Sage
Bhrigu (Bhrigu Maharshi)
Introduction
to the story of Sage Bhrigu:
We came across the great Sage Bhrigu when we
were recounting how the sage Chyavana was born to Him through his wife Puloma.
We also recounted briefly how Sage Bhrigu tested the Trinity. Now let us know Prajapati, Manasputra of Lord Brahma.
In
the beginning, when Brahmaji was asked to create, He was alone. So, He started
creating mentally and the sons thus created like Vasishtha, Atri, Narada
etc. came to be known as Manasaputras of Brahma. Thus it is clear
that in the highest spiritual planes, the thought itself is enough for the
thought form to take shape into a material body. This power, this energy,
Shakti, is glorified as aspects of Divine Mother in Sri Lalitha Sahasranama
Stotra (IcchaShakti, JnanaShakti, KriyaShakti).
Maharshi
Bhrigu was one of the Manasputras (born by a wish) of Lord Brahma (It is said
that he was born from the heart part). Sage Narada, Vasishtha, Atri, Gautama
etc. were others. Bhrigu is considered as one of the Nine Brahmas. He was
married to Khyati (the daughter of Daksha), Puloma (daughter of Kardama) and
Usana. Two sons, Dhata and Vidhata and a daughter Shri were born to
Khyati. Maharshi Bhrigu is also called Prajapati (creator) as he was created by
Lord Brahma to help him in the process of creation of the universe. Chyavana
was his son from Puloma as we have seen.
Sri
Lakshmi,
his daughter became the consort of Shri Vishnu. Since She is the
daughter of Bhrigu, She is called Bhargavi (Bhargaveem, Bilva Nilayaam,
Vararohaam, Yasaswineem, Vasundharaam, Udaaraaangaam, Harineem,.
Hemamalineem…goes the Daridrya Mochana Stotram). Similarly Sukracharya,
the preceptor of Daityas is another son of Bhrigu born to Usana
and hence is known as Kavi, Bhargava etc. We will try to catch up more
about these great sages in future.
Maharshi
Bhrigu had accomplished many Yagnas and had helped others to accomplish them.
With his powers, he fulfilled the wishes of people for begetting sons. During
the two months of Shravana and Bhadrapada, he made the chariot of
the Sun God as his abode.
Cursing
of Vishnu
When
the battle ensued between the Devatas and the Daityas, the Devatas led by Indra
had the upper hand. Daityas went to their Guru, Sukracharya and sought his
help. He left for severe Tapas (penance) to please Lord Siva and get the MritaSanjivini
Mantra Siddhi. During his absence, the Daityas sought refuge in Usana, the
mother of Sukracharya. She assured them protection and she came out of
her cottage and using her powers froze the devatas. Once they became immobile,
they became easy targets for the Daityas and were subjected to various tortures
by the Daityas. The Devatas prayed to Lord Vishnu to protect them and get them
out of the predicament. Vishnu understood that the curse on Devatas could not
be annulled unless Usana was killed. But Usana being a lady was not to be
killed as per dharma. However, Vishnu realised that unless she tried to harm
Him, He could not kill her without violating the dharma. (No first strike
principle!). Vishnu disguised Himself as a ferocious beast and tried to scare
Uasana. Usana saw through the disguise of Vishnu and said to Him: “Vishnu, I am
doing my duty of protecting my children and You are supposed to be impartial
and protect dharma. You have now become biased and this Adharma cannot be left
unpunished. I am going to curse you. You and Indra will be reduced to ash!”
Before these words were spelt out, Vishnu killed Bhrigu’s wife with a sharp
arrow and separated her head from the torso. Once Usana was killed, her powers
also left and Devatas became free. Sage Bhrigu cursed Vishnu to take birth on
earth and go through the cycles of birth and death and thus suffer like us. He
brought his wife back to life with his powers. Vishnu accepted the curse of the
sage as He accepted the curse of Sage Durvasa. Vishnu stood in an
invisible form between the sage and Ambareesha, Vishnu’s staunch devotee
and took the curse on Him when the sage was cursing Ambareesha.
Bhrigu
tests the Trinity and declares Vishnu as the Best
When
a big Yagna was planned and the question of deciding who among the Trinity of
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva should be considered the best and made the Chief of the
Yagna, all the sages requested Bhrigu to decide. He agreed and went first to Satya
Loka, the abode of Brahma. Brahma was busy with His work of creation and
did not receive the sage properly. Bhrigu, who shared the Rajo Guna from His
father Brahma, also did not greet Him or pay His respects to Brahmaji. Sage
Bhrigu did not hesitate to curse Him! From Satya Loka.
Bhrigu went to
Kailas where Siva and Parvati were busy with the cosmic dance. Siva ignored
Sage Bhrigu and did not stop His dance. Bhirgu got furious and cursed Siva too.
Another version is that Siva wanted to embrace Sage Bhrigu but Sage Bhrigu did
not accept because He felt Siva’s conduct was not vedic (Siva is also called Vama
Deva) and followed some left hand practices, Vamachara. So, Siva got angry
and ran after Sage Bhrigu with His trishul and was about to kill him, but was
pacified by Mother Parvathi.
