(The article is compiled by Smt. Rama chinta kunta) Sage Durvasa is a very great yogi of topmost order The word ‘Durvasa” in meaning refers to a person who is impossible to live with such is their living and behavior style. Sage Durvasa was more popular for his anger and cursing tendency than his learnedness. In fact he is so plain and empty that creator choose him as perfect medium whenever he intends to bring forth some historical change in the human history. He had ten thousand disciples who always accompanied him wherever he used to go. He was very strict when it comes observing religious path in regard to his disciples or any other human beings irrespective of being an emperor, demigod, king of common man. He never even spared women for following unrighteous path. One important fact has to be realized that whoever superior being following the path of Dharma, has every authority to punish or correct the people who violate this path of Dharma. They actually hold a moral responsibility to protect the religious practices for the good of humanity. There go many interesting stories in various Puranas for his cursing tendency but here one fact has to be understood that whenever this sage has cursed, it has always does good to the whole creation. One more wonderful thing about this sage is that, even though he lost his temper very easily, it is very easy to appease him. He always showed paths to rectify his curse which always led to the bigger good of humanity. The birth story of Sage Durvasa is also very wonderful. He is the son Sage Atri and Sati Anasuya. Sage Atri is one among the Brahmarshis, the other two being Sage Gautama and Sage Bharadwaja. This trinity of sages has actually blessed the whole creation by being responsible for the birth of the sacred sound A-U-M from Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva and hence these are known as Brahmarshis. Sage Atri performed ardent penance for children. Because of the grace of all Trimurthis on him, Chandra, Dattatreya and Durvasa were born to him [Refer to the article of Sage Atri on Samskruthi]. Sage Durvasa is the incarnation of Lord Shiva or Rudra, hence the reason is understood about his short temper. Sage Durvasa is known to be responsible for the process of churning of the ocean to generate Ambrosia by Demigods and Demons. According to a famous legend of Vishnu Purana, Sage Durvasa as a part of his severe penance life, once was in a great ecstatic state as a part of spiritual progress and was just wandering all over the places on Earth. At that time, one female entity of Vidhyadaris was passing and when he noticed her, asked her to stop and give him the garland she was wearing. As a part of her due respect she gave the ever-fresh remaining garland to Maharshi Durvasa and disappeared. Sage Durvasa continued his state of ecstasy and was spotted by Lord Indra after sometime. Lord Indra bowed before him and Sage Durvasa as his blessing gave him the same garland to Indra. In turn, Lord Indra not aware of the sacredness of that garland, handed it to Airavata and it crushed the garland under its huge feet. At this, Sage Durvasa lost his temper and cursed Indra that he would lose all his luster, prosperity and divinity and will degrade to become a low-level species. Lord Indra prayed him to pardon or at least soften the curse but Sage Durvasa did not pay any heed to his pleadings. As a result of which, “Amaravathi” (Lord Indra’s Capital) was invaded by the Demon Emperor Bali and Indra lost all his luster. When all the Devas made their way to Lord Brahma for help, they were redirected to Lord Vishnu by him. Lord Vishnu gave them an idea of churning the ocean to generate the Nectar of Immortality (Amrita) and asked them to seek cooperation from Demoniac race. This served the dual purpose of ocean-churning and the demons being deviated from their ambition of winning over the Devas in war. Sage Durvasa’s role in the separation of Shakuntala and Dushayanta of Kalidasa’s Abhijnanashaakuntalam is a well-known episode where Durvasa curses Shakuntala that whomever she was thinking about would forget her as a punishment for ignoring the arrival of a saint at her home. Sage Durvasa has played a vital role for Lord Rama to bring an end to his incarnation. Once Lord Yama disguised himself as a saint and came to see Lord Rama. As a part of the event, it was strictly instructed to Lakshmana not to allow anybody to enter the room while the secret meeting is on and if Lakshmana disturbs the meeting because of any reason he would be commanded to death. At the same point of time, Sage Durvasa admitted himself in Rama’s palace and