PRAKRITI AND PURUSH
‘Purusha’ is none other than Lord Narayan himself and Prakriti is the medium through which he manifests his powers. I have been fortunate to have a divine glimpse of this Purush. Lord Brahma after having created me, instructed me to create. But, I did not know how to create. So, I decided to do penance and went into the ocean. In the ocean, I saw an entity who was no more than the size of a thumb. He was purush himself and I immediately recognized him. I started meditating on the form of that almighty–Purush. Suddenly, eleven more entities emerged before me. They were all very radiant and the water had become hot on account of the heat emanating from their bodies. I asked them as to who they were but they did not give any reply and went out of my sight. The next moment, I saw an extremely handsome man. I asked him about his identity and also about the eleven entities whom I had seen few moments ago. Those entities were the eleven Aadityas and had gone to help Lord Brahma in the process of creation. Then he said–I am Narayana–the omnipresent lord. I am blessing you with ‘divine vision’ so that you can see my divine appearance.’
When I fixed my glance at Narayan I was amazed to see the same thumb-sized Narayana standing before me. But, now He was no longer having the size of a thumb. On the contrary he had expanded his body to such an extent that He appeared like a giant. I also saw Lord Brahma sitting on a lotus flower emanating from his navel. I eulogized HIM with complete devotion. HE blessed me and said–‘You are eternal and nothing is beyond your knowledge. You will be worshipped by the deities. I shall take twelve incarnations in the coming eras and shall worship you in each of my incarnation.’
Having said this, Lord Narayana disappeared. This was how I saw the divine form of the ‘Purush’–Lord Narayan.
BHUWAN-KOSH & THE ISLANDS
All the sages listened with rapt attention to the description Lord Shiva made of the Almighty Narayan. But, they had few more queries in store, so they asked Lord Shiva– “O Lord of Uma! please tell us about the expanse of the Earth- the situation of mountains and the prominent islands.”
Lord Shiva replied–“Bhuloka is situated on the surface of the Earth, while the earth itself is based on Almighty’s chest. With the desire of creating the three basic gunas—Sat, raj and Tama, the Almighty Narayan created water first of all and went into ‘yoganidra’.
“Savan had two sons–Dhat and Mahaveeti, who were the rulers of ‘Dhatki’ and ‘Kaumud provinces respectively. Similarly Dyutiman had three sons–Kush, Vaidyut and Jeemutvahan. Jyotishman had seven sons–Kushal, Manugavya, Peevar, Andhra, Andhakarak, Muni and Dundubhi. Kush had seven sons–Udbhid, Venuman, Rathapal, Manu, Dhriti, Prabhakar and Papil.”
“Medhatithi too had seven sons–Nabhi, Shantmaya, Shishir, Mukhodam, Nandshiva, Kshemak and Dhruv. Nabhi’s wife was Merudevi, who had given birth to Rishabh. Rishabh was the father of Bharat upon whom the area lying south of Himalaya mountain is named.”
“Sumati was the son of Bharat. Bharat, after appointing Sumati as his successor went into the forest to do penance. The names of some prominent kings coming from the lineage of Sumati were Tej, Satsut, Indradyumna, Parmeshthi, Pratiharta, Nikhat, Unmeta, Abhav-Udgata, Prastota, Vibhu, Prithu, Anant, Gaya, Naya, Virat, Mahavirya and Sudhiman.”
“Sudhiman had one hundred sons. This way the population continued to grow. The four yugas–Satya yuga, Treta, dwapar and Kali occur in a cyclic order. Each of the latter follows the former. A manvantar comprises of 71 chaturyugas.”
JAMBUDWEEPA
Dwelling upon the prominent islands, Lord Shiva told the assembled sages—“Jambudweepa is spread in the area of one lakh yojan and it consists of numerous Janapadads. It is inhabited by ‘siddhas’ and ‘charanas’ and is blessed with incomparable natural beauty.”
‘A total number of nine ‘Varshas’ lie within the territory of Jambudweepa which itself is surrounded by various oceans on all sides. Towards its east and west lie salt water oceans. Some prominent mountains of Jambudweepa are the Himalaya, the sumeru, the Hemakut and the Nishadh. Territory situated towards east of Sumeru mountain is inhabited by the fair complexioned brahmins. Towards its south live Vaishyas. Shudras live towards the south of Sumeru and the area lying towards its north is inhabited by Kshatriyas.”
