Sage Viswamitra further explained that Skanda by having been fed by Krithikas became a youth on the very first day to the astonishment of all! That is why he is called Kumara! Since he displayed extraordinary valour he was nominated as the general of the Deva army! He came to be called Deva senapathi! Sage Viswamitra also said that those who worship Skanda would be blessed with material wealth and good progeny and good life in this mortal life! And will finally attain Skanda loka! Then Sage Viswamitra begins to narrate the story of Ikshvaku King namely Sagara, who was pious and was endowed with any offspring. He had married the daughter of Vidharbha king’s daughter Kesini who was virtuous and truthful. His second wife is Sage Kasyapa who is also known as Arishtanemi’s daughter by name Sumati. She is the sister of Garudhman! The celestial vehicle of Sriman Narayana. The King reached Brghu prasravana the mountain range nearby to do tapas to beget children! At the end of hundred years of such dedicated tapas the Maharishi Brughu appeared before him and said that he is pleased with his efforts and would grant him a boon! He said that one of his wives would bear him a son to further his race and the others would bear sixty thousand sons! Then the wives asked the sage with reverence that which one among them would bear one son and the other numerous sons. To this the sage replied that the choice is left to them and whatever they desire would become fructified! Then they gladly decided that Kesini would have one son and Sumati many! They duly circumambulated the sage and paid their respects. Then they returned to their kingdom. In the due course Kesini gave birth to a son known as Asamanja and Sumati gave birth to a cucumber like egg that had seedlings in thousands and the maids carefully brought those seedlings and nurtured them in a pot of ghee! After some time all of them were nurtured into full grown children! They attained youthfulness as time passed. But unfortunately Asamanja grew up to be a cruel and sadistic prince and tormented young children by throwing them into the river and killing and enjoying their plight! Though the King tried to rein him in all his efforts were in vain! He had got the prince married to and he himself had a child namely Anshuman. Due to his wayward character the King banished him from the country! Then the King decides to conducted an Aswamedha yagna ritual for the welfare of the citizens and chooses a horse and duly send it to many Kingdoms to conquer them. The celestial Indra who was observing these felt that the King would reap many virtues if he was allowed to conclude the yagna and decided to thwart his efforts, and took the horse away! Soon the King asked his sixty thousand sons to go in search of the horse they searched all the nearby kingdoms and said they need to reach the other side of the world, and the king ordered them to dig and reach the other side! The story is differently narrated in Srimad Bagavata and names Anshuman as Asamoujas. It is said that they reached the nether world wherein they arrived at the asrama of a sage known as Kapila, an incarnate of Lord Vishnu, the sishyas of that seer had obviously found the horse roaming and had brought it and tied it in the asram. Soon the sagara putras reached the place and found the horse and mistook that the sage had stolen it and started tormenting the sishyas. This disturbed the Rishi who was doing penance there and the moment he opened his eyes the power of his concentration burnt all the sixty thousand sons of Sagara! Lord Brahma had predicted this end and said that this was destained as Lord Vishnu had desired! Since they started searching the earth for their horse they dug up earth, and many reptiles and other beings living therein were either killed or rendered homeless, they also killed many inhabitants of nether worlds, this amounted to disturbing the devotees of Vishnu! This story interested Sri Rama so much, that with delight he requested Sage Viswamitra to narrate how his own ancestor, of Raghu linage was able to complete the yagna? Sage Viswamitra began to narrate the story further. To be continued.....
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 03:13:29 +0000
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