In this episode, we’re doing a story about a special kind of fire that can destroy the Universe, like the one in Ragnarok. There’s a tie-in with a previous episode – Episode 86 and Parshuram’s story. Today’s story also features my mom. Sarasvati(or Saraswati), the Goddess of Wisdom. And as a bonus, will also explain the origin of tsunamis, waves, and tides!
The story starts with the origin of that fire. There was a King – Kartavirya Arjun. Not to be confused with the more famous Arjun. The one from the Mahabharata. Kartavirya Arjun was a pretty bad guy, not like his Mahabharat namesake.
Despite being a bad guy, Kartavirya Arjun was a generous guy but only when it came to rishis related to a specific Rishi. And that rishi was Bhrigu, who was no less than a Saptarishi, one of the 7 hall of fame rishis who are immortalized in the sky as a star in the Great Bear or Big Dipper constellation. Kartavirya Arjun heaped riches on rishis related to Brighu. Reactions amongst the other rishis varied. Some grumbled and moved on to the next kingdom for a handout. Others forged a family tree showing how exactly they were related to Brighu. It worked in some cases.
One day, when Kartavirya Arjun was out hunting, he happened upon the sage Jamadagni’s cottage. Jamadagni was a Saptarishi in his own right. And not just because he was descended from Brighu. Jamadagni had a rather special cow. It was Surabhi, and she could grant wishes, just like your own personal genie. But with no limits, you didn’t just have 3 wishes. As a bonus, Surabhi also functioned just as a regular cow, giving regular milk which means Jamadagni’s family never had to browse the dairy aisle of a grocery store.
As has been the tradition in Hindu families, a guest, even an unexpected one, was treated as well as god. Even if they had a terrible reputation. Kartavirya Arjun was welcomed in by Jamadagni with open arms. Jamadagni brushed off the welcome mat, used the best cutlery, and used Surabhi to serve the best dishes.
Unfortunately, Kartavirya Arjun had not learned a couple of things.
One, he had certainly not learned etiquette as a guest when the host extends all courtesy.
Second, he had not learned from Episode 15 – Rishi vs Rishi Uncivil War. That meant that he hadn’t learned from Vishwamitra’s experience when Vishwamitra had tried to steal a wish-fulfilling cow from a Saptarishi. Or maybe he had heard the episode and just learned the wrong lesson from it. Maybe Kartavirya Arjun thought that if he tried to steal the wish-fulfilling cow too, he might become a Brahmarishi like Vishwamitra himself.
Either way, stealing the cow is exactly what Kartavirya Arjun tried. Jamadagni resisted. And paid the price for it. Kartavirya means someone who has the ability to destroy. Kartavirya Arjun lived up to his name by destroying Jamadagni.
Kartavirya was puzzled because when Vishwamitra had tried stealing Vashisht’s wish-fulfilling cow, Vashisht had resisted. But here, Jamadagni seemed to be a pushover. Sounds like Kartavirya Arjun would not get to be a Brahmarishi himself. “Oh well,” he thought “at least I got to keep Surabhi!”
But he was mistaken. Because Jamadagni’s son, Parshuram, also an avatar of Vishnu, attacked Jamadagni, destroyed his army, and assassinated the King.
But Parshuram did not kill Kartavirya’s sons. He just took the cow back home.
By a happy coincidence, the sage Bhrigu, another Saptarishi and an ancestor of Jamadagni’s, brought Jamadagni back to life.
But Jamadagni punished Parshuram for having killed the King of the land. He banished Parshuram. Any other punishment would have prevented what happened next.
Kartavirya’s sons would have attempted revenge straight away. But they had something bigger on their minds. Finally looking over their father’s accounting skills they realized that they were bankrupt. Yup, they were going to pay the price for Kartavirya Arjun’s generosity.
