Sage Vishwamitra as the name signifies is a true friend of the universe who authored “GAYATRI” Mantra for the well-being of the whole humanity. According to the Vedas, this sacred mantra purifies the heart and soul of the chanter and does the same job even if one listens to it. The inner epitome of this mantra is it awakens the vital energies and gives liberation and deliverance from ignorance. It creates the direct path to realize the Absolute Brahman by providing the Divine Awakening of Soul or Atman. Gayatri Mantra is found is Rig-Veda along with other sacred hymns authored by Sage Vishwamitra. As noted in the article related to Sage Jamadagni, Sage Vishwamitra was the son of King Gadhi who was born because of the blessing of Sage Rucheeka. He is also known as Gadheya and Kaushika as he was a great-grandson of one of the popular emperor Kusha (father of Kushanabha and grandfather of King Gadhi), mind-born son of Lord Brahma. As blessed by Sage Rucheeka, Kaushika was a Brahminic soul born with Sattvik energies but because of destiny was raised as a Kshatriya. He was a great warrior and a famous king. He was popular as a benevolent king among his subjects for thousands of years. He was one of the ancestors of King Ishwaku and King Raghu by whom the fame of Solar Dynasty was known along the length and breadth of the Trinity of worlds. Emperor Kaushika ruled the whole Planet Earth and loved to sport through hunting. He was always inclined to go to forest to hunt as it was his most favorite past-times. Once he was accompanied with thousands of soldiers to enjoy the hunting sport. The whole battalion was tired and sorted refuge in the hermitage of Sage Vasistha. Sage Vasistha being an entity of benevolent nature, welcomed the king of land and treated him with due respect. He was able to see the King and battalion was tired and needed some refreshment and relaxation. Accordingly, he provided them with the tastier food and other comforts of palace. King was very pleased with the royal treatment of a poor sage and wondered how he was able to do that. On enquiry, Sage Vasistha revealed that he is a possessor of a divine cow by name “Nandini” which was gifted to him by Lord Indra. The Divine Cow was capable to fulfill any kind of materialistic desire of its master as it was daughter of the Divine Cow “Kamadhenu” from the court of Lord Indra. At this, King Kaushika became inquisitive and requested the sage to donate the cow to him so that it can get the royal treatment in his palace. Sage Vasistha was steady but rejected his plea. Kaushika grew angry which is a natural quality of a Kshatriya and forced the Divine Cow to go with him. With the help of his penance power, Sage Vasistha was able to stop him as the Divine Cow as like his mother. The king grew angrier and engaged a war with the holy sage. The holy sage then prayed Nandini to save him and his hermitage. Nandini being a possessor of super-natural powers was able to create many thousands of soldiers and the whole army of King Kaushika was killed. He could not digest the insult faced because of a poor sage and at the same time was dumb-struck by knowing the capability of penance power of an elderly sage. He determined to defeat the sage at any cost and performed severe penance for some years in the honor of Lord Shiva. His aim was to be blessed with superior warfare as Lord Shiva is the reservoir of many powerful and super-natural weapons. Lord Shiva was pleased with his devotion and granted all the arms as requested by King Kaushika. King Kaushika came back to hermitage of Sage Vasistha and challenged him with the power of his powerful arms. Sage Vasistha took one thin stick and through his penance power transformed it into a Brahma Danda which was capable enough to dissolve all the powerful arms of Kaushika. Kaushika became more adamant and able to realize that Sage Vasistha was no common rishi; rather he was Brahmarshi who possessed wonderful capabilities because of penance power. Hence he has taken a resolution to become a Brahmarshi himself and challenged Sage Vasistha that one day he himself would entitle him as Brahmarshi. As a starting point to fulfill his resolution, Kaushika discharged himself from the position of the king and started performance penance in the honor of Lord Brahma. As a part of it he performed severe penance for 100 years to be transfer to Brahmin origin from Kshatriya origin. He continued with his penance and performed for 1000 years because of which he encroached to the stage of Rajarshi. He continued and then Lord Brahma entitled him to be as Rishi. He continued for one more 1000 years and Lord Brahma then entitled him as Maharishi. The basic disadvantage with king-turned-sage Vishwamitra was he was not able to conquer his anger even though he performed penance for many thousands of years. Even to reach to the stage of Maharishi, he has cross many obstacles and every time he would lose his temper and curse someone which becomes distratrous for his spiritual growth by making his efforts futile. Lord Brahma made Sage Vishwamitra realize Sage Vasistha was the only superior authority to bless him with the entitlement of “Brahmarshi”. As directed by Lord Brahma he always assaulted Sage Vasistha’s hermitage and was being subjected or titled as “Maharishi” by the noble sage as he was aware that Vishwamitra was not able to conquer his anger. Sage Vasistha was always kind towards Vishwamitra just like a father but Vishwamitra in his rage always caused some or the other destruction to him and in that process he killed all the 100 hundred of Sage Vasistha. Sage Vashistha being a liberated soul never grew angry towards him as he was aware that it was the will of Supreme Being. Being a Maharishi cadre, Sage Vishwamitra performed many adventurous tasks which were not notified with any in the life of any other sage. One of the prominent events being, the tough time he created to Emperor Harishchandra to check his