Chapter 2: Story of Risyasringa

So then Vasistha told the story of Rsayasrnga. Srnga means"horns" or "a person possessing horns." Rsa means "deer," soRsayasrnga means "a human possessing horns." He is a human beingwith deer horns who performs yajna and speaks Sanskrit. Vasisthasaid, "I will tell you the story of Rsayasrnga. Long ago, KashyapaMuni produced a son while meditating on the sunlight. While he wasmeditating on the sunlight, suddenly he thought of a personality.When he thought of a personality, that person would come intoexistence. And he would come out of his mind. Kashyapa wasPrajapati, "progenitor." And this person was known as Vibondaka. Assoon as Vibondaka came out of Kashyapa's mind, he went to the deepestforests in Madhya Pradesh which is now very famous as Chandal Valley.All the dacoits are there. That is where Vibondaka went, and heperformed ugra-tapasa, very severe austerities. He was onlyperforming tapasa for self-realization, but Indra was worried. Indrahas a special secretary for this department. He gives him a list ofpeople who are performing austerities, because he is so worried thatthey may become the opposition and may even try to usurp his ownseat. So when he heard the name Vibondaka he asked, "What kind oftapasa is he doing?" The secretary mentioned to him, "He isperforming such huge austerities that if he were to ever get angry,this whole universe would be burnt to ashes. And if he ever thinksof anything, it will automatically come to him without his having toperform any sacrifice. This is the potency of his tapovalam." Indrasaid, "Then he is my candidate. I will have to work on him." Hethought of all the damsels on his planet, and he decided, "These areno good." So then he went to Satyaloka, Brahma's planet. InSatyaloka there are damsels who are self-realized souls. They danceonly for the pleasure of the deity that Brahma keeps for worship.Indra, for his political purpose, wanted to pollute these damsels.So he went to Brahma, but he couldn't spend much time there becauseif you are too long in Brahma's planet by the time you return yourtime will be over, So Indra said, "Give me the best damsel, quickly!I have to go!" So Brahma said, "All right, take this one." Therewas one lady called Harsha, because she was always smiling. Harshacame with Indra, and even while flying with Harsha, Indra couldunderstand that he was so greedy and lusty, and this woman was sosaintly and serene, always meditating on the Absolute Truth. He wasthinking, "What happens if I send her and they both become self-realized?" Indra wanted something wrong to happen. So he fell atthe feet of Harsha, and said, "Please, protect my seat." Harshasaid, "I don't think that this Vibondaka desires to enjoy anything."Because she was sitting in Satyaloka she could see Vibondaka and whattype of austerity he was doing. So she said, "You are unnecessarilysending me there, and I may even get burnt by his anger. But becauseBrahma has told then I am coming with you. Vibondaka has no suchmaterial desires. He won't even look at me. I don't know how I'mgoing to attract him and make him fall." Indra said, "I don't knowwhat you will do, but at least get it confirmed from him that he hasno desire to become Indra. Then my position is safe." So Harshasaid, "All right, I will do it. Whatever is given to me as a missionI will accomplish." So Harsha came to that valley, and Vibondaka wascoming from the Ganges and going to his ashrama. So she came and satthere, and chanted mantras. There are different ways of making peoplefall down. Whatever is your weak spot, that can be used.Vibondaka's weak spot was mantras and meditation, so she startedchanting mantras. Vibondaka was so absorbed, and then suddenly heheard this clear pronunciation of Vedic mantras, clearer thananything else he had ever heard anywhere in the three planets. Heturned back and looked at her, and immediately she fell at his feet.She said, "Only for the prayer of getting tras. Vedic mantras whichare chanted should not go in vain. Somebody must give abenediction, and I don't want this benediction from anyone else, noteven from Brahma. I only want It from you. If you don't acceptthis request, then I will perform austerities and I will leave mybody. And brahma-hatya will come to you." In this way sheblackmailed him. So Vibondaka said, "What is this? I am justtrying to peacefully think of God. Why is this trouble coming?" Sohe looked at her