How Vishnu Got the Discus

"O son of the River Ganga," Yudhishthira said, "thou hast heard all the names of Maheshwara, the Lord of the universe. Do thou tell us all the names that are applied unto Him who is called Isa and Sambhu, unto Him who is called Vabhru or vast, Him that has the universe for his form, Him that is the illustrious preceptor of all the deities and the Asuras, that is called Swayambhu and that is the cause of the origin and dissolution of the universe. Tell us also of the puissance of Mahadeva."

It was the sort of request the grandsire had been answering all season from the bed of arrows. A list was wanted. Bhishma refused it.

"I am quite incompetent to recite the virtues of Mahadeva of highest intelligence," he said. "He pervades all things in the universe and yet is not seen anywhere. All the deities, from Brahma down to the Pisachas, adore and worship him. He transcends both Prakriti and Purusha. Agitating both by means of His energy, He created therefrom the universal lord of creatures, Brahma himself. Man is subject to conception in the mother's womb, to birth, to decrepitude, and to death. Being such, what man like me is competent to understand Bhava? Only Narayana, that bearer of the discus and the mace, can comprehend Mahadeva."

Then he gave his reason, and the reason was sitting in the assembly.

"It is in consequence of the devotion of the high-souled Krishna to the illustrious Rudra, whom he gratified in the retreat of Vadari by penances, that he has succeeded in pervading the entire universe. For a full thousand years this Madhava underwent the austerest penances and at last succeeded in gratifying the boon-giving Siva. In every new Yuga has Krishna gratified Mahadeva, and in every Yuga has Mahadeva been gratified with his devotion. How great the puissance of Mahadeva is has been seen with his own eyes by Hari, on the occasion of his penances undergone for obtaining a son. I do not behold anyone that is superior to Mahadeva. To expound the names of that god of gods, only Krishna is competent."

The king had asked for a thousand names. His grandsire had handed the question across the field to a man who had a memory instead.

Vaishampayana, telling all this afterwards to Janamejaya, said that Bhishma turned to Vasudeva where he sat and addressed him directly.

"Thou art the Master of all the deities and the Asuras. Thou art Vishnu, in consequence of thy pervading the whole universe. In days of yore the Rishi Tandin, sprung from Brahma, recited in Brahma's own region and before Brahma himself the thousand names of Mahadeva. Do thou recite those names before this conclave, so that these Rishis, observant of high vows, may hear thee."

Krishna began by refusing as flatly as Bhishma had.

"The very deities with Indra among them, and the Grandsire Brahma, and the great Rishis also, are incompetent to understand the course of Mahadeva's acts truly and in all their details. The very Adityas, who are endued with subtile sight, are unable to behold his abode. How then can one that is merely a man succeed in comprehending Him? I shall therefore recite to you only some of the attributes of that illustrious Lord of all sacrifices and vows."

He purified himself by touching water. Then, instead of opening with the names, he opened with a domestic quarrel.

"Hear ye how in former days I obtained a sight of that great god, so difficult to obtain, and for whose sake. Twelve years had expired from the time when Pradyumna, the son of Rukmini, slew the Asura Samvara. My spouse Jamvavati, the daughter of the prince of apes, was watching Pradyumna and Charudeshna and the other sons that Rukmini had borne me, and she came and said this to me.

"Grant me, O thou of unfading glory, a son endued with heroism, the foremost of mighty men, possessed of the most agreeable features, sinless in conduct, and like unto thyself. And let there be no delay on thy part. There is nothing in the three worlds unattainable by thee, O perpetuator of Yadu's race. Thou canst create other worlds if only thou wishest it. Observing a vow for twelve years and purifying thyself, thou hadst adored the Lord of all creatures, and then begot upon Rukmini the sons that she has obtained from thee, Charudeshna and Sucharu and Charuvesa and Yasodhana and Charusravas and Charuyasas and Pradyumna and Sambhu. O slayer of Madhu, grant to me a son like unto those."

She had counted them. She knew what the price had been, and she was asking her husband to pay it a second time.