truthfulness. Emperor Harischandra who was well-known about his truthfulness was wedded to truth just like any other king of Ishwaku dynasty but his fame knew no boundaries. Sage Vishwamitra made to lose his kingdom, queen and even the life of his beloved son but still the truthful emperor was not shaken. Sage Vishwamitra made the king’s destiny to turn into such a worst condition where he was employed to burn the dead bodies of the people and was a security guard in a burial ground. In the process, he reached a situation where he was about to kill his queen unknowingly. In this hopeless situation, Sage Vishwamitra accepted his defeat in the hands of Harishchandra and paid obituaries to his truthful character and restored all his lost kingdom and luster back to him. He blessed Harishchandra that henceforth he will be the true address of truthfulness and entitled him as Satya Harischandra. It’s a general impression that Sage Vishwamitra seems to be as an arrogant entity in the episode of Emperor Harishchandra but he has taken the risk to be defamed to make the world know about the truthful character of Emperor Harischandra. The true kindness of Sage Vishwamitra can be exemplified in the episode of Trishanku for whom he destined to create a separate universe by forsaking all his penance powers which he accumulated by severe austere practices for thousands of years. Once there was king by name Trishanku who was over-ambitious to reach heaven with his physical body. As per his desire, he requested his spiritual guru Sage Vashistha to fulfill his desire. Sage Vasistha being a Jnani rejected his proposal saying that it is against Dharma. At this context, Dharma can be defined as a process or practice where it would preserve the perfect balance of processes of creation. Then he approached the sons of Sage Vasistha. They also were not inclined to help him as his plea was not considered by their father himself. At last, he approached Sage Vishwamitra. Sage Vishwamitra being an ambitious soul was able to view the genuine thirst behind his ambition and became ready to sacrifice all his penance powers to meet Trishanku’s ambition. As a part of it, he performed Yagna to please the celestial gods but the Demi-Gods did not accept his request and rejected his offerings of Yagna. Sage got enraged and through his penance power forced Trishanku to be raised up to the door of heaven but Lord Indra kicked him back to Earth. Sage Vishwamitra could not contain himself anymore and willed to create a new universe where there was new Brahma and Trishanku was made the Indra for the heaven of this new universe. He did not step back in this process even though he was aware that he was losing all his penance power. Lord Brahma understood that the situation was getting worse and appeared before Vishwamitra. He praised Vishwamitra’s willpower and capability and made him to restore back all his new creation and ordained Lord Indra to admit Trishanku into heaven with his physical body.
Sage Vishwamitra has to perform penance for 1000 years to restore back all his penance power which he lost for Trishanku. As he was rising to Maharishi, Lord Indra grew insecure as usual and he sent a celestial damsel Menaka to misguide him from his path. Apsara Menaka being a very beautiful and patient woman was able to engage Sage Vishwamitra into the cycle of family life. They married and lived together for 10 years. In the process, they begot a beautiful female child who was later named as Shakuntala by Sage Kanva. By the view of the child, Sage Vishwamitra was able to realize the extent of wrong track he treaded in realizing his ambition. At once, he rejected the responsibility of his fatherhood of the child but he was kind enough to bless the child that she would be the mother of first generation of Lunar Dynasty which will raise the curtain for a wonderful epic of Mahabharata, also known as Panchamaveda. Sage Vishwamitra also has a very prominent role in one more epic of India i.e., Ramayana. He was the one who directed Rama and Lakshmana to play their role for the well-being of humanity by destroying demons like Thataki, Subaru and Mareecha. In this process, he blessed and granted them with many divine weapons which were blessed to him by Lord Shiva. All these divine weapons played a vital role in the valor of Lord Rama while defeating Ravana in the course of time. Sage Vishwamitra also made Lord Rama to liberate Ahalya (wife of Sage Goutama) from her husband’s curse and also became the First Hanuman as he united Lord Rama to Devi Sita in marriage while leading the royal princes of Ayodhya to the event of “Sita Svayamvar” in Mithula. The life of Sage Vishwamitra has many wonderful episodes to signify his strong willpower and undeterred devotion towards his impossible ambitions of becoming a Brahmarshi. Sage Vishwamitra kept coming back to Sage Vasistha for being entitled as Brahmarshi and every time he faced the same disappointment of being entitled as Maharishi but in the process Sage Vishwamitra was able to conquer his anger gradually and on fine moment approached Sage Vasistha in the same manner. At this instance, Sage Vasistha subjected him as “Dhoortha” (Scoundrel/rascal) or rather a tireless “Dhoortha” who kept on pestering him for his entitlement and fulfillment of ambition. Sage Vishwamithra who learnt to conquer his anger by then completely, smiled at the objective subjection of Sage Vasistha. Sage Vasistha then made this noble sage realize that at last he achieved his ambition and gave a wonderful proof of his benevolence by being a true friend of this truthful friend of whole universe by the aid of Sacred “Gayatri” Mantra. Sage Vishwamitra is also an exemplary entity for the radial transformation of a human being for a Rajasic Kshatriya to a Sattvik Saint just like Emperor Ashoka and Lord Gautama Buddha. One million hails to this truthful and noblest friends of human rase. Article Credit: Smt.Rama chintakunta