and said, "I am Vibondaka, and I have no interestin this world. I don't know why I was even sent here, but Kashyapaproduced me. I am just trying to go away from here. What is this,giving you a son? You can't get a son from anywhere else? Youmention any other person, and I will command him to give you a son.If you want a son from Brahma, I will request him. If you want ason from my father Kashyapa, I will request him. Why me, in thewhole creation?" So she said, "No, only you. You are the onlyperson who should give me a son." And then he said, "No this is notpossible. I am not going to do it. If you have been even beenthinking about me like that, that is bad for me." And then he said,"Here is the potency from my body. You can arrange for getting ason." And he dropped some semen and left. Harsha then understoodthat Indra had nothing to fear, so her mission was fulfilled. Butthis shukla coming out of the body of Vibondaka, was there burningthe whole world. She was now responsible for it, she had to directit somewhere. She did not want to hold it and produce a son,because that was only a trick she was using. But when she looked upshe saw a very transcendental deer moving around there. Soimmediately by her potency, she put the semen in the body of thedeer, and the deer conceived a child. Since it was the conceptionof a rishi, it did not stay for more than a night. The nextmorning, the deer delivered a baby. It had a human form, but withdeer horns. This was Rsayasrnga. So this deer ran to the ashrama ofVibondaka and started crying. Vibondaka saw this and thought, "Whyare these things happening to me? Some lady wants a son, and now adeer is crying in my ashrama." So Vibondaka asked the deer, "What iswrong? Who is giving you trouble?" The deer started walking awayand Vibondaka followed. The deer brought him to where Rsayasrngawas, and Vibondaka saw this shining young baby with deer horns. Hethought, "Oh, this is my son. If nobody wants him, then I will takecare of him." Then Vibondaka thought, "Now I know why I was senthere, for some reason. Kashyapa did not conceive me for nothing. Iam supposed to conceive this son, and God knows what he is going toconceive." So Vibondaka brought him to the ashrama and gave himmilk. He taught him Vedas and Upanishads and philosophy. There wasno woman in that forest, which was yojanas wide. There was not evenany tigresses, only tigers. So Rsayasrnga had no idea of women. Hegrew up, and for everything he was depending on his father. He wouldask his father, "Father, can I take this book and read?" And if hisfather said yes, then he would do it. He would ask, "Father, shouldI brush my teeth?" And if the father said yes, he would brush histeeth. He was so dependent on his father. He would always walkeverywhere holding his father's hand. In this way Rsayasrnga grew upto be the most innocent person in the creation. Lord Ramacandra hadto appear, and if he was to appear then the yajna-purusha has to givethe khir, and if that khir is to come, then the yajna has to beperformed by someone who has never seen a woman. Lord Ramacandra'sadvent was not that easy. This whole story is already in VisnuPurana. In this way Rsayasrnga was growing up, never hearing of anywoman. Dasaratha, when his daughter was born to Kausalya, he wasthinking, "What shall I do with this daughter?" Then one day, fromAngadesha, the country of Anga, Dasaratha's friend Romapada (whichmeans "hair y feet") was hankering for a child too. He had somesons, but he had no daughter. This is the material world. He whohas daughters, he is hankering for a son. And he who has sons ishankering for a daughter. And he who has no children, they arehoping for children, and those who have children are thinking "How toget rid of them," and they send them to Gurukula. So Romapada cameto Dasaratha and said, "You are my very good friend, and you have nosons. You always think, `What is the use of a daughter?' And I wanta daughter, so why don't you give her to me?" And Dasaratha said,"All right, you can have her." So he gave Shanti in adoption to theking of Angadesha known as Romapada. Romapada brought Shanti to hiskingdom. And whether it way the girl's misfortune or the king'smisfortune, the second day was the day the rainy season was supposedto start but there was no rain. The whole rainy season went by andthere was no rain. The second rainy season also went by with norain. A big famine came about. So the