SHAK DWEEPA
It’s area is approximately twice as compared to Jambudweepa. It is inhabited by virtuous people who are prosperous and who enjoy a long life. They are free from the tortures of old age. This island is covered by oceans on its two sides–Salt water ocean on one side and ‘Ksheer Sagar’ (Ocean of Milk) on the other.
The mountain ranges lying in the northern part of this island is known as Udayachal while ‘Chandragiri is situated in the western part. There are some other mountain ranges like Rajatgiri, Aambikey, etc situated on this island. Altogether these mountain ranges total seven in number and are known as ‘Kula-Parvatas’. Some primonent rivers flowing through this island are Sukumari, Kumari, Nanda, Venika, Dhenu, Ikshumati and Gabhasti. There is a large tree named Shak in the central part of this island. This is how this island derived it’s name.
KUSHA DWEEPA
This island is twice the area of Shak dweepa. There are seven prominent mountain ranges in this island which are known as ‘Kula Parvatas’— Kumud, Unnat, Drona, Kank, Isha, Mahish and Mandar. There are seven prominent rivers flowing through the various parts of this island–Pratoya, Shiva, Chitra, Chandra, Vidyullta, Varna and Mahati. This island has got its name from Kusha grass which are found in abundance in its central part.
KRAUNCHA DWEEPA
It is twice the area of Kusha dweepa. It has seven prominent mountain ranges–Kraunch, Paavan, Devavrit, Devishtha, Devaanand, Govind and Pundareek. There are also six prominent rivers flowing in this island–Gauri, Kumudwati, Ratri, Manojava, Khyati and Pundarika. Kraunch dweepa is surrounded by an ocean of charified butter (ghee) on all its side.
SHALMALI DWEEPA
“It is double the area of Kraunch dweepa and covers the ‘clarified-butter’ ocean from all sides. There are seven prominent mountains as well as seven rivers in this island.” This way Lord Shiva disappeared after having finished the narration of all the prominent islands.
TRISHAKTI
Describing the reason behind the manifestation of ‘TriShakti’ (Three goddesses manifesting from the bodies of Brahma Vishnu and Shiva), Lord Varah told Prithvi— There lived a mighty demon named ‘Andhak’ who used to torment the deities. After being driven out of the heaven all the deities sought lord Brahma’s help. Lord Brahma took them to Lord Shiva and requested him to find some solution to the miseries of the deities. Lord Brahma then meditated on the form of Vishnu who appeared instantly.
The powers emanating from the eyes of all the three deities got combined and resulted into the manifestation of goddess Parmeshwari.On the request of the deities,goddess Parmeshwari created three more goddesses from her body-Brahmi,Vishnupriya and Rudrani.Goddess Brahmi was of fair complexion while Vishnupriya’s complexion was wheatish.Goddess Rudrani appeared extremely ferocious in her dark complexion.
Lord Brahma advised goddess Brahmi to do penance at Shwetgiri mountain.Similarly,Vishnupriya went to Mandarachal mountain to do her penance while Lord Shiva advised goddess Rudrani to go to Nilgiri mountain. While Vishnupriya was doing her penance at Mandarachal mountain, crores of goddesses manifested from her body prominent among whom were Vidyutprabha,Chandrakanti,Suryakanti,Gambhira,Vijaya,Jaya, Jayanti,Aparajita,etc.All these goddesses acted as the escorts of goddess Vishnupriya who is also called Vaishnavi.
One day,sage Narad visited goddess Vaishnavi and was dumbstruck by her divine beauty.He had never seen such a beautiful woman in his life.On his return journey,Narad met Mahishasur-the mighty demon,who had been blessed by Brahma.Mahishasur had conquered all the three worlds.Narad praised the glory of Mahishasur but went on to add that his majesty was incomplete untill he married Vaishnavi.
Narad said-“I have never seen such a beautiful woman in my life. She is worshipped by all the sages,gandharvas,deities as well as other celestial beings.Although,you are worthy of becoming her husband yet the fact is that you can not have her as your wife untill you have conquered the deities and the gandharvas.” After sowing a seed of lust in Mahishasur’s mind,Narad went away. Mahishasur vowed to marry Vaishnavi at any cost. Lord Varah continued with the tale and said-“After Narad went away,Mahishasur summoned his ministers-Praghas,Vighas,Shanku- karna,Vibhavasu,Vidyunmali,Sumali,Parjanya and Krura.When all the ministers arrived,he requested them to find out means so that he could marry Vaishnavi. Praghas-one of the ministers, was very intelligent.He warned Mahishasur against going ahead with his evil designs and said- ‘This illegal abduction could become the cause for your destruction.’Vighas corroborated the statements of Praghas. Finally,everyone agreed that it would be better if Vaishnavi was persuaded to accept Mahishasur as her husband instead of forcefully abducting her.
