gotramulu & rushulu 5

                                                GOTHRAMULU & RUSHULU 5

1.     HARIT/HARITA GOTRAM:  harita was king of Ishkvaku i.e. surya vamsa.  His father is king MANDHATRI and his father is king AMBARISHA.  The  harita gotra brahmins were decedants of king Harita and the pravara is Angirasa, ambarisha, yuvanaswa.  Yuvanaswa was also a great king of Ikshawaku i.e. surya vamsa.

2.    VISWAMITRA GOTRAM:  viswamitra belongs to Kusa dynasty,from Mithala  presently now in Nepal terai and Indian Bihar. River kosi in bihar is the sister of viswamitra, unmarried and turned to be as river.  Kusa is not confused with ishwaku dynasty i.e. son of Lord Rama.  Kusa had son named Kusanabha  more predominantly called as Gadhi. (we pray in sandhyavandana  as gayatraaha gayatri chandho gadhi putro viswamitra rushihi)

Kin g Gadhi had a sister name satyavati (not mahabharata  king santanu wife).  She was married to  Ruchika rishi, son of sage chyavana  from lineage of Brugu maharshi.   Ruchika in need of santati, a boy with brahmin qualities, performed a yaaga and offered payasam to his wife satyavati.  Satyavati requested the ruchika to offer payasam to his mother also since they do not have a son other than her.  Ruchika agreed and gave payasam to her also.  But due to vidhi vaipareetyam, or destiny the paayasa paatra was mutually exchanged by satyavati and her mother. 

The net result is that Satyavati had a son with kshatriya qualities and her mother had a son with brahmin qualtites.  Do you know who are they, they are son born to satyavati is Jamadagni maharshi with kshatriya qualities and Gadhi wife had a son with brahmin qualities is none other than Kausika i.e. sage viswamitra. Subsequently, sage rucheeka came to know the interchange through his divine power, but could not do anything immediately, so he gave a boon to satyavati, that the son of satyavati will have a boy with brahmin qualities and he is PARASURAMA.

Viswamitra, born and brought up in a royal family, he learned all the warrior skills from a brahmin  Kusasana and earned a good name after suceeding  his father  Gadhi.  Viswamitra had four sons named  havichandra,  dridanetra, maharadha and madhuchanda. The son madhuchanda became rushi and had many mantras in Rig veda as mantra Drashta.

During the  ruling, king viswamitra once had been to Vasishta Asrama along with his army and Vasishta offered them royal dinner with full facilities.  Viswamitra was astonished how he could manage such extravaganza, and vasishta in return told that he had one cow called nandini, daughter of Kamadhenu and she could all the requirements.  Viswamitra thought if the cow nandini is with his kingdom, it could serve better to people and he requested the sage vasishta to give the nandini to kingdom but vasishta plainly refused to give the cow.  Viswamitra offered to give one lakh cows in return to nandini but vasishta not obliged to give nandini. Viswamitra wanted to take the nandini with force, but nandini immediately created a force and defeated the viswamitra army.  Subsequently, viswamitra sent his 100 sons along with army to forcefully get nandini cow from vashishta but they too were killed by the nandini.  With this viswamitra got humiliated and went to forests and had tapas in praise of Siva and got many astras and also the title of RAJARSHI from Siva. 

Again he invaded vasishta ashrama but vasishta put his satya danda before him and the all divines astras routed from viswamitra got invalid and merged in the satyadanda.   Satya danda represents nirguna para brahma and all the gunas has to absorb in nirguna. Viswamitra was upset with this and he again went for tapas to win over vashishta.  During this time, all devats including indra afraid about the serious tapas of Viswamitra and wanted to break his tapas and once they sent Menaka to seduce him.  Viswamitra lived with menaka for ten years and had one daughter named sakuntala, the mother of Bharata in whose name our country is named as BHARATA DESA. Viswamitra in the meantime came to realise that menaka was sent by indra to seduce his tapas and he immediately gave saapa to menaka to have birth with arupa i.e. bad face, since she was very greedy about her beauty.  Themenaka was reborn as ANJANA DEVI  as monkey face and had become the mother of ANJANEYA.

By the time bramha was pleased with the tapas of  viswamitra and named him as a rishi , thus leaving his royal lineage permanently.  Bramha suggested to take bramharshi grade from vashishta only since it is appropriate for him. 

