{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/db/bk07ch08.htm","path":"hin/db/bk07ch08.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch08.htm","text":"THE SEVENTH BOOK\nChapter VIII\nOn the King Revata and the Solar Dynasty\n1-5. Janamejaya said :-- \u201cO Br\u00e2hman\u00e2! The King was a Ksattriya; how could he go himself with his daughter Revat\u00ee to the Brahm\u00e2loka (the abode of Brahm\u00e2)? I entertain a great doubt on this point. I heard of yore while conversing about matters connected with the Br\u00e2hmins, that the Br\u00e2hmin only who was self-restrained and the knower of Brahm\u00e2n could alone go to the Brahm\u00e2loka. The Satyaloka is very hard for the worldly people to go; so I doubt how the king could have gone with Revat\u00ee from the Bh\u00fbrloka to the Satyaloka. Man, when he discards his body, can go to the Heavens. So is recited in all the S'\u00e2stras. How then, people, while, in their human bodies can go to the Brahm\u00e2loka. So cut asunder my doubts how the King Revata could go to the Brahm\u00e2loka to ask the Praj\u00e2pati on certain matters.\u201d\n6-16. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- \u201cO King! On the top of the mountain Sumeru, are located the Indra's heavens called Amar\u00e2vati (the abode of the Immortals) the Samyaman\u00ee city of Yama, the Satyaloka, the Vahniloka, the Kail\u00e2sa, Vaikuntha the abode of Visnu, and others. The great archer Arjuna, the son of Prith\u00e2, went to the Indraloka and spent five years there. In ancient times, the Kings Kakutstha and others went to Indraloka, in their human bodies. Even the powerful Daityas used to conquer the Indraloka and resided there at their will and pleasure. In ancient times, when the sovereign of the earth, the King Mah\u00e2bhisa went to the Brahm\u00e2loka, the most beautiful Gang\u00e2 also was coming to the Brahm\u00e2loka. On the way the King saw Her. O King! Accidentally at that time her clothings were cast aside by the wind; the King saw her partly in her naked state, and, overpowered with lust, smiled; Gang\u00e2 also\nsmiled. Seeing the states of them, Brahm\u00e2 instantly cursed them; and they had to come in this world and take their births. All the Devas, when oppressed by the D\u00e2navas, went to Vaikuntha and sang hymns to Hari, the Lord of Kamal\u00e2. O King! Men can go to all the Lokas; in fact those high-souled men that perform Yaj\u00f1as or severe asceticism and thus have acquired great merits, those performers of Sacrifices and ascetics surely go to the Heavens. O King! It is only the abundance of good merits that is the only cause of going to Heavens. So you ought not to entertain any doubts on this.\u201d\n17-18. Janamejaya said :-- \u201cO Muni! The King Revata went with his daughter Revat\u00ee to the Brahm\u00e2loka; but what did he do when he went there? What did Brahm\u00e2 order him? And to whom did the King betroth his daughter, when ordered by Brahm\u00e2? O Br\u00e2hmana! Speak out all these in details to me now.\u201d\n19-21. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- \u201cO King! Hear. When the King went to Brahm\u00e2loka to ask about the proper bridegroom of his daughter, there was going on singing and music; so he waited a while to find an opportunity when the assembly would have a leisure; but he was so very pleased with music that he could not desist from hearing it till the end. When the music was finished, the King bowed down to Brahm\u00e2 and shewed him his daughter and informed Him of his intention.\u201d\n22-26. The King said :-- \u201cO Deva! This good daughter is mine; now kindly say who will be her bridegroom. O Brahm\u00e2! To whom shall I betroth this daughter? I have come to you to ask on this point I have searched for many princes and seen also a good many of them and none of them is to my liking and so my mind is not at rest. O Lord of the Devas! Therefore I have come to you. Kindly select one bridegroom for her. He is to be a Kul\u00een (of good family), powerful, religious, liberal, and a prince endowed with all auspicious qualities. This is my prayer.\u201d Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! Brahm\u00e2, the lotus-born, the Creator of the world, hearing these words, laughed, thinking that a very long interval had passed away. He then said :--\n27-43. O King! The princes that you thought would become the bridegroom of your daughter, all died; their sons and grandsons and their friends even have all passed away. The twenty-seventh Manvantara of the Dv\u00e2para Yuga is now going on; so none of the princes of your family are now existing. The Daityas sacked your city. Now Ugrasena, the King of Mathur\u00e2, is reigning in that place. He belongs to the illustrious lunar family of Yay\u00e2ti. His son, the powerful Kansa,\nborn of a D\u00e2nava, began to do injuries always to the Devas; he threw his own father to the prison. Becoming very haughty, he began to govern himself the countries of other kings and began to tyrranise over the subjects. O King. The Earth became so much troubled by