Sage Chyavana hails from the clan of Bhrigu, he being one of the progenies of Great Sage Bhrigu. Sage Bhrigu had three wives among whom he loved the most was Sati Pulomi who was popular for her wonderful beauty. Sage Bhrigu blessed her with progeny and she became pregnant. In those days, based on the climatic conditions people used to possess heat room in their houses. It was a safe arrangement of fire allover the room where they enjoyed heat within their homes. Hence Pulomi was shivering because of chilled weather went into the heat room of her Vatika. Meanwhile, there was demon whose name was also Pulom, was wonderstruck by the beauty of Pulomi and inquisitive to know more about her. As she was a wife of a sage it was afraid to go near her and enquired about her with God Agni. Agnideva was in a dilemma whether to reveal her identity to an outsider (in Vedic Age, details of any woman are not righteous to be known by any Para Purusha) or to forsake truth by lying about her. If he reveals the truth about her then he will forced to accept the curse from Sage Bhrigu and if he lies that will be a non-righteous conduct for a Demigod like him. At last he decided to face the curse from sage Bhrigu instead of uttering non-truthful words and hence he revealed her identity to Pulom. Pulom took the shape of a boar and started chasing Pulomi. As she was carrying a baby in her bosom which was about to take birth, the fetus slipped from her bosom because of her physical strain. The fetus eyesight was very powerful and it at once burnt the boar into ashes. As the baby slipped from its mother’s womb, the child was known as Chyavana (entity which slipped). Meanwhile, Sage Bhrigu entered the scene after finishing his morning prayers. He understood the whole event through his sixth sense and cursed Lord Agni that everything will be burnt (irrespective of being a pure/non-pure entity) hence forth because of which Lord Agni stopped serving all the sacred Yagnas which were resolved for the welfare of the Mother Earth. It created a huge chaos in the proceedings of creation. At last, Lord Brahma pacified Agni by giving him a boon that even though Lord Agni burns everything, still the purity of the nature of this deity remains unaffected. Coming back to Chyavana, he grew up as the time passed by. When he became a boy of 16 years, with the permission of his parents, left the house for performing penance to concentrate his senses on Almighty, made his way to Vaidura Mountains on the banks of River Payoshini. He kept performing penance for thousands of years and his physical body got covered with a ant hill. Even though he was covered by mud there was some kind of glow radiating from his body. As the time passed by, a king by name Saryati being accompanied with his family, servants and army visited the place near River Payoshini. Every one in the gathering was enjoying water sports or nature’s beauty. The king’s daughter by name Sukanya and roaming around the place and observed that there is some kind of glitter from anthill. When she closely observed in the ant hill, she was able to find two pieces of small fireballs. The princess caught hold of a sharp grass blade and pricked into those fireballs. As the Sage Chyavana’s eyes were radiant and glowing like fire, got hurt and oozed out blood at once. The ant hill collapsed as the sage moved from his position after such a long time. The princess at once got frightened learning the fact that she troubled a sage. King Saryati was saddened deeply by the misconduct of her daughter and as compensation offered his daughter’s hand in marriage to Sage Chyavana as he needs a caretaker being blind. Sukanya was a woman of noble qualities and was glad to be blessed like a great sage Chyavana to be her husband. She served her husband faithfully in every possible way and the sage was very pleased with her attitude and tendencies. This attracted the sight of celestial beings and decided to test the Pativrata Dharma of Sukanya. The Divine Physicians visited her one day in her husband’s absence and seduced her to marry any one of them leaving behind the blind and old sage. They promised her to be able to enjoy a life of comfort and divine pleasures if she marries any one of them. Sukanya objected stating that their conduct is not suitable for celestial beings. Ashwini kumaras became very happy by her righteous attitude and blessed her with a boon. Sukanya then prayed to them to help her husband by treating his physical ailments as they are the divine physicians. Ashwini Devatas blessed her saying “So be it” and as a part of the treatment they mixed some herbs in River Payoshini, they prepared a herbal paste which has to be applied all over the body of the sage and then they made another herbal paste which is to be consumed which is meant to have a anti-ageing effect. As this was consumed by Sage Chyavana first, hence forth this herbal remedy became famous as Chyawanaprash. After all this application and consumption, all the three took dip in River Payoshini. When they came out, all the three men were looking alike. It was a testing time for Sukanya to recognize her husband. She prayed to Divine Mother Parvati and sorted her help. Keeping Divine Mother in mind she pointed out the man in the middle to be her husband which was right. Sage Chyavana promised Ashwini Kumaras to repay their debt in the course of time. He became very happy with her devotion and blessed her with a good progeny of three sons which were Sage Dadeechi, Sage Rucheeka and one more son. As promised to Ashwinikumaras, Sage Chyavana visited King Saryati for performing a sacred Yagna. King Saryati was overwhelmed with happiness by seeing his son-in-law to become young and handsome. As directed by him, the King made all the arrangements for performing the Yagna. Ashwini kumaras were treated as second grade celestial beings by all the Demigods. Hence to uplift their position Sage Chyavana willed to perform the Yagna which was not pleasing to Lord