TRISANKU,  a king of ikswaaku dynasty, wanted to go to swarga with physical body and he requested his kula guru sage vasishta to arrange for it.  Vashishta having know well the dharma sutra, that a physical body can not enter swarga loka but only the sukshma sareera can only enter the swarga.  He politely refused to oblige for this.  Then trisanku approached the sons of vaasishta, but having come to know the refusal of their father, the cursed him to go as chandala since he foegone  the kula guru advise.   Trisanku having curse of chandala, approached Viswamitra to send him to swarga with physical body.  Though viswamitra knows very well sending a physical body to swarga in impossible, but he wanted to take revenge on vasishta and with his tapas sakti, he arranged a yaga and invited all devatas to come and accept the havis given by him but the devatas refused to accept this.  Then  viswamitra sent trisanku along with agni deva to take him to swarga.  Accordingly agni along with trisanku rose upto swarga but brihaspati the deva guru, asked indra to send back trisanku.  Trisanku was rejected from swarga and was falling from swarga and requested viswamitra to save him and viswamitra got enraged over the act of indra, and he created one separate swarga loka to trisanku in the name of trisanku swarga and created all the dikpalas and devatas parallel to indra swarga.  By the act of viswamitra, indra along with other devats along with Bramha  appeared before viswamitra and requested him not to indulge in creaation of another swarga.  Then viswamitra agreed for this and retained trisanku in nakshatra mandala as a star permanently and disowned the process of creating another parallel swarga.  By this act he has lost all his tapas and again he has to start afresh to have tapas sakti.  

Again, indra sent Ramba to seduce viswamitra in the tapas, but viswamitra cursed ramba to be as a stone  for one thousand years. His saving of a Brahmin boy from being offered in sacrifice (The story of Sunassepha)

SUNASEPA
When King Ambareesha was performing a great yagna, the gods* felt threatened (it is interesting to see that the gods too are subject to many failings of human nature such as fear and jealousy – these stories are in a way similar to Greek literature) that the King would surpass them in glory once the yagna is completed and he may usurp the heaven. It may be mentioned that Indra is a post and is obtained by performing a specific number of yagnas, yagas etc. Whenever another person performed greater sacrifices, his punya became more and he would displace the existing Indra. Indra stands for the enjoyer of the sensual pleasures and the person occupying that position gets attached to the pleasures. So, Indra always tries to break up the tapas and yagna etc. when he feels threatened by the performer of such tapas and yagna etc. From another angle, it may be understood that these obstructions are created to test the sadhaka’s will power and the obstructions actually help to strengthen the sadhaka to rise higher in the spiritual planes beyond the sensual pleasures.

In this case too, Indra abducted the yagna pasu (the animal reserved to be sacrificed for the yagna). The king consulted the Purohits and it was decided that a human being would be sacrificed instead of an animal (strange are the ways of destiny) and a search started for a suitable Brahmin boy for the sacrifice. Since the animal proposed for the sacrifice had to be perfect in body, they had to make an extensive search and another important condition was that the family had to give up the boy willingly, not under duress from the king. Unlike an animal, a human being has will power and the ability to express his mind and so express agreement was needed. They located a family that had 3 sons. The mother was fond of the youngest and the father Rucheeka (not sage Rucheeka) was fond of the eldest and so they decided to part with the middle boy for an equivalent of one lakh cows. As the boy was being brought to be tied to the post just as an animal would be, he was anguished at being disowned by his parents and as luck would have it, he met sage Viswamitra, who assured the boy that he would protect him.

The sage thought that since he had so many sons (the version of the story has it that he had a hundred sons), he could persuade one of them to go in place of the Brahmin boy. However, each animal tries to protect itself and values its own life over the words of others. There are a few exceptions in Puranas (Sibi, Bhaktha Siriyala and Dattatreya etc.) but this is the rule. So, all of them refused their father’s wish that one of them should go in place of that Brahmin boy. So, Viswamitra gave two mantras to the boy and asked him to chant the same before the moment of sacrifice and the boy followed the instructions carefully. Along with the mantras of course he gave a lot of his power gained through tapas. The gods pleased with the mantras and the offering of the tapo phala released the boy from being sacrificed. This story of King Ambareesha is found in Rig Veda   
A similar story repeated itself later. King Harischandra of Kosala worshipped Varuna and asked for a son. To a query from Varuna about why he was asking for a son, the king replied that as per the shastras, the very sight of the face of a son ensures sadgathi (good way for further progress when the soul leaves the body). Aputrasya gatirnasti is the shastra. Then Varuna made a strange request that the boy has to be offered to him as yagna pasu immediately after birth. The king agreed. Then after the child was born, Varuna came to collect the child and the king put it off for a few years under one pretext or other.   In this case, Varuna cursed Harischandra to suffer from Ascites (accumulation of fluid in the abdomen), a difficult to cure disease. The king realized his mistake and started the yagna to offer the son in sacrifice. The prince, Lohitha (Rohitha) was about 14 years old at that time and came to know that he was to become a sacrificial animal to Varuna and he ran away to the forest. Then he felt ashamed at his fear of life (after all he was a kshatriya prince and he was a prince of the Ishvaku dynasty known for their adherence to truth). On the way back, he met the family of a poor Brahmin named Ajeegartha and requested him to offer one of his three sons and accept cows in exchange. Though the Brahmin was not greedy for the money, he agreed to protect the Ishvaku dynasty and offered his second son Sunassepha, who also agreed to become the sacrificial animal.

