In the previous episode, we had witnessed Indra inviting Arjuna to his “Indra Lokha” for a while, as he was mightily impressed with Arjuna’s dedication and sincerity. As Bhagawan Shiva had also mentioned before He left, that the “Devatas” would come in next and provide their divine “Anugraha”, Indra arrives immediately after this, and proposes thus. Arjuna too accepts it and he transcends towards the “Indra Lokha” in the chariot driven by Maathali swiftly. As Arjuna arrives there, he receives a grand welcome from none other than Indra himself, as Arjuna is Indra’s own son! As Arjuna settles down, Indra proposes to him that he would arrange a teacher to teach him a few things such as music, dance, etc. apart from providing him with some important “Asthras”. Initially, Arjuna did not understand why he should learn music and dance, but Indra explained to him that these art forms would be extremely helpful for him in the days and years to come.
Moving on thus, the music and dance lessons begin for Arjuna and the time that he spends at Indra Lokha is about five years! It is not just one or two days or months! Five years is quite a long time period isn’t it? As Arjuna spends time thus, Urvasi is dancing in front of Arjuna and he is somehow getting attracted to her. As this is happening, Indra spots this, and he decides that Arjuna needs a companion as he is staying alone here. He decides that Urvasi would be the right companion for him and he calls upon Chitrasena to talk to Urvasi regarding this. However, on the contrary, Arjuna did not have any intention to marry Urvasi. He is only attracted towards her beautiful dance and nothing else! However, Indra seemingly mistakes Arjuna’s interest in Urvasi’s dance as love for her!
According to Indra’s instruction, Chitrasena goes and tells Urvasi that Arjuna is in love with her. As Chitrasena tells this, Urvasi replies thus, “Oh Chitrasena! This is the news that I was waiting to hear for a long time now! Even though I’m in love with Arjuna, I did not know how to approach him! Now this is a good opportunity. Let me go and talk to him about this directly!” Saying thus, Urvasi hurries to meet Arjuna. She goes in front of him and proposes her love for him thus, “Oh Arjuna! Till this moment, I had been longing to talk with you! I’m in love with you! I did not know that you are also in love with me until Chitrasena came and told me! I would love to be your wife forever. Oh Arjuna! Will you marry me?”
As Arjuna hears this from Urvasi, he gets shell-shocked! He never has had this feeling of love towards her at all! He doesn’t know how to respond to Urvasi’s proposal. So finally after giving it a thought, he slowly replies back to Urvasi thus, “Oh Urvasi! You’re a great woman! I have great respect and reverence for you like my mothers Kunthi Devi and Maadri Devi! Out of my respect for you, I bow down to your divine lotus feet! You are a great “Apsaras” woman and one of the purest women in the entire world! Hence, Urvasi! Please tell me what I should do! I’m waiting for your instruction!”
As Arjuna says thus, Urvasi fumes in anger! How come a male stays put and doesn’t get carried away with my beauty? How can a male insult me like this when I’m proposing my love to him? This is not good! With this thought in mind, Urvasi inflicts a curse on Arjuna thus, “Oh Arjuna! You’ve spoken extremely rudely to me! I cannot tolerate such talks! I’m hereby inflicting a curse on you now – You would go back to the “Bhoo Lokha” once again and take birth as a person amidst many women. You would lose your self-respect and societal respect in this process. You would spend one full year like this, dancing and singing amidst women!” As Urvasi inflicts such a curse, Arjuna is shocked beyond words! He did not anticipate this, and this curse comes to him for no fault of his! Now what does Arjuna do? What is going to be his next reaction? Let us wait till the next episode to find out! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 