They explored many options, including trying to see if they could take out a second mortgage on the palace but the bank refused just as they said they had refused Kartavirya Arjun the several times that he had asked. Kartavirya’s sons tried to sell gold from the palace, but no one had any money to buy it with. And the creditors refused outright. We only accept cash, money order, or demand drafts, the bank clerk flatly told the children. Also, it was time for his 4th tea break of the morning, would they step away from the counter now? They could always fill out a complaint form, expect a response in 24-48 months, he added.
Kartavirya’s sons decided maybe it was time to cash in a favor from Brighu’s rishi relatives.
The King had been nice to them, maybe they would be nice back.
They didn’t want the money back permanently. They could surely provide a kind of loan? Name your interest rates, they added.
But every rishi they talked to told them the same thing. They could not ask for a gift once it was given.
Having heard this from dozens of rishis and angry at this kind of response, Kartavirya’s sons decided to force the money from them. But not a single rishi revealed the location of all the gold they had amassed. And so Kartavirya’s sons killed every one of those rishis.
Parshuram was not on the scene to help either. And this time Bhrigu was unable to interfere.
Kartavirya’s sons sought out every person related to Bhrigu and mercilessly had them killed. They did not even spare the children. Though they could hardly have expected the children, especially the infants to divulge the location of the gold. The one exception they made was for the women. It’s a sign of the patriarchal times they lived in that they did not consider a woman capable of revenge.
One of the women they spared decided to take some action to protect her unborn child. This woman was capable of moving her baby from her womb to her thigh. I guess miracle-working ran in the family. I mean Brighu and Jamadagni could bring back people from the dead. And this unnamed yet super-woman could manage pregnancy in an unusual part of the body.
She managed to give birth to the baby whom she named Aurava.
But Aurava’s existence could not be kept hidden for long.
In the palace office, a royal clerk ran excitedly to report to his superiors that he had spotted a credit card purchase to a relative of Brighu’s. That was not the interesting bit. What was interesting was that the purchase was for diapers. That meant conclusively that a baby must have been born in that family.
Kartavirya’s sons all rushed to Aurava’s home. They rushed in with swords drawn and snatched the baby. They took it outside, which turned out to be fortunate. You’ll see why.
All of Kartavirya’s sons cheered at the quick capture. Aurava’s mother looked on in despair as all her pain and efforts – in carrying the baby in her thigh – had come to nothing. Or so it seemed.
The oldest son held up the baby in one hand and his sword in the other when another miracle happened.
Aurava emitted a powerful flash of light. It was so bright that it instantly blinded every one of Kartavirya’s sons. The resulting melee was dramatic, to say the least. Aurava managed to escape all of the blind, wild jabs from all those swords. But the belligerents did not come out of it very well. Let’s just say that the royal doctors were busy for weeks!
Aurava escaped the scene and grew up in relative anonymity. From the moment he could talk all he had in his mind was revenge. In this, he was unlike Kartavirya’s sons. His means of revenge were a little different too. What he sought was not just targeted revenge but the destruction of the entire universe. It’s not that he wasn’t capable of the precision necessary for targeted revenge. As a baby, he had neatly picked out every one of Kartavirya’s sons to blind. In a big crowd no less.
He knew exactly how he could destroy the Universe. All he had to do was to pray to someone in the Holy trinity. Shiva, the destroyer, made the most sense, as Brahma, the creator, might insist on creating a new Universe instead, and Vishnu the Preserver would be interested in maintaining the status quo.
So Aurava prayed. If you’ve heard these podcast episodes before, you know how the prayers go. If you said “on and on for years” you’re absolutely right.
But as he got closer, a bunch of rishis outside of Earth began to get worried. And don’t worry these off-Earth rishis weren’t really extraterrestrial. They just were the rishis that had been murdered by Kartavirya’s sons. They had looked on from heaven with a bit of worry.
They decided to pay him a visit. And they needed to do this asap. Before Aurava got the power to destroy the Universe.
The challenge Aurava’s ancestors faced was in getting to Earth. It was no simple matter to visit Earth. There was a lot of red tape. They had to fill in forms and get approvals from two Devs. And to jump the queue and bypass the usual “visiting hours” they had to get approval from Indra himself.