When the boy was brought, the Brahmins conducting the yagna refused to offer a human being and the father of that boy Ajeegartha himself tied the boy to the post and raised the sword. At that moment, Sunassepha felt sad at his fate and he found his savior in sage Viswamitra. Viswamitra froze the hand of Ajeegartha and gave a mantropadesa to Sunassepha, by the power of which, Varuna was pleased and released Sunassepha. “Imam me Varuna Srudhi…” mantra is the gift of sage Viswamitra. Thus the story had a happy ending but then a dilemma arose. Who will protect the boy? His family already disowned him and he was in no mood to go back to the parents. The king had offered him as sacrifice to Varuna, the lord of the neither world and it was difficult for him to take care of Sunassepha, who got a new name Devaraatha (because he was protected by Varuna Deva). The pandita sabha discussed the matter and decided that since Viswamitra saved the boy, the boy has now become his property and so Viswamitra should now take care of him as a father would take care of a son. Thus the principle of rights and responsibilities going together was already well established by then!

As already mentioned, Viswamitra had a hundred sons already and so probably felt one more would not be a problem. He declared the end of human sacrifice in yagnas and mentioned that the boy Sunssepha, now named Devaraatha was blessed by him and would gain more glory in the years to come. He asked his sons to accept the Brahmin boy as their elder brother. Fifty of his sons agreed and the other fifty refused. They were cursed by the sage to go to south India and live with the tribals, forgetting all their knowledge. They repented and requested forgiveness. Viswamitra gave them back their knowledge but insisted that they had to migrate to South India and mix with the tribals. Thus the curse became a boon to all of us here in South!

Sunassepha (Devaraatha) became a great sage himself and became the drashta (seer) of many Vedic Mantras. The Gothra Pravara of Viswamitra – Devaraatha has come into existence probably at that time and is live even today.

*We use the word gods to denote Indra and the other celestial gods of heaven and reserve the word God to denote one or all the Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara, Who are three aspects of the Nirguna Para Brahma (that word Para is used to denote the difference between the Saguna and Nirguna Aspects of the Ultimate Creative Principle, the Brahma Tatva).

His testing of Harischandra

Sage Viswamitra made Harischandra immortal by testing his adherence to truth. Thus Harischandra came to be known as Satya Harischandra. The sage knew that the king was wedded to truth, he wanted that to be publicized in all the worlds and thus subjected the king and his family to many hardships, but the kind did not budge from the path of truth. Thus even at the risk of being seen as a villain, Viswamitra made Harischandra immortal.

Birth of Sakunthala

During one of the many episodes of his tapas, the gods sent Menaka, one of the celebrated celestial apsaras to test and if possible disturb his tapas. This is a normal practice adopted by the gods and only if the sage (tapasvi) resists the temptations and thus passes the tests, further progress takes place and the Ishta Devata will manifest before the tapasvi and offers the boons as per the merit of the tapas. Sage Viswamitra got disturbed (or got attracted to her) and as a result of their union, a girl child was born. Another version of the story is that He was favorably disposed to her because of her sincere service and blessed her with a child. Since neither of them was willing to take care of the child, some birds (Sakunthas) took care of her and later Sage Kanva took her and brought her up as his daughter. Because she was taken care by Sakuntha birds, the girl was named as Sakunthala and she married King Dushyantha and gave birth to Bharatha, after whom this country is named. Due to a curse from sage Durvasa, King Dushyantha failed to recognize Sakunthala when she went to his court with Bharatha, and Akashavani came to her rescue (the king failed to recognize her because of the curse by the sage which also made her to lose the signet ring given to her by the king at the time of their Gandharva Marriage at sage Kanva’s ashram). During the course of her pleading with the king, Sakuntala touched upon the power of truth  

His becoming Brahmarshi

After repeatedly giving up his powers obtained through great tapas, Viswamitra realized the futility of his ego and went to tapas again with the intention of overcoming the rajasic qualities of his ego. He performed a long and arduous tapas.
Indra came disguised as a Brahmin and tried to provoke Viswamitra through some improper behavior (he was trying to see whether the sage had some anger left in him if not desire). Viswamitra remained calm.

