Episode 30
Mandapala’s Love with Jarita and Lapita
– the survival four Saranga birds[i]
Last
week we saw how Khandava forest was scorched to ashes in a great fire. In the
episode we also studied that four Saranga birds (some type of birds) survived
the destruction. The current story is the story of the survival of four birds
from the holocaust. The story has lot of symbolic significance and sage Vyasa
used the text as a pretext to explain the ‘the theory
of Creation’ as per our sruti literature. The story also talks as to how
the eternal principles enshrined in Vedas are indestructible. Let us read the
story.
The Story
There
lived a Maharshi by name Mandapala in a forest. He led a life of celibacy and
austerity. He was not allowed into higher worlds since he was not having
progeny (पुं
नाम्नो नरकात् पुत्रः त्रायते पितरं श्रुतिः[ii]).
Mandapala came back from heavens to the forest. Birds breed fast and hence
Mandapala, upon assuming the form of a bird, mates with a Saranga bird, Jarita
and got blessed with four children. When they are still in egg stage, Mandapala
developed acquaintance with Lapita, one more beautiful bird and started roaming
with it.
With
brimming motherly affection, Jarita could not leave her children and started
rearing up the cute little pets in Khandava forest. She was unhappy for her
husband left her in the lurch and was roaming with a rival bird.
One
day Mandapala saw the fire god approaching the forest with the support of Nara
and Narayana. Alas! His small kids were unable to fly. How could he help her
children? He prayed to fire god profusely and sought a
boon for the safety of his four children when the forest was put to fire.
The god Agni was pleased with the prayers and promised to protect the pets from
being scorched to ashes.
Jarita
and her children were unaware of the promise of Agni to Mandapala. They got
frightened on seeing the fire approaching so fast and so fearful. She recollected
Mandapala telling about the four children – the elder
child is responsible for preserving family lineage, the second one for pleasing
the pitr devas (fore-fathers), the third one is responsible for doing penance
and the fourth child is the torch bearer of brahmajnana. Whom should she
protect? All were important in their own way? She advised her children to hide
in the rat hole nearby.
The
children did not agree with the suggestion of their mother. ‘You please protect
yourself. By remaining here, you are inviting danger to your life. Anyway, we
are destined to die in the scorching fire. You can fly with wings. We can’t go
into rat hole. It is a sin to die by the bite of rats.
It is glory if we die in fire. We are more worried as to how we can save our
father in the higher world’, they told. What could Jarita do? It saw an
eagle eating away the rats in the hole. ‘I saw an eagle eating the rats. Please
go inside and save your skin’, it suggested.
Hi!
Mother, ‘do not worry about our safety. If you live you can have children.
Please leave this place by dropping down your love and affection towards us’, Unable
to convince her children, Jarita flew to a safer destination.
In
a matter of few minutes, the birds could see the fast approaching fire. All
birds did not lose their heart. In fact, they were little Rishis born to
Mandapalaka, a Maharshi. They started praying and praising the fire god Agni. They
prayed and sought the protection. Agni recollected his promise to Mandapala and
was also pleased by the prayers of little Risheis. He blessed them and did not
gulp them in his gushes of fire. Instead, he asked what he could do to them. The
birds requested, ‘here we have a few cats who always
disturb us. You please devour all those cats’. Agni did the same and the
birds untouched.
There
Mandapala’s thoughts were occupied with the worry of his children safety. ‘What
if the fire god forgotten the promise? What if the wind god pushed him towards
the children?’ He started weeping with thoughts revolving around his children
and wife. Lapita got angry. ‘The fire god promised protecting your children. He
will not disown his pledge. Still you are worrying here. You love my rival
Jarita and her children. You go to your lover and leave me to my fate. I also
wander regretting for following a worst person’.
‘What
you think is not wise. I am thinking about the safety of my progeny. No foolish person on earth will the leave the existing
children anticipating the yet to be born future children’, saying thus
Mandapala left towards Khandava forest. By this time the fires had subsided and
Jaritha was back to her children. Mandapala reached the spot and found his wife
caressing her cute children. Nobody spoke to Mandapala. Mandapala’s face paled
before the enigmatic silence pervading the place. Ultimately Jarita broke out, ‘You
did not anyone of us when we were in distress. Go to your lover Lapita’.