“So all of them,finally came upon two conclusions-first was to send a messenger to persuade Vaishnavi into marrying Mahishasur and the second was to defeat the deities in a battle.A demon named Vidutprabha was sent to meet goddess Vaishnavi. Mahishasur then launched a fierce attack on the deities and defeated them.The deities were forced to flee the battle-field and seek refuge in brahma loka.”
“Meanwhile,Vidutprabha had already reached Mandarachal mountain. Without showing any rspect to goddess Vaishnavi,he tried to impress her by narrating the amazing tale of Mahishasur’s birth- ‘During ancient times,there lived a sage named Suparshva.Once,he was doing penance and an ogress named Mahishmati alongwith her companions, arrived at his hermitage.Mahishmati was very much impressed by the grandeur of his hermitage and decided to occupy it.She changed her appearance and became a buffalo.She then started tormenting Suparshva,who was initially terrified but finally came to know about her real identity.Suparshva cursed her-‘You deserve to remain as a buffalo for the rest of your life.’
“Now,Mahishmati became extremely terrified and begged for being pardoned.Finally,Suparshva took pity on her and said-‘You will get liberated from my curse only after you give birth to a calf.’ Thus,Mahishmati started wandering all over the places in the form of a buffalo.Once,while wandering, she reached the bank of river Narmada,where sage Sindhudweep was doing his penance. A significant incident had taken place just few minutes before her arrival-Sage Sindhudweep,being unable to control himself,had ejaculated sperms after infatuated by a beautiful ogress taking bath in river Narmada,which was flowing nearby.The sperms fell on a rock and was eventually washed off by the swift currents of Narmada.”
“As Mahishmati was thirsty,she drank water from river Narmada. While quenching her thirst,she also consumed the sperms as the result of which she became pregnant.In course of time,she gave birth to Mahishasur,who grew up to be a mighty demon king.The same Mahishasur wants to marry you.” After finishing his story, Vidutprabha waited for Vaishnavi’s response.
Goddess Vaishnavi burst into a loud laughter and all the the three worlds became visible to the messenger,through her opened mouth.Vidutprabha was scarred to the hilt as he realized that the woman was extraordinary and divine.
Jaya-a dwarpalika of Vaishnavi,told him-‘Our goddess has taken a vow of celibacy,hence your master’s wish will remain unfulfilled.’ At last,Vidutprabha went back empty handed.In the meantime,Narad arrived there and informed goddess Vaishnavi about the deities’s defeat at the hands of Mahishasur and requested her to kill the demon.
Goddess Vaishnavi ordered her escorts to get prepared for the battle.She then proceeded with a huge army to fight against the demons.In the ensuing battle,Mahishasur’s army was severely humiliated.Most of the demons were killed and the survivors fled from the battlefield. A demon named Virupaksha informed Mahishasur of the death and destruction caused by goddess Vaishnavi.Mahishasur was infuriated and came forward to fight the goddess.Goddess Vaishnavi was aware of his might,so she manifested her divine form in all her glory. Now,she possessed ten arms and held lethal weapons like a sword, a bow,a shield,a mace,a trident,a chakra,etc.in each of them.She then remembered lord Shiva,who appeared within a moment.Goddess Vaishnavi requested him to be witness to the fierce battle,which was going to take place.
A fierce battle commenced,which lasted for ten thousand divine years.Mahishasur ran helter and skelter,changing his disguise frequently,in order to protect his life but goddess Vaishnavi chased him wherever he went.Ultimately,she killed him at ‘Shata- shring’ mountain by severing his head.All the deities heaved a sigh of relief and praised the glory of goddess Vaishnavi.
Similarly,goddess Rudrani,who had manifested from lord Shiva and had gone to Nilgiri mountain to do her penance had killed a mighty demon named ‘Ruru’. Ruru was a very powerful demon king.He ruled over Ratnapuri, which was situated in the middle of the ocean.He had become invincible on account of a boon received from lord Brahma.After being defeated by him,all the deities went to seek the help of goddess Rudrani. Goddess Rudrani,who is also known as ‘Chamunda’ finally killed Ruru-the dreaded demon.”
Having completed the tale,lord Varah blessed Prithvi and went back to his abode.
END OF VARAH PURAN
