Ancient Indians – Satya Samhita

Reference : 19th and 20th Adhyayas of the First skanda.

We have been following the story of Suka, the best son of Vyasa, , as it is remembered and passed down to us in the Devi Bhagavatham.

After his divine birth and education, Suka tried his best to avoid the householder’s life but was finally convinced by Rajarishi Janaka. See Devi Bhagavatham for story so far. After being convinced of the Vedic way, Suka got married and had wonderful children. His son-in-law anUha, receive the dEvI bIja mantram from Narada and attained brahman.

Now, having completed the householder’s life, Suka left for Kailasa and meditated there. He crossed the stage of attaining various siddhis like anima laghima etc and attained paratatva.

The long lived Veda Vyasa was extremely unhappy at the loss of his son and called out to him at Kailasa. The paramAtma answered ‘Vyasa, you and I are one, I live as the Jiva in you., for what are you worried? ‘ Vyasa like any loving father found this really hard. Siva had to appear before the pure souled Vyasa and grant him that he could always see the bright form (shade/outline/transparent..?) of his son always.

Vyâsa  already had with him many disciples Asita, Devala, Vais’ampâyana, Jaimini, Sumantu and others, all engaged in the study of the Vedas. After their studies were over, they all went out to propagate Dharma on the earth. Then Vyâsa , seeing that the disciples went to the earth and his son S’ûka Deva had got to the next world, became very much distressed with sorrow and wanted to go to some other place. He then decided to go to his birth place and went to the banks of the Ganges and there remembered his auspicious mother Satyavatî.

Vyasa, the son of Parasara and Satyavati had been entirely raised by his father. Now that he knew what it was like to be separated from his son, he went looking for his mother satyavati. He learnt that Satyavati was now married to Santanu, the son of Kuru. He made an asrama on the banks of the Saraswathi River and meditated there.

After the king S’antanu had ascended the Heavens, the energetic Bhishma performed duly his funeral obsequies and gave various things in charity to the Brâhmanas. He did not accept the kingdom himself; but placed Chitrângada on the throne and became known by the name of Devavrata (truthful in vow like the Devas). The pure souled Chitrângada, born of Satyavatî became so much powerful by sheer force of his arms, and became so great a hero that the enemies felt endless troubles. Now once on an occasion, the greatly powerful Chitrângada, surrounded by a great army, went on an hunting excursion to the forest in quest of rurû deer, etc., when the Gandharva Chitrângada, seeing the king on the way, alighted from his chariot. O ascetics! A fierce battle then ensued for three years on that sacred and wide expanse Kuruksettra between the two heroes, both equally powerful. In the battle, the king Chitrângada, the son of S’antanu was slain by the Gandharva Chitrângada and went to svargaloka.

Points to Ponder :

1. The Devi Bhagavatham records that Suka attained moksha, even before Chitrangada’s death, even before Vicitravirya grew up and married Ambika and Amabalika.
2. The Srimad Bhagavatham records that Suka actually narrated The Srimad Bhagavatam to Parikshit the grandson of the Pandavas (Arjuna) and that s’uka was 16 years old at that time.
3. Both agree that he was a saintly personality and the best son of Vyasa.
4. The Bhavishya Puranam is narrated in the voice of s’uka, who is said to have lived with his wife near Magadha for sometime.

Sri Krishnaarpanam.

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