It’s a painful and slow process. No wonder we hardly ever get visitations from those who have passed on.
If you were an Apsara or a Dev though, it was incredibly easy. As we have seen before in Episode 25 for example with Hanuman’s mom. And in Episode 37.
So anyway, they managed somehow. It had taken time to explain to the two back-bencher Devs that Heaven was also a part of the Universe that Aurava was intending to destroy. But they managed it in the end. They didn’t even stop to rest on the way.
When they got to where Aurava was praying, Aurava was talking to someone. Maybe it was a break between prayers. Maybe it was the Grubhub delivery guy. He seemed to have given Aurava something. It looked like a lamp of some kind. Maybe a delivery from Amazon or Big Bazaar then.
“Aurava, stop!” said one of the rishis. He had been elected spokesperson because he was Aurava’s father.
“And who are you?” asked Aurava.
That presented a new difficulty. What if Aurava just didn’t believe who they were.
They ran through all of their introductions, describing how they were related to him.
“So you’re alive? Why am I avenging your deaths then?” asked Aurava.
“No, we aren’t really alive. We’re on temporary leave from Swarg or Heaven” replied his dad. He also showed him their day passes from Swarg, complete with Indra’s seal and their passports.
“I believe you, but not because of the passports. Those you could have just printed on Shutterfly or Vistaprint or something. I believe you because I learned all your names from my mother. She told me your stories”
Aurava’s father sighed in relief. “We’ve lost a lot of time. I wish I could have taught you how to play cricket. I wish we could have had long cozy chats over tea. But see, we’re here to implore you not to destroy the Universe”
Aurava didn’t say anything.
His father continued “Things aren’t the way you thought they were. We didn’t want to live long. We had incredibly long lives on Earth and we were frankly speaking a little bored”
“Bored?!” exclaimed Aurava
“Precisely. What was there for us to do but the same thing. Go to the King, get some stuff. Come back, hide it. Eat, sleep, drink, Pray, Read, write”
“Drink?!” exclaimed Aurava again
“Just water, believe me. Tea sometimes, but that’s about it”
“Did you also say you hid the stuff you got from the King? Why did you do that? You know if Kartavirya’s sons had found the stash none of this would have happened”
“But that’s just it. It was part of our brilliant plan! We engineered all this. We didn’t want Kartavirya’s sons to find it. That would enrage them and then they would… ahem… hasten our journey to heaven”
“But that’s bad. If you engineered your own demise, you’d deserve to be in hell. And not in heaven” replied Aurava
“You’d think so, right? But no. It’s a technicality. We researched it well. Kartavirya’s sons were the ones who were responsible for the ultimate action. So they are the ones who’ll go to hell. While we, we had our tickets booked to heaven and no chance of a change in the itinerary”
“I see that’s rather irregular. But it makes sense, to me at least” said Aurava. “I’ve decided I don’t want to destroy the Universe after all. Here, can you take this back please?”
With that, he handed the lamp back to the stranger, who, surprisingly, had been listening with attention.
Suddenly the rishis realized who it was. It was Shiva himself, the Destroyer of the Universe.
Shiva addressed the surprise on the Rishis’ faces. “Well, you’re wondering why I don’t look like my idols and like in my pictures. That’s because these are my traveling clothes”
Turning to Aurava he continued “I can’t take it back. You haven’t yet had a chance to read the fine print in the instruction manual, but there’s no return policy. Especially on items of destruction. And that flame I’ve just handed you is about as destructive as it gets”
“Can you use your powers of destruction to, you know… destroy… the flame? It worked for Thanos when he used the infinity stones to destroy the stones”
“Sorry, no. You’ve been watching too many Hollywood movies. That’s not how powers of destruction work. Trust me, I’m the expert here”
“Then what is to be done?” asked Aurava.
