Durvāsa Curses Indra

This narrative from the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells how Indra’s pride cost the three worlds their prosperity. Indra dishonoured a pārijāta flower that Bhagavān Vishṇu had given to the ṛshi Durvāsa. Durvāsa gave him a śāpa (a curse), and Lakshmī left. The three worlds fell into poverty and disease. Indra turned to Durvāsa and to his guru Bṛhaspati for teaching, and then led the devas to Vaikuṇṭha. There Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa told them to churn the cosmic ocean, and Lakshmī rose again from the Kshīrasāgara.

Durvāsa visits Indra

Once Devendra, lord of the three worlds, had been drinking. He was playing in a private place with Rambhā, his mind lost in kāma (desire). At that moment the great ṛshi Durvāsa Mahārshi came to the place. He was on his way from Vaikuṇṭha to Kailāsa.

The ṛshi blazed like the midday sun of summer. He carried a great mass of golden jaṭā (matted hair), a white yajñopavīta (sacred thread), white clothes, a daṇḍa (staff) and a kamaṇḍalu (water pot), and a tilaka as round as the moon’s disc. His disciples, learned in the Vedas and their aṅgas (limbs), came with him.

Seeing the ṛshi, Indra rose at once and made namaskāra to them all. Durvāsa and his disciples blessed him. Then Durvāsa gave Indra a pārijāta flower that Bhagavān Vishṇu himself had given to the ṛshi. This flower destroys death (mṛtyu), old age, disease and sorrow (duḥkha), gives moksha, and is supremely beautiful.

Indra took the flower. But, drunk with the mada (pride) of kingship, he laid it carelessly on the head of his elephant Airāvata. The moment the flower touched Airāvata, he became equal to Vishṇu in quality, age and radiance. Changed in this way, the elephant left Indra and walked into the forest. Indra could not hold him back.

Durvāsa saw that Indra had shown no respect for the flower he had given and had thrown it away. In his anger he cursed Indra.

The śāpa and Lakshmī’s departure

Durvāsa spoke the śāpa: “You, Devendra, have become proud of your wealth and have dishonoured me. You put the flower I gave you, in pride, on an elephant’s head. This pārijāta was meant to be honoured on the head of whoever wore it. Now it has gone to an elephant. You shall lose your śrī (fortune).”

Indra at once fell at Durvāsa’s feet and wept. He agreed that the śāpa was earned. Pride in wealth (aiśvarya-mada) destroys jñāna, blocks the road to mukti, keeps bhakti to Śrī Hari from rising, and is the root cause of birth, death, old age and disease. One drunk with pride cannot see the path of liberation. He is like a man drunk on surā (liquor): relatives stand all around him, and he hates them all.

Indra begged the ṛshi: “In this hour of crisis I have found one who is an ocean of jñāna. Even though this trouble came from your śāpa, it has become the cause of my freedom. Give me at least some jñāna to cross saṃsāra.”

Durvāsa was moved by Indra’s honesty and taught him. Desire-driven acts (kāmya-karmas) bring svarga (heaven) and other enjoyments, but their roots must be cut by jñāna to reach moksha. All sāttvika acts should be done without saṅkalpa (selfish aim) and offered wholly to Śrī Kṛshṇa. Only the bhaktas of Bhagavān Vishṇu win true mukti. That is not mere moksha but eternal sevā (service) to Paramātmā in Vaikuṇṭha or Goloka, in a divine body (divya-deha). There are nine forms of bhakti, among them smṛti (remembering), kīrtana (singing), arcana (worship), pāda-sevana (serving the feet), namaskāra (bowing), stotra (praise) and naivedya (food offering). These carry a person across saṃsāra and cut the tree of karma at the root. The name of Kṛshṇa removes every obstacle. Time (kāla), death, disease and burning pain (tāpa) run from the devotee as snakes run from Garuḍa.

Meanwhile Lakshmī-devī, robbed of her grace, left svarga and the earth and went to Vaikuṇṭha. There she merged into Mahālakshmī. With Lakshmī gone, all three worlds fell into poverty, disease and darkness. Devas and humans alike lost their śrī.

Bṛhaspati’s teaching on karma

After Durvāsa’s teaching, Indra went out and saw that Amarāvatī, his own city, had been seized by the daityas and asuras. His relatives, his mother, his father and his wife were nowhere to be seen. Looking for his guru, he found Bṛhaspati sitting on the bank of the Deva-Gaṅgā, facing east and meditating on Parabrahma. Bṛhaspati’s body was covered with pulakāṅkura (hair standing on end), and tears of joy (ānanda) flowed from his eyes. After a jāma (a watch of the day) of japa, Bṛhaspati rose. Indra fell at his guru’s feet, weeping, and told him the whole account, the brahma-śāpa and all that had happened.

Bṛhaspati comforted him and taught:

A wise person does not give way to grief when trouble strikes. Prosperity and misfortune are never lasting. They pass like dreams. They depend on the good and bad karmas (śubhāśubha-karma) of past lives and of this one. They turn like the spokes of a wheel (cakra).

In this land of Bhārata, every jīva must, without fail, feel the full phala (fruit) of every good and bad karma it has done. However many years go by, karma does not end without being felt. Even karma done a koṭi of births ago follows the jīva like a shadow. Until its phala is felt, it does not let go.

