Aug 18, 2007

Chapter 43: Narada boasts success with Kama

Meanwhile Ravana has ordered tax on all yagnas performed by Swamis. Swamis’ wives approach Ravana’s wife Mandodari and begs her to ask her hubby to take back his decision. Ravana is adamant.

However sages go on with their yagnas and dont provide tax. Punishment is pitcher of blood from their body which they are ok to give. Ravana is perplexed at this. He thought his Royal Treasury will overflow with money instead they were ready to give blood. However, after giving blood, the sages run away from Lanka. So Ravana is happy that there is no yagna happening in his territory, which was his objective in the first place.

But then sages are still doing yagna outside his territory which fumes Ravana. The king's doctor tells that the sages' collected blood is causing infection if not disposed off fast. So Ravan orders his servants to dispose of the sages' blood in neighboring territories. Servants obey. The blood starts falling from sky on hermitages. Sages are very worried since this spells doomsday. Also land becomes barren once sages' blood falls on land. So famine starts.

At the same time, the bleeding sages who have ran out of Lanka come to neighboring territory sages and ask for help. This sage informs that only Narad can help. Narad at that time appears. The sages ask for Narad for help, help being requesting Shri Vishnu to get incarnated on earth and end this nonsense. Narad agrees but for Vishnu to come to Earth, one has to perform severe penance. And Narad says he cannot do this because he has committed a mistake. He made ten of Daksh's sons ascetics by giving them alms. As a result, Daksh has cursed Narad to spend only some time at a particular place. So he cannot do penance for a long time at any one place. So all the sages gives Narad the benefit they have earned from their penance to Narad. This would allow Narad to do the penance in a shorter time and yet reap higher benefits since his opening balance itself would be high! The ordeal of a long penance can be saved.

The fact that Narad is doing tapas irritates Indra. Indra thinks that he Narad is doing tapas for Indra's throne. So Indra asks Kama (God of Love) to go and disrupt Narad's penance. Narada is doing tapas while Lord Kama (God of Love) shoots an arrow resulting in girls coming on the scene. But Narada scolds Kama for his tapas-bhang and Kama apologises. Hence Narada is very happy because he feels he has conquered Kama. Therefore he approaches Shiva and proudly boasts about his success. He tells Shiva that Shiva could not conquer Kama [dont know that story] but he (Narad) could.

Shiva warns him not to go to Vishnu and boast. Narada ignores him and goes to Vishnu and boasts about his success there too. Lakshmi and Vishnu are concerned about Narada’s Pride and arrogance, for which he must be punished. Vishnu informs Lakshmi that he wont let Narada's pride ruin him and will teach him a lesson.

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