‘What
a jealousy! No lady is spoiled in higher worlds with any sin other than the sin
of jealousy and relation with other men. Even Arundhati, the legendary chaste
wife of Vasishta felt jealous of her husband’s co-wife and lost her aura and
glory’, Mandapala lamented. Then he recollected how he had prayed to Agni for
the safety of children. He told his children, ‘My dear
kids! I did not come to rescue you since you are all little Rishis and already
know the Brahma- tatva. I also know the righteous nature of your mother. Dharma
protects who protect dharma’.
The
sons were pleased by the words of Mandapala and approached him with all love
and affection. Later on, Mandapala left the place to an unknown destination.
A short analysis of the story
Maha
Bharata and Ramayana are written down by sage Vyasa and Valmiki to convey the
teachings of Vedas. The text is only a pretext to convey noble thoughts. The
story of Mandapala, on the face of it, is a simple story. But it describes the
origin of the universe, the indestructibility of Vedas etc in an indirect form.
The
highlight of the story is the prayers to the fire god by the four small birds.
These prayers are described in many verses by Ved Vyasa. When Agni started
approaching the eldest kid says,
आत्मासि वायोर्ज्वलन शरीर मसि वीरुधाम् I
(Means-
O! Agni, you are very soul of Lord Vayu, you are the body to the twigs, your very
sperm is the fountain for water, and you are the cause for the origin of earth’).
The prayer sloka eulogizes the fire as the cause for wind and earth. Look at
the verse of Taitiriya Upanishad describing the origin of life on earth-
तस्माद्वा एतस्मादात्मन आकाशः संभूतः। आकाशाद्वायुः। वायोरग्निः। अग्नेरापः। अद्भ्यः पृथिवी। पृथिव्या ओषधयः। ओषधीभ्योऽन्नम्। अन्नात्पुरुषः।[iv] (Taitiriya Upanishad 1.1). The
prayers of the little rishis (sons of Mandapala) echo the vedantic perspective
of the origin of the universe- that Vayu emerged out of Akasa, Agni out of Vayu, from Agni emerged
water, from water the earth emerged, from the earth all medicinal plants and
flora, from them the food and from the food emerged the human being’. All other verses relating to prayers to Agni are pregnant with
vedantic thought. It is but natural that the fire god was pleased. Ved Vyasa introduced the concept of the theory of Creation to the
common readers through a story. The story is thus a
pretext.
Other way of understanding the story may be that Khandava dahana represents Pralaya (dissolution of the Universe) and
the four little rishi birds represent four Vedas which remain as eternal
truths. The dissolution of the Universe is
the beginning of one more Creation but Vedas, representing eternal Truths
remain indestructible entities.
Veda Vyasa hints at the Brahma Jnana possessed by the rishi
birds when they suggested their mother that –
न चोपकृतमस्माभि: न चास्मान् वेत्तये वयम् ।
- It means- we have not done any good to you. You do not who we were
before our birth. Why should you trouble yourself to protect us? How we relate
to you and how you are related to us? These words
represent the futility of developing attachments and fall under the domain of
Vedanta.
In this story we come across how
an intelligent person can weave out an opportunity out of adversity. When Agni is pleased, the little bird prayed to destroy the
cats and thus freed from further worries. Is it not a great management
strategy?
The story is also interesting in the sense that a few scholars
have modified the content of this story and molded it as a romantic love story
of Mandapala with Jarita and Lapita.
Points to ponder
- What is the theory of Creation as per Hindu philosophy?
- What are the management lessons from this story?
Footnotes
[i]
This story is taken from Adi Parva of Maha Bharata written by sage Vyasa.
[iii]
ātmāsi vāyorjvalana śarīra masi vīrudhām I
yonirāpaśca te śukraṃ yonistvamasi cāṃbhasa: - Adi
Parva 231.7
[iv]
tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ। ākāśādvāyuḥ। vāyoragniḥ। agnerāpaḥ। adbhyaḥ pṛthivī। pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ। oṣadhībhyo'nnam। annātpuruṣaḥ। (Taitiriya Upanishad)
pīḍyamānā bibharṣyasmin kāsatī ke vayaṃ tava - Adi Parva 230.13
