Rishi Agastya

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Rishi

Agasthya is one of the greatest seers of the Vedas. Rishi is a title

given to the great seers of the Vedas. His name means Aga means

mountain and astya is subdued. His

name refers to the time her subdued the Vindhayachal mountains. The

Vindhyachal mountain range divides North and South India in the middle.

These mountains had the tendency to grow so high that they obscured the

Sun.

When Rishi Agastya journeyed from north to south, and on the way

encountered the now impassable Vindhyachal mountains. He asked the

mountain range to facilitate his passage across to the south. In

reverence for so eminent a sage as Agastya, the Vindhyachal mountains

bent low enough to enable the sage and his family to cross over and

enter south India.

The Vindhyachal range also promised not to increase in height until

Agastya and his family returned to the northern solstice. Agastya

settled permanently in the south, and the Vindhyachal range, true to

its word, never grew further. ( more below)

 

 

 

Rishi Agastya is considered as the first and foremost Siddha (knowledge and accomplishments),

 

and therefore the guru of many Siddhars. Another name for Rsi Agastya

is Kurumuni (short muni). Rishi Agastya made pioneering contributions to the field of Ayurveda (alternative medicine) and Jyotish (Vedic Astrology particularly Nadi Astrology). Rishi Agastya lived for over 5000 years, and one of his medicinal preparations, Boopathi Kuligai, was so powerful that it could even bring the dead back to life. Two of his disciples were Therayar and Tholkappiar carried this knowledge forward for him.

 

 

Brahma

had ten Maanas (mind born) sons who were great Rishi’s called: Angiras,

Atri, Bhrigu, Daksha, Kratu, Marichi, Narada,

Pulaha, Pulastya, and Vashishta; of which Rishi Pulastya was married to

Havirbhoo one of the nine daughters of Rishi Kardam and Devhooti. Rishi Pulastya and Havirbhoo had two sons: Maharishi Agastya and Maharishi Vishravaa.

Rishi

Agastya was named because of his Karma. His wife was a princess and was

called Lopaamudraa and is mentioned Lalitha Sahasranama (Thousand Names of the Goddess â€" a Sacred composition). Rishi Agastya is associated with the Sthira Rashi’s of the Drekkana.

 

 

Rishi Agastya is best known for

 

 

The

Lalitha Sahasranama, which sing the praises of the Goddess through her

thousand names and so is deeply pleasing to the divine mother (also

known as Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi, etc) that it has the power to give

moksha when repeated enough times with deep sincerity. This composition

was first revealed to the world when an incarnation of Vishnu Hayagriva

taught the hymn to Rsi Agastya.

 

 

The

Aditya Hridayam (A hymn to Surya deva â€" pacifiess most flaws of the Sun

and pleases him a great deal.) is also said to be composed by Rsi

Agastya and taught personally by him to Sri Ram just before the war

between Sri Rama and Ravana.

 

 

Rishi Agastya also composed the Saraswati Stotram. (Saraswati is the Goddess of all knowledge, music and singing.)

 

 

Humbling the Vindhyachal mountains

 

 

Meru Parvat (mountain) is the highest peak in the world and by its nature grows a little everyday. Vindhyaachal Parvat (mountain) was so jealous of Meru that he started to rise up even higher. The Vindhyachal mountain ranges which separate north and south India

wished to grow so high as to block the Sun. Day was turned into night

and the movements of the Sun and Moon became irregular making the vedic

rituals based on their movements irregular too. The gods prayed to

Rishi Agastya to do something about this with his siddhis and subdue

the Vindhya Mountains. Rishi Agastya decided that he would move to

southern India in order to accomplish this task for the gods. When he

came with his wife to the Vindhyachal mountain and saw his height and

humbly requested the mountain to lower it self so that he and his wife

could pass. The Vindhyachal mountain was a great worshipper of saints

and Rsi’s felt very humbled by and honoured by such a request from a

person of Rishi Agastya’s magnitude and agreed to not only lower

himself so the that the Rishi and his family could walk accross but to

stay low until they returned. Rishi Agastya never returned and

permanantly settled in Southern India and went onto to produce the

famous Rishi Agastya Nadis (palm leaf books of knowledge) click here for more on palm leaves and Nadi. It is also from this that Vastu Shastra reportedly originated as the movements of the Sun and Moon also became regular.

 

 

Rishi Agastya and Lopamudra

 

 

 

ishi Agastya

was once visiting heaven, he saw his deceased ancestors suspended with

their head downwards. Agastya was surprised because this was a sign

that they were preparing to go to hell. Agastya asked them what wrong

had they committed. They told him that it was Agastya's fault that they

would go to hell. Rishi Agastya did not have a son; in fact he was not

even married. Hence the lineage would end with him. Then there would be

no one to offer prayers on their behalf and they, Agastya included,

would all go to hell, Agastya assured his

ancestors that he would do the needful. But the task was easier said

than done because there was no woman on earth worthy of his qualities

and stature. So the Rishi with his ascetic and yogic powers created a

female infant who possessed all the special qualities of character and

personality that would be appropriate in the wife of a Rishi and called

the infant Lopamudra.

