Shankar: Why have you summoned me?
Maudgalya: I want to be the best Rishi, who can get powers through meditation.
Shankar: Why you wish for such, only the gods can have such power.
Maudgalya: I will only use the power for the common good, help people around by spreading positivity. If you see me use it for evil, you can avenge me.
Shankar: I will only be able to grant you such a boon, if only you leave your loving wife forever.
Maudgalya: WHY? We have vowed to live together for 7 cycles of rebirth. We have been together since the very beginning. She is my destiny.
Shankar: I did not say this was going to be easy, if you want power then you must earn it.
As Shankar was almost about to leave. He hears Maudgalya shout.
Maudgalya: I WILL DO IT!
Therefore, Shankar granted him the boon. However, Maudgalya certainly felt guilty of such deeds. He meditated more to get power. Until He was so immense in meditation, he finally forgot his wife Nalayani.
Nalayani looked for her husband for days. The forest was so big and since Maudgalya was meditating in a secret spot, she never found him. Nalayani spent rest of her life in sorrows, until finally one day one of the gods visited her and asked what she wanted. This is where Nalayani asked god for a happy marriage life, where she will always be taken care off and never left alone. As always there was a twist, god did not just give her one loyal and caring husbands, but five. She was assured that in her next birth cycle, she would be queen Draupadi and she will marry five princes.
Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata
Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata
Rishi meditating to get power
Author's note:
Originally this story starts with the Rishi wanting to focus more on meditations and Tapas, giving up his wife and life. His wife Nalayani gets upsets as she is not satisfied with his love and want him to be there for her throughout the many cycles of rebirths. However, her husband just leave and she starts meditating, where she gets visited by god, who grants her five husbands because she says I want my husband five times. I wanted to make it more interesting, on why Rishi wanted to leave her and how he is granted the boon of power. I changed up the story by flipping the point of view.
Originally this story starts with the Rishi wanting to focus more on meditations and Tapas, giving up his wife and life. His wife Nalayani gets upsets as she is not satisfied with his love and want him to be there for her throughout the many cycles of rebirths. However, her husband just leave and she starts meditating, where she gets visited by god, who grants her five husbands because she says I want my husband five times. I wanted to make it more interesting, on why Rishi wanted to leave her and how he is granted the boon of power. I changed up the story by flipping the point of view.
Hi Urvi!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your take on the back story of Draupadi! It was smart to include a better reason as to why the Rishi would choose meditation over Nalayani, and it seems to fit with many other instances in Ramayana and Mahabhrata where gods are very particular in who and how they grant powers to. Overall I really like the story, your writing style, and I saw no typos that jumped out at me. Keep it up!
Brady
Hey Urvi!
ReplyDeleteI loved this story and the way you flipped the perspective from Draupadi's unsatisfaction with her marriage to Rishi's. I thought the reason Rishi left her in your story was super interesting because the whole "betraying loved ones for power" is a very common theme in stories. Good job overall :)
Hi, Urvi!
ReplyDeleteHow Draupadi's fate came to be is always so sad to me. I like this different take on it. It makes me wonder which version had the more selfish version of the rishi: this one who left the love of his many lives to attain a great power, or the one who left her after tiring of making her happy. Either way, it is so sad. I love it. Great job!