Bhrigu left
Kailas and reached Vaikuntha. Sri Vishnu was relaxing with His consort and
Bhrigu got angry and kicked Vishnu on His chest. Now see the Leela of Vishnu.
He immediately got up and bowed to the sage and started pressing the feet of
the sage Bhrigu. He apologised to the sage for not noticing his arrival and
also the feet of the sage would have been hurt by the impact of His chest,
which is hard like a diamond and because of the many ornaments. Bhrigu was pleased
with the satvik nature of Vishnu and came back to the rishis and proclaimed
Vishnu as the best.
Bhrigu
Maharshi kicked Vishnu on His chest, He apologised, seated the Maharshi on a
throne and pressed the feet and removed an extra eye of the Sage in one of his
soles (Sage Bhrigu was rather proud of that eye). Immediately the spiritual eye
of Bhrigu opened and he realised his mistake and also praised Vishnu for His
satvik qualities and declared to the assembly of the sages that Vishnu is
greatest. Lakshmi got very much annoyed and left Vaikuntha saying that Her
residence was defiled and She could not stay in that place. She left Vaikuntha
and came to earth and stayed at Kolhapur. She felt the pangs of separation and
started doing tapas to Siva to regain Vishnu. Vishnu, in the meantime, left
Vaikuntha because that place lost all sheen and glory when Lakshmi left. He
came down to the earth to Tirupati / Tirumala area. The present temple of Sri
Venkateswara (Srinivasa) is because of that.
Sage
Bhrigu helps King Yavanashwa to beget a son
King
Yavanashwa did not have children and approached Sage Bhrigu for help. The sage
got a Putra Kameshti (an Ishti is a special Yagna and Putra Kameshti means
an Ishti performed for begetting sons) performed and gave a vessel
containing the holy water to the king and asked him to give it to the queen. In
the middle of the night, the king developed a severe thirst and drank the water
by mistake (by destiny). When the sage came to know of it, he told the king
that the laws of destiny were inviolable and he had to now bear the son
himself! (Recently, a man gave birth to a child through the intervention of modern
science – may be our ancestors knew the secrets involved!). The king carried
the fetus for a hundred years (this indicates the long life span of those times
and presumably all biological processes were also slower. Shakuntala carried
Bharatha for 3 years). The baby thus born is Mandhata, one of the six
Chakravarthies. More about him later…
Sumukha
helped by Sage Bhrigu
Sage
Bhrigu built his hermitage near the Kailasa Mountain and was living there. He
was carrying on his penance there. One day, a man with a tiger face came to see
him accompanied by his beautiful wife. Though Sage Bhrigu knew who they were,
he asked the man to tell him about himself. The man prostrated himself and
said: “Maharshi, I am Sumukha, a Vidyadhara and this is my wife.
While returning from heaven, I was transformed like this. Kindly give me a
solution to get back my original face.” Sage Bhrigu used His divine insight and
said to the Vidyadhara: “Sumukha! You observed Ekadasi fast and next day you
had a head bath. You got afflicted with this tigerly face because of that
mistake. Now, I will tell you how to rectify your mistake. Go and have a bath
in a sacred river in the month of Magh and you will be absolved of your earlier
dushkarma. You will get back your original face. Go with my blessings.” Sumukha
did as directed by the sage and got back his original handsome face. It is Guru
Kripa that we are reading this in the month of Magha only. Sai Ram.
Bhrigu
Maharshi saves the life of Jamadagni and Renuka
Once
in a battle with Kartaviryarjuna, Jamadagni lost his life. His wife
Renuka wanted to accompany Sage Jamadagni on the funeral pyre. Sage Bhrigu
stopped her and brought her back to life along with the Sage Jamadagni. Later
Jamadagni was killed by the sons of Kartavirya who was killed in a battle by Parasurama,
son of Jamadagni. More about that later, when we take up the stories of
Jamadagni and BhargavaRama –Parasurama. Vishnu, who was cursed to take
births on earth by Sage Bhrigu, chose to incarnate in the lineage of Bhrigu! It
shows that what happened was the leela of Vishnu. As directed by his great
grandfather, Parasurama prayed to Siva and got by His blessings, Bhargavastra.
Sage Bhrigu also revealed all the secrets of the creation of universe etc. to
Sage Bharadwaja, who came to him in search of that esoteric knowledge.
Sage Bhrigu also authored Bhrigu Sutras, a treatise on astrology. He also
authored Bhrigu Nadi, which tells us the future of several people. There are
other Nadi Granthas like Agastya Nadi etc. He also became known as a
Smritikarta, author of Smriti. However, Manu Smriti became much more popular.
Thus
we can see that Sage Bhrigu was a great Jnani, a great tapasvi, a great
maharshi, who became a Brahmarshi (a Rishi who became one with the Brahman) by
his great penance. He became the originator of a great lineage.