commanded Lakshmana to inform Lord Rama about his arrival otherwise he would burn whole Ayodhya into ashes. Lakshmana thought within himself that it is better if he is killed instead of burning whole Ayodhya and went inside the room to inform Rama about Sage Durvasa’s arrival. Accordingly, Lord Rama received him with great honor and served him in every way. Sage Durvasa satiated by Rama’s treatment, left Ayodhya with wholesome happiness but what waiting Rama was separation from Lakshmana. Upon the consultation with his courts’ judges, Lord Rama ordered that Lakshmana should be banished from the kingdom at once as it was equivalent to death sentence. After being banished from Ayodhya, Lakshmana left the body by drowning himself into River Sarayu and this was the beginning event of Lord Rama putting an end to his avatar/incarnation. Sage Durvasa has a special importance with epic Mahabharata which is known as Panchama Veda. Sage Durvasa is the one who blessed Kunti (Mother of Pandavas) with a sacred mantra where she can call any of the Demigods for getting children. Being in the excitement of youthfulness, she prayed Lord Surya just to test the power of Mantra and accordingly Bhagawan Surya appeared before her and blessed her with a son who is none other than Karna. After that is a popular story of Kunti how she saved her prestige by leaving the new-born into waters of Ganga. One more interesting story goes like this. When Draupadi was not married to Pandavas went to have some fun time in forest along with her maid-servants. At that time, Sage Durvasa was taking bath in a river and lost his clothes to Lord Vayu. He was not even spared with not with thread of cloth. Realizing his convenience, Draupadi tore half-portion of upper part of her saree and offered it to the sage. At this benevolent action, Sage Durvasa blessed her that she would be rescued from similar kind of shameful situation by his Istha Daiva, Lord Krishna which came true at the time of Draupadi Vasthrapaharana by Dushasana in front of all courtiers, brothers, elders of Kuru dynasty and people of Hastinapura as commanded by his elder brother Duryodhana. The same Duryodhana hosted Sage Durvasa with his ten thousand disciples and pleased by his hospitality when Sage Durvasa wanted to grant him a boon. Duryodhana being a master of political prowess (Kutila Neeti) respectably requested the sage to bless his paternal cousins (Pandavas) in the same way as he blessed him. At that time, pandavas were in exile for 12 years after losing all their prosperity in the Game of Dice. As requested by Duryodhana, Sage Durvasa headed himself with his ten thousand disciples towards the hermitage of Yudhistara. Yudhistara, eldest of Pandavas, received him with due respect and found out the reason of his arrival. He politely asked the sage to go for punya snana (sacred bath) before going to lunch. At this suggestion, Sage Durvasa felt happy and left along with his disciples to take bath in a nearby river. In this short break, Draupadi prayed Lord Krishna for help. Lord Krishna, well-known for his mischievous attitude since his childhood, appeared before her and said he is terribly hungry and asked her to feed him something. Draupadi was dumbstruck at his words and then she offered him a piece of grain which was of leftovers after their meals. Krishna gladly ate that grain of rice and said all his hunger is gone. On the other side, because of Lord Krishna’s grace Sage Durvasa and his disciples felt as if they are totally stomach full and left the place without informing pandavas as it would be a sin to reject the food offered by the hosts when they are the guests at somebody’s house.
PART -2 In this connection, we need to understand one thing that Sage Durvasa was a ardent devotee of Lord Krishna and in turn Lord Krishna being a devotee of Lord Shiva admired Sage Durvasa silently as he was aware of this saint being an incarnation of Lord Shiva himself. At one instance, Lord Indra being inquisitive questioned Lord Brahma that who among all the humans, demons and devas is a superior most devotee of Lord Krishna when Lord Narayana incarnated himself on this Earth as Lord Krishna. At this Lord Brahma, answered that Sage Durvasa is the one entity as he never sipped even water without taking Lord Krishna’s name. Even though, Sage Durvasa loved Lord Krishna so dearly, he wanted to test him once and went to Dwaraka to visit him. Lord Krishna was busy with his stately affairs and hence was not able to attend the sage immediately. At this, Sage Durvasa pretended to be angry and commanded Lord Krishna to apply the sweet porridge all over the body