 

 

t

that time the king of Vidarbha was undergoing austerities in order to

obtain an offspring Rsi Agastya decided to gift this child to the noble and virtuous king of Vidarbha.

 

 

 

When

Lopamudra was of marriageable age, Rsi Agastya approached the King and

asked for the hand his daughter. The king was very disturbed to have

such a request made of him by a renunciate, Especially as it was this

Rsi that had donated the child to him in the first place. However, the

king was also aware that his daughter had from childhood exhibited a

very unusually high sense of discipline and charcacter, and had been

naturally inclined to fasting, worship, penances etc. Lopamudra upon

learning of the proposal insisted that her father accept. Lopamudra was

happy to marry Rsi Agastya, however her father placed a condition that

Rishi Agastya had to fulfil if the marriage was to take place. The king

asked Agastya to get enough money so that his daughter would not have

to live a life of total hardship.

 

In order fulfil this condition

Agastya approached king Srutarvan for assistance. The king was more

than willing to help, but Rsi Agastya in his greatness had put an

unusual condition. He had insisted that the king should not give him

wealth by depriving any other person of assistance. When the king

demonstrated the equality of his income and expenditure (which included

substantial charity) Agastya refused to take any assistance. Srutarvan

then took Agastya to a greater king, Vradhnaswa, but the same story was

repeated there. Then the three of them went to king Trasadasyu, but

with the same outcome. Trasadasyu explained that only a Demon king

would be able to meet Rishi Agastya's requirement because he gave no

wealth in charity but accumulated it.

 

 

Accordingly

they went to the Demon king Ilwala who had a younger brother named

Vatapi, who had developed a very unusual power. He could transform

himself into any creature. Then the creature could be cut up into any

number of pieces and strewn about. When Ilwala summoned Vatapi with the

mritsanjivani mantra, the pieces would join together with great force

to reform the creature. The Demon brothers would use this technique to

destroy brahmins. Vatapi would transform himself into a goat. His flesh

would then be cooked and given to brahmins to eat, flavoured and

disguised as a vegetarian dish. After the brahmins had eaten their

fill, Ilwala would summon his brother and the pieces of the goat would

burst through the stomachs of the brahmins, killing them.

 

 

When

the three kings and Rishi Agastya arrived at Ilwala's court, the king

decided to use the goat technique to kill them. After due courtesies

dishes containing the goat were served to the guests. Rsi Agastya knew beforehand about the plan due to his immense Siddhi’s so Rishi Agastya ate all the dishes himself and said “Vathapi Jeer No bhava†which literally means may Vathapi be digested.

Ilwala then made many attempts to summon his brother but all that

happened was a loud belch by the Rishi. Ilwala kept on repeating his

command, but to no avail. Rsi Agastya laughed and said, "He cannot come

out now. I have completely digested him." Though Ilwala was saddened at

the death of his brother he asked the Rishi of what service he could

be. Agastya repeated his request and condition. Ilwala then gave the

sage more than he needed. In addition he gave a golden chariot and two

super-fast steeds so that Rsi Agastya would reach his hermitage very

quickly.

 

 

At

the hermitage Rishi Agastya gave the excess wealth to the three kings

and thanked them for their time and company. With the wealth obtained

from Ilwala, Rishi Agastya was able to satisfy all of the king

Vidarbha’s conditions. In time Rishi Agastya asked for the hand of Lopamudra in marriage. The

king was initially chagrined to hear such a suggestion from a

renunciate, but found that his daughter, who had early exhibited

extraordinary standards of mind and character, was insistent that he

should accept the proposal. She was utterly intent upon exchanging the

palace of her father the king for the forest-hermitage of Agastya.

 

 

Lopamudra and Agastya were duly married and lived a life of extraordinary felicity. On their union

Lopamudra asked for a son endowed with great power. Agastya asked her

if she would like a thousand sons, or a hundred sons who are ten times

as powerful as the first or ten who are a hundred times as powerful as

the first or one son who is a thousand times as powerful as a thousand

sons? Lopamudra chose one son. Agastya went to the forest after

Lopamudra conceived and bore the embryo for seven years whilst Rishi

Agastya meditated after which a resplendent son was born called

Dridhasyu. Rishi Agastya’s ancestors no longer had to hang upside down

but obtained the regions of heaven that they desired.

 

 

Nimisha Khatri ===============================