Indian Mythology Stories

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Varah incarnation
Near the beginning of his day, Brahma created a man and a woman. The man was called as Swyambhuv Manu and the woman as Shatrupa. They became husband-wife.
Brahma asked Manu to rule over Earth. But Earth was covered with water. Manu requested Brahma to do something so that Earth could come out of water. Brahma meditated on Lord Vishnu.
A very small white boar came out of Brahma's nose. Therefore, the current day of Brahma is called as shwet varah kalp.(Shwet=white, Varah=boar incarnation). The boar's size was only half of a thumb. But soon it became gigantic in size and roared. Brahma, Manu and the sages could understand that the boar was none other than Lord Vishnu. They extolled the Varah incarnation of Vishnu by singing hymns from vedas.
Varah rose into sky and scattered the clouds with his hooves and tusks. Then he entered the water and found the Earth. He lifted the Earth on his tusks.

Lord Varah killed Hiranyaksh
One of the wives of sage Kashyap(grandson of Brahma) was Diti. One of their sons was Hiranaksh. In He was born on Earth because of a curse from Kumar brothers. He was very powerful. With his mace, he killed many. Even gods headed by lord Indra fled from heaven in order to save themselves from Hiranyaksh. Hiranyaksh loved fighting. After returning from heaven, Hiranyaksh dived into deep ocean. There he met lord Varun(god of water). Hiranyaksh asked Varun to give him battle. Varun knew that he could not defeat Hiranyaksh. He told Hiranyaksh that he should go to Lord Vishnu for battle; then Hiranyaksh will be rid of his pride.
Hiranyaksh wanted to know where he could find Lord Vishnu. Sage Narad told him about Varah incarnation of Vishnu. Finding the whereabouts of Varah from Narad, Hiranyaksh went to that place. He saw Lord Varah holding Earth on the tips of His tusks. Hiranyaksh laughed at Lord Varah, challenged Him for a battle and threatened of killing Him. Varah came out of water, placed Earth on water, blessing Earth the ability to float. Hiranyaksh followed Varah. There was fierce battle between the two. Finally Lord Varah cut off all the weapons of Hiranyaksh using Sudarshan chakra. Getting angry, Hiranyaksh struck Varah hard. Varah gave him a slap below his ear. Hiranyaksh body whirled around and he died.

Story of Varah incarnation completed.

Incarnation of Vishnu as sage Kapil
There was a sage named Kardam. Lord Brahma asked him to beget children so that populaion on Earth could continue.
Kardam did askesis at the bank of river Saraswati to please Lord Vishnu. Being pleased Lord Vishnu appeared and said, "Day after tomorrow, king Swyambhuv Manu will come here with his queen. They will want to marry their grown up beautiful daughter Devhuti to you because you are a worthy husband for their daughter and Devhuti has set her mind upon you. After you marry her, you will have nine daughters from whom generation will continue. You will also have one son. I will Myself incarnate as your son." Saying thus, Lord Vishnu disappeared.

As told by Lord Vishnu, Kardam as Devhuti got married. Devhuti had already heard about Kardam's nobility from sage Narad. Therefore, she herself wanted to marry Kardam and her parents also were happy with this alliance. Kardam and Devhuti had nine daughters. After that they had one son, who was Vishnu incarnate. The son was named Kapil. When Kapil grew up, then Kardam propitiated his son Kapil because Kapil was Vishnu. Sage Kapil said to sage Kardam, "I have descended in order to explain Sankhya yoga. This knowledge was lost in the course of time. Therefore, I will impart this knowledge again. I will impart the same knowledge to my mother so that she can attain liberation". Taking leave from Kapil, sage Kardam left the house and became a sanyasi.

When Kardam had left, then Kapil stayed with his mother Devhuti. One day Devhuti remembered words of Lord Brahma. Brahma had already told her that Vishnu would incarnate as her son to impart her knowledge. Devhuti asked Kapil to give her transcedental knowledge. Accordingly, sage Kapil explained to her Sankhya philosophy.

Sankhya Yoga as explained by Kapil to Devhuti

When we serve God, without any motive of getting anything in return, then it is far better even than salvation. A true devotee likes to see God's various transcendental forms, which are all benevolent. Being absorbed in devotional service, he attains liberation without separate endeavor. He does not desire even the highest benediction obtainable in the upper planetary systems. He does not desire the siddhis obtained from mystic yoga, nor does he desire to be elevated to the kingdom of God. Yet even without desiring them, the devotee enjoys, even in this life, all the offered benedictions. It is because of God's supremacy that the wind blows; the sun shines out of fear of Him, and the lord of the clouds, Indra, sends forth showers. Fire burns out of fear of Him, and death works out of fear of Him.