king went to the astrologerand asked him, "Why is there famine in my kingdom? Is it due to thisdaughter? Everyone is saying it is due to her." They found out thatduring some yajna that had been performed by Romapada he had cheateda Brahmin. He first promised him, "I will give you this much amountof diamonds," but while he was counting the diamonds to be given asdakshina, he found one diamond which was very valuable, and hethought, "What is the Brahmin going to do with this?" So he took itout, and put a bigger diamond in its place, which was less valuable.When he gave the bag of diamonds to the Brahmin, the Brahmin touchedthe bag and said, "You cheated me! You removed one of these diamondsand put a bigger diamond to cheat me." It was inside the bag, andthe king was thinking, "How does he know this?" The Brahmin said, "Iam a Brahmin, so I know this. You are cheating, so all the Brahminswill leave this country." So he formed a big union and all theBrahmins wa lked out of the country. No more Brahmins means no moreyajna, and it was Treta-yuga, so no yajna means no food. The kingwas wondering what to do, so slowly from here and there he collectedsome Brahmins from other countries, and he brought them onimmigration, so they couldn't stay long. These Brahmins were comingand going, and in this way he was running his kingdom. Now faminehad come due to this curse, and the fact that all the Brahmins hadleft his country. So the astrologer said, "So to solve this problem,you have to bring all the Brahmins back." Romapada said, "But theseBrahmins have formed a union. They won't come back." "They willcome back if you bring one person here." Romapada asked, "Who isthat?" "There is one rishi. He has never seen a woman. And hedoesn't even know what is a woman. That person must come, and hemust marry your daughter. If that rishi stays in your kingdom, thenthe Brahmins will not stay anywhere else. They will come here,because he is such a learned person. To see him, they will come.And after they come, they will stay." So now he had to get thisRsayasrnga, and he was thinking "How to get him?" So he asked thisto his ministers, and they said, "Rsayasrnga is not an easy object,his father is Vibondaka. If Vibondaka gets angry he will burn theuniverse to ashes. If you try to get his son he will get angry, andthen there is no necessity of yajna or rain, because the wholeuniverse will be burnt, and you will also be burnt." "So what todo?" Romapada asked. "You have to use some trick," his ministersreplied. Then they advised him, "You must go and consult the societygirls, the famous prostitutes of the country." So then Romapada madean announcement, "Special interview with the prostitutes of thecountry." They all came, and they were thinking it had something todo with dance or music, or something like that. But when they heardthat they had to bring Rsayasrnga, then they ran away becauseeverybody knew this person. However, one lady came up, and she said,"For the benefit of my country, I will sacrifice myself. I will try;if he comes, that's good. Then the kingdom will be happy. If hedoesn't come, only a prostitute will be killed. What's the problem?I don't care, I will go." Romapada asked, "What do want in return?""I don't want anything, let the country be happy." "What help do youneed?" Romapada asked. "Your treasury, whenever I go, must open.And if I want anything from any department, they must say yes,because you must know I am sacrificing my life." So the king gaveher a special green card. Anywhere she goes, anything she wants shewould get. She made a boat which was four miles long and twomiles wide. On top of the boat she made an ashrama. This boat wastotally covered with trees and bushes, flower gardens, lakes anddeer. All kinds of things she put in there. And thousands of peoplewere rowing the boat, but you couldn't see anything, it was allcovered by bushes. There were pathways, small mountains, waterfalls,everything was created. It looked like a island, but it was moving.No-one knew what it was. They all though it was the gandharvas whohave come. It was a special ashrama, no men. Only women were there.No tigers, only tigresses. It was filled up with women. They allhad rudrakshas, tulasi-malas, jasmine flowers tied up in their hair,and they were all praying, doing meditation and chanting mantras.This boat was floating so nicely down the river, and somehow or otherthey got it into Madhya Pradesh. So