{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/db/bk06ch22.htm","path":"hin/db/bk06ch22.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk06ch22.htm","text":"THE SIXTH BOOK\nChapter XXII\nOn the narration to Haihaya the stealing away of Ek\u00e2val\u00ee\n1-10. Yas\u2019ovat\u00ee spoke :-- O King! One day Ek\u00e2val\u00ee got up early in the morning and went to the banks of the Ganges, accompanied by her companions; they began to fan her with a chowrie. The armed guards accompanied her. Slowly she went where there were the lotuses in order to sport with them. I, too, went with her playing with the lotuses to the banks of the Ganges and both of us began to play with lotuses with the Apsar\u00e2s. When both of us were deeply engaged in the play, then one powerful D\u00e2nava, named K\u00e2laketu, came up there suddenly with many R\u00e2ksasas armed with parighas, swords, clubs, bows, arrows and tomaras and many other weapons. Ek\u00e2val\u00ee was playing with the best lotuses when K\u00e2laketu saw her in that state, blooming with beauty and youth as if like Rat\u00ee, the Goddess of Love. O King! I then spoke to Ek\u00e2val\u00ee :-- \u201cLook! Who is this Daitya that has come here unexpectedly; O Lotus-eyed One! Let us go into the central part of our armed guards.\u201d O King! My companion and myself consulting thus, went out of fear immediately into the centre of the armed guards. K\u00e2laketu was seized with the arrows of Cupid, and no sooner he looked at that beautiful young lady than he, with a very big club in his hand, hurriedly came to us, drove away the guards, and took away my lotus eyed companion, of thin waist. Then the young lady, helpless, began to tremble and cried aloud.\n11-22. Seeing this, I spoke to the D\u00e2nava :-- Leave her and take me. The passionate D\u00e2nava did not take me but he went away, taking my\ncompanion. The guards exclaimed :-- \u201cWait, wait; don\u2019t fly away with the girl; we are giving you a good lesson.\u201d Thus saying, they made the powerful D\u00e2navas stop and both the parties engaged in a very terrible conflict, astounding to all. The followers of the D\u00e2navas, more cruel and all fully armed began at once to fight with great enthusiasm for their Master\u2019s cause. K\u00e2laketu himself began to fight afterwards terribly and killed the guards. He, then, with his followers, carried away my companion towards his own city. I, too, followed my companion, when I saw her thus carried away by the D\u00e2nava and crying out of fear. I also walked crying aloud by those tracks as would enable my Sakh\u00ee to see me. She, too, seeing me, became somewhat consoled. Crying out repeatedly I approached her. She was already very distressed and when she saw me, she clasped me closely around my neck, perspiring and stunned and, becoming more distressed, cried aloud. K\u00e2laketu then showed his liking for me and told that my quick-eyed companion was very afraid and that I might comfort her. He told me thus :-- \u201cO Dear! My city is like the Deva\u2019s abodes; you will soon be able to go there. From today I become your slave, bound by love. Do not cry thus distressedly; be comforted.\u201d In these words he told me to comfort my dear companion. Thus speaking, that villain made both of us mount on the beautiful chariot and making us sit by his sides went gladly and quickly to his own beautiful palace, followed by his army.\n23-30. That Demon placed both of us in a beautiful house white washed and mirror-like and kept hundreds and thousands of R\u00e2ksasas to watch and protect us. On the second day he called me in private :-- \u201cYour companion is very much distressed on the bereavement from her father and mother and is lamenting; make her understand and console her.\u201d He told me to speak the following words to my companion :-- \u201cO One of beautiful hips! Be my wife and enjoy as you like. O One with a face beautiful like the Moon! This kingdom is yours; ever I am your obedient slave.\u201d Hearing his unbearable harsh words I said :-- \u201cO Lord! I will not be able to speak her these words, disagreeable to her. You better speak this yourself.\u201d When I spoke thus, that wicked D\u00e2nava struck by the arrows of Cupid began to speak gently to my dear companion of thin belly, thus :-- \u201cO Dear One! Today you have successfully cast on me the Vas\u00eekarana Mantra (one of the T\u00e2ntrik processes by which a lover is made to come under subjection); O Beloved! Therefore it is that my heart is stolen and so much brought under your subjection; this has converted me into a veritable slave of yours; then know this as certain that I am your slave; O Sweet One!\nI am very much troubled by the Cupid\u2019s arrows and I am semi-unconscious; therefore O Lean-bellied One! Worship me. O One of beautiful thighs! This youth is a very rare and transient thing; O Auspicious One! Now embrace me as your husband and make your youth a veritable success.\u201d\n31-36. Ek\u00e2val\u00ee said :-- \u201cO Fortunate One! My father wanted to hand me over to a prince named Haihaya; I also mentally adopted him as my husband. You are certainly aware of the S\u2019\u00e2stras; how can I now abandon the eternal religion and the virtue of a woman and take up another husband. The girl must accept him to whom the father betrothes. The girl is under every circumstances dependent. Never do they get any independence.