Āruṇi Udbhāsaka
Āruṇi, simply known as Aruni, Sanskrit: आरुणि, Telugu: ఆరుణి, Hindi: आरुणि.
Āruṇi was a disciple of the ācārya (teacher) Dhaumya. He was the son of Āruṇa, which is why he is called Āruṇi. His story is one of three stories of guru-sevā (service to the guru) placed at the very start of the Mahābhārata, as models of the bond between guru and śishya (disciple). Dhaumya sent him to mend a breach in the bank of an irrigation field. When no ordinary means could stop the water, Āruṇi lay down in the breach and stopped it with his own body. Dhaumya found him there, praised him before all the disciples, and gave him the name Udbhāsaka. This means “one who has lit himself up, who has shown his true nature”.
The account is in the Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Pauloma Parva, Chapter 3.
The task
Dhaumya sent Āruṇi to the fields with one instruction: mend the breach in the irrigation bank, through which water was pouring. It was the rainy season. The breach was large, and water kept flooding through whatever was put in it. Āruṇi tried every means he had. He piled up earth, and he laid stones and grass. Nothing held, and the water kept pouring through.
He gives himself
Āruṇi saw that no ordinary way was left. He lay down in the breach, pressing his body into the gap in the earth bank, and stopped the water with his own body. His body became the dam.
He stayed there through the night, lying in the cold wet earth in the dark, with the water pressing against him, and held the breach shut. The text does not say that he called for help, complained or left his place. He held on.
Dhaumya names him Udbhāsaka
At dawn Dhaumya came looking for him and called, “Āruṇi! Where are you?” Āruṇi rose from the breach. The water flooded back in as he stood up. He came to his guru and said, “Ācārya, I could not stop the water in any other way. I lay down in the breach myself.”
Dhaumya was deeply moved. He embraced Āruṇi, and his eyes filled with tears. He praised his disciple before the whole assembly of students. He did not do it quietly in private but in public, so that all knew what Āruṇi had done. He said, “From now on let your name be Udbhāsaka, the one who lights up, for you have shown yourself and shown what you truly are.”
He then blessed Āruṇi with full mastery of all the Vedas, all the dharmaśāstra, and all that is good and true in the three worlds.
The remark of Nīlakaṇṭha
Nīlakaṇṭha Caturdhara, in his commentary, says that the name Udbhāsaka points to this. The lighting up did not come from Dhaumya teaching Āruṇi something new. It came from Āruṇi showing what was already in him: a nature with no reserve and no self-protection, able to offer itself completely.
Later life
Āruṇi became a well-known ācārya in his own right. His name and his story are kept as the standard example of guru-sevā.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Pauloma Parva, Chapter 3