God is the Supreme Soul. He has no beginning. He is transcendental to the material modes of nature and beyond the existence of this material world. He is perceivable everywhere because He is self-effulgent, and by His self-effulgent luster the entire creation is maintained. Divided into varieties, material nature creates the forms for individual souls, and the living souls, seeing this, are illusioned. Because of his forgetfulness, an individual soul accepts the influence of material energy as his field of activities, and he wrongly applies the activities to himself. Material consciousness is the cause of one's conditional life. Although the spirit soul does not do anything and is transcendental to such activities, he is thus affected by conditional life.

When Nature is in unmanifest state, it is called pradhan. It is called prakriti when in the manifested stage of existence. There are five gross elements, namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. There are also five subtle elements: smell, taste, color, touch and sound. The senses for acquiring knowledge and the organs for action number ten, namely the auditory sense, the sense of taste, the tactile sense, the sense of sight, the sense of smell, the active organ for speaking, the active organs for working, and those for traveling, generating and evacuating. The internal, subtle senses are experienced as having four aspects, in the shape of mind, intelligence, ego and contaminated consciousness. All these are considered the qualified Brahman. The mixing element, which is known as time, is counted as the twenty-fifth element. Because of the time factor the creation begins as a result of the agitation of the neutral, unmanifested nature.

By exhibiting His potencies, God adjusts all these different elements, keeping Himself within as the Supersoul and without as time. After God charges material nature with His internal potency, material nature delivers the sum total of the cosmic intelligence. The primordial matter in the universe is called Mahat-tattva. From Mahat-tattva evolve three modes of material nature - goodness, passion and ignorance. From goodness evolves the mind, whose thoughts and reflections give rise to desire.The mind of the living entity is known by the name of Lord Aniruddha, the supreme ruler of the senses. He possesses a bluish-black form resembling a lotus flower growing in the autumn. He is found by the yogs. From passion, intelligence takes birth. The functions of intelligence are to help in ascertaining the nature of objects when they come into view, and to help the senses. Doubt, misapprehension, correct apprehension, memory and sleep, as determined by their different functions, are said to be the distinct characteristics of intelligence. From ignorance, sound is manifested, and from sound come the ether and the sense of hearing. From ether, touch and thence the air and sense of touch evolve. By the interaction of fire and the visual sensation, the subtle element taste evolves under a superior arrangement. From taste, water is produced, and the tongue, which perceives taste, is also manifested. Although originally one, taste becomes manifold as astringent, sweet, bitter, pungent, sour and salty due to contact with other substances. Due to the interaction of water with the taste perception, the subtle element odor evolves under superior arrangement. Thence the earth and the olfactory sense, by which we can variously experience the aroma of the earth, become manifest. Odor, although one, becomes many — as mixed, offensive, fragrant, mild, strong, acidic and so on — according to the proportions of associated substances.

When all these elements were unmixed, then God, along with time, work, and the qualities of the modes of material nature, entered into the universe with the total material energy in seven divisions. From these seven principles, roused into activity and united by the presence of the Lord, an unintelligent egg arose, from which appeared the celebrated Cosmic Being. Within this egg is the universal form of Lord Hari, of whose body the various fourteen planetary systems are parts. From the Cosmic being, various body parts, senses, gods presiding over these senses, and various elements came.

Because soul is unchanging, if he does not claim proprietorship, then he remains apart from the reactions of the modes, although abiding in a material body, just as the sun remains aloof from its reflection on water. When the soul is under the spell of material nature and false ego, identifying his body as the self, he becomes absorbed in material activities, and by the influence of false ego he thinks that he is the proprietor of everything. The conditioned soul therefore transmigrates into different species of life, higher and lower, because of his association with the modes of material nature. Unless he is relieved of material activities, he has to accept this position because of his faulty work. Actually a soul is transcendental to material existence, but because of his mentality of lording it over material nature, his material existential condition does not cease, and just as in a dream, he is affected by all sorts of disadvantages.

