The Guardian of the Trust

Bhishma, speaking with Yudhishthira of the nature of women and how hard they are to guard, told him of Vipula, the disciple who guarded his teacher's wife from the designs of Indra, and of the silence about his means that day and night themselves would not let him keep - a tale of the lengths a faithful disciple will go to protect a trust, and of the purity of heart that such a charge demands.

There was a great sage named Devasharma, who had a beautiful wife named Ruchi, and a devoted and learned disciple named Vipula. Now Devasharma had occasion to leave his hermitage for a time, to perform a sacrifice, and he was troubled in his mind; for he knew that Indra, the king of the gods, was given to coveting the wives of others, and that Indra had set his desire upon the beautiful Ruchi and would surely try to seduce her while her husband was away. The sage feared for his wife's virtue and his own honor, and could not go in peace while she was unguarded.

So Devasharma called his trusted disciple Vipula and laid upon him a solemn charge. 'I must go away to perform a sacrifice,' he said, 'and I fear that Indra, who has long desired Ruchi, will come in my absence to seduce Ruchi and rob me of my honor. I charge you, my faithful disciple, to guard her while I am gone - to protect her virtue from the designs of Indra by every means in your power, and to keep her safe and unstained until I return. This is the trust I lay upon you; do not fail me in it.'

Vipula accepted the charge with all his heart, resolved to guard his teacher's wife and honor at any cost. But he was troubled, and before his teacher left he asked him in what forms Indra came. Devasharma told him: the king of the gods could take any form, a king or a beggar, a young man or an old one, a parrot, a lion or a fly, could vanish from sight or move as the wind, and could work his seductions by subtle means against which ordinary watching would be no defense. To guard Ruchi against so subtle and mighty a seducer, Vipula saw, would require more than standing at the door; it would require some power that could protect her very mind and senses from being swayed. And being a master of yoga, he bethought himself of such a means.

The means Vipula found was a subtle one. By his yogic power, with a pure and selfless intent, and with no thought of his own desire but only of protecting her virtue, he joined his own subtle spirit invisibly to Ruchi - entering, by his yoga, into a hidden union with her senses, so that he might hold her mind and senses steady from within and keep them from being swayed. Sitting beside her, he beguiled her with stories, fixed his eyes upon her eyes, and entered her body as the wind enters the sky, dwelling there detached, as a traveller rests in an empty house or a drop of water rolls on a lotus leaf without wetting it; while his own body sat outwardly still, its eyes unseeing, like a figure in a painting, and Ruchi herself knew nothing of it.

It was a strange and subtle guarding: not a watching at the door, but a holding of her very senses from within, by yogic power, so that no seduction could move her, her mind held fast and unswayable while her husband was away. And Vipula did this with a wholly pure heart, his only purpose to protect his teacher's honor and his wife's virtue, taking no liberty and harboring no desire, but using his power solely as a shield about her mind. So he kept his guard, invisibly steadying her against whatever might come, and waited to see whether Indra would indeed attempt what the sage had feared.

It happened as the sage had feared: Indra, the king of the gods, came to the hermitage in Devasharma's absence, taking on a beautiful and alluring form, intent upon seducing the lovely Ruchi. He entered and presented himself before her, and began with all his divine charm and cunning to woo her, speaking honeyed words and using every art of seduction that the king of the gods possessed, certain of his power to win any woman he desired.

But Indra found, to his astonishment, that his arts had no effect. Ruchi, dazzled by his form, wished to rise and to answer him with a welcome; but Vipula, within her, bound her senses by his yoga, so that she could not move, and the words that came from her lips were only, 'Why have you come here?' Her senses were held, her will kept firm, by the invisible protection of the faithful disciple. And Indra, baffled, looked again with his divine sight, and saw the sage Vipula within her body like an image in a mirror, terrible in his austerities, guarding his teacher's wife; and he trembled for fear of a curse.

Indra, perceiving that the faithful disciple Vipula was guarding the woman by his yogic power and shielding her mind against all seduction, found himself foiled and could do nothing; and Vipula, for his part, left Ruchi's body, returned to his own, and rebuked the king of the gods for his shameless design upon his teacher's wife, warning him to leave and threatening to burn him with the energy of his austerities if he did not. Faced with the disciple's guarding power and his righteous wrath, Indra was put to shame.