as they reached Vibondaka'sashrama, Vibondaka went out to help a sage who had gotten stuck inthe mouth of an elephant. He was calling, "Save me! Save me!" Andno-one heard him, only Vibondaka. So he told Rsayasrnga, "You mustperform the yajna three times daily. Don't worry about cleaning theashrama, because it's too big for you. Just perform the yajna till Iget back." When Vibondaka left, the demigods made arrangements andgot him involved in so many other things so that Rsayasrnga was leftby hi mself. Rsayasrnga went to the river to take water for theyajna, and he saw this moving ashrama. He'd never been anywhere, buthe'd studied a lot of shastra, and he'd never heard of anything likethis before. And whenever the description came of women, Vibondakawould never explain it. He would never read such parts. In this wayhe was kept brainwashed to be a brahmacari. He looked at thisashrama, "This is so nice." And then he saw some figures in there."What kind of rishis are these? This is a different type of rishi."He became very eager. "Anyway, if they are in the area, they mustvisit my father's ashrama." And they did come. They just made surethat Vibondaka was not around, and then three of the great saintlypeople walked out of the boat. And then they came, raising theirhands and calling "Rsayasrnga! Rsayasrnga!" Usually when the rishiscame they called for Vibondaka. So he saw these rishis coming, andhe went and addressed them. And after addressing them he was asking,"Where are you coming from? Which planet? What mantras do youchant? How come by the touch of your bodies all my hairs arestanding on end? Why am I having such romancha?" They were smilingat each other, and they said, "We are rishis from another place, itis eight yojanas from here. It is an island, and no human beingscome there. We are born with perfection. We came to see yourfather. We know that you are very learned, so in our moving ashrama,we want you to come and stay for a few days." Rsayasrnga said, "Iwould be very happy to do that, but my father is not here. I don'teven brush my teeth unless my father tells me to. So how will I goaway from here, and who will perform the yajna three times daily?"One lady said, "I will do it, I am expert in this line." And she satdown. Somehow Rsayasrnga fell pray for this. These were saintlypeople, so why shouldn't they do yajna? And they looked different,very attractive. He couldn't understand what the tejas was that wascoming from that bod y and attracting him. He didn't know it waslust. This was never explained to him. So he left that lady theredoing yajna, and they had a flower ladder from the ashrama up to thebank of the river. This ashrama was filled with saintly people, sosomehow they engaged him in listening to music, and dancing and somany other things, and slowly they came to Angadesha. In Angadeshathere was big reception arranged for Rsayasrnga, brahmacariincarnate. There was purna-kumbha and there was mantras andBrahmins. The Brahmins all came to know that Rsayasrnga was coming,and they came and waited there. He was worshipped like anything. Hesaw more saintly people were sitting there in that country, and theywere sitting with other saintly people. Then he started realizingthat something was wrong in his understanding. He asked the king,"Why have you brought me here?" But as soon as he stepped off theboat, rain came. And people were all happy, they were showeringakshada and touching his feet. All the people came and told him,"You must never leave our country. You must become the son-in-law ofour king." He didn't know what son-in-law meant. So then they hadto have special classes for him to explain how to become ason-in-law. Then he understood everything and finally he blessed theking by marrying Shanti, Dasaratha's daughter. In the meantimeVibondaka had returned to his ashrama, and saw this lady sittingthere offering ghee into the fire. He grabbed her by the hair andsaid, "Who are you? What are you doing with my fire? It's been herefor six thousand years. You came and contaminated it. What are youdoing?" She said, "I am not this body. I am spirit soul."Vibondaka said, "That's very nice, that you're not this body, but youare not supposed to do this." So then she said, "No no, Rsayasrngatold me to do this." So he said, "So come on tell me, where isRsayasrnga? What did you do to him? There was one man in this worldwho was pure, and you spoiled him too!" And then the