One should execute his prescribed duties to the best of his ability. One should practice nonviolence and truthfulness, should avoid thieving and be satisfied if he possesses as much as he needs for his maintenance. For doing yoga, one must observe silence, acquire steadiness by practicing different yogic postures, control the breathing of the vital air, withdraw the senses from sense objects and thus concentrate the mind on the heart. The yogi should clear the passage of vital air by breathing in the following manner: first he should inhale very deeply, then hold the breath in, and finally exhale. Or, reversing the process, the yogi can first exhale, then hold the breath outside, and finally inhale. This is done so that the mind may become steady and free from external disturbances. By practicing this process called pranayam, one can eradicate the contamination of his physiological condition, and by concentrating the mind one can become free from all sinful activities. When the mind is perfectly purified by this practice of yoga, one should concentrate on the start of the nose with lightly closed eyes and meditate upon God. A yogi sees God in all manifestations. Then he gets perfect realisation.

Kapil rishi burns the sons of Sagar
Descent of Ganga
After explaining Sankhya to his mother, Kapil rishi left house and went to north-east and started doing tapasya there. Devhuti's father had already left house and beccme a sanyasi. Now, her son also left house. She spent her time always remembering God and passed away one day. Kapil rishi continued to do tapasya.

Many years after that, there was a king named Sagar. He had two wives Sumati and Kesini. Sumati had 60,000 sons and Kesini had one son named Asmanjas. Being the eldest son, Asmanjas had to inherit kingdom from his father, but he did not want kingdom. Therefore, he acted as if he was of evil character. He used to kill children. King Sagar got so angry that he exiled Asmanjas from his kingdom. Before leaving, Asmanjas used his mystic power and brought to life all the children he had killed. Then he left house. Sagar now felt sad, but it was too late.

One day, king Sagar decided to do ashvamedh yajna. King of heaven, Lord Indra did not want Sagar to complete the yajna because the yajna was going to give Sagar great spiritual merits. Indra was afraid that Sagar may try to take Indra's position after accruing spiritual merits. Therefore, he stole the hourse of the ashvamedh yajna and tied the horse in Kapil's ashram. Sage Kapil was busy in his tapasya with his eyes closed.

The 60,000 sons of Sagar went in search for the horse. They searched all over the Earth. When they went to north-east, then they saw the horse tied in the ashram of Kapil. They thought that sage Kapil had stolen the horse. They grew angry and rushed towards Kapil to kill him. Kapil opened his eyes and looked at the 60,000 princes. When sage Kapil looked at them, the princes burnt to ashes.

When they did not return, then Anshuman went in search for them. Anshuman was Asmanjas's son and hence Sagar's grandson. Anshuman searched for his uncles in various places. Finally he reached Kapil rishi's ashram. Anshuman propitiated Kapil. Being pleased, Kapil rishi gave the horse to Anshuman and pointed towards ash of Anshuman's uncles. Kapil told Anshuman that his uncles would get liberation and go to heaven only after their ashes were washed by ganges water. At that time, Ganga was in heaven.

Anshuman took the horse and came back to King Sagar. Sagar finished the yajna. One day, he gave the kingdom to Anshuman and left the kingdom to spend the rest of his life doing tapasya. After some years, Anshuman gave the kingdom to his son Dilip and did tapasya to bring Ganga on Earth. But he did not succeed and, one day, he passed away. Anshuman's son Dilip also did severe tapasya but he also could not bring Ganga on Earth and passed away. Then Dilip's son Bhagirath did tapasya. Now, Ganga was pleased. She appeared before Bhagirath and put two concerns. One concern was that many sinners would take bath in Ganga. Another concern was who was going to check her tremendous speed. She said that if her speed was not checked, then Earth would be pierced. Bhagirath replied that not only sinners, but many saintly people would also take bath in Ganga. The effect of saints would counteract the effect of sinners. He also said that he would ask Lord Shiva to check Ganga's speed.

Then Bhagirath did tapasya to please Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva became pleased and agreed to slow down the speed of Ganga. Now was the time for Ganga to come on Earth. When she saw Lord Shiva, she laughed. She thought she will go to inner regions of Earth and take Lord Shiva also in her current. saying thus, she laughingly jumped with full speed. Lord Shiva captured Ganga in his locks. On being requested by Bhagirath, Shiva released a part of Ganga. Bhagirath moved with Ganga(i.e. part released by Shiva) and reached sage Kapil's ashram. The journey was very eventful. When Ganga water washed the ashes of king Sagar's sons, then they got rid of their sin and went to heaven.

