Sudarśana and Oghavatī

Sudarśana was a king’s grandson, the son of Agni, who lived as a householder (gṛhastha). He took a vow to conquer Mṛtyu (death) without leaving home life, by serving every atithi (guest) perfectly. Mṛtyu followed him in secret, waiting for one slip. Dharma himself came as a brāhmaṇa guest and asked for Sudarśana’s wife Oghavatī. Sudarśana answered with joy, not anger. Dharma then revealed himself, blessed them, and Indra came for them with a chariot.

The Mahābhārata tells this in the Anuśāsana Parva, chapter 2. Bhīshma tells it to Yudhishṭhira.

Yudhishṭhira’s question

Yudhishṭhira had just heard the Gautamī-Lubdhaka-Vyāla-Mṛtyu-Kāla Saṃvāda. He then asked Bhīshma for another teaching based on dharma and artha. By what dharma can a gṛhastha conquer Mṛtyu? A gṛhastha is one who has not left the world through brahmacarya (the life of celibacy) or sannyāsa (renunciation).

Bhīshma answered that ūrdhvaretas brahmacārīs (those who keep their seed turned upward) conquer even Mṛtyu, whom no one can otherwise avoid, through their vrata (vow). But a gṛhastha can conquer her just as fully through atithi-sevā, service to the guest. He showed this with a purātana gāthā (an ancient verse-account) about Sudarśana.

The line from Manu to Duryodhana

Bhīshma gave the line. From the Prajāpati Manu came his son Ikshvāku, who had a hundred sons of solar tejas (radiance). The tenth of them was Daśāśva, a dharmātmā (one whose nature is dharma) and a ruler of true valour, who ruled Māhishmatī.

• Daśāśva’s son was Madirāśva. He was always devoted to satya (truth), tapas and dāna.
• Madirāśva’s son was Dyutimanta, a great soul of great tejas, steadiness and strength.
• Dyutimanta’s son was Suvīra, a king of the highest dharma, famous in all the lokas, as brave as Indra, and rich in treasuries.
• Suvīra’s son was Durjaya. No enemy could defeat him in any kind of battle, and he was the best of all who bear weapons.
• Durjaya’s son was a rājarshi (a royal ṛshi) named Duryodhana. He was an ancient king of the Ikshvāku line and is entirely different from the Kaurava prince Duryodhana of the main Mahābhārata narrative. His body was as splendid as Indra’s, and he was as radiant as the Aśvins.

Under this Duryodhana’s rule, Indra poured blessings on the kingdom. His land overflowed with jewels, wealth, cattle and every kind of crop. No subject was poor, sick or wasted. This Duryodhana loved to give. He spoke sweetly, was free of envy and was master of his senses. He was a dharmātmā, full of compassion and courage, and had no pride. He was devoted to yajña, dear to brāhmaṇas, true to his word and insulting to no one. He was a generous giver and a master of the Veda and the Vedāṅgas.

Narmadā, Sudarśanā and Agni’s claim

The pure and auspicious river-devī Narmadā loved King Duryodhana with all her heart and became his wife. A lotus-eyed daughter was born to them, named Sudarśanā. She was as beautiful as her name, and no woman born in Duryodhana’s line could match her.

The king found no suitor of high enough rank, and he did not give Sudarśanā to Agni. Agni is not a kshatriya, and Duryodhana had judged that no one lacking in family or wealth deserved her. Agni was angry at the refusal, and he vanished from the king’s great yajña.

The king was grieved. He asked the brāhmaṇas who were there what fault lay in him or in them that Agni himself had disappeared. The brāhmaṇas stayed silent and kept themselves pure (śauca), and they took refuge in Agni. Agni then showed himself to them in a form as bright as the autumn sun. He said that he himself wanted Duryodhana’s daughter as his wife.

The brāhmaṇas were amazed. They told the king, who received the news with great joy and agreed. He asked only one thing: that Agni should stay in his city forever, as the kanyā-śulka (the bride-price) for the marriage. Agni granted it, and from that day Agni’s presence has stayed at Māhishmatī without a break. When Sahadeva, on his southern digvijaya (conquering journey), passed through Māhishmatī, he saw Agni there in person.

Duryodhana dressed Sudarśanā well and gave her in vivāha (marriage) to Agni by the Vedic rule. Agni performed garbhādhāna (the rite for conceiving a child) upon her.

The birth of Sudarśana

In time Sudarśanā bore Agni a son named Sudarśana. He was as bright as the full moon. While still a child he mastered the Vedas, which teach the eternal Parabrahma.

In that same age King Oghavat, the grandfather of King Nṛga, ruled his kingdom. He had a son named Ogharatha and a daughter named Oghavatī, who was of divine form (devarūpiṇī). Oghavat gave his daughter Oghavatī in marriage to the learned Sudarśana.

Sudarśana settled with Oghavatī at Kurukshetra as a gṛhastha. There he took a solemn vow: though he would stay fully within the gṛhastha-āśrama (the householder’s stage of life), he would conquer Mṛtyu.

The vow of atithi-sevā

Sudarśana told Oghavatī that she must never act against an atithi’s wishes. Whatever an atithi wants must be given, he said, even her own body, without hesitation. This vrata, he said, was never absent from his heart, for there is nothing greater for a gṛhastha than the atithi. He asked her to hold his word in the highest respect. Above all, she must never turn away a guest who came while he was away from home, for nothing should be held back from an atithi.

Oghavatī joined her palms and placed them on her head. She answered that there was nothing his word could ask of her that she would refuse to do.

