The Man from the Egg Read online

  These are the only snakes that exist in the world today, and now you know why they have forked tongues!

  The Honest Cheater

  One day, Indra went to visit Shiva on Mount Kailash. But instead of Shiva, he found an unfamiliar person there, deep in meditation. ‘That must be one of Shiva’s ganas,’ he thought. He said aloud, ‘I want to meet your master. Where is he?’

  The man did not reply.

  Indra tried again and again, but there was no response. ‘I am the king of the gods,’ thought Indra, feeling insulted. ‘How dare he ignore me?’ He picked up the Vajrayudha and threw it at the man.

  Finally, the man opened his eyes and, annoyed by the disturbance, shot a fiery arrow at Indra, while transforming into Shiva. That’s when Indra realized that Shiva had simply been meditating in an altered form. Scared for his life, Indra begged him for forgiveness.

  Shiva calmed down just in time to redirect the arrow towards the ocean. The arrow fell into the deep waters and manifested itself as a crying baby boy. The king of the ocean heard the wailing and decided to adopt the newborn. He asked Brahma to suggest a name for the child.

  ‘Call him Jalandhara, the boy born out of water,’ replied Brahma. ‘He will not be destroyed by anyone other than Shiva as it was his arrow responsible for the boy’s creation—that’s my boon to him.’

  Jalandhara grew up into a fine young man, and the king of the ocean crowned him the ruler of the asuras. Jalandhara was a fair and just king, and he married a beautiful girl named Brinda.

  One day, a few old asuras visited Jalandhara and told him about the churning of the ocean and how Vishnu had cheated them out of the nectar in the guise of Mohini. Enraged by the deception, Jalandhara swore to take revenge on the gods.

  Brinda was a devotee of Vishnu; she advised her husband not to wage war on the gods, but he did not heed her words. So there was nothing else she could do but pray fervently to Vishnu for Jalandhara’s safe return.

  It was a fierce battle, and just when Indra was about to land a terrible blow on Jalandhara’s head, Vishnu’s Sudarshan Chakra came to protect him and Indra had no choice but to run away.

  Jalandhara now knew that he had two advantages. Not only was he almost unmatched in strength, but he was always protected by Vishnu because of Brinda’s prayers. Soon, Jalandhara began conquering kingdom after kingdom in all the realms.

  His victories made him so proud that, one day, he decided to fight Vishnu himself.

  Vishnu did not want to fight him because of Brinda, so he tried to handle Jalandhara in a tactful manner, ‘It’s not that I can’t fight you. However, the fact is that you are born from the ocean and thus you are like a brother to my wife, Lakshmi, who also emerged from the ocean. I do not wish to fight my wife’s brother.’

  Jalandhara was speechless. He had never thought of Vishnu as his brother-in-law! He replied, ‘May my sister and you be happy forever.’

  Now that that was settled, Jalandhara decided to go to war with Shiva. Jalandhara had forgotten who was responsible for his birth or the blessings he had received as an infant.

  Brinda tried to stop her husband. ‘Please don’t do this! You will never win against Shiva.’

  But Jalandhara, as usual, refused to listen and left for Mount Kailash.

  This time, Brinda knew that there was a chance her husband might not return, and so she again prayed to Vishnu with all her heart and soul.

  Jalandhara reached Shiva’s abode and roared, ‘Mount Kailash now belongs to me! If you surrender, I will allow you to leave and reside elsewhere.’

  Shiva thought for a bit. He was reluctant to slay Jalandhara, who was technically his son and under Vishnu’s protection. However, Shiva was also aware that Jalandhara had gone over to the dark side.

  When the news reached Vishnu, he thought to himself, ‘I can’t protect Jalandhara forever. Brinda is the epitome of all that is good, and she is the strength behind Jalandhara’s triumph and his continued well-being. The gods can only defeat him by deceiving Brinda.’

  So Vishnu disguised himself as Jalandhara and went to his palace to meet Brinda. ‘My dear wife,’ he said, ‘I have won the war. You need not pray to Vishnu any more. Instead, prepare for an extravagant celebration.’

  Brinda was ecstatic to see her husband and learn of his victory. She stopped praying and began to plan the festivities.

  Shiva realized what had taken place—Brinda had stopped her prayers. He seized the opportunity to use his trident and kill Jalandhara.

  When Brinda found out about how Vishnu had misled her, she was furious. ‘How could you trick your own devotee?’ she cried out. ‘It is heartless . . . and your heart must be made of stone. Well, may you turn into one then!’

  Vishnu smiled at her and said, ‘Brinda, there is nothing wrong with deceiving someone for the greater good, and I had no choice, for while you were good and sincere, your husband was not. He hurt many sages, scholars and his own subjects. However, I accept your curse with all my heart, my child. I will turn into a shaligrama near River Gandaki. Whenever someone wants to worship my form, they can pick up a shaligrama from the river and pray to me, and I will always hear them. Despite all that has happened, your devotion has pleased me. You will be reborn as a tulsi plant, and my worship will only be complete with tulsi leaves. In fact, you will be worshipped before me. People will revere you for your piety and keep tulsi plants in their homes, where you will bring prosperity.’

  This is why it is common to see the tulsi plant in many Indian homes.

  The Choice of Death

  Madhu and Kaitabha were two asura brothers who once prayed to Goddess Parvati in the hope of attaining immortality. But Parvati, like the other gods, denied their request. However, taking pity on them, she said, ‘I will give you one more chance to ask for something more reasonable.’

  The two brothers looked at each other. ‘In that case, we want to die at the time of our choosing,’ they said cleverly, absolutely sure that they would never wish to die.

  Parvati smiled. ‘So be it.’

  Like all other power-hungry asuras, the two brothers soon became evil and insufferable. They seized whatever they wanted and killed whoever tried to stop them.

  One day, they went to meet Brahma. The god was sitting high atop his lotus and appeared to be busy sculpting his next creation.

  The two brothers were irked to see him so high up. ‘Come down, old man!’ they said to Brahma. ‘Only people with strength and mental fortitude such as ourselves should sit so high. If you want to stay up there, fight and defeat us first. Come down now! We are ready whenever you are!’

  Brahma knew that he could not fight them and win, and so he simply ran away.

  The two brothers were happy to have humiliated the eternal creator.

  Brahma, in the meantime, kept running without looking back even once, until he reached Vishnu and related everything that had happened. ‘Lord, if these two asuras can behave so badly with me, imagine how they must be treating other beings. You must destroy them!’

  As Vishnu pondered over the situation, Madhu and Kaitabha reached Vaikuntha in search of Brahma. When they saw Vishnu, they smirked and said, ‘O great Vishnu, how can you protect another when you yourself are so weak compared to us?’

  Without waiting for an answer, the asuras looked around Vaikuntha and liked what they saw. ‘Why don’t you give your abode to us?’ they demanded. ‘We are more suitable inhabitants. Come, we will allow you to try to defeat us first.’

  ‘Then let us fight,’ agreed Vishnu placidly.

  As the sparring began, Vishnu reached out to Goddess Parvati with his mind. ‘You gave these two asuras such power, so you must be accountable for their actions. I need your help.’

  The goddess responded, ‘Don’t worry, Vishnu. I will enter the asuras’ minds and enable you to trick them.’

  After the fight had gone on for some time, the two asura warriors wanted to rest. They asked Vishnu, ‘Would you like to take a break and rest be