Bhṛgu’s Śāpa on Vishṇu
This episode is told in the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 72 and 73. In the great war of the devas and asuras, the wife of the ṛshi Bhṛgu gave shelter to the asuras who were running from Bhagavān Vishṇu. Bhagavān Vishṇu cut off her head with the Sudarśana Cakra. Bhṛgu laid a śāpa (a curse) on him: he would take seven births among humans and feel human sorrow. Bhagavān Vishṇu accepted the śāpa calmly, and then brought Bhṛgu’s wife back to life by his words of truth.
Bhṛgu’s wife shelters the asuras
The devas and asuras were locked in a great war. The devas had weakened the asuras and driven them back, and the asuras ran for shelter. They came to the āśrama (hermitage) of the great ṛshi Bhṛgu and asked his wife to protect them.
She was moved by compassion. She sheltered them by her own power. She used her yogic śakti (power) and her tapas (austerity) to hide and guard the asuras.
Bhagavān Vishṇu cuts off her head
Bhagavān Vishṇu was chasing the asuras, and he came to Bhṛgu’s āśrama. He saw that Bhṛgu’s wife was guarding them with the power of her tapas. The asuras must not escape, for their escape would keep adharma alive in the world. Bhagavān Vishṇu did not wait. He sent out the Sudarśana Cakra, and it cut off the head of Bhṛgu’s wife. The asuras had lost their protector, and they were destroyed.
Bhṛgu’s śāpa
Bhṛgu came back to his āśrama and found his wife dead. His grief had no measure and his anger was complete. He turned to Bhagavān Vishṇu and spoke a solemn śāpa:
“Because you have killed a woman, a brāhmaṇī, you will take seven births in the world of men. In each of those births you will feel human sorrow: parting from your wife, the pains of birth, the hardships of exile, fighting with enemies, and the grief of loss. Only in this way will you know the suffering you have caused.”
Bhagavān Vishṇu stayed perfectly calm and accepted the śāpa. He did not argue against it, and he did not call on his divine rule.
Bhagavān Vishṇu brings Bhṛgu’s wife back
After he had accepted the śāpa, Bhagavān Vishṇu spoke the satya-vacas, words of perfect truth. By the power of that truth, Bhṛgu’s wife was brought back to life, and her cut-off head was joined again to her body. Bhṛgu’s sorrow was not wholly gone, but the loss of that moment was undone.
The seven human births
Chapter 73 of the Madhyama Bhāga gives the list of the avatāras of Bhagavān Vishṇu that come about because of Bhṛgu’s śāpa, in the setting of the Daśāvatāra (the ten avatāras). The human births named in answer to the śāpa are the great earthly avatāras:
- Paraśurāma, in the 19th Tretā-yuga.
- Rāma, in the 24th Tretā-yuga.
- Kṛshṇa, in the 28th Dvāpara-yuga.
In these births Bhagavān Vishṇu goes through the full range of human feeling, including viraha (parting from a loved one), exile and battle.
Sources
- Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 72 (Bhṛgu’s wife, the Sudarśana Cakra, the śāpa, the restoring of her life)
- Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 73 (the avatāras that follow from the śāpa)
- Devī Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 11