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Mahabharata -Rajagopalachari
1.DEVAVRATA
When Vasishtha returned to his ashrama,
he missed the cow and the calf, because
they were indispensable for his daily
rituals.
Very soon he came to know by his yogic
insight all that had taken place. Anger
seized him and he uttered a curse against
the Vasus. The sage, whose sole wealth
was his austerity, willed that they should
be born into the world of men. When the
Vasus came to know of the curse,
repentant too late, they threw themselves
on the sage's mercy and implored
forgiveness.
Vasishtha said: "The curse must needs
take its course. Prabhasa, the Vasu who
seized the cow, will live long in the world
in all glory, but the others will be freed
from the curse as soon as born. My words
cannot prove ineffective, but I shall soften
the curse to this extent."
Afterwards, Vasishtha set his mind again
on his austerities, the effect of which had
been slightly impaired by his anger. Sages
who perform austerities acquire the power
to curse, but every exercise of this power
reduces their store of merit.
The Vasus felt relieved and approached
the goddess Ganga and begged of her:
"We pray you to become our mother. For
our sake we beseech you to descend to the
earth and marry a worthy man. Throw us
into the water as soon as we are born and
liberate us from the curse." The goddess
granted their prayer, came to the earth and
became the wife of Santanu.
When the goddess Ganga left Santanu and
disappeared with the eighth child, the king
gave up all sensual pleasures and ruled the
kingdom in a spirit of asceticism. One day
he was wandering along the banks of the
Ganges when he saw a boy endowed with
the beauty and form of Devendra, the king
of the gods.
The child was amusing himself by casting
a dam of arrows across the Ganges in
flood, playing with the mighty river as a
child with an indulgent mother. To the
king who stood transfixed with
amazement at the sight, the goddess
Ganga revealed herself and presented the
child as his own son.
She said: "O king, this is that eighth child
I bore you. I have brought him up till now.
His name is Devavrata. He has mastered
the art of arms and equals Parasurama in
prowess. He has learnt the Vedas and the
Vedanta from Vasishtha, and is well
versed in the arts and sciences known to
Sukra. Take back with you this child who
is a great archer and hero as well as a
master in statecraft."
Then she blessed the boy, handed him to
his father, the king, and disappeared
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