In the previous episode, we had witnessed Yudishtra striking a deal with King Shalya. Even though King Shalya is going to fight against the Paandavas during the war, owing to the compulsion from Duryodhana, King Shalya offers to help Yudishtra in some way or the other. Accordingly, the deal says that when King Shalya gets an opportunity of being a charioteer for Karna, just like how Bhagawan Krishna will be a charioteer to Arjuna, King Shalya should constantly keep demotivating Karna and ensure that Karna doesn’t kill Arjuna. This is a secretive deal between the two and once the deal is made, King Shalya returns back to Hastinapura to be with Duryodhana.
As King Shalya leaves Viraata Desha, he once again motivates Yudishtra by saying that his “Dharma” will definitely protect him at all times, along with Bhagawan Krishna’s divine “Anugraha”. Saying this, King Shalya also explains how Indra went through a similar distress situation by losing Indrani and subsequently attaining her again with Bhagawan’s divine Anugraha. We’ve seen all these stories here and there in our previous episodes as well. Also, we’ve seen how Nahusha had to undergo a heavy curse and had to suffer in the world by being a snake, only for Yudishtra to come and answer his questions, to relieve him from this curse. Now we’ve to connect these two stories together – Story one – About Indra and Indrani; Story two – Nahusha being born as a snake in this world! Let us see where the connection is.
King Shalya explains thus, “Oh Yudishtra! Once upon a time, Indra and Indrani are living happily together as a couple. Once upon a time, there was a person by name “Tvashta”, who had a son with three heads! Tvashta’s son wanted to compete with Indra to obtain the supreme leadership position of the “Svarga Lokha”. A huge fight broke out between Indra and Tvashta’s son, and at the end of it, Indra chopped off one of his heads! Upon seeing his son in this pitiable condition, Tvastha gets angry with Indra and creates a powerful Raakshasa by name “Vridhraasura”! This Vridraasura’s sole agenda was to somehow win over Indra and capture the Indra-Lokha. Hence, he tries out different ways and means to win over Indra, but unfortunately Indra was extremely powerful and too good for Vridhraasura to handle! Finally Vridhraasura decides that these methodologies aren’t really going to work out and the only way to defeat Indra is by obtaining some boons from Bhagawan Brahma. Thus, Vridhraasura enters into a deep penance towards Bhagwan Brahma and obtains enormous boons through it. Bhagawan Brahma is impressed and grants all whatever Vridhraasura asked for! Armed with all this, Vridhraasura launched an all-out assault over Indra and all the Devas. Now Indra’s powers were just a speck of dust in front of Vridhraasura and he ensured that Indra started running for his money!
Chased away by Vridhraasura thus, Indra ran to Bhagawan Vishnu for help! Bhagwan Vishnu gives him an idea thus – “Oh Indra! Take your Vajra-Aayudha weapon and beat the waves hitting the shore. There will be a lot of foam when the waves hit the shore isn’t it? This foam, hit by your Vajra-Aayudha would go and attack Vridhraasura and as a result, he would be killed! Indra obeys Bhagawan Vishnu’s words and does accordingly. Vridhraasura did not expect such a unique thing (foam from the ocean) to attack him and eventually he was killed! Subsequently, since Vriddhraasura was an ardent devotee of Bhagawan Brahma, by killing him, Indra obtained the “Brahma-Hatthi-Dosha” and because of this, he had to hide somewhere till this gets over. Subsequently, Indra once again prays to Bhagwan Vishnu, who helps him get out of this “Brahma-Hatthi-Dosha” after a huge “Yagnya”.
Meanwhile, as Indra is hiding, the other Devas go and pray to Nahusha to take over the leadership position of the Indra Lokha! So for today, let us understand up to this point and we shall witness what happened to Nahusha in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 