The phala of karma grows or shrinks by place (deśa), time (kāla) and receiver (pātra). A dāna (gift) given on an ordinary day gives ordinary fruit. Given at a special tīrtha during a solar eclipse, it gives crores of times more. A dāna to an ordinary brāhmaṇa gives ordinary fruit. A dāna to a worshipper of the Vishṇu mantra (Vishṇu-mantra-upāsaka) gives crores of times more. As a farmer’s harvest changes with the field and the seed, so the phala changes with place, time and receiver.

A potter makes pots with a stick (daṇḍa), a mould, water, a wheel (cakra), clay and thread. In the same way Brahmā gives phala by the thread of karma. So seek Nārāyaṇa, the maker, keeper and destroyer of all, the Time (Kāla) of Time himself. In an hour of great crisis, remembering Madhusūdana alone brings wealth (sampad).

The devas go to Vaikuṇṭha

Following Bṛhaspati’s advice, Devendra, meditating in his heart on Śrī Mahāvishṇu, set out with Bṛhaspati and the rest of the devas to Brahmaloka. At Brahmaloka Bṛhaspati told Brahmā the whole account. Brahmā smiled and said to Indra: “You were born of my line. You are my great-grandson. Your guru is Bṛhaspati. Your maternal grandfather (mātāmaha) is Daksha Prajāpati, himself a great bhakta of Vishṇu. With such a line, a faithful mother (pativratā), a father who rules his senses (jitendriya) and a sāttvika maternal grandfather, how did you become proud (ahaṃkārī)?”

Then Brahmā explained the nature of the wrong Indra had done. The pārijāta was the very flower with which Parameśvara Śiva worships the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛshṇa. It was a most sacred offering, given from Vaikuṇṭha. Whoever puts it on his head is to be honoured first by all the devas. Indra’s adṛshṭa (unseen fate) had deceived him, and no one can protect one who has no adṛshṭa. Mahālakshmī will not live in the house of anyone who does not honour Śrī Kṛshṇa’s nirmālya (offered flower). The hundred aśvamedha yajñas that Indra had done had earned him his śrī. But that śrī left with Lakshmī’s anger when Indra cast aside the Kṛshṇa-nirmālya.

Then Brahmā told all the devas: “Let us go to Vaikuṇṭha. You shall please Śrī Kṛshṇa Paramātmā through Nārāyaṇa, and by his anugraha (grace) you shall win back your svarga-śrī.”

Brahmā and all the devas went to Vaikuṇṭha. There they saw the eternal Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. He is a form of light, calm, without beginning or end, with the radiance of a koṭi of suns. He was served by his four-armed attendants, Sarasvatī, the four Vedas and Gaṅgādevī. Brahmā bowed with folded hands and told Śrī Nārāyaṇa all of Indra’s account. The devas fell at his feet, weeping.

Nārāyaṇa’s word and where Lakshmī lives

Nārāyaṇa saw the devas, stripped of clothes, ornaments, carriers and radiance. He said: “Do not fear. I am here. I shall give you Lakshmī, who gives the highest wealth. But first hear my words.”

Then Nārāyaṇa named the places where Lakshmī does not live. She does not live in houses where the sound of the conch is missing, where tulasī and sālagrāma are not worshipped, where brāhmaṇas get no food, and where his bhaktas are insulted. She will not stay even for a moment with those whose conduct is corrupt: the one who betrays, who lies, who hates devas and brāhmaṇas, who has no kindness, or who breaks dharmic observances.

And where she does live: wherever there is pūjā of Śrī Hari, singing of Śrī Hari’s praise (kīrtana), the sound of the conch (śaṅkha-dhvani), service of tulasī, worship of sālagrāma, worship of the Śivaliṅga, singing of Parameśvara’s praise, and worship of all the devas. There Lakshmī-devī always lives.

Then Nārāyaṇa told Lakshmī-devī: “Take birth from the Kshīrasāgara as a kanyā (maiden), an aṃśa (part) of your own form.” And he told Brahmā and all the devas: “Go and churn the Kshīrasāgara. The Lakshmī who is born from that churning shall be given to the devas.”

The churning of the Kshīrasāgara

By Śrī Hari’s command all the devas went to the Kshīrasāgara. They took Mount Mandara as the churning rod (mathani), the great Ādi-Kūrma as the base (pātra), and Vāsuki as the churning rope (rajju). With these they churned the cosmic ocean.

From the churning rose Dhanvantarī, fully ripe in wisdom, bearing the kalaśa (pot) of amṛta. Then came Ucchaiḥśravā, the king of horses; the jewels (ratnas), among them the Kaustubha; Airāvata, the great elephant; and last of all Lakshmī-devī herself.

Lakshmī-devī saw the beautiful, auspicious Vishṇu, who goes everywhere, lying on the Kshīrasāgara. She put a vana-mālā (forest garland) around his neck and joined herself to him. Brahmā, Śaṅkara and all the devas worshipped her. At their worship, Lakshmī-devī cast on all the devas a look of kindness (dayā-dṛshṭi) that lifted Durvāsa’s śāpa.

Through Mahālakshmī-devī’s anugraha and the vara (boon) she gave, the devas won back their world, which the daityas had seized, and returned to Devaloka.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 36 (Durvāsa and Indra, the śāpa, Lakshmī’s departure)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 37 (Bṛhaspati’s teaching on karma)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 38 (the devas at Vaikuṇṭha, Nārāyaṇa’s word, the churning)