In a previous birth Ravan and Kumbhkarn were Visnu's doorkeepers. They had to come to Earth because of a curse by Kumar brothers.
The Kumar brothers are Sanak Kumar, Sanandan Kumar, Sanatan Kumar, and Sanat Kumar. They were mind born sons of Brahma. Even in their advanced age, they looked very young because of their spiritual powers. They had no attachment to any material possessions. Using their spiritual powers, they freely moved around the universe.

One day they went to Vaikunth to meet Lord Visnu. They were stopped by Jay and Vijay (the doorkeepers of Visnu). Jay and Vijay thought the Kumar brothers to be children and made fun of them.

Kumar brothers did not like that the doorkeepers of Lord could behave like this. They got angry and cursed Jay and Vijay that they two would be born on planet Earth.

Visnu came there. On seeing Him, Kumar brothers forgot all anger. They worshipped Visnu and, after some time, left.

Visnu told Jay and Vijay that He was capable of overruling the curse but He did not want to do so. When Jay and Vijay pleaded that they could not live being separate from their Lord, then Visnu said to them, "You will have to undergo three births. In all those three births you will be killed by me. At the end of three births, you will come to me."

If Lord Visnu personally kills somebody then that person is considered very fortunate.

The first birth of Jay and Vijay was as Hiranyaksh and Hiranyakashipu. Visnu took boar incarnation and killed Hiranyaksh; he took Nrisimha (half man, half lion) incarnation and killed Hiranyakashipu.

The second birth was as Ravan and Kumbhkarn. Lord Visnu took human incarnation as Ram and killed Ravan and Kumbhkarn.

The third birth was as Shishupal and Dantwakra. Lord Visnu came to Earth as Krishna and killed Shishupal and Dantwakra.

The birth of Ravan
The demons Malyavan, Mali and Sumali were brothers. Because of a boon from Lord Brahma they became very powerful. They terrorized gods. On their command, Vishwakarma(the architect of gods) built the beutiful city of Lanka. The gods went to Lord Visnu to seek help. After that in a fight between demons and gods, Visnu killed Mali with his sudarshan chakra(discus), Visnu killed Mali. Malyavan and Sumai ran away from there.
Now gods once again started ruling happily. Malyavan and Sumali lost their kingdom. Sumali was looking for a suitable groom for his daughter Kaikasi. One day he saw Kubel flying in his Pushpak Viman(aircraft). Kuber was sage Vishrava's son and was ruling over Lanka now. Vishrava was a highly respected, very learned sage and possessed great spiritual powers. Vishrawa thought that a son born of a demon lady and a great sage like Vishrawa will be very powerful. He asked Kaikasi to go to Vishrava and marry him.
Kaikasi went to Vishrava. When Vishrava asked her the cause of her arrival, then she introduced herself by saying that her name was Kaikasi and she had come there on the command of her father Sumali. After that she said, "The rest you should know from your own spiritual insight." Vishrava understood everything.
In due course of time, Vishrava and Kaikasi gave birth to three sons and one daughter. The sons were Ravan, Kumbhkarn and Vibhishan. The daughter was Chandranakha(meaning nails like moon). When Chandranakha grew up, then she was called as Surpnakha(meaning nails like winnowing fans). Out of the four children, Ravan was the eldest, after that Kubhkarn, then Chandranakha, and the youngest was Vibhishan. At birth, Ravan was not named Ravan. He was called by names Dashanan(meaning ten heads) and Dashgriva(meaning ten necks). When he was born, he had ten heads, and twenty hands. The name Ravan was given to him much later.