"Let me have thy permission to leave thee for some time," Krishna answered her. "I shall certainly obey thy behest."

What she gave him back was not a farewell but a shield made out of the whole world. Go, she said, and may success and prosperity always attend thee. Let Brahma and Siva and Kasyapa protect thee, and the Rivers, and the deities that preside over the mind and the soil and all deciduous herbs, and the Rishis, and Earth, and the Oceans, and the sacrificial presents, and the Pitris and the Planets and the celestial mothers, and kine, and Agni, and the knowledge of the Vedas, and the seasons and the year and all the divisions of time, the Kshanas and the Labas and the Muhurtas and the Nimeshas and the Yugas in their succession. Let no danger overtake thee on thy way, and let no heedlessness be thine.

He went then to his father and his mother, to the king and to Ahuka, and told them what the daughter of the prince of the Vidyadharas had said to him in her affliction. He took his leave of them with a sorrowful heart. He went to Gada and to Rama of great might, and those two were cheerful about it. "Let thy penances increase without any obstruction," they said, which is the blessing a man gets when he is going away to suffer on purpose.

Then he thought of Garuda, and the bird came at once and carried him to Himavat, and was dismissed there.

On that foremost of mountains he found a retreat owned by the high-souled Upamanyu, a descendant of Vyaghrapada, applauded and reverenced by the deities and the Gandharvas, and seeming to be covered with Vedic beauty. It was adorned with Dhavas and Kakubhas and Kadamvas, with Ketakas and Jamvus and Patalas, with banians and Vilwas and Salas and palmyras, with Asokas and Amras and Champakas and Panasas, and with heaps of ashes from the sacrificial fires thrown in their proper places all around. It abounded with apes and tigers and lions and leopards, with deer and peacocks and snakes, with buffaloes and bears. The Ganga of clear and sacred water ran through it, for the daughter of Jahnu always remained there. And the mongoose sported with the snake, and the tiger with the deer, like friends, forgetting their natural enmity, in consequence of the energy of those ascetics of blazing penances.

"The very imagination cannot conceive another retreat as delightful as the one I beheld," Krishna said. "It stood in all its beauty on the breast of Himavat, like the lunar disc in the firmament."

The ascetics in that place were the strangest catalogue of all, because every item in it is a man. Some subsisted upon air and some upon water, some upon smoke only, some upon fire, some upon milk. Some had taken the vow of eating and drinking like kine, which is to say they had given up the use of their hands altogether. Some used two pieces of stone for husking their grain and some used their teeth. Some drank only the rays of the moon, and some only froth. Some had betaken themselves to the vow of living like deer. Some dressed in rags, some in animal skins, some in the bark of trees.

As soon as he entered, Krishna saw a puissant Rishi with matted locks and dressed in rags, who seemed to blaze forth like fire with his penances. He was waited upon by his disciples and possessed of a tranquil soul. And he was young in aspect, which in a man who has been standing in that place since the Krita age is the most alarming thing about him.

His name was Upamanyu.

Krishna bowed with a nod of the head, and the Rishi got in first.

"Welcome art thou, O thou of eyes like lotus petals. Today, by this visit of thine, we see that our penances have borne fruit. Thou art worthy of our adoration, and yet thou adorest us. Thou art worthy of being seen, and yet it is thou that desirest to see me."

Krishna joined his hands and made the ordinary enquiries a guest makes at a hermitage, after the animals and birds that resided there, after the progress of the ascetic's righteousness, and after his disciples. Then Upamanyu answered the question that had not been asked.

"Thou shalt, O Krishna, obtain without doubt a son like unto thyself. Betaking thyself to severe penances, do thou gratify Isana, the Lord of all creatures. That divine Master, O Adhokshaja, sporteth here with his spouse by his side. O Janarddana, it was here that the deities with all the Rishis, in days of yore, gratified him by their penances and their truth and their self-restraint, and obtained the fruition of many high desires. Projecting into existence and withdrawing once more unto himself all things fraught with good and evil, that inconceivable Deity whom thou seekest lives here, with his spouse."

He had answered the errand before it was stated, and named the god, the place and the method in one breath.