Unable to accomplish his desire, and rebuked and threatened by the righteous disciple, the king of the gods gave up his attempt and departed, driven off in shame, his seduction wholly defeated by the faithful guarding of Vipula. So the disciple kept the trust his teacher had laid upon him: he protected Ruchi's virtue and his teacher's honor against the very king of the gods, and sent the would-be seducer away thwarted and ashamed. The honor of his teacher was preserved unstained, and the charge faithfully kept, by the disciple's devotion and his power.

In time the sage Devasharma returned to his hermitage, and found his wife Ruchi safe and her virtue unstained, his honor preserved, and Indra's design defeated; for his faithful disciple had kept the trust laid upon him and guarded her against the king of the gods himself. Vipula told him what Indra had tried to do, and the sage was deeply pleased with his disciple's devotion, praised him, and granted him a boon; and Vipula asked that he might perform the highest austerities.

But there was a delicate matter. The means Vipula had used to guard Ruchi - the subtle yogic union with her senses, the entering invisibly into her to hold her mind steady - was an unusual and intimate one, even though done with a wholly pure intent and only for her protection. Vipula had to consider whether to disclose to his teacher exactly how he had guarded his wife, the strange and intimate nature of the means he had employed; for though his heart had been pure throughout, the means were such as might be questioned. And Vipula, fearing it would seem a transgression, told his teacher of Indra's visit but said nothing of the manner of his guarding.

Vipula performed terrible austerities, and came to think that by them he had conquered both worlds. Some time later, Devasharma sent Vipula to fetch celestial flowers for Ruchi's sister, the queen of Anga, who had seen such flowers, dropped from the sky by a passing celestial woman, in Ruchi's hair. On the way Vipula saw a man and woman dancing hand in hand in a circle, who fell to quarrelling, and each swore, 'If I lie, may I meet the end that waits for Vipula.' Further on he saw six men gambling with gold and silver dice, who swore the same oath by his name. Stricken, Vipula searched all his deeds since birth, and at last remembered: he had entered his teacher's wife by yoga, and had not told his teacher the truth of it. He brought the flowers to Devasharma, and asked who those people had been.

And the sage Devasharma, who already knew the whole truth, told him: the couple were day and night, and the six gamblers were the seasons, who witness every deed, however secret; they had spoken so that he would not go to the worlds of the wicked for a deed left untold. Yet Devasharma was not angry but well pleased; for he knew that Vipula had acted with no thought but to protect her, and had he believed otherwise he would have cursed him. He blessed Vipula, and in time the sage rose to heaven with his wife and his disciple. The disciple's purity of heart was vindicated, and he had learned that nothing done in secret stays hidden.

Bhishma, who had heard the tale long ago from the sage Markandeya on the banks of the Ganga, drew its lessons for Yudhishthira.

'See, first, the faithfulness of the disciple who guarded the trust laid upon him at any cost. Vipula was charged to protect his teacher's wife and honor against the king of the gods himself; and he did so, sparing no effort and no power, holding her safe even against Indra and driving the would-be seducer off in shame. The tale teaches the worth of one who keeps faithfully a trust laid upon him, who guards what he is given to guard with all his strength and skill, and who does not fail his teacher even against the mightiest of foes. Be such a keeper of trust, faithful to the charge laid upon you whatever its difficulty.

'And see how the purity of the heart is what justifies the deed, and how honesty crowns it. Vipula used an unusual and intimate means, but with a wholly pure and selfless intent, taking no liberty and seeking nothing for himself; yet because he left it untold, day and night and the seasons themselves swore by his fate. The tale teaches that it is the purity of the heart and intent that makes a deed righteous, even when the means are unusual; and that no deed stays hidden, so that the open disclosure of what one has done is the proper crown of a pure motive. Act always with a pure heart, and conceal nothing of what you do; for purity of intent and honesty together justify the faithful servant.'

And Yudhishthira took to heart the tale of the disciple who guarded his teacher's honor with a pure heart, and learned that nothing done in secret stays hidden.