Ravan, Kumbhkarn, and Vibhishan get boons from Brahma
Ravan's father Vishrava was a scholar. From him Ravan Got the knowledge of Vedas and many other kinds of knowledge. Vishrava wanted Ravan to live in peace with everyone. But Kaikasi was always provoking Ravan against Kuber.
Kuber was Ravan's step brother. But he loved Ravan, Kumbhkarn, Vibhishan and Chandranakha a lot.
One day Kuber came in his Pushpak viman(aircraft) to meet his father Vishrava. Kaikasi pointed the aircraft to Ravan and said, "Look what your step-brother Kuber has achieved. He has made his mother proud. But you have not done anything. I am ashamed of you."
Ravan promised his mother that he would excel Kuber. He decided to worship Lord Brahma. Kumbhkarn and Vibhishan also worshipped Brahma. The three brothers did very severe penance(tapasya). Ravan, one-by-one cut off his heads and offered them as an offering to Brahma. He cut nine of his heads. When he was about to cut his tenth and last head, then Brahma came and stopped him. Brahma restored all his heads and asked Ravan what he wanted.
Ravan asked for immortality. Brahma said, "I cannot give that to you." Ask for something else. Then Ravan said, "I should not be killed by gods, demons, gandharvas, yakshas, wild beasts. Give me supremacy over them." Ravan did not mention humans in his boon because he thought no human could ever kill him. He considered it against his self-respect to ask Brahma that he should not be killed by humans. Brahma granted him whatever boon he asked.

Brahma asked Vibhishan to seek a boon. Vibhishan said, "Even in great danger, may I never swerve from the path of righteousness. May I be illumined with the light of divine knowledge."
Brahma granted Vibhishan this boon and said, "Your mind is never inclined towards doing any bad deeds. Therefore, I grant you immortality."
As we can see, Brahma did not grant immortality to Ravan though Ravan asked for it. But he granted immortality to Vibhishan though Vibhishan did not ask for it. The reason is that Brahma knew it was not proper to give immortality to Ravan.
Next it was Kumbhkarn's turn to ask for a boon. Kumbhkarn was huge in size and had tremendous strength. He had the habit of killing humans and animals and eating them. The gods got afraid. They thought, "Kumbhkarn is already so powerful. He will be a great danger if he gets any more power from Lord Brahma." They requested Saraswati(goddess of speech) to do something. Saraswati casted an illusion on Kumbhkarn's mind so that he asked for lots of sleep. Brahma granted that. After that Kumbhkarn realized his mistake. But, it was too late now.
Ravan got a mansion built for Kumbhkarn so that Kumbhkarn could sleep there.

Following are the incarnations of Lord Visnu as mentioned in scriptures. I know you may not consider some of these as incarnations. But I am writing what Bhagavatam says.
1. Kumara brothers
2. Boar
3. Narad
4. Nar, Narayan
5. Kapil
6. Son of Atri
7. Yajna
8. Rishabh
9. Prithu
10. Fish
11. Tortoise
12. Dhanavantri
13. Mohini
14. Nrisimha
15. Vaman
16. Parashuram
17. Vyasdev
18. Ram
19. Balaram
20. Krishna
21. Buddha
22. Kalki
I made a mistake in counting. I had said 24 but the above list contains more than that. This is because Kumara brothers were four. And Nar, Narayan were two. If we count them separately, then it becomes more than 24. If we do not count them separately, then it is 22. In any case, the number is greater than 10.

Ravan conquers Kuber
Kuber was Ravan's elder half-brother. Pleased by his austerities, Lord Brahma made him guardian of North direction and also lord of wealth. Actually the word Kuber is a post, which means lord of wealth. Earlier Kuber's name was Vaishravan. After he became lord of wealth, he came to be called as Kuber.
Kuber's father Vishrava suggested Kuber to live in Lanka because Lanka was vacant then. Kuber did the same and started ruling over Lanka. Celestial architect Vishvakarma made an aircraft called Pushpak for Kuber.

One day Kuber came to meet Vishrava by Pushpak. Kaikashi(Ravan's mother) pointed Pushpak to Ravan. She taunted Ravan a lot by saying that he had not done anything for which she could be proud of him. Ravan assured her to become greater than Kuber.

After this Ravan, Kubhkarn and Vibhishan got boons from Brahma.

Kuber loved Ravan, Kumbhkarn, Vibhishan and Chandranakha a lot. Initially Ravan was not ready to take Lanka from Kuber. But his grandfather and his uncles again and again prodded him to do so. They put hate in him against Kuber. Ravan asked Kuber to vacate Lanka. Kuber refused. After that Kuber asked Vishrava for his suggestion. Since Ravan was very powerful, therefore, Vishrava suggested Kuber to give Lanka to Ravan. Kuber gave Lanka to Ravan. Now, Ravan became the king of Lanka.

When Ravan was king of Lanka, he tormented rishis a lot. Kuber advised Ravan that he was not doing right thing. Ravan got angry. He attacked Kuber and forcibly took Pushpak from him.