Then, because there was one thing on Krishna's person that had come out of this very mountain, Upamanyu began to talk about what Mahadeva had given away over the years, and to whom.

"He who took his birth as the Danava named Hiranyakashipu," Upamanyu said, "whose strength was so great that he could shake the very mountains of Meru, succeeded in obtaining from Mahadeva the puissance belonging to all the deities, and enjoyed it for ten millions of years."

That is the opening entry of the ledger, and it is worth pausing on the arithmetic. Ten million years of holding, by grant, the combined power of every god there is. Not stolen. Given. And it was not the most dangerous thing that came out of that family.

"He who was the foremost of all his sons, and who was celebrated by the name of Mandara, succeeded, through the boon he had obtained from Mahadeva, in fighting Sakra for a million of years."

A million years of war against the king of the gods, unbroken, without a decision. Indra had the thunderbolt. Vishnu had the discus. Upamanyu, standing in front of the man who carries the second of those two weapons, said what those weapons were worth against Mandara.

"The terrible discus of Vishnu and the thunderbolt of Indra were both unable to make the slightest impression, O Kesava, in days of yore, upon the body of that great cause of universal affliction."

He did not soften it afterwards. He repeated it, and then he raised the number.

"Even that weapon failed to make the slightest impression on the body of Hiranyakashipu's son Mandara, who appeared like an evil planet in the three worlds. Hundreds of Chakras like thine, and hundreds of thunderbolts like that of Sakra, could not inflict a scratch upon the body of that evil planet endued with great might, who had obtained a boon from Mahadeva."

And because a boon is a thing that can be given to more than one, Mandara did not stand alone. Afflicted by him, the deities fought hard against him and against his associates, and every one of those associates had also obtained boons from Mahadeva. That is the shape of the war Upamanyu was describing. Heaven, in arms, against a company of invulnerable men, each of whom was invulnerable by the gift of the same god the gods themselves worship.

The great deity had armed both sides of the battle and had then declined to take one.

Then Upamanyu told Krishna where the thing on his own hand had come from.

"The discus which thou bearest, O sinless one, was given unto thee by Mahadeva, after he had slain a Daitya that was proud of his strength and used to live within the waters. That discus, blazing with energy and like unto fire, was created by the great god having for his device the bull. Wonderful and irresistible in energy, it was given unto thee by that illustrious god."

So the weapon that the worlds know as Vishnu's was made on this mountain, by the god with the bull on his banner, out of a killing done in the water, and then handed over. It was not won and it was not forged by its bearer. It was a gift, and it came with a name attached, and the name has a reason.

"In consequence of its blazing energy it was incapable of being gazed at by any person save Siva, the wielder of Pinaka. It was for this reason that Bhava bestowed upon it the name of Sudarsana. From that time the name Sudarsana came to be current in all the worlds."

Sudarsana means the thing that is good to look at, and it was called that because there was exactly one being in creation who could look at it. The name is not a compliment paid to the discus. It is a statement about the eyes of the one who made it.

And Upamanyu had just finished saying, twice, that this weapon could not scratch Mandara.

That is the whole of the teaching he had put into Krishna's hands, and he had done it without a word of instruction. The discus is Mahadeva's. The son of Hiranyakashipu who could not be cut by it was also Mahadeva's. The bearer of the discus had come up the mountain to ask for a son, and the first thing he had been shown was that the greatest weapon he owned was somebody else's grant, and that the same hand had signed a warrant against it.

There was no arguing with a man in rags who was in possession of that particular fact.

Upamanyu went on down the list, and it is long, because he was not making a case for Mahadeva's power but for Mahadeva's habit.

Gratified with a Danava named Vidyutprabha, Mahadeva granted him the sovereignty of the three worlds, and that Danava held it a hundred thousand years. Thou shalt become one of my attendants, the god told him, and gave him besides a hundred millions of children and the region known as Kusadwipa for his kingdom.

Another great Asura, Satamukha, was created by Brahma, and for a hundred years he poured upon the sacrificial fire, as offerings to Mahadeva, the flesh of his own body. What can I do for thee, said Sankara. Let me have the power of creating new creatures and animals, said Satamukha, and give me also eternal power. So be it, said the lord.

