{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/db/bk09ch16.htm","path":"hin/db/bk09ch16.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch16.htm","text":"THE NINTH BOOK\nChapter XVI\nOn the incarnation of Mah\u00e2 Laksm\u00ee in the house of Kus\u2019adhvaja\n1-30. S\u2019r\u00ee N\u00e2r\u00e2yana said :-- O Muni! Dharmadhvaja and Kus\u2019adhvaja practised severe tapasy\u00e2s and worshipped Laksm\u00ee. They then got separately their desired boons. By the boon of Mah\u00e2 Laksm\u00ee, they\nbecame again the rulers of the earth. They acquired great religious merits and they also had their children. The wife of Kus\u2019adhvaja was named M\u00e2l\u00e2vat\u00ee. After a long time, the chaste wife delivered one daughter, born of the parts of Kamal\u00e2. The daughter, on being born, became full of wisdom. On being born, the baby began to sing clearly the Vedic mantrams from the lying-in-chamber. Therefore She was named Vedavat\u00ee by the Pundits. She bathed after her birth and became ready to go to the forest to practise severe tapas. Everyone then, tried earnestly to dissuade her, devoted to N\u00e2r\u00e2yana, from the enterprise. But she did not listen to anybody. She went to Puskara and practised hard tapasy\u00e2 for one Manvantara. Yet her body did not get lean a bit; rather she grew more plumpy and fatter. By degrees her youth began to show signs in her body; one day she heard an incorporeal voice from the air above, \u201cO Fair One! In your next birth S\u2019r\u00ee Hari, adored by Brahm\u00e2 and other gods, will be your husband.\u201d Hearing this, her joy knew no bounds. She went to the solitary caves in the Gandham\u00e2dan mountain to practise tapas again. When a long time passed away in this tapasy\u00e2, one day the irresistible R\u00e2vana came there as guest. No sooner Vedavat\u00ee saw the guest, then she gave him, out of devotion to the guest, water to wash feet, delicious fruits, and cool water for his drink. The villain accept the hospitality and sitting there, began to ask :-- \u201cO Auspicious One! Who are you?\u201d Seeing the fair smiling lady, with beautiful teeth, her face blooming like the autumnal lotus, of heavy loins, and of full breast, that villain became passionate. He lost entirely all consciousness and became ready to make violence on Her. Seeing this, the chaste Vedavat\u00ee, became angry and out of her tapas influence, astounded him and made him insensible to move. He remained motionless like an inanimate body. He could not move his hands nor feet nor could he speak. That wicked fellow then mentally recited praises to her. And the praise of the Higher S\u2019akti can never go futile. She became pleased and granted him religious merits in the next world. But she also pronounced this curse :-- \u201cThat when you have touch my body out of passion, then you will be ruined with your whole family for my sake. Now see my power.\u201d O N\u00e2rada! Thus saying to R\u00e2vana, Vedavat\u00ee left her body by her yogic power. Then R\u00e2vana took her body and delivered it to the Ganges and he then returned to his own home. But R\u00e2vana thought over the matter repeatedly and exclaimed, \u201cWhat wonder have I seen! Oh! What a miracle this lady has wrought!\u201d R\u00e2vana thus lamented. This Vedavat\u00ee, of pure character, took her birth afterwards as S\u00eet\u00e2, the daughter of\nJanaka. For the sake of this S\u00eet\u00e2, R\u00e2vana was ruined with his whole family. By the religious merits of her previous birth, the ascetic lady got Bhagav\u00e2n Hari S\u2019r\u00ee R\u00e2ma Chandra, the Fullest of the Full, for her husband and remained for a long time in great enjoyment with the Lord of the world; a thing very difficult to be attained! Though she was a J\u00e2tismar\u00e2 (one who knows all about her past lives), she did not feel any pain due to her practising severe austerities in her previous birth; for when the pains end in success, the pains are not then felt at all. S\u00eet\u00e2, in Her fresh youth enjoyed various pleasures in the company of her husband, handsome, peaceful, humorous and witty, the chief of the Devas, loved by the female sex, well-qualified, and just what she desired. But the all-powerful Time is irresistible; the truthful R\u00e2machandra, the scion of the Raghu\u2019s family, had to keep up the promise made by his father and so he had to go to the forest, ordained by Time. He remained with S\u00eet\u00e2 and Laksmana near the sea. Once the God Fire appeared to Him in the form of a Br\u00e2hmana. Fire, in a Br\u00e2hmin-form, saw R\u00e2ma Chandra morose and became himself mortified. Then the Truthful Fire addressed the truthful R\u00e2machandra :-- \u201cO Bhagav\u00e2n R\u00e2machandra! I now speak to you how time is now coming to you. Now has come the time when your S\u00eet\u00e2 will be stolen.\n31-48. The course of Destiny is irresistible; none else is more powerful than Time, Fate. So give over your S\u00eet\u00e2, the World Mother to me and keep with you this Chh\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2 (the shadow S\u00eet\u00e2; the false S\u00eet\u00e2). When the time of S\u00eet\u00e2\u2019s ordeal by fire will take place I will give Her back to you. The Devas united have sent me to you. I am not really a Br\u00e2hmin; but I am Agni Deva (eater of oblations).