lady said,"What could we do, this was a nationalistic se rvice. We are servingthe nation. In the service of our nation we have done something sowe will go to heavenly planet." So then Vibondaka said, "I'm goingto curse that king, that Angadesha Raja! He's getting rain, but Iwill see that he gets nothing any more." The lady fell at his feetand said, "At least do the curse there. Then he will know you arecursing him. Don't do the curse from here." "All right," he said.He was so angry, but Romapada was so clever, he was arranging formany Brahmins chanting mantras, glorifying Vibondaka, showingpictures of Kashyapa Muni just to attract him. But Vibondaka cameand said, "Where is the king? Bring him here!" Romapada came andbegged, "Please don't curse me! Already there are enough curses!All that I have done is that I have made your son the king of thiscountry." So then something dawned on Vibondaka. "My son has becomethe king of this country. Now he has become the king, he has toprotect the citizens. If I curse, then the blame is on him becausehe couldn't protect his citizens." So then he called his son,"Rsayasrnga, come here." Rsayasrnga came, and Vibondaka said, "Allright, as soon as one son is born, you must be back in the ashrama.You understand?" This was the time when Dasaratha was told, byVasistha Muni, the story. And Vasistha said, "If you personally go,then Rsayasrnga may come." So Dasaratha started, with all hisparaphernalia, his seven akshauhini-shainyas, and arrived inAngadesha. Romapada was thinking, "What is this? Suddenly Dasarathais coming with his army. He is going to fight with me or what?" Sohe came with a white flag. "There is no question that your army caneven stay in my country. Your army is so big that they can only juststand inside my country, not much more. Why are you coming withseven akshauhini-shainyas?" Dasaratha said, "No, I am just coming torequest Rsayasrnga to come and perform a yajna for me." Romapadasaid, "I don't know. I don't know how long the yajna will be. I'm not going to play any more tricks, becausealready Vibondaka has told him, `One son and you are back in theashrama'." Dasaratha said, "I will fall at his feet. He hasprotected your kingdom, why will he not save my country too? Whywill he not do it?" So Dasaratha went there, paid his pranams, andhe cried and told Rsayasrnga, "I have no hope. I will jump in thefire of asvamedha instead of the horse, if you don't come." So thenRsayasrnga calculated, "How many days are left?" It was 28 days morebefore the delivery. "That's all right. In 24 days I will come anddo putra-kamesti." So he came, and right next to the asvamedha-yajnahe created another fire from that, and he quickly startedputra-kamesti. And when he was finishing with the purnahoti, theyajna-purusha came, a dark, black figure which was three miles tall.He had a huge big pot in his hand. He was holding Narayana in it, soit was no small affair. He said to Dasaratha, "Please give thissweet rice to your queens." Dasaratha was looking at the size of thepot, and he was thinking, "If I give this to my queens, then therewill be no more queens." It was a huge big pot. Dasaratha askedVasistha, "How is this possible? How can they eat this much sweetrice?" So then Vasistha said, "You ask Rsayasrnga, he will tellyou." Rsayasrnga asked the yajna-purusha, "Why are you giving such abig pot to these human beings that they can't even hold it?" Theyajna-purusha said, "The personality who is coming is so powerful,that you can't reduce him smaller than this." Then Rsayasrnga closedhis eyes and said, "Ah! Bigger than the biggest, and smaller thatthe smallest. He is in this pot. You give it to me." So he tookthe pot, and it became small. By the request of Rsayasrnga the Lordreduced His aishvarya, and the pot became small. He gave it toDasaratha and said, "All right, I have two days to get to my ashrama.In between I have to take care of the delivery." So Dasaratha tookthe sweet rice. He gave half of it to Kausalya. The remainder hesplit in two, one for Sumitra and one to Kaikeyi. After Kaikeyidrank it, there was still some left, so that was also given toSumitra. In this way the Lord came as Lord Ramacandra in Kausalya'swomb. He came as Laksmana and Satrughna in Sumitra's womb, and hecame as Bharata in Kaikeyi's womb. Vasudeva came as Ramacandra,Sankarsana came as Laksmana. The Sudarshan disc came as Bharata, andthe Pancajanya conchshell came as Satrughna.