offered to him by Lord Krishna as a part of hospitality. Lord Krishna did as commanded by the sage but as the porridge was made of milk, he did not apply it on his feet. Being enraged, Sage Durvasa was still in anger, commanded Lord Krishna and his consort Rukmini should escort him up to his hermitage by acting as the horses of chariot. Lord Krishna and Rukmini did as commanded by the sage and pulled the chariot themselves up to the sage’s hermitage without any horses. By realizing the ardent respect and honor Krishna displayed towards the saints and sages, Sage Durvasa with the tears welled up in his eyes, blessed Krishna that his whole body wherever he applied the porridge will be as strong as thunderbolt (Vajrayudha) and no weapon can tear him apart. Since Lord Krishna did not apply the porridge to his feet, they remained fragile and susceptible to all kinds of weapons. Lord Krishna was killed because of a hunter who hit his feet with his arrows. Sage Durvasa who is popular for his curses was being victimized by a curse. Once so happened that he saw a Gandharva couple enjoying the fruits of married life, Sage Durvasa also wanted to be a part of such life. Hence he married a woman by name Kalindi who was a daughter of one sage Orva. Sage Durvasa’s attempt was a disappointment for him as the lady he married was not an ideal woman like his mother. She was pestering, disobedient and troublesome wife and hence as a part of his very nature, he burnt her into ashes. At this, Sage Orva because of his grief of losing his daughter cursed Sage Durvasa that his very short temper would land him in a huge trouble which would make his life to fall in stake in the course of time. There existed a very pious and kind-hearted king by name Ambarisha. Once he was worshipping Lord Vishnu in a festive way for which he was observing the fast and at that time Sage Durvasa happened to be his guest. Sage Durvasa asked the king that he would come back after finishing the sacred bath. Sage Durvasa took long time to come back and meanwhile the auspicious time to break the fast was nearing. King Ambarisha was in dilemma whether to break the fast or not. If he would not break the fast, the auspicious moment will go and if he breaks the fast, which would be the disrespect to the sage who was his guest. He consulted his priests and at last as a mid path sipped some water and was waiting for Sage Durvasa to arrive. Sage Durvasa being aware that the King broke the fast before his arrival, got enraged, and was about to destroy the king by creating a big demoness. The king quickly prayed Lord Narayana. Lord Narayana being an immediate savior of his devotees, commanded Surdharsana to save Ambarisha. Accordingly, the sacred disc started attacking Sage Durvasa. Sage Durvasa ran to all the Trimurthis to rescue his life but none were able to help him. Lord Narayana said that he cannot go against the will his devotees, at which he was forced to run back to Ambarisha. Being a virtuous king, Ambarisha prayed Lord Narayana to pardon this great sage. Lord Narayana heeded his devotee’s prayer and Sage Durvasa was saved from the wrath of death. Last but not the least, tale or legend goes like this about Sage Durvasa. Once the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, Nara and Narayana were having a religious gathering in their hermitage where all the scholars and sages were invited. Nara was giving an excellent speech about the religious and spiritual matters and everybody was mesmerized present at the assembly by his eloquence. Sage Durvasa appeared at that time and nobody welcomed him into the hermitage. At this, Sage Durvasa got enraged and wanted to curse the whole assembly. At this Narayana pleaded him and softened the curse to be his fate alone. The curse was that Narayana would lose all his saintly radiance and knowledge and would take birth as a common man. As it is well-known that Sage Durvasa’s curse has always been the good for the humanity, Narayana has taken birth as Ganashyam who in the course of time became popular as Swami Narayan, the famous cult followed by Gujaratis in today’s date but there is no Vedic evidence of this legend. I am privileged to write about Sage Durvasa being responsible for the good of humanity through his angry deeds. As one saying goes that misdeeds of great people will do good to the common human beings when we consider the legends related to Sage Durvasa. He belongs to the sages of top order of ultimate superiority who was honored by Lord Krishna himself and keeps on giving lessons to the humanity because of the uncontrolled temper. Sources: Wiki, Suleka.com etc.
