached king Poushya's palace.
Udanka's conversation with King Poushya : O king! I'm here to fulfill my guru's wife wish. She asked me to get the ear rings of your wife. I'd request you to give me those ear rings, so that I can handover the same to my guru's wife.
After listening to Udanka's words, the king felt blessed inside thinking that he is the most luckiest person on the earth and spoke to him like this : O respected saint! my wife is currently carrying the ear rings you've asked me. I'd request you to speak to my wife directly that, it's my word to give those ear rings to you.
However, even after searching for so much time, Udanka couldn't find the queen anywhere in the palace. Then, he reached out to the king and told him the same. The king spoke to him like this : O respected saint! you're a great brahmin. You've got the praises from the prominent people in the world. My wife is chaste and virtuous. She treats me as her god. And that's the reason, human beings with impure mind & heart cannot see her with their eyes. However, you can make the all the living beings as pure as you. How can I call you as an impure person?
After listening to the king's words, Udanka started thinking that, eating Ox dung made him impure. To correct this mistake, Udanka turned towards east and drank the water by chanting few mantras. Again, with the permission of the king, he went into the palace to find the queen. This time, he found the queen and she greeted the saint. She removed the ear rings and while giving those to the saint, she spoke to him like this : O respected saint! you're glowing just like the sun. I'd like to inform you that, the king of snakes Takshaka is waiting to steal these ear rings from long time. He is too dangerous. Therefore, I'd request you to take these ear rings and handover to your guru's wife carefully.
Saint Udanka listened to her and told that he'll be careful and asked her to give permission to leave the kingdom. In the mean time, king Poushya requested the saint to have food in their palace. Udanka accepted the king's request and sat for the lunch. While consuming the food, the saint found a hair particle in the food. As a reason, the saint cursed the king that he'll become blind. Then, the king became angry as the saint gave him a big curse for such a small mistake and he cursed back the saint that he'll not have the children. Then, Udanka requested the king that he cannot live without children and asked him to take back his curse.
The king spoke to the saint like this : O saint Udanka! in the entire world, brahmins heart is as good as butter. Only, their word is as strong as lord Indra's vajrayudha. This is truth. When it comes to kings, this is exactly opposite to the brahmins. Therefore, I'd request you to take back your curse. Hence, as per the king's request, the saint took back his curse and started travelling towards his village.
Image : Udanka taking ear rings from the queen (left one)
Udanka giving those ear rings to his guru's wife (right one)
Takshaka stealing the ear rings :
On his way of travelling towards the village, Udanka saw a lake. He kept the ear rings on the bank of lake to perform the regular ritual. Suddenly, Takshaka have stolen the ear rings and started running. Udanka followed him to get the ear rings. However, Takshaka along with the ear rings reached Nagalokam (world of snakes) through a small hole. Even Udanka entered the Nagalokam through the same hole and prayed all the divinely snakes named Adisesha (the one on whom lord Vishnu is resting along with Mahalakshmi), Vasuki (the one who is shining like an ornament of lord Shiva) & Takshaka (the one who is most powerful in all the snakes) etc.
Even after listening to his prayers, no one cared about him. At the same time, Udanka saw few people as mentioned below:
1. Two females weaving handlooms with white & black colored threads.
2. Six males rotating a chakra which has 12 leaves around it.
3. A deity sitting on a horse.
Udanka prayed all these people and requested to help him to get the ear rings. Then, the deity asked the saint Udanka to blow air through his mouth in the ear of the horse on which the deity sat. Udanka did that and then huge number of snakes started falling from the sense organs (eyes, tongue, nose, ears & skin) of the horse. Flames of fire raised in the entire Nagaloka and those flames are like, lord Shiva opened his third eye and started to burn the entire world. As a result, all the snakes demanded Takshaka to return the ear rings. Then, Takshaka returned those ear rings to saint Udanka and greeted him.
Saint Udanka took the ear rings and started to think inside like this : Guru's wife ordered me to get the ear rings on the 4th day from his visit to king Poushya. And today is exactly the 4th day. If I cannot give these ear rings today, all my effort would be wasted. All this chaos happened because of Takshaka. What to do now?
Then, the deity told saint Udanka to ride the horse which can help him to reach his guru's ashram on time. Udanka felt happy and reached his guru's ashram on time with the help of the horse. By the time he reached the ashram, guru's wife was done with her divinely shower and dressed with new clothes and waiting for Udanka. She felt happy by watching Udanka with golden ear rings. Later, she dressed along with those ear rings and called few other brahmins for completing a puja.
Udanka's guru rishi Pyla, asked him about the delay in getting those ear rings to the ashram. He told all the experiences that he faced throughout the travel i.e., from eating the Ox dung to receiving the ear rings from Takshaka.
Then, rishi Pyla explained about those scenarios in detail as mentioned below:
1. The one who came across to you on the Ox is deity Indra and that Ox is nothing but the divine white elephant Airavatham. The Ox dung which you ate is Amrutham.
2. The two females you saw in Nagalokam are Dhata & Vidhata. The handlooms with white & black colored threads they're weaving are nothing but day & night.
3. The six males are six seasons and the chakra which has 12 leaves they're rotating is 12 months.
4. The deity sitting on a horse is none other than deity Varuna (lord of rains).
Since you ate the Amrutham in the beginning of the travel, in spite of any difficulties that you've faced, still you're able to complete the task successfully. Then, rishi Pyla blessed his disciple saint Udanka and told him to do the needful to the world. With his guru's blessings, saint Udanka performed meditation for a long time. Still, he's unable to forget the harm that Takshaka did to him.
To be contd.....
By
SEETHA RAMA SASANKA VUTUKURU
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