Mudgalopākhyāna

Mudgala was a poor ṛshi who lived by gathering grain left in the fields after the harvest. Durvāsa Maharshi came to his āśrama six times, and each time ate all the food, yet Mudgala never lost his calm. For this, Indra sent a divine chariot to carry him to svarga (heaven). Mudgala first asked the messenger about the defects of svarga. When he heard them, he turned the chariot away and chose moksha (liberation) through complete renunciation.

Mārkaṇḍeya tells this upākhyāna (side account) to Yudhishṭhira in the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata.

Where it is told

The account is told at Dvaitavana. Mārkaṇḍeya tells it to Yudhishṭhira, whom the narrative also calls Dharmarāja.

The life of gleaning

Mudgala was a ṛshi who followed the hardest way of life open to a householder. This was uncha-vṛtti, gathering the grain left in the fields after the harvest. He took only what others had left behind. He ate only once in a fortnight (paksha) and kept this rule without fail.

Though he was so poor, Mudgala never failed in the duty of hospitality. Whoever came as a guest was welcomed and fed with whatever he had, however little, without hesitation, anger or any trouble of mind. His poverty outside was matched by great calm and surrender inside.

Durvāsa’s six visits

Durvāsa Maharshi, known through the tradition for his hard temper and his fierce śāpas (curses), came to Mudgala’s āśrama six times. Each time he came just when Mudgala and his family were about to eat their meal of the fortnight. Each time Durvāsa ate everything and left nothing for Mudgala or his household.

Through all six visits Mudgala’s mind did not shake. He felt no anger, no irritation, no sorrow and no bitterness. He welcomed Durvāsa, offered what he had with a cheerful face, watched it all eaten and accepted the result with perfect calm. Each time Durvāsa left without a word. The test was of Mudgala’s steadiness of mind, not of his supply of food, and in this Mudgala did not waver.

The celestial chariot

After the sixth visit a divine chariot came from Indraloka. It was bright, carried divine beings and was drawn by divine horses. Indra himself had sent it to take Mudgala to svarga. The charioteer-messenger announced that Mudgala’s great purity of mind and the puṇya (merit) of his unbroken hospitality made him fit for the highest world of svarga. He was invited to go up and enjoy the fruit of his tapas (austerity) there.

Mudgala did not accept at once. He first asked the messenger to describe svarga, not its pleasures but its defects.

The defects of svarga

The messenger told at length of the good things of svarga: the wishing-trees, the palaces of diamond and gold, the apsarās, the freedom from disease and hunger, the company of the devas and pleasures that the mortal world cannot give. He described how the divine worlds are ranked. Above the thirty-three deva lokas stands the Brahmaloka. The deva lokas are the homes of the Vasus, Rudras, Ādityas, Sādhyas, Viśvedevas, Yakshas, Gandharvas and Apsarases. Only ṛshis and munis reach the Brahmaloka, through the stored fruit of tapas.

The messenger then spoke of a still higher divine class above even the deva lokas, the Ṛbhus. The Ṛbhus are a devatāgaṇa (a company of divine beings) honoured by the devas themselves. Even the thirty-three devas worship them through yajñas. Their abode is better than all the deva lokas. The Ṛbhus do not live on the āhuti (offerings) of yajñas as the devas do, and they do not need amṛta. They have no fixed form. They always live in bliss and wish for no pleasure. For them there is neither old age nor death. No joy, love or sorrow disturbs their perfect calm. The messenger said that even the devas long to reach the state of the Ṛbhus. It is the highest of all attainments, very rare, and wholly out of reach for those who cling to the pleasures of the senses.

Then Mudgala pressed again and asked what the defects were. The messenger told them.

• The puṇya gathered in life runs out, and when it is spent the ātmā (soul) falls from svarga. The fall from svarga is especially painful.
• In svarga, seeing those who are higher brings envy and pride. These trouble the mind even among pleasures.
• The pleasures of svarga make desire grow instead of satisfying it, and so they make new kinds of attachment.
• The one who lives in svarga is still held by the basic limit of an existence earned by puṇya. His place is conditional and not final.

The messenger admitted that these defects were real. Svarga was not the end of the cycle. It was a temporary rise within the cycle.

Mudgala’s choice

When Mudgala heard the defects, he decided at once. He refused the divine chariot and its invitation. The pleasures of svarga, however grand, were not worth the fall that would come. The company of the devas, however glorious, was not worth the pride and comparison that it brought. A conditional life, earned by puṇya, was not what he wanted.

Mudgala resolved to seek complete moksha, freedom from the cycle itself, by giving up all desire. He would use the full calm of body, mind and prāṇa (life breath) for which his years of practice had prepared him. He sent the chariot back without regret.

This giving up is the high point of the upākhyāna. Mudgala showed more than poverty borne with patience. His inner life did not depend at all on outer reward, not even the highest outer reward, svarga. The ṛshi who could feed Durvāsa without bitterness could just as easily turn away Indra’s chariot without regret.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 260–261