Indra. He came to the Yagna Vatika and was about to attack Sage Chyavana. Through his yogic powers, he made the hand of Indra to freeze and finished the Yagic process and offered the Yagnapala to them. Meanwhile, he created a demon by name Madha and directed it to destroy Lord Indra. Lord Indra at once realized his mistake and pleaded Sage Chyavana to forgive him. Being a kind-hearted sage, he forgave Lord Indra and directed the demon to reside in four places as a part of human life. They are women (sexual pleasure), hunting (violence), gambling and intoxicated drinks. Because of the practice of these four activities, the Madha demon will affect the human behavior to be in a negative way which is nothing but the internal enemy of human attitude. Sage Chyavana has many legends to address his spiritual prowess. After he has blessed his wife with good progeny, Sage Chyawana wished to go for a pilgrimage. As a part of it, he came to holy Prayag where he was overwhelmed with the sacredness of waters of union of River Yamuna and River Ganga. He willed to be in meditation under water and practiced Jalasamadhi. He continued in that position for many years. Once a group of fishermen wanted to catch fishes and threw fishing net into waters. The holy sage who was in Jalasamadhi was caught along with the fishes. The fishermen were frightened by knowing the fact that their fishing activity disturbed a sage. Sage Chyavana consoled them that they did not commit any mistake and asked them to get a suitable price for him. They approached the king of land who was king by name Nahusha and asked him to pay a suitable price. The king being a righteous one consulted his court priests and other wise men. They started deciding the price and at last there aroused a situation where the whole kingdom was kept at stake to pay the price in deciding a suitable price for the sage. At last, a wise man in the court said that a Brahmin is equal to a holy cow and hence the suitable price for the sage is the exchange of him with a cow. Sage Chyavana became happy with the wisdom of that minister and accepted his decision. Once in the court of Lord Brahma there was an assembly of all the celestial gods and sages. In this scenario, Sage Chyavana realized a fact there is going to be progeny of Kshatriya race in the clan of Bhrigu. The sage was dumbstruck and wanted to know the righteous conduct of the Kshatriya clan which will be intertwined with Bhrigu clan. Hence he visited King Kushanabha (grandfather of Sage Vishwamithra) to test the range of righteous and wise attitude of king. The king received him with due respect and asked him in what way can he serve him. Sage Chyavana replied stating that he is performing a Vrata for the welfare of the world and needed king’s cooperation. The king was very happy to serve such a holy sage. After the offering of ablutions, the sage was served a sumptuous dinner and he asked the king that he and his queen should comfort him by pressing his legs until he wakes up. Being a royal couple of noble order, they obeyed the sage to serve as he pleased. A suitable bed was offered to the sage to sleep. Then the king and the queen started pressing his legs and continued to do so for 21 days. In this process, they did not attend their nature’s call; they avoided their daily activities like consuming food and taking bath. This was possible because of their (royal couple) practices. After 21 days, the sage woke up suddenly and started walking briskly into the city without saying a word to the royal couple. In a state of confusion, even the royal couple followed the sage. The sage went up to the limit of outskirts of the city and disappeared.
The royal couple was totally disappointed and was frightened that the sage was not happy with their treatment. With heavy hearts they returned to the palace and were surprised to see the sage in the palace. This time the sage again slept on the other side of the bed and asked them to press his legs. They continued to do so for another 21 days. After the 21st day, the sage ordered the royal couple to give him a traditional head bath by applying soap nut powder all over. They did as said by sage. The sage was then offered a sumptuous meal. The sage vanished all of a sudden after having the meal. The next day morning the sage appeared again in front of the king and made a strange wish. He asked them to be horses to a chariot and make him visit the whole city. The royal couple obeyed the sage and he was whipping them many times on the way. The onlookers were surprised to see the patience level of the royal couple and were shocked at the same time to see the luster-longing of a sage. The king and queen showed no sign of disgust in the whole process of serving the sage. The sage then asked the royal couple to visit his hermitage next morning. As directed by the sage, the royal couple visited the sage’s hermitage and was surprised to see him to be seated in a beautiful palace which was looking more lustrous and grand than the king’s palace. Once the king stepped into the palace it disappeared and a small hut was seen in its place. The king was unmoved by the change of ambience and approached the sage and bowed before him. The sage was happy to receive the noble royal couple and revealed to him that a great child is going to take birth in his clan and who would become a Brahmarshi in the course of time. He also made the royal couple realize that in whatever way he troubled them is just to know the world aware that their noble dynasty deserves the birth of a benevolent sage in their clan. Hence it is understood that Sage Chyavana was a sage of superior order who was radiant by birth. All his radiance is obliged to the truthful tendencies of his clan. Hence they were blessed with a brilliant progeny of Sage Vishwamitra, Sage Dadhichi and Sage Parashurama in the future generation. All the sages in the Bhrigu clan stand as a stalwart examples for truthfulness, righteous conduct and brilliant spiritual prowess.
