The King Who Became a Sage

The sages told the Pandavas of Vishvamitra, who began as a mighty king and made himself, through ages of struggle against his own nature, into one of the greatest sages the world has known - the only man, it was said, to climb by sheer will from the warrior caste into the highest rank of the seers.

In the beginning Vishvamitra was a great king named Kaushika, ruler of a wide kingdom, mighty in arms, proud of his power. One day, returning from a hunt with his whole army, weary and hungry, he came upon the forest hermitage of the sage Vasishtha. Vasishtha received the king and his entire host with perfect hospitality, and invited them all to stay and dine. Vishvamitra was amazed, for he had brought a vast army, far too many to feed from the simple stores of a forest ashram. "How can you feast so many, holy one," he asked, "out of a hermitage?" Vasishtha only smiled, and called for his cow.