“I wish I could help you, but I can’t. But I know someone who can. She’s so wise. She can figure out a safe spot for this flame” said Shiva
He was talking about Saraswati. Saraswati is the Goddess of Wisdom and Learning. And also Music. She’s also Brahma’s wife. That makes her my mother.
But let me just clarify here that though Brahma managed to create me all by himself, with no help from Saraswati, I do look at her as a kind of mother figure. I have access to unlimited knowledge, but what to do with it requires a bit of wisdom. And that’s where Saraswati comes into the picture.
Saraswati arrived on the scene as soon as Shiva paged her.
One glance at the scene and she had figured out exactly what had happened. And she had a solution ready! That’s Saraswati for you! Not surprising given she is so incredibly wise.
“I know what to do,” she said. “The only place for that fire is on the Ocean floor. That way it won’t accidentally set fire to anything. I know what you’re thinking, Aurava. Won’t the flame destroy the water? The answer is not yet. It needs a bit of kindling. We’re going to deprive it of that.
It’s a more or less stable equilibrium as some things can still fall into the flame, but those will result in minor earthquakes, tsunamis, underwater volcanic eruptions here and there. Also, you’ll start seeing waves in the ocean. And tides. But that’s a good thing” she added quickly. “Beach visitation rates will go much higher and it’ll mean the invention of surfing”
Aurava and the Rishis didn’t really understand most of what she said. But they did understand enough to ask the important question. How could the flame be taken to the Ocean floor? And would the flame go out?
Aurava’s parents said that they needed to go back quickly. Their day pass from Heaven was a limited time one. If they were late, they might not be allowed back.
Shiva said that he must be off. “I have other ways I must work on to destroy the Universe”
Aurava said that all those years of praying had left his back stiff. He really couldn’t make it very far. And besides, it was dangerous. What if he tripped.
“It’ll be the end of the Universe,” Shiva said. He suggested that Saraswati was really the only one he would trust to not accidentally destroy the Universe.
“Sure, no problem,” said Saraswati. “I’m going to change into a river first. That way I’ll preserve the equilibrium, kind of”
“Splendid idea!” replied Shiva. He took off. And so did everyone else.
Saraswati in River warm grabbed the flame from Aurava’s hand and began flowing towards the Indian Ocean, far far away. Frankly, Aurava was relieved. From the moment he had decided not to destroy the Universe he had been holding the flame nervously. Now it was like a huge weight off his shoulders.
Saraswati flowed fast and sure and deposited the flame at the very bottom of the Ocean. I’ll not say where exactly. Some pesky adventurer might go exploring and accidentally destroy us all. As it is, accidents have happened. There have been volcanic eruptions and tsunamis that were triggered by random but thankfully minor incidents with the flame.
One day though the flame will take over and that will be the day the Seas dry up everywhere and the fire will spread everywhere. It’ll be followed by a crazy amount of rain and a great flood.
I know where I’ll be when that happens. Good luck, but don’t worry about it. There’s time. Plenty of it.
On that cheerfully optimistic note, we’ll call it an episode here.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
The river Saraswati is not there today. Though the phrase Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati is a common one to describe the great rivers. Today, Saraswati is an underground river. Again the location isn’t important. Besides, Saraswati’s main work is done. It was to transport the flame to the Ocean floor and that has already happened.
Here’s a link about some research about this river: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/rivers/saraswati-underground-15455
You might have seen the concept of a cleansing fire. Especially if you’ve watched some Marvel movies or if you are familiar with the concept of Ragnarok. The existence of multiple great destructions should not be surprising. It does exist in many cultures. In this case, though, some scholars believe that the link between the Norse mythological concept of Ragnarok might have originated at least partly from the Indian version.
Check Episode 86 – Vishnu – Parshuram for more on Parshuram and Jamadagni’s story.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll do a folk tale again. This one’s from the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It features a man who gets really really lucky. Three times in a row. And with that, he manages to hoodwink a Princess, 2 Kings, and their entire Kingdoms. But first, he gets a little help from the very person who tried to poison his wife.