Durvāsa Bhikshā

Durvāsa Bhikshā is the account that Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself gave to Yudhishṭhira in the Anuśāsana Parva. It tells how the fierce and unpredictable ṛshi (seer) Durvāsa once lived for a long time in Kṛshṇa’s own house at Dvārakā. Durvāsa tested Kṛshṇa’s patience to its limit. He asked for pāyasam (sweet milk rice), smeared it on Kṛshṇa and on Rukmiṇī, and then yoked Rukmiṇī to his chariot like a horse. Finding no trace of anger in Kṛshṇa, he gave Kṛshṇa a vara (a boon) of near-total safety from harm, and gave Rukmiṇī the first place among Kṛshṇa’s sixteen thousand wives.

Pradyumna’s question

Kṛshṇa told Yudhishṭhira that once, at Dvārakā, his son Pradyumna grew angry with brāhmaṇas. Pradyumna asked his father a pointed question. What fruit does the worship of brāhmaṇas bring? And from where has their lordship, in this world and the next, come?

Kṛshṇa answered with a memory instead of an argument. It was the memory of how the great ṛshi Durvāsa once lived in his house, and Kṛshṇa now repeated it to Yudhishṭhira.

Durvāsa’s stay at Dvārakā

Kṛshṇa remembered a towering brāhmaṇa. He wore bark, and he had a long beard and moustaches. His colour was a mix of green and tawny. He was taller than any man on earth, and he wandered at will through both the mortal and the divine worlds. People used to sing of him at crossroads and in assemblies with the refrain, “Who would keep Durvāsa, honoured, in his own house?” No one had been willing to shelter him until Kṛshṇa did.

His habits could not be predicted. On one day he would eat enough for many thousands of people at one sitting. On another day he would take nothing at all. Sometimes he vanished from the house for a time. He would burst into laughter for no reason, or weep aloud without warning. Once, as he left the house, he set fire to the beautifully adorned couches, the seats and the maidens’ own rooms. Kṛshṇa says that no being on earth could be found like Durvāsa in age and temper. He was unlike anyone else.

The demand for pāyasam

One day the ṛshi said to Kṛshṇa with sudden force, “I wish to eat pāyasam.” Kṛshṇa’s household was already attentive to his every wish. They quickly prepared a great abundance of every kind of food and drink, with pāyasam first among them, and they offered it to him piping hot.

When he had eaten, Durvāsa commanded Kṛshṇa, “Smear the remaining pāyasam on my limbs.” Kṛshṇa did exactly this without delay or the least concern. He anointed the ṛshi’s body and head with the leftover pāyasam. Then Durvāsa turned to Rukmiṇī, who stood nearby with a calm, smiling face, and smeared the pāyasam on her as well.

Rukmiṇī yoked to the chariot

The ṛshi’s body was now blazing like fire. He had Rukmiṇī, anointed with pāyasam, yoked to his chariot in place of a horse. With Kṛshṇa watching, he drove the delicate queen down the great royal road and goaded her on with his aṅkuśa (the driver’s goad). Kṛshṇa felt not the smallest flicker of jealousy or grief.

The Dāśārhas, Kṛshṇa’s own kinsmen, saw this shocking sight and could not hold back their anger. They muttered among themselves that only brāhmaṇas are truly great, never any other varṇa. How else could a man yoke Kṛshṇa’s own chariot-queen and live? A serpent’s venom is fierce, they said, but a brāhmaṇa is fiercer. A snake’s poison has a cure, but there is no physician anywhere for the bite of a brāhmaṇa’s wrath.

As the ṛshi drove on with growing pride, Rukmiṇī stumbled on the road. Durvāsa did not relent. He drove her harder.

The ṛshi’s flight and Kṛshṇa’s pursuit

At the height of his fury, Durvāsa suddenly leapt down from the chariot. Without looking where he was going, he fled on foot toward the south, taking no notice of road or path. Kṛshṇa, still smeared with the leftover pāyasam, ran after him. Again and again he begged, “Revered one, be gracious; be pleased with me.”

Durvāsa, of great tejas (spiritual brilliance), turned and looked at Kṛshṇa and said, “Kṛshṇa, mighty-armed one, you have conquered anger by your very nature. Great one of firm vows, I can find not the slightest fault in you. I am well pleased. Govinda, ask now for whatever you wish.”

The vara and the one place it did not reach

Durvāsa then told Kṛshṇa what his pleasure had already given him. “My son, as long as living beings keep any regard for food in this creation, so long will they keep regard for you. For all that time you will hold the highest distinction in all three lokas (worlds), and you will be dearest of all to the whole world. Janārdana, whatever object of yours is broken, burned or utterly destroyed, you will see it restored, as it was or better. Madhusūdana, you smeared this pāyasam on your limbs. Therefore, Acyuta, for as long as you wish, you will have no fear of death.”

Then, with regret, he added, “My son, you did not smear it on the soles of your feet. That did not please me.”

After this, Kṛshṇa saw his own body shining with a new splendour.

The soles of Kṛshṇa’s feet were the one place the pāyasam did not touch, and so the vara did not cover them. The Mahābhārata later tells that Kṛshṇa’s death came by a hunter’s arrow that struck the sole of his foot, after Gāndhārī’s curse in the Strī Parva.

The vara to Rukmiṇī

Durvāsa then turned to Rukmiṇī and said, “Mother, you will be the most famous among all women. Auspicious one, you will gain the highest glory in this world. Neither old age, nor disease, nor any dimming of your beauty will ever touch you, blessed one. Fragrant with virtue, you will serve Kṛshṇa, and among the sixteen thousand brides of this Keśava you alone will be first, with a world equal to Keśava’s own.”

Having spoken to Rukmiṇī, the ṛshi, blazing like agni (fire) and full of tejas, vanished from that very place.

Kṛshṇa’s silent vow

After Durvāsa vanished, Kṛshṇa resolved in his own mind to keep an upāṃśu-vrata (a silent, private vow). Whatever any brāhmaṇa might say, however small, he would do exactly as it was spoken, without question. Kṛshṇa kept this vow together with Rukmiṇī and went back into his house filled with deep joy.

Inside, he found that everything the ṛshi had broken and burned was restored. It was new, stronger and more beautiful than before, just as the vara had promised. Kṛshṇa marvelled at this. From that day he honoured brāhmaṇas with all his heart and mind. This is the whole answer that Kṛshṇa gave to Pradyumna’s question.

Durvāsa’s origin

The next chapter of Kṛshṇa’s narration to Yudhishṭhira turns to praise of Bhagavān Śiva and the burning of Tripura. It tells that the five-tufted boy seated on Rudra’s thigh at that great event was this same Durvāsa, in an earlier moment of his existence.

The Śata Rudra Saṃhitā gives a separate account of Durvāsa’s birth, from Atri and Anasūyā.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 159
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, the chapter that follows Chapter 159 (Śiva and the burning of Tripura)
• Śata Rudra Saṃhitā (Durvāsa’s birth from Atri and Anasūyā)