The Self-born Brahma, concentrating his mind in Yoga, made a sacrifice for three hundred years to obtain children, and Mahadeva granted him a thousand sons commensurate with the merits of that sacrifice. The Rishi Yajnavalkya acquired great fame by adoring Mahadeva, and Vyasa, the son of Parasara, obtained great celebrity by adoring Sankara.

The Valikhilyas, those ascetics no bigger than a thumb, were once disregarded by Maghavat. Filled with wrath, they gratified Rudra, and Rudra said to them, Ye shall succeed by your penances in creating a bird that will rob Indra of the Amrita. When through Mahadeva's wrath all the waters disappeared, it was the deities who had to gratify him with a sacrifice called Saptakapala, and only then did water appear again.

The wife of Atri left her husband in a huff, saying she would no longer live in subjection to that ascetic, and sought the protection of Mahadeva instead. For three hundred years she abstained from all food and slept on wooden clubs, and the great deity appeared and smiled and told her she would have a son without the need of a husband, and that he would take his name from her.

Sakalya adored Bhava in a mental sacrifice of nine hundred years and was told he would become a great author whose race would never end. Savarni, in this very asylum, underwent penances for six thousand years and was granted freedom from decrepitude and death. Sakra himself, in Baranasi, adored Mahadeva, who has empty space alone for his garments and ashes for his unguent, and by it obtained the sovereignty of the celestials. And Narada was told that none should be his equal in energy and penances, and that he should always attend upon the god with his songs and his music.

Every name on that list had asked, and every name had been answered.

Upamanyu had told his own story too, of the thousand years of penance and of the day Mahadeva came to him disguised as Indra on a white elephant to find out whether he would take a boon from anyone else. Krishna listened to all of it, and when it was done he asked the only question a guest in that asylum could ask.

"Deserving of great praise art thou, O foremost of learned Brahmanas, for what righteous man is there other than thou whose retreat enjoys the distinction of being honoured with the presence of that God of gods? Will the puissant Siva, will the great Sankara, grant me also a sight of his person, and show me favour?"

"Without doubt, O thou of eyes like lotus-petals, thou wilt obtain a sight of Mahadeva very soon," Upamanyu said. "I see with my spiritual eyes that thou wilt, in the sixth month from this, succeed in obtaining a sight of him. Thou wilt obtain from Maheswara and his spouse four and twenty boons. I tell thee what is true, for through the grace of that Deity the Past, the Future, and the Present are known to me. The great Hara has favoured these Rishis, numbering by thousands, and others as numerous. Why will he not show favour to thee, who art devoted to the Brahmanas, who art full of compassion and full of faith? I shall give thee certain Mantras. Recite them continuously. By this thou art certain to behold Sankara."

Eight days passed there like an hour, all of them occupied with talk of Mahadeva. On the eighth day Krishna underwent the Diksha at the hands of that Brahmana according to due rites, and received the staff from his hands.

What followed he reported to the assembly as a plain schedule, in the manner of a man reading out an account.

He underwent the prescribed shave. He took up a quantity of Kusa blades in his hand. He wore rags for his vestments. He rubbed his person with ghee. He encircled a cord of Munja grass round his loins. For one month he lived on fruits. The second month he subsisted upon water. The third, the fourth, and the fifth months he passed living upon air alone. He stood all that while supporting himself upon one foot, with his arms raised upwards, and foregoing sleep the whole time.

The lord of Dwaraka, who could create other worlds if only he wished it, stood on one leg on a mountain for five months in a borrowed cord of grass, because his wife had asked him for a boy.

Then he beheld in the firmament an effulgence that seemed as dazzling as a thousand Suns combined. Towards the centre of it he saw a cloud looking like a mass of blue hills, adorned with rows of cranes, embellished with many a grand rainbow, with flashes of lightning and the thunder-fire set on it like eyes. Within that cloud was Mahadeva himself, with his spouse Uma beside him, and the appearance was like that of the Sun in the midst of racking clouds with the Moon by his side.

