Mahabharata : The Cursed Child (of Indian Mythology)
Keeping my word, here is the next post continuing from the birth of Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Hope you enjoy!...
Last time, we ended at a point where due to the uncontrollable reactions of both Ambika and Ambalika, both of the children were born with deformities. Frustrated over this result, Satyavathi orders Vyasa to go to Ambika once again after giving her quite a hearing. However, the woman Vyasa met was not Ambika but a maid who had replaced Ambika on her request. And thus came into being a third child, a perfect child, the truly deserving heir, Vidura.
But, something that remained concealed from the general public and which might come as a shock to you is the fact that Vidura was Yama, God of Death and Order, come to Earth to live out his curse. Shocking, right?!?!
This is how it came to pass....
A sage by the name Mandavya had once come to the Sapta-Sindhu region of Aryavarta. Once, whilst he was engrossed in his meditation and was soaked into a trance state, a group of thieves had come and taken refuge in his cottage unbeknownst to the Maharishi. However, the guards soon caught scent of the thieves tracing them to the cottage, and upon seeing the Sage too, accused him of supporting the thieves. So, along with the thieves, the Sage too was brought to the Royal Jail, where they were tortured and finally impaled to death. Upon being humiliated as such, the Sage leaving his physical form passes to the afterlife. Where, before moving forth he demands an audience with Yama. He demands of Yama the reason of him being treated as such, as he had not sinned as far as his memory could follow. Yamaraj however, chuckles and says that you indeed have not sinned according to YOUR MEMORY, however, when you were a child of not 2 years, having no friends around you, you're only play toys were the ants whom you used to love to torture and impale on tiny wooden sticks. A furious Mandavya exclaimed that this is unfair, those were the deeds of an innocent, unaware of the world child to which a dispassionate Yama said that that is none of his concern because that was, is, and will remain the law of Karma.
A sage by the name Mandavya had once come to the Sapta-Sindhu region of Aryavarta. Once, whilst he was engrossed in his meditation and was soaked into a trance state, a group of thieves had come and taken refuge in his cottage unbeknownst to the Maharishi. However, the guards soon caught scent of the thieves tracing them to the cottage, and upon seeing the Sage too, accused him of supporting the thieves. So, along with the thieves, the Sage too was brought to the Royal Jail, where they were tortured and finally impaled to death. Upon being humiliated as such, the Sage leaving his physical form passes to the afterlife. Where, before moving forth he demands an audience with Yama. He demands of Yama the reason of him being treated as such, as he had not sinned as far as his memory could follow. Yamaraj however, chuckles and says that you indeed have not sinned according to YOUR MEMORY, however, when you were a child of not 2 years, having no friends around you, you're only play toys were the ants whom you used to love to torture and impale on tiny wooden sticks. A furious Mandavya exclaimed that this is unfair, those were the deeds of an innocent, unaware of the world child to which a dispassionate Yama said that that is none of his concern because that was, is, and will remain the law of Karma.
Hearing, this an infuriated Mandavya cursed Yama to be born as a mortal, living the life of a human who is truly deserving of the Throne but shall never be King. Matches some description doesn't it?, because this was the life of Vidura.
Thus came into being the three successors, not of the Kuru bloodline, but simply heirs to the Hastinapura throne, who were raised by Bhishma, who stepped to be anything these princes were missing. A father, a strong brother, and above all, a WISE wellwisher.
However, the irony of the situation forever continued as Bhishma who had sworn celibacy and denied family life, was now entrapped in his father's family which now included a step-mother, two widowed sisters-in-law (Vichitravirya's wives), their maid(seriously?), and three nephews...
Ending here..., the attempt at explaining the reason behind the disastrous life of Vidura served as an explanation as to why bad things happen to good people and most importantly why GOOD things happen to BAD people, a simple logic - Karma.
#HeartCODE- signing out for today...
See you goes again, and soon, continuing onwards on our time travel through the Epic of Mahabharata.
P.S. : All expressions in this post are copyrighted to the author, HridayKharpude©.
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