Meanwhile Mṛtyu had decided to defeat Sudarśana. Mṛtyu began to follow him constantly and in secret inside his own household, looking for any lapse. Mṛtyu followed him even when he went to gather samidhas (sticks for the sacred fire).

The test

One day Sudarśana went into the forest to gather samidhas. A radiant brāhmaṇa came as a guest and said to Oghavatī: “If the dharma of the gṛhastha-āśrama is to be honoured, I wish today to receive the ātithya (guest-hospitality) that you would give me.”

The noble princess Oghavatī prepared to honour him by the Vedic rule. She offered him a seat (āsana) and water for his feet (pādya), and asked what he wanted and what she should give him. The brāhmaṇa replied that he wanted nothing but her, herself. She should give this without hesitation, he said, because nothing should be held back from an honoured guest.

Oghavatī remembered her husband’s own instruction: whatever an atithi wants must be given, even her own body, with no need to think it over. Blushing, she agreed. The brāhmaṇa smiled to himself and went into the house with her.

Sudarśana came back from the forest with his samidhas. Mṛtyu, now filled with terrible rage, followed close behind him like a close relative. Sudarśana called for Oghavatī again and again. He asked where she had gone, and wondered aloud why she, always truthful and simple-hearted, was not answering as she always had before.

Oghavatī felt that the atithi-brāhmaṇa’s hands had touched her, and she believed that she, a pativratā (a wife true to her husband), had been dishonoured by it. She stayed silent from shame and could not answer.

Then the brāhmaṇa inside the house spoke for himself: “O son of Agni, know that I am a brāhmaṇa who came as your atithi. This Oghavatī offered me many kinds of hospitality, but it is herself that I chose. She now serves me by the rule of ātithya that fits this wish. You should give whatever further hospitality is right for this rite.”

Mṛtyu was close behind, holding a kūṭamudgala (a false iron mace). Mṛtyu was ready to kill Sudarśana the instant his atithi-vrata should fail.

Sudarśana’s joy and his oath of truth

Sudarśana gave up envy and anger in mind, in eye and in deed. He smiled and answered: “O brāhmaṇa, may your union with her bring you joy. This gives me the highest delight, for there is no dharma higher for a gṛhastha than honouring the atithi who comes to his house. The wise say there is no better dharma than that an honoured atithi should leave satisfied. My prāṇas (life-breaths), my wife and whatever else I have are all meant to be given to atithis. This is my highest vrata. There is no doubt at all in what I say.”

To prove this beyond question, Sudarśana touched his own body and swore an oath. He called as witnesses the ten devas who live inside every body and watch every act of puṇya and pāpa. They are pṛthivī (earth), vāyu (air), ākāśa (space), jala (water), agni (fire), buddhi (intellect), ātmā (the self), manas (mind), kāla (time) and dik (direction).

“If what I say today is satya,” he said, “may these devatās protect me. If it is asatya, may they burn me up.” From every direction the sound rang out again and again: “This is truth, not falsehood.”

Dharma shows himself

The brāhmaṇa then came out of the āśrama. He filled earth and sky with his own form like the wind. He called Sudarśana by name, in a voice that rang through the three lokas with the full accents of śikshā (the science of sound). He said:

“I am Dharma. May you have maṅgala (good fortune)! I came here only to test your qualities. Having found your satya-vrata, I hold you now in the highest love. You have conquered the Mṛtyu who followed you all the time, looking for any lapse. You have overcome her by your own steadiness.

“Nowhere in the three lokas does any being have the power even to look with desire at this wife of yours. She is a supreme sādhvī (a virtuous wife) and a pativratā. Her own qualities and her loyalty to you protect her always. Whatever she declares will come true exactly as she declares it, and never otherwise.

“Through her divine tapas, this Oghavatī will become a river, named Oghavatī, that will purify all the lokas. She will keep half of her body as that holy river, and with her other half she will stay in your service always, through the power of yoga (yogabala). Together with her, and by the strength of your own tapas, you will go in this very body to the eternal, sanātana lokas from which there is no return.

“You have conquered Mṛtyu, and with her the highest aiśvarya (power). By your own valour you have gone beyond the pañcabhūtas (the five elements) and reached a speed equal to the mind itself. Through this gṛhastha-dharma you have conquered kāma (desire) and krodha (anger) as well. And Oghavatī, through the strength she earned by serving you, has conquered bala (pride in strength), sneha (clinging affection), rāga (passion), ālasya (laziness), moha (delusion) and droha (malice).”

Indra’s chariot

At that moment Indra himself came, bringing an excellent chariot (ratha) drawn by a thousand white horses. Through the puṇya of atithi-sevā, Sudarśana had conquered Mṛtyu, the ātmā, the lokas, the pañcabhūtas, buddhi, kāla, manas, ākāśa, and kāma and krodha together.

Bhīshma’s closing teaching

Bhīshma tells Yudhishṭhira that for one who lives in the gṛhastha-āśrama there is no devatā higher than the atithi. This should be fixed in the mind without doubt. The wise (vivekīs) say that honouring an atithi with a good mind is worth more than a hundred kratus (yajñas).

If an atithi who comes worthy and of good character is not honoured, he goes away leaving his own pāpa with the gṛhastha and taking the gṛhastha’s puṇya with him.

This ākhyāna (account) of a gṛhastha who conquered Mṛtyu brings good fortune (dhanya), brings fame (kīrti-prada), gives long life (āyuḥ-prada) and destroys all dushkṛta (wrong deeds). One who wants prosperity (abhivṛddhi) should study it with śraddhā (faith). Whoever teaches Sudarśana’s caritra (life account) every day reaches the puṇyalokas (the worlds won by puṇya).

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, chapter 2