DIVINE INFORMATION2-24 13. Matsya Purana part…8
Posted by:"DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN" [email protected] prdili Thu Sep 2, 2010 5:44 am (PDT) The Solar Line The sages requestedLomaharshana. "Please tell us the history of the solar line." Lomaharshanacomplied. Aditi and the sageKashyapa had borne the sun-god, Vivasvana or Surya, as a son. Surya had threewives, Samjna, Rajni and Prabha. Rajna had a son named Revataand Prabha had a son named Prabhata (morning). (Usually, only Samjna is mentioned in the otherPuranas.) Surya and Samjnahad two sons and a daughter. The eldest son was Vaivasvata Manu. And the remaining twooffspring were twins named Yama and Yamuna. The sun’s radiancewas however too much for Samjna to bear. After a while, she could not bear it any longer. Shetherefore created a woman out of her own body. The woman looked exactly likeSamjna and was named Chhaya (shadow). There wasno way of telling the two apart. "Stay here andpretend to be me," said Samjna. "Look after my husband and my children. No one will know the truthunless you tell them. As for me, I am going away." Surya did notrealize that Samjna had left. He took Chhaya to be his wife, and Surya and Chhaya had two sons and two daughters. The sonswere Savarni Manu and Shani (Saturn)and the daughters were Tapati and Vishti. (The second daughter named Vishti does not usuallyoccur in the other Puranas.) Chhaya was clearlyfonder of her own children and neglected Samjna’s. This did not bother Vaivasvata Manu too much.He was the eldest and more collectedand balanced. But Yamaresented this favouritism of Chhaya’s. In a fit of petulance, he raised hisfoot to kick Chhaya. Chhaya cursed Yama."I curse you that your foot may be devoured by worms," she said. "May it beinfected with pus and blood." This alarmed Yamaand he rushed to his father. "My mother has cursed me," he told Surya. "I am only achild. Even if I did commit a sin, does a mother ever curse her children? I have serious misgivings that she is not our mother at all." When Surya taxedChhaya with this, she came out with the truth and Surya learnt that Samjna had left. Samjna’s fatherwas Vishvakarma, the architect of thegods. Surya went to his father-in-law to find out if he knew anything of Chhaya’s whereabouts. "Indeed, Ido," replied Vishvakarma. "When Samjna left your house, she came to me in the form of a mare.But I refused to let her live in my house, since she had left her husband’s house without seeking his permission. She is living at the moment inthe desert. But Samjna did- what shedid because she could not bear to stand your energy and radiance. If you permit, I shall shave offsome of the excess energy, so thatpeople can look at you." 9. Matsya Purana part…9 Posted by:"DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN" [email protected] prdili Sat Sep 4, 2010 6:59 am (PDT) (There are some minor divergences with themore usual accounts, such as that in theMarkandeya Purana. According to these accounts, Samjna did not tell Vishvakarma that Surya did not knowof her departure and stayed with herfather for some time, though not in the form of a mare. But after a while Vishvakarma got suspicious, asSamjna adopted the form of a mare and started to live in the kingdomknown as Uttarakuru, not the desert(Maru) as stated in the Matsya Purana. Vishvakarma got to know all this through his mental power.) To return to theMatsya Purana, Vishvakarmashaved off some of the sun’s energy.With the excess energywere constructed many of the weapons of the gods such as Vishnu’s chakra (abladed-discus) , Shiva’s trident (trishula) and Indra’s vajra. This made the sun’svisage much more pleasant andbearable. The only parts of Surya’s body that were not thus modified were the feet. No one can bear to look atSurya’s feet and it isforbidden to visualise the sun-god’s feet when one is praying to him. A person who doesnot follow this injuction is a sinner and is made to suffer from leprosy. Surya now went tolook for Samjna and found her in the form of a mare. He too adopted the form of a horse and joined her.As horses, they had two sons. Sinceashva means horse, the sons were known as the Ashvinis. They became the physicians of the gods andwere also known as Nasatya and Dasra.After the Ashvinis were born, Surya and Samjna gave up their forms of horses and returned to their usualforms. What do you thinkhappened to Savarni Manu? He went away to perform tapasya (meditation) on Mount Sumeru. He isdestined to be one of the future Manus. Shani became a planet and Yamunaa river. As for Tapati, she toobecame a river (Tapai), (The Mahabharata states that Tapati married King Samvarana and gave birth a sonnamed Kuru. From Kuru the line came tobe known as that of the Kauravas.) You will rememberthat Yama had been cursed by Chhaya that his feet would rot and be infected with worms. To mitigate the effects of the curse, Surya gave Yama a bird which ate up all the worms. Thereafter, Yama went to a tirtha named Gokarna andstarted to pray to Shiva. For thousands of years he prayed andeventually managed to please Shiva. Shivagranted Yama the boon that he would be the god of death.He would meteout punishments to sinners in accordance with the sins (papa) that they had committed. He would also keepaccount of the store of merit (punya)that righteous people accumulated. Vaivasvata Manuruled as Manu. He had ten sons. The eldest was named Ila. (In many other Puranas, Ila is said tohave been a daughter.) The other sonswere named Ikshvaku, Kushanabha, Arishta, Dhrishta, arishyanata, Karusha,Sharyati, Prishadhra and Nabhaga. The solar line owes its origin to Ikshavaku.In this line was born king Bhagiratha,who brought the sacred river Ganga down from heaven. (The story is related in the Mahabharata,apart from several Puranas.) Further down theline was Dasharatha and Dasharatha’s son was Rama. You know about Rama from the Ramayana. Posted to google groups by R.Gopalakrishnan on 25-11-2021 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/72353518.3396135.1637833110321%40mail.yahoo.com.
