Chyavana and Sukanya (Part 2)

The word Chyavana comes from ‘chyu’, meaning to fall or slip. Even after years of tapas, the rishi’s attention was seduced when he saw Sukanya; sitting within the anthill he tried to communicate with her. Even after years of hard work, he allowed his consciousness to be hypnotized by an external event. Thus, he fell from the heights he had achieved. The result was that he lost his eyes, symbolic of falling from light into darkness. As we progress in the story, we will see how once one falls from a great height of austerity, it takes a long and arduous cycle to come back.

We saw that Rishi Chyavana agreed to forgive the king if he could marry Sukanya. The king immediately realized the gravity of the situation and married his young daughter to the very old rishi. The king’s soldiers, suffering from stomach cramps, were instantly relieved and the king left his daughter with the rishi and returned to his capital.

Sukanya was virtuous and the sudden turn of events did not disturb her. On the contrary, she was very happy to have a husband who was a great rishi. She started serving her husband with deep love and spent the rest of her time in tapas. Without any thought of negativity, she looked after the guests who came to meet the rishi and dutifully lit the ‘Agnihotra’ fires every day. The old rishi was very pleased with the actions of his young wife.

One early morning, Sukanya went to the river to have a bath. Co-incidentally, Ashwinikumars, the twin gods, had come to the river too. They saw Sukanya, without clothes, in the water and were infatuated by her beauty. They ran to her and said “O one with most shapely thighs, are you anyone’s wife? What are you doing all alone in this forest? The two of us want to know you so please tell us who you are.”

Sukanya replied, “Know me as the daughter of King Sharayati and the wife of Rishi Chyavana”. The Ashwinikumars started laughing and said, “O beautiful one, what made you marry this old man? In this dark forest, your beauty is like a flash of lightning that has overwhelmed us completely. Even though you are without clothes and jewels, your beauty is unsurpassed. You are wasting your youth tied to an old husband. Leave him and come with us.” To this, Sukanya told the twins that she loved her husband deeply and would not leave him for anything.

The twins then told Sukanya that they were the physicians of the gods; that they could make her husband young and full of vigour again. Once they had restored his youth to him, all three of them would stand in front of her and she then could choose one of them as her husband.

Sukanya was thrilled with the idea that Chyavana could regain his youth and ran to tell her husband about what had happened.