Lord Brahma was pleased with the tapas and manifested Himself before Viswamitra and accepted him as Brahmarshi and gave long life, The Brahminic luster (Satvik qualities) and the ability to bless the whole world. The place where Viswamitra got the siddhi is called Brahmapushkar, Brahmakund and Uttarkund. There is a temple to Lord Brahma (the only one in the country) and there are two important places there, Harischandra and Ambareesh.

However, Viswamitra was not satisfied and wanted to be accepted as a Brahmarshi by his arch rival sage Vasishtha. When he went to the ashram of sage Vasishtha, he welcomed him by addressing as a Maharshi. Viswamitra was not satisfied and went back for doing more tapas. When he went again, Vasishtha addressed him as a dhoortha (scoundrel). Instead of getting angry and annoyed like the earlier times, Viswamitra smiled and kept quiet and turned to leave. Then Vasishtha called him back as Brahmarshi. He praised Viswamitra for conquering the tiniest traces of the six internal enemies (Kama, Krodha etc.) and thus achieving an almost impossible task. Sage Vasishtha indicated that he was born as a Brahmarshi where as Viswamitra achieved that stage by burning off the ego

Viswamitra blesses Rama with Dhanurvidya

When his yagnas and yaagas were being disturbed by demons Maricha and Subahu (sons of Thataka, a demoness), Viswamitra decided to approach King Dasaratha and was received with honor by the king. When Dasaratha requested the sage to reveal the purpose of his visit, sage Viswamitra mentioned about the yagna being disturbed by the demons and asked the king to send Rama and Lakshmana along with him so that the yagna can be completed without interruption from the demons (it is the duty of king and his representatives to help the sages do their duties without interference from any one). King Dasaratha was fully deluded by Maya and could not think of parting with his dear sons for such a dangerous mission (he could not realize that the sage was fully capable of protecting the princes and was making this request because he did not want to spend the tapas shakti to directly punish the demons). The king also did not realize the true nature of Rama, who was an incarnation of Vishnu! However, sage Vasishtha intervened and assured the king that the princes were perfectly safe with sage Viswamitra and that the mission would be beneficial to the two, words that were prophetic indeed (all the sages were fully aware of the past, present and the future)! So, the king agreed and sent the two princes Rama and Lakshmana with Viswamitra. The princes follow the sage on foot with a lot of reverence and the sage was pleased with the two princes and gave them two powerful mantras Bala and Atibala by which they were forever freed from thirst, hunger and tiredness etc. He also gave them many Astras and Sastras. He addressed Rama thus: “Rama, these are very powerful Astras and you would need only a fraction of the energies invoked by them to take care of the demons.” To a query from Rama as to why He did not finish off the demons directly, the sage replied that as a rishi, he should not waste his energies in such activities and he was empowering the prince in his future life mission!
Rama killed Thataka at the behest of sage Viswamitra (Rama was known for obeying the commands of his father and other fatherly figures and Gurus, since He knew that the dharma is very intricate and the nuances are better known by these elders and in any case, the ultimate dharma is to obey the Guru – Father, Mother and Guru are the Three Gurus, representing the Ultimate Guru). Subahu was killed and Maricha was thrown many miles away and ran for his life (later he met his end at the hands of Sri Rama when he was forced to help Ravana in his plan to abduct Sri Sita).

After the completion of the Yaga, Viswamitra decided to go to Mithila and took the two princes with him. On the way, he saw the deserted ashram of sage Gautama and Ahalya in a Samadhi (some people say she was cursed to become a stone) and asked Rama to touch the stone with His foot (Rama is the incarnation of Sri Vishnu and the sage knew that). Ahalya was restored to life and sage Gautama also came there and both bowed to Rama and sage Viswamitra and took leave.

In Mithila, they were received by King Janaka with full honors and Rama was asked by Viswamitra to string the bow of Lord Siva. In that process, the bow broke and King Janaka gave Sita in marriage to Sri Rama. The other brothers of Rama also were married to Sita’s sisters. Thus Viswamitra was instrumental in blessing Sri Rama in many ways.
 

Vishvamitra was the author of the revered great Mantra - The Gayatri Mantra. It is a mantra and a prayer found in the Rig, Yajur, and Sama Vedas. We have in rig veda entire 3 mandala is from  Viswamitra maharshi. Among the 24 letters 24 rishies represents gayatri mantra and viswamitra is first and yagnavalkya is tahe last.

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At the penultimate culmination of a multi-thousand year journey, Kaushika's yogic power is at a peak. At this point, Brahma, at the head of the  devas led by Indra, names Kaushika a  bramharshi , and names him Vishvamitra, or Friend of All for his unlimited compassion. He is also embraced by  vashishta , and their enmity is instantly ended.