" There have been enough casualties, now no one shall die. Don't worry anymore" said Asthika and he started his journey to Hastinapura. Brahmins who were well versed in Vedas accompanied him. He went o the Yagnasala and stood in front of Janamejaya. He greeted the King and said " Oh King!, you are born in the great ChandraDynasty, you are a great emperor, a great saint. You have the greatest qualities that were found in Kings like Mandhata, Bhagiratha, Dasaratha, SriRama, DharmaRaja, Arjuna etc.. With gods grace you were born as a descendant of Pandavas and have made your people extremely happy. You have performed great Yagnas for the well being of your people, you have also distributed wealth to everyone and made them happy".
"The Yagna that Nala had performed, the Rajasuya that Yudhisthira performed, the Yagna that Prajapati performed bear equal importance like Sarpa Yaga that you are performing. The priests who are performing this Yagna are equivalent to Lord Brahma, They are great saints who perform penance and are well versed in Vedas. You also have the great sage Vyasa seated here along with his disciples, what else can someone expect. You are equivalent to Lord Vishnu among the Kings, that is the reason Lord Agni is here receiving the offerings of the Yagna and granting your wishes." said Asthika.
Janamejaya and his subjects were very happy to listen to Astika's words. They thought that Asthika was very gracious and a very knowledgeable person. Janamejaya was very happy and said " Oh Rishi, what do you want? I shall give you whatever you ask for." Asthika said " You are a very truthful man, and you stand on what you say and fulfill your word. So, Please stop the Sarpa Yagam, This is what I want. Please oblige to my request, please calm down now and spare the lives of my relatives".
Everyone started talking at once and said " Please my lord, Oblige to his request". Janamejaya couldn't say no and he had to stop the Sarpa Yagam. When Asthika came to the Yagna Takshaka was about to fall in to the flames. As explained earlier Takshaka went for help to Devendra but Janamejaya was wondering why all other snakes were burning in to flames but not Takshaka and he asked the priests about his whereabouts. They said that he was hiding at Devendra. Then Janamejaya said " Invite Devendra along with Takshaka". The priests were about to say " Sa Indras Takshakaya Swaha" which means let Indra burn in to flames with Takshaka and immediately Indra left Takshaka. Left alone, Takshaka was spitting out venom. The priests were just about to offer him to the flames and the Sarpa Yagam came to an end. " You have survived, don't worry now" said Asthika. Asthika saved the Naga (clan) and the Yayavar clan. He saved the serpents from extinction and people believed that uttering his name would ward of fear of serpents.
5 comments:
Vaidehi garu, I read the sarpayaagamu that you've translated for the benefit of all the uninitiated. its lucid and accurate. However i feel this yaagamu was a very cruel exercise and sets a bad precedent for posterity to follow. If cruelty against innocent animals is perpetrated with the sanction of the very sovereign king, then how can we call ourselves a civilised society. If we believe killing some creatures brings us closer to union with the Almighty, then aren't we erring somewhere in thought and interpretation. i request you to add a further explanatory foot note to this episode so that young readers don't take this in the literal or yathaartha sense.
"Every event that is happening on this earth or somewhere else has some deep meaning within, the thing is we need to see it in a different way." Dear Vasudevaya, according to you, it was a cruel event to destroy the innocent serpents. When Kadru, the mother of all serpents cursed that all serpents will be destroyed in sarpayagnya performed by Janmejaya then it was clear that in future something will happen to support the curse. Hence these all events were arisen in the support of the curse and it was started when Parikshit was killed by Takshaka to make true the another curse given by the sage Shringi whose father was insulted by Parikshit. Overall it was all happened for the welfare of the human and all living being as it was about to happen to balance the world by the creator. When Kadru cursed their 1000 serpent son then Brahma did not stopped her, because serpents number had been increased much and existence of the living being and human as well, were in danger due to the attack of serpents. Otherwiset every inch of the earth would have been covered by serpents but fortunately it was saved by the Janmejaya sarpayagnya.
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