the armies of the wicked Demon Kings, that She became quite unable to bear further loads. So She went to seek refuge to Brahm\u00e2. Brahm\u00e2 and the other Devas then began to say :-- \u201cO Earth! To remove your burden the lotus-eyed N\u00e2r\u00e2yan\u00e2 will incarnate Himself as part incarnation in the form of S'r\u00ee Krisna. He who is N\u00e2r\u00e2yan\u00e2 practised in ancient times, as the son of Dharma, a very severe asceticism, in company with his brother Nara in the sacred hermitage of Badari. Now this very Deva is born in the great family of Yadu in the womb of Devak\u00ee by Vasudeva and is now celebrated by the name of V\u00e2sudeva. O King! He has slain that vicious wicked Kansa and has installed Ugrasena in his place. The very powerful Jar\u00e2sandha, the vicious King of Magadha, is the father-in-law of Kansa. On hearing the death of his son-in-law, he became infuriated with rage, came to Mathur\u00e2, and raged a terrible war. V\u00e2sudeva defeated in a battle that Jar\u00e2sandha, proud of his mighty valour. Though defeated, Jar\u00e2sandha sent K\u00e2layavana with his host of army to fight again with Krisna. Bh\u00e2gavan V\u00e2sudeva, when he heard that the King of Yavanas arrived, sent away all the members of his family and the Y\u00e2davas to Dv\u00e2rk\u00e2 and began to wait with his brother Balar\u00e2ma for the Yavana King. Then he went alone to the camp of Yavana and led him away to a mountain cave where was sleeping the King Muchu Kunda and had then the Yavana King slain by Muchukunda. Krisna then went to Dv\u00e2rk\u00e2. The city of Dv\u00e2rk\u00e2 was then a dilapidated condition. Krisna brought together the artists and got built exquisitely the beautiful palaces, forts, and markets and stalls, etc., and so added to the beauty of the place. That V\u00e2sudeva, of mighty prowess, thus improving the city, made Ugrasena the King of that place; and Krisna is now waiting there with his friends. His elder brother Baladeva, the carrier of the plough, is celebrated. Thus he with Musala in his hands is a great warrior and the part incarnation of Ananta Deva. He is the fit bridegroom of your daughter. So give your daughter in marriage, without any delay, according to the rules of the marriage ceremony to Sankarsana Balabhadra. After giving your daughter marriage, go to the hermitage of Badari and practise tapasy\u00e2. That sacred retreat is the (park) recreation ground of the Devas, holy and yielding to human beings the objects of their desires.\n44-46. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- \u201cO King! Thus ordered by the lotus-born Brahm\u00e2, the King went to Dv\u00e2rk\u00e2 with his daughter. Reaching there he gave over his all auspicious daughter in marriage to Bala Deva\nduly according to the rules and regulations. At last, according to Brahm\u00e2's injunction, he became engaged in severe austerities in the Badarik\u00e2s'ram and, when the time of death arrived, left off his mortal coil on the banks of the river and went to the world of Gods.\u201d\n47-48. Janamejaya said :-- \u201cO Bhagav\u00e2n! You have uttered one wonderful thing. One hundred and eight Yugas passed away when the King of Revata with his daughter was deeply absorbed in hearing music in the Brahm\u00e2loka yet neither the good King nor the daughter did get sufficiently old. How could this be! How could they have lived so long! Were their longevities ordained to be such a long period!\u201d\n49-56. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- \u201cO King! The Brahm\u00e2loka is not touched by any vice nor sin; old age, hunger, thirst or fear of death nothing exists there; nor is there any other cause by which weariness comes. So what doubt there can be that the people there will be long-lived, free from old age and death! When the King S'ary\u00e2ti went up to the Heavens, his sons were all destroyed by the R\u00e2ksasas; those that remained, they, terrified left Kus'asthal\u00ee and fled on all sides. Vaivasvata Manu sneezed; owing to that, came out of his nose one powerful son; his name was Iks\u00e2ku. He spread the Solar dynasty and became celebrated. Getting excellent initiation from the Maharsi N\u00e2rada, he began to meditate the Dev\u00ee constantly and practised severe tapasy\u00e2 for the spread of his race. O King! Iks\u00e2ku had one hundred sons; Vikuksi was the eldest; he was powerful and endowed with great strength. Iks\u00e2ku became king and lived in Ayodhy\u00e2. He sent his fifty sons, the powerful S'akuni and others to Uttar\u00e2patha (Eastern) provinces for governing those countries. That high-souled monarch sent also other eight sons to govern the countries in the South. (Western). O King! He kept the remaining two sons by his side for his own service.\u201d\nHere ends the Eighth Chapter of the Seventh Book on the story of the King Revata and the spread of the Solar dynasty in the Mah\u00e2puranam S'r\u00ee Mad Dev\u00ee Bh\u00e2gavatam of 18,000 verses by Maharsi Veda Vy\u00e2sa.","title":"The Devi Bhagavatam: The Seventh Book: Chapter 8","type":"page"}