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Chyavana and Sukanya (Part 5)
Healing and Regeneration
We have gone over the story of Chyavana and Sukanya; now, let us try to find some hidden meanings in it. The word Chyavana comes from ‘chyut’ meaning to slip or fall. Chyavana is depicted as being very old, symbolic of a state of no energy or one who has lost all his energy in brooding and day dreaming. Even though he was meditating in the ant hill, his attention was not on his divine self but in the world outside. This is a fragmented state of attention. He had, thus, slipped or fallen from his meditative height. Also, when Chyavana was blinded, he reacted and put the curse of stomach cramps upon the king’s army. The basis of spirituality is to be free of reactions; all students of spirituality devote years of hard work to reach such a state.
Sukanya means a beautiful girl. This is young fresh feminine energy, virgin, receptive, and totally innocent. When the rishi demands her hand in marriage, she does not even flinch a little at the thought of marrying such an old man. The fact that she was free of reaction shows that her spiritual height was greater than that of the rishi’s. Seeing her beautiful body, Ashwinikumars, the twin gods, started praising her. These twin gods were the most handsome looking of all gods and men. Even though Sukanya was young, beautiful, and married to an old man, she was not in the least attracted to these most handsome of beings. Clearly, even though the rishi’s attention was fragmented hers was one-pointed.
The Ashwinikumars are physicians; they are twins and are always together. They represent the twin energies of healing and regeneration. They promise Sukanya that they would restore her husband’s youth. This is possible only because of Sukanya’s height in spirituality. When one-pointed attention marries leakages of energy, the leakages stop, meaning the process of aging stops. All three of them dive into the water and on surfacing the rishi is young again. Water represents our emotional psychic nature, which is full of hurts and scars. The diving in the water is symbolic of going into the psychic nature and healing the scars. This frees all our locked energies and so the rishi is shown as becoming young.
The rishi holds a yagna where he offers the Ashwinikumars ‘Soma’ ras - ‘ras’ meaning to extract enjoyment. We get enjoyment only from pleasures of the senses; there is currently no inner source where we enjoy despite of life’s events. This inner enjoyment is called Somaras. Indra represents our senses and he is the controller of enjoyment. Here, the rishi offers enjoyment to the twins and Indra (senses) feels he is losing control so he challenges the rishi.
The rishi creates the demon called Mada, meaning intoxication, to kill Indra. Intoxication slowly destroys the energy of the five senses or sensitivity. Indra apologizes to the rishi and allows the twins to take Somaras. The rishi then distributes the demon of intoxication into gambling, womanising, wine, and hunting. These are lower forms of enjoyment where the energy of the senses is not really needed.