Stories from Upanishads and Purans retold by Urghiya Goswami
Dear friends and listeners, In today's episode, I will continue
with the story of Assi and Baka. For those of you who have not
listened to Part 1 of the story, I would request that you listen
to it before listening to this episode.
I will include the links in the description and show notes for
the friends who have already listened to it.
A very short recap. In the last episode, we learnt
about 3 accounts from Ramayan, Mahabharata and Rigved which
established the antipathy between 2 great Brahma Rishis
Vasistha and Vishwamitra. Emerging back after 12 long
years of underwater tapasya, sage Vasistha learnt about the
sufferings of King Harishchandra and inhuman taste conducted by
Brahmarishi sage Vishwamitra. Seeing this king suffers so
long, Rishi Vasistha couldn't control further and caused Rishi
Vishwamitra to become a Baker or an Indian crane.
Rishi Vishwamitra immediately learned about the curse and he
reciprocated with another curse on Rishi Vashishta to become an
ATI or bank miner. Both these Brahma Rishis were
affected by each others curse and took birth as birds.
Sheikh Vishwamitra took birth as a Baker or Indian crane and Sage
Vashishta took birth as ATI or Bank miner.
Although both Brahmarshis were born as birds, they retained
their power and energy. They both were angry and fought
with each other. Their sizes grew huge.
Sage Vashista as ATI grew to a size of 2000 Yojanas whereas
Sage Vishwamitra as Baka grew to a size of 3096 Yojanas.
Friends, let me clarify the unit of Yojana before proceeding any
further. This unit was used in ancient
India as a unit of distance with a value that varied depending on
that era, location and context. Example in cosmology versus land
measurement. Generally 1 Yojana is considered
between 8 to 10 miles or approximately 13 to 16
kilometers long. So ATI being 2000 Yojana is huge
means 2000 * 10 20,000 miles long, and baka being 3096
yojanas huge 3096 * 10 that means 30,960 miles long.
So you may visualize how huge these two birds were.
However, yojanas in different times were measured differently.
For instance, in Arthashastra, written around 4th century BCE,
Yojana is defined AS4 gurutas or 8000 dhanus, which roughly
translates to approximately 4.5 to 9 miles or 7 to 14.5
kilometers. Ancient astronomers such as Arya
Bhatt and the Surya Siddhanta generally measured Yojana as 5
to 8 miles, approximately 8 to 13 kilometers.
Now coming back to a story on ATI and Baka, these two giant
birds started fighting with each other.
They affect each other with their beaks, pushed each other
with the giant wings, raising its neck.
ATI stuck Baka with feet so fierce was there fight that with
the flaps of the giant wings, the earth began to tremble.
The ground began to crack open, huge tornado like wind columns
develop, the mountains began to tremble and eventually collapse,
causing destructive landslides everywhere.
This chaos resulted in oceans releasing water, causing floods
everywhere. It was a massacre everywhere,
horrifying scenes of devastation and destruction all over.
The Angry Birds kept on fighting and fighting, hitting each other
with powerful blows, causing more and more damage and
destruction. Eventually the earth gave up and
began to lean to one side and started to sing towards Patalu
friends again. As far as Sanatan scriptures,
the universe is generally described of having 14 realms or
lokas, 7 heavens or upper worlds and seven nether worlds or lower
world or pathas, then followed by 8 naraks or Hells as
described in Markande Puran. However, Please note that in
Gadot Puran, 28 Hells are described.
Since this episode is dedicated to Mark and the Puran, I will
stick to the information from it.
The seven upper worlds are Satya Lo or Brahmalo, Tapalo, Jana
Lok. Mahar Lok swarga Lok Hoover.
Lok and Bhulo, that is the Earth.
The seven lower worlds, or Pathas, are Atala.
Lok vitala Lok sutala Lok tala tala Lok mahatala Lok rasatala
Lok. Patalalok or Nagalok, types of
Narak or hell as per Markandapuran are Rorova,
Niraya, Maha Rorova, Thomas Nikrintana, A Pratishtha, Asif,
Patravana and Papakumba. Now coming back to the story, as
the earth started to sink towards Patal, all life forms
headed for colossal destructions.
Mountains started breaking apart, water from the ocean
started gushing into the land. Earth itself started to crack
and quake. It was heading towards a gargade
to an annihilation of the earth and all life forms.
All terrified living beings started to run helter skelter,
nowhere to go or to hide. After witnessing such
eradication of life forms from the earth, all gods and demigods
consulted Lord Brahmadev. Prajapati.
Lord Brahmadev appeared in front of the angry and fighting birds.
Angry and losing all his patience, Prajapati commanded
two birds to stop fighting immediately.
He wrote, Seize your fight birds and let the words regain its
composure. Although the birds heard Lord
Brahma commanding them to stop the fight, they did not pay any
heed to it. They kept on fighting and
destroying the earth. Saying that these birds had not
listened to his warning, he neutralized each others curses
and changed them back into Brahmarishis.
When they regained their bodies as Brahmarishis, Pragyapathi
spoke to them. O great sage Vashishta and sage
Vishwamitra, stop fighting. All this chaos and destruction
happened due to your Tamas sentiments.
This conflict between the two has resulted in impediments to
your austerities. So give up your fight.
It is the Brahman who is supremely strong and ubiquitous.
When they heard Lord Brahmadev's address, they finally were
ashamed of their misdeeds. Pardoning each other, both the
sages efficiently embraced each other.
All gods and demigods showered flowers from the heavens.
Witnessing the truths between the two Brahmarishis, Lord
Brahmadev returned to Brahmalog. Both Brahmarishis went back to
their respective ashrams and hermitages.
Saying this, the birds of wisdom stopped their tale of Raja
Harishchandra and ASI and Baka. Then after a pause, they
chopped. If the mortals listened to the
stories of the clash between ASI and Baka and account of Raja
Harishchandra, then the scenes of the reciter and the listener
will be destroyed and they will not face any impediments in
their task. Rishi Jaimini enriched with the
great tale of Raja Harishchandran.
Also the account of ASI and Bakar continued to listen to
other accounts from Markande Puran from the Birds of Wisdom.
Friends, before I end to this episode, I would like to discuss
a thought with you all. The Count of ASEAN Baka
described the destruction of Earth when the mountains fell,
the water from the oceans rose, the earthquake and cracked open.
All life forms were in the brink of extinction.
This account raises the thought that if this was the time when
dinosaurs were eradicated from the face of the Earth during the
Mesozoic era, we find references to pterosaurs which were not
technically birds but were flying reptiles.
Some of the Pterosaurus were Quitsulko Atlas had Zik of
Turkis and Pteranodon, some true avilians or birds present during
those times where Archaeopteryx, Gurgaon, Tuvis, Hesperornis.
Let's ponder and continue this exploration further in the
future. In the next few episodes, we
will listen to some of the stories related to Lord Datre in
Markande Puran. These stories were narrated by a
boy named Sumati from the Bhargava lineage to his father.
As for your reference who are not familiar with Lord Datre, he
is considered to be an avatar and a combined form of the three
Murtis or Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiv and as the
manifestation of Parabrahma, the Supreme Being.
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