Vāyu

Vāyu, also called Pavana, is the deva of the wind. In the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata, in the talk between Pavana and Arjuna (the Pavana-Arjuna Saṃvāda), Vāyu calls himself the “dūta of the devas” (messenger of the devas). He steps in to correct the pride of the king of the earth, Kārtavīrya Arjuna.

The Pavana-Arjuna Saṃvāda

King Kārtavīrya Arjuna was drunk with pride in the four varas (boons) that Dattātreya had given him. He boasted in the open sky that no being, human or divine, was his equal. A voice from the sky, the voice of Sarasvatī or Gāyatrī, had declared the greatness of the brāhmaṇas, but it fell silent before his defiance. Then Vāyu took up the argument from the sky.

Vāyu told him plainly who he was: “I am Vāyu, dūta of the devas, and I speak your hita (welfare).” He warned the king to give up his state of pāpa (sin) (pāpa-bhāva) and bow to the brāhmaṇas with humility (vinaya). A kingdom that wrongs brāhmaṇas is thrown into turmoil (kshobha), and its king may himself be cast out by their wounded zeal (utsāha). (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 152)

Vāyu speaks for the greatness of the brāhmaṇas

The king challenged Vāyu to show how any brāhmaṇa could equal Vāyu himself, or jala (water), vahni (fire), Sūrya or gagana (sky). Vāyu answered over five chapters with a chain of itihāsas (accounts of past events):

  • Kaśyapa joined with the fleeing Earth to save her from the dakshiṇā (gift) of King Aṅga.
  • Utathya won back Bhadrā from Varuṇa by drying up the ocean itself. In this account Vāyu admits that he himself fled the wrath of the maharshi into the agni-hotra fire for a long age.
  • Kapila burned the sons of Sagara.
  • Agastya destroyed the fleeing dānavas.
  • Vasishṭha destroyed the Khalin rākshasas and made the river Sarayū.
  • Atri became the Moon and the Sun to drive away the darkness of Rāhu.
  • Cyavana forced Indra to give soma to the Aśvins, and the asura Mada was born.
  • The brāhmaṇas destroyed the Kapas with fire.

Through these accounts Vāyu shows the proud emperor that the tejas (power) of the brāhmaṇas has again and again overturned even devas, oceans and cosmic darkness. The power of a kshatriya (warrior) cannot be separated from the grace of the brāhmaṇas. (Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 153–157)

The warning to Kārtavīrya Arjuna

The king was humbled. He accepted that the brāhmaṇas are supreme and confessed that all his strength was the grace of Dattātreya. Vāyu then ended the talk with a last instruction and a warning. He told the king to rule the brāhmaṇas with kshātra-dharma (the duty of a warrior) and to master his senses (indriyas). A terrible danger (ghora bhaya) from the line of Bhṛgu waited for him in time. This foretells the death of Kārtavīrya Arjuna at the hands of Paraśurāma. (Chapter 157)

Vāyu in the cycle of secret dharma (Chapters 125 and 128)

In the Pitṛ-Rahasya (Chapter 125), Bṛhaspati teaches that a person who hates Vāyu causes a garbha (pregnancy) to be lost. This is one of several faults (doshas) listed with passing water facing the sun and neglecting the fire rite (agni-kārya).

In the Deva-Rahasya (Chapter 128), Vāyu himself teaches the dharma of the rainy months. Through all four rainy months, one should do the fire rite, eat pāyasa (sweet milk rice), give lamps (dīpa-dāna) and offer sesame and water (tila-udaka) to the pitṛs (ancestors). One should also feed a brāhmaṇa who has finished full study of the Veda. This gives the fruit of a hundred paśu-bandha yajñas (animal-offering fire rituals).

Vāyu then tells a further and more delicate secret (rahasya). Some wrongly hold it to be dharma when a śūdra tends the sacred fire, or when women do not know how to handle the havir-mūḍha (the sacred offerings). These are in fact adharma. They bring the anger of the fires and birth in the womb of a śūdra. The prāyaścitta (atonement) is to live for three days on only cow’s urine, dung, milk and ghee, while doing the fire rite with śraddhā (faith).

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 125, 128 and 152–157