Agastya - 11

Agastya relieved Dushyantha of the curse

Dushyantha was the last son of the king of Pataliputra. He was a very wicked prince. He killed a number of children and the king excommunicated him from the land. When the prince went to the forest he chanced to see a boy, the son of Ugrarava and he killed the boy by drowning him. Ugrarava was furious and he cursed the prince and as a result he fell into the water and was drowned. Later he became an evil spirit. The evil spirit came to Agastya and begged him to relieve him of the curse.The sage called one of his disciples by name Sutheekshna and asked him to go to Gandhamandana mountain and have a bath in the holy Agnithirtha and bring a little of that holy water and sprinkle it on the spirit of Dushyantha. When Sutheekshna did what he was told by the sage , the prince regained his form and went to heaven.



Agastya earned a golden bracelet

Once Agastya came to a big forest. It was lonely and frightening. As he was walking along he saw a few gandharvas and some divine women singing and dancing. One of the gandharvas went to a lake pulled out a corpse of a man and began to cut it and and eat the flesh raw without any hesitation. When he saw sage Agastya he got frightened and surrendered.



Agastya asked why he was eating human flesh. The gandharva began to narrate a story."In Thretha yuga there was a king by name Vidarbha. I am his son. My name was Shwetha. I ruled the land for a long time and then came here and began to perform tapas. After my mortal body fell, I went to heaven. I became hungry and even in heaven my hunger continued to become intense. I went to a brahmin and asked him for the reason. He told me that as king I did not give alms to anyone. Therefore I remained to suffer from hunger even in heaven. Just to satisfy my hunger, I come here everyday and eat human flesh as directed by that brahmin. He told me that one day sage Agastya would come here and if I gave him a gold bracelet as a gift my sin would be reedeemed. Now that you are here, I am blessed." So saying he gave a gold bracelet to Agastya and got blessed. Then he went to heaven.

Agastya cursed Kubera and his companion
While the Pandavas were in the forest they visited a number of holy places and finally came near the Himalayas. One day Arjuna left his brothers and went to Mount Meru and began severe tapas to please Lord Shankara. A number of years were spent in tapas. The rest of the Pandavas began to search for Arjuna with the help of sages Vrishparva and Arshtishena and finally came to Alkapuri, the capital of Kubera. Bhimasena fought with Kubera's army and destroyed everyone including Kubera's best friend Mahiman. Yudhishtira was sad and begged pardon of Kubera for his brother's act. He asked Kubera,"O great one tell me how human power can overdrive divine strength? How could my brother who is a human could kill Mahiman ?Kubera asnwered saying, "Once my friend Mahiman and I went to Kushavathi to listen to heavenly music. We saw Agastya praying to God on the bank of the Kalindi. My friend spat on his head from the sky. Agastya was very angry and said,"Kubera your's friend spat on my head in front of you. You saw it by kept quiet. Therefore let a human destroy your army and kill your friend Mahiman. You would never feel sorry even when so many were killed. At that point I begged him to pardon me. He relented and said that I would be redeemed when that event took place. That is the reason for this tragedy." At that point Kubera saw Bhimsena. Kubera was freed from the effect of the curse. This way Agastya's curse did not even spare the Lord of wealth.

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