The Story of Yavakrit (Part 4)

Earlier, we saw that the demon threw a trident or ‘trishul’ at Yavakrit. Seeing this, Yavakrit ran towards a lake to fetch water with which he could save himself. When he saw that the lake was dry he started fearing for his life and ran to his father’s ashram. The doorkeeper of his father’s ashram, a blind man of lower caste, caught hold of him and did not let him go through. Thus, Yavakrit could not escape from the trishul the demon had thrown at him. It pierced his chest and he fell dead on the ground. Both the demon and the female form went back to Raibya and resided in his ashram.

When his son was killed, Rishi Bharadwaj was not present in the ashram. He was a very powerful rishi and whenever he returned to his ashram, the sacrificial fires would light up on their own to welcome him. On this occasion, they did not. Bharadwaj immediately realized that something had happened to is son. He asked the blind doorkeeper what had happened. He narrated how Yavakrit had come looking for water, but he was stopped from getting in as he had not purified himself by bathing and the demon’s trishul killed him in the process.

Bharadwaj was very sad and cried in sorrow. Even though Raibya was his friend, he cursed him that his own son would kill him. Then he realized the folly of what he had done. He also saw that inspite of being warned, his son had gone to Raibya’s ashram, but it was too late to undo his curse. He lit a funeral pyre to cremate the body of his son and once the flames had risen, he threw himself into the fire too.

On the other side, the king of the land invited Raibya to perform a yagna. Together with his two sons, Arvavasu and Paravasu, Raibya left for the capital to perform the yagna. During the course of the yagna, Paravasu felt the need to meet his wife and so he left for the ashram. As he was walking through the forest, he struck and killed what he thought was a deer. When he came closer to the animal, he was shocked to see that he had killed his father who was meditating in the forest covered in a deer skin.

Paravasu went back to the yagna and told Arvavasu, his younger brother, all that had happened. Arvavasu told him that as he had killed a Brahmin, he would have to perform the necessary penance to be free of the sin. Paravasu was very cunning and he trapped his brother into a net. He said that Arvavasu was not capable of completing the king’s yagna on his own, but that he was. He suggested that Arvavasu perform the penance of killing a Brahmin on his behalf, and that he would complete the yagna on Arvavasu’s behalf.

Arvavasu could not see what was going on in his brother’s scheming mind and agreed to perform the penance for him.