\u201d Though Ek\u00e2val\u00ee said thus, the vicious Daitya struck by Cupid\u2019s arrows, did not desist and did not leave me and that larged-eyed companion. His city lies in P\u00e2t\u00e2la and is a very dangerous place; always it is guarded by R\u00e2ksasas and surrounded by a moat; inside is built a beautiful and strong fort. Now my dear companion, the queen of my heart, is staying there with a grievous heart and I am here wandering hither and thither very much troubled on account of her bereavements.\n37-46. Ekav\u00eera said :-- \u201cO Beautiful-faced One! How have you been able to get away from the city of that wicked demon and how have you been able to come here? I am perfectly at my wit\u2019s end. Say quickly all these. O Proud One! I doubt your words; the father of your dear companion resolved to give his daughter to Haihaya in marriage; now I am that Haihaya. I am the King by that name, on this earth; there is no other King by the name of Haihaya. Is it that your dear companion is meant for me? O Bh\u00e2min\u00ee (passionate woman)! Remove my doubts; I will kill that villain R\u00e2ksasa and bring just now your dear companion; there is no doubt in this. O One of good vows! Shew me that place, if it be known to you. Has anybody informed her father that She is suffering from so many troubles? Has her father come to know that her daughter has been stolen and carried away? And has he made any effort to rescue her from the hands of that villain R\u00e2ksasa? Is it that the King is calm and quiet, knowing that his daughter has been kept in prison? Or is it that he is unable to free her from bondage? Say quickly all these things before me. O Lotus-eyed One! You have captivated my mind by describing the extraordinary qualities of your dear companion and have made me passionate too. Alas! When will it be that I will free my beautiful beloved from the greatest perilous situation and shall see her face and her eyes, beaming with joy. O Sweet-speaking One! Say, by what means I can go to that impassable city. How have you been able to come from there?\u201d\n47-63. Yas\u2019ovat\u00ee said :-- O King! In my early age I got the Mantram of the Dev\u00ee Bhagavat\u00ee with its seed Mantram (mystic syllable involving in it the power connoted by the Dev\u00ee) and how to meditate it. While I was in the D\u00e2nava\u2019s place I thought out that at that juncture I would worship the powerful Chandik\u00e2 who gives instantaneously one\u2019s own desires. If I worship that S\u2019akti, That fructifies all desires, That is all mercy to Her Bhaktas, certainly She will free my dear companion from this her bondage. Though She is really without form, yet She, without anybody\u2019s help, by Her own force, She is creating, preserving, and at the end of the Kalpa, destroying this Universe. Oh! She is very wonderful indeed! Thus thinking I began to meditate that auspicious red-robed and red-eyed Dev\u00ee, the Lady of the Universe, and recollected mentally Her form and repeated silently Her V\u00eeja Mantram. When I meditated thus for merely one month, Chandik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee became, through my devotion, manifest to me in my dreams and began to speak in sweet nectar-like words :-- \u201cYou are now asleep; go quickly to the beautiful banks of the Ganges. The enemy destroyer, the powerful Ekav\u00eera, the greatest of all the kings, will come there. Datt\u00e2treya, the Great Lord of the Munis, has given him my Mantra named Mah\u00e2vidy\u00e2; the King also constantly worships me devotedly with that. His mind is constantly attached to Me and he constantly worships Me. What more to say than this fact that the king, extremely devoted to Me, meditates on Me as the internal controller of all beings. That intelligent son of Laksm\u00ee will come for sport to the banks of the Ganges and will remove all your sorrows. That king Ekav\u00eera, versed in all the S\u2019\u00e2stras will kill the R\u00e2ksasas in a dreadful battle and will rescue Ek\u00e2val\u00ee. So now you pay heed to my word.\u201d Lastly, She told me that my companion should marry that beautiful King, endowed with all auspicious qualifications. Thus saying, She disappeared and I instantly woke up. Then I informed my lotus-eyed dear Sakh\u00ee all the details of my dream as well my worshipping the Dev\u00ee; hearing this, her lotus-face beamed with joy and gladness. That sweet-smiling Ek\u00e2val\u00ee very gladly told me, \u201cO dear Companion! Go at once for our success. That truth-speaking Bhagavat\u00ee Ambik\u00e2 Dev\u00ee will release us from our bondage.\u201d O King! When my dear companion ordered me thus, I thought it proper, as also dictated to me in my dream, to go out and soon I did it. O King! Due to the grace of the Great Dev\u00ee, I came to know the way and I also got the quick motion. Thus I have described to you the cause of my sorrow. O Hero! Who are you, whose son are you? Speak truly to me.\nHere ends the Twenty-second Chapter in the Sixth Book on the narration to Haihaya the stealing away of Ek\u00e2val\u00ee in S\u2019r\u00ee Mad Dev\u00ee Bh\u00e2gavatam of 18,000 verses by Maharsi Veda Vy\u00e2sa.","title":"The Devi Bhagavatam: The Sixth Book: Chapter 22","type":"page"}