The Guardian of the Trust

The sages told the Pandavas of Vipula, the disciple who guarded his teacher's wife from the designs of Indra, and of the honest disclosure that crowned his guarding - 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 rite elsewhere, 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 for a time,' he said, 'and I fear that Indra, who covets your teacher's wife, 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, for he knew how powerful and how cunning Indra was: that the king of the gods could take any form, enter unseen, and 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.

Vipula, a master of the yogic arts, found a subtle means to guard his teacher's wife against the designs of Indra. 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, while he himself sat outwardly before her as if in simple meditation, his gaze fixed and his body still.

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 sat unmoved and unresponsive, her mind held fast and steady from within by Vipula's yogic guarding, unable to be swayed by Indra's charm however he tried. She did not yield, nor even seem to feel the pull of his seductions; her senses were shielded, her mind kept firm, by the invisible protection of the faithful disciple. And Indra, baffled, perceived that some power was at work guarding the woman, some yogic shield about her that his seductions could not pierce; and he saw too the disciple Vipula sitting there, his spirit somehow interposed, guarding his teacher's wife.

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, rebuked the king of the gods for his shameless design upon his teacher's wife, warning him to depart and threatening, by the force of his accumulated penance, to curse him if he persisted in his attempt. 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. The sage was deeply pleased and grateful that his honor had been so well protected in his absence by the devotion of his disciple.

But here lay a delicate matter: that 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 means, 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 an honest disciple could not simply hide what he had done. The question was whether he would conceal the manner of his guarding, or disclose it openly and honestly to his teacher.

Vipula chose honesty. Rather than conceal the unusual means by which he had guarded Ruchi, he disclosed to his teacher openly and truthfully exactly what he had done: how, knowing no ordinary watching could guard against so subtle a seducer as Indra, he had used his yogic power to join his spirit invisibly to Ruchi and hold her senses steady from within; how he had done this with a wholly pure heart, taking no liberty and harboring no desire, with no thought but the protection of his teacher's wife and honor. He hid nothing of the strange and intimate nature of the means, but laid it all open before his teacher.

And the sage Devasharma, hearing the whole truth and understanding the purity of his disciple's intent, was not angry but well pleased; for he saw that Vipula had acted throughout with a wholly selfless and righteous heart, that the unusual means had been used only out of necessity and only for his protection, and that the disciple's honesty in disclosing it all proved the purity of his motive. He blessed Vipula for his faithful guarding and his honest disclosure alike, honoring both the devotion that had kept the trust and the truthfulness that had concealed nothing. The disciple's purity of heart, shown in both the deed and the telling of it, was vindicated.

The sages drew the lessons of the tale for the Pandavas.

'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; and he proved his purity by disclosing all openly to his teacher, hiding nothing. 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 honesty, the open disclosure of what one has done, is the proof and the 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 the Pandavas took to heart the tale of the disciple who guarded his teacher's honor with a pure heart, and concealed nothing of how he had done it.