The hair on Krishna's body stood on its end and his eyes expanded with wonder. The god was adorned with a diadem. He was armed with his Sula, clad in a tiger-skin, with matted locks on his head, bearing the staff of the Sanyasin in one hand, armed besides with the Pinaka and the thunderbolt. His teeth were sharp-pointed. His sacred thread was a snake. He wore a garland of diversified colours that hung down to his toes, and surrounded by his clans of spirits and ghosts he looked like the autumnal Sun, difficult to gaze at for its brightness.

Eleven hundred Rudras stood about him, hymning his praises. The Adityas, the Vasus, the Sadhyas, the Viswedevas and the twin Aswins praised him with the hymns of the scriptures. Indra and his brother Upendra and the Grandsire Brahma uttered the Rathantara Saman in his presence. The Earth was there, and the Sky, and the Constellations and the Planets, the Months, the Fortnights, the Seasons, Night, the Years, and the Yugas one after another, all bowing. The Gandharvas and the Apsaras sang. The Vidyadharas, the Danavas, the Guhyakas, the Rakshasas, and all created beings, mobile and immobile, adored that Lord in thought and word and deed.

The whole universe, with the Grandsire and Indra among them, turned and looked at Krishna.

And Krishna, who had stood on one foot for five months to arrive at this, had not the power to look at Mahadeva.

Then the great Deity spoke.

"Behold, O Krishna, and speak to me. Thou hast adored me hundreds and thousands of times. There is no one in the three worlds that is dearer to me than thou."

He bowed, and Uma also became gratified with him.

"Salutations to thee, O thou that art the eternal origin of all things," Krishna said. "The Rishis say that thou art the Lord of the Vedas. The righteous say that thou art Penance. Thou art Sattwa, thou art Rajas, thou art Tamas, and thou art Truth. Thou art Brahman, thou art Rudra, thou art Varuna, thou art Agni, thou art Manu, thou art Bhava, thou art Dhatri and Tashtri and Vidhatri, and thou art everywhere. All beings, mobile and immobile, have sprung from thee."

He went on, and the part of it that is hardest to hear is the part he did not flinch from saying to the god's face.

"Thou, O illustrious one, art the Vedas, the Sacrifices, Soma, Dakshina, Pavaka, Havi, and all the other requisites of sacrifice. The merit obtained by sacrifices, gifts made to others, the study of the Vedas, vows, restraint, Modesty, Fame, Prosperity, Splendour, Contentment, and Success, all exist for leading to thee. And Desire, Wrath, Fear, Cupidity, Pride, Stupefaction, and Malice, and Pains and Diseases, are, O illustrious one, thy children. Thou art all acts that creatures do. Thou art the joy and the sorrow that flow from those acts, and thou art the absence of joy and sorrow. Thou art that Ignorance which is the indestructible seed of Desire."

"Thy arms and feet extend to every place, and thy eyes and head and face are everywhere. Thou hearest everywhere in the universe, and thou stayest, pervading all things. Thou residest in the heart of all creatures, and thou art adored by the Rishis as Kshetrajna. They that know thee for one that is Immutable, or one that resides in all hearts, or one that is the ancient Purusha, or one that is pure Knowledge, are certainly persons of great intelligence. Verily, such persons stay, transcending intelligence."

When he had finished, the universe, both mobile and immobile, sent up a leonine shout. The Brahmanas present, the deities and the Asuras, the Nagas, the Pitris, the birds, the Rakshasas, the ghosts and spirits, and all the great Rishis bowed down to Mahadeva. Showers of celestial flowers of great fragrance fell on Krishna's head and delicious winds blew on the spot.

Then Sankara, devoted to the good of the universe, looked at the goddess Uma, and at the lord of the celestials, and at Krishna, and spoke.

"We know, O Krishna, that thou art filled with the greatest devotion towards us. Do what is for thy good. My love and affection for thee is very great. Do thou ask for eight boons. I shall verily give them unto thee. Name what thou wishest. However difficult of attainment they be, thou shalt have them still."