\u201d R\u00e2machandra heard Fire and gave his assent. But his heart shattered. He did not speak of this to Laksmana. By the yogic power Agni (Fire) created a M\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2. This M\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2, O N\u00e2rada, was perfectly equal to the real S\u00eet\u00e2. Fire, then, handed this M\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2 to the hands of R\u00e2machandra. H\u00fbt\u00e2sana (fire) took the real S\u00eet\u00e2 and said, \u201cNever divulge this to any other body\u201d and went away. What to speak of divulging the secret to any other body, Laksmana even could not know it. By this time R\u00e2ma saw one deer, made of all gold. To bring that deer carefully to her, S\u00eet\u00e2 sent R\u00e2machandra with great eagerness. Putting S\u00eet\u00e2 under Laksmana\u2019s care, in that forest, R\u00e2ma went himself immediately and pierced the deer by one arrow. That M\u00e2y\u00e2 mr\u00eega (the deer created by magic powers) on being pierced, cried out \u201cHa Laksmana!\u201d and seeing Hari before him and remembering the name of Hari, quitted\nhis life. The deer body then vanished; and a divine body made its appearance in its stead. This new body mounting on an aerial car made of jewels, ascended to Vaikuntha. That M\u00e2yik (magic) deer was in its previous birth, a servant, of the two gate-keepers of Vaikuntha; but, for the sake of some emergency, he had to take up this R\u00e2khsasa birth. He again became the servant of two door-keepers of Vaikuntha. On the other hand S\u00eet\u00e2 Dev\u00ee, hearing the cry \u201cHa Laksmana!\u201d became very distressed and sent Laksmana in search of R\u00e2ma. No sooner did Laksmana get out of the hermitage, the irresistible R\u00e2vana took away S\u00eet\u00e2 gladly to the city of Lanka (Ceylon). Now R\u00e2machandra, seeing Laksmana on the way in the forest, became merged in the ocean of sorrows and without losing any time came hurriedly to the hermitage where he could not find S\u00eet\u00e2. Instantly he fell unconscious, on the ground; and, after a long time, when he regained his consciousness, he lamented and wandered here and there in search of Her. After some days on the banks of the river God\u00e2var\u00ee, getting the information of S\u00eet\u00e2, he built a bridge across the ocean with the help of His monkey armies. Then he entered with his army into Lanka and slew R\u00e2vana with arrows with all his friends. When S\u00eet\u00e2\u2019s ordeal by fire came, Agni (Fire) handed over the real S\u00eet\u00e2 to R\u00e2machandra. The Shadow S\u00eet\u00e2 then humbly addressed Agni and R\u00e2ma Chandra, \u201cO Lord! What am I to do now? Settle my case.\u201d\n49-53. Agni and R\u00e2machandra both of them then said to Chh\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2 :-- \u201cO Dev\u00ee! Go to Puskara and practise tapasy\u00e2 there; that place is the giver of religious merits and then you will be the Svarga Laksm\u00ee (Laksm\u00ee of Heaven).\u201d Hearing this, the Chh\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2 went and practised tapasy\u00e2 for the three divine lakh years and became Mah\u00e2 Laksm\u00ee. This Svarga Laksm\u00ee appeared at one time from the sacrificial Kunda (pit). She was known as the daughter of Drupada and became the wife of the five P\u00e2ndavas. She was Veda Vat\u00ee, the daughter of Kus\u2019adhvaja in the Satya Yuga; S\u00eet\u00e2, the wife of R\u00e2ma and the daughter of Janaka in Tret\u00e2 Yuga; and Draupad\u00ee, the daughter of Drupada, in the Dv\u00e2para Yuga. As she existed in the Satya, Tret\u00e2, and Dv\u00e2para Yugas, the Three Yugas, hence She is Trih\u00e2yan\u00ee.\n54. N\u00e2rada said :-- \u201cO Chief of Munis! O Remover of doubts! Why had Draupad\u00ee five husbands? A great doubt has arisen in my mind on this point. Remove my doubt.\u201d\n55-63. N\u00e2r\u00e2yana said :-- O Devarsi! When, in the city of Lanka, the real S\u00eet\u00e2 came before R\u00e2ma, then Chh\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2, full of youth and beauty, became very anxious. Agni Deva and R\u00e2machandra both told\nHer to go to Puskara and worship S\u2019amkara. While this Chh\u00e2y\u00e2 S\u00eet\u00e2 was practising austerities in Puskara, She became very anxious to get a good husband and asked from Mah\u00e2Deva the boon \u201cGrant me a husband\u201d and repeated it five times. S\u2019iva, the chief among the humorous, witty persons, hearing this, said, \u201cO Dear! You will get five husbands\u201d and thus granted her the boon. Therefore She became the dearest wife of the five P\u00e2ndavas. Now hear other facts. When the war at Lanka was over, S\u2019r\u00ee R\u00e2machandra got his own dear wife S\u00eet\u00e2, and installing Vibh\u00eesana on the throne of Lanka, returned to Ayodhy\u00e2. He ruled for eleven thousand years in Bh\u00e2rata and finally went to Vaikuntha with his all his subjects. Vedavat\u00ee, the incarnation in part of Laksm\u00ee dissolved in the body of Kamal\u00e2. Thus I have described to you the pure anecdote of Vedavat\u00ee. Hearing this destroys sins and increases virtue. The four Vedas reigned incarnate, in their true forms, on the lips of Vedavat\u00ee; hence She was named Vedavat\u00ee. Thus I have told you the anecdote of the daughter of Kus\u2019adhvaja. Now hear the story of Tulas\u00ee, the daughter of Dharmadhvaja.\nHere ends the Sixteenth Chapter in the Ninth Book on the incarnation of Mah\u00e2 Laksm\u00ee in the house of Kus\u2019adhvaja in S\u2019r\u00ee Mad Dev\u00ee Bh\u00e2gavatam of 18,000 verses by Mah\u00e2rsi Veda Vy\u00e2sa.","title":"The Devi Bhagavatam: The Ninth Book: Chapter 16","type":"page"}