Śukra and the Life-Restoring Vidyā

The question left by the war

In the war with Andhaka, the fallen asuras kept standing up again, because their teacher Śukra knew the vidyā that brings the dead back to life. That is why Śiva had him seized and swallowed, and why Śukra came out again as Śiva's son. That story is told on its own page.

But it leaves a question behind: where did Śukra get such a power in the first place? Sanatkumāra, who is narrating to Vyāsa, now goes back in time to answer it. Hear, he says, how the sage Śukra won the death-destroying vidyā from Śiva, who is called Mṛtyuñjaya, the conqueror of death.

A liṅga and a well in Kāśī

Long ago Śukra, the son of Bhṛgu, went to the city of Vārāṇasī. There he fixed his mind on Viśveśvara, the Lord of all, and began a tapas that would last a very long time.

He set up a liṅga of Śiva, and in front of it he had a beautiful well made. Then he began to worship. The Purāṇa counts it out: he bathed the Lord a hundred thousand times with pañcāmṛta, a full droṇa measure each time, and a hundred thousand times more with fragrant substances of many kinds. Thousands of times he lovingly anointed the liṅga with sandal paste, with the perfumed paste called yakṣakardama, and with scented unguents.

Every flower he could find

Then came the flowers. The Purāṇa lingers over the list, and it is worth lingering with it: royal campaka, dhattūra, kaṇera, lotus, mālatī, karṇikāra, kadamba, bakula, blue lotus, mallikā, the hundred-petalled flower, sindhuvāra, kiṃśuka, bandhūka, punnāga, saffron and nāgakesara.

And still more: fresh jasmine, kunda, mucukunda, mandāra, bilva leaves, droṇa flowers, maruvaka, granthiparṇa, damanaka, tender mango leaves, tulasī, tips of kuśa grass, nandyāvarta, agastya, sāla, devadāru, kacanāra, kurabaka, shoots of dūrvā grass, kuruṇṭaka. With each of these, and with many other lovely sprays, leaves and lotuses, he worshipped Śiva with a steady and loving mind.

He pleased the Lord with song and dance, with offerings, with many hymns, and with the thousand names of Śiva. In this way, with every kind of worship he knew, Śukra went on honouring Maheśvara for five thousand years.

The harder vow

And after five thousand years, Śiva had not shown the slightest sign of coming to grant a boon.

Śukra did not leave. He took up a second and far harder discipline. First, the Purāṇa says, he turned inward: with the water of contemplation he washed away the great stain of restlessness from his mind and senses, until the mind was like a great jewel made spotless. That clean mind he offered to Śiva.

Then he began to live on smoke alone — the smoke of a fire of smouldering chaff — and he kept this up for thousands of years.

Out of the liṅga

Seeing him so firm of mind and so fierce in his tapas, Śiva was deeply pleased. The three-eyed Lord, husband of Dākṣāyaṇī, brighter than thousands of suns, came forth out of that very liṅga.

“Treasure of tapas, great sage, son of Bhṛgu,” he said, “I am especially pleased with this tapas of yours. Ask, Bhārgava, for whatever your heart wants. I will fulfil every wish. There is nothing I would not give you.”

At those words Śukra was flooded with joy. His lotus eyes opened wide, the hair rose on his body, and he bowed down gladly. Then, with joined palms raised to his head and cries of “Victory!”, he began to praise Śiva as Aṣṭamūrti — the Lord of eight forms.

The hymn to the eight forms

He praised him first as the sun: “Lord of the world, by your own light you drive away all darkness and undo the hopes of those who prowl by night. Jewel of the day, you shine in the sky for the good of the three worlds. I bow to you.”

As the moon: “Cool-rayed one, you are the eye of every creature on earth and in the sky. You end the darkness that covers the world, and your rays are nectar. I bow to you who are made of nectar.”

As the wind: “Life of the worlds, you are the path and the goal of those who walk the pure way of yoga. Without you, who in this world could live? As breath you make all beings grow. All-pervading one, I bow to you.”

As fire: “Sole purifier of the universe, refuge of those who come to you — if your one purifying power were not there, who would give release to the dying? Inner self of the world, you are the fire within every living being, bringing peace at every step. I bow to you.”

As water: “Supreme Lord, purifier of the world, your ways are truly wonderful. Viśvanātha, this clear form of yours as water makes the world pure merely by being bathed in. I bow to you.”

As space: “Lord, it is because you give room, within and without, that this world can unfold. Through you, merciful one, the world breathes, and into you it is drawn back. I bow to you.”

As the earth: “All-sustaining Lord, you alone carry and feed this world. Viśvanātha, who but you destroys darkness? You who wear serpents as ornaments, take away the darkness of my ignorance. Highest of all who are worthy of praise, beyond the beyond, I bow to you.”

And as the self: “Hara, by this chain of your forms the whole world, moving and unmoving, has spread out. You who live in the inner self of all, Lord of eight forms — I too am your own. I bow to you always.”

He closed with one more verse: “Friend of the helpless, whose form is for the good of all, who guides those who bow to you — you bear these eight forms, and this wide world is filled with you. I bow to you.” Having praised Śiva with these verses, Śukra laid his head on the ground and bowed again and again.

What Śiva gave

Mahādeva took the bowing brāhmaṇa in his arms and lifted him from the earth. His smile lit up the horizon, and in a voice deep as a thundercloud he spoke with great affection.

“Best of brāhmaṇas, poet-seer, dear child — you are my pure devotee. Your fierce tapas, the merit of establishing this liṅga, your worship of it, the offering of your pure and unwavering mind, and your clean conduct here in the great sacred field of Avimukta: for all of these I look on you with compassion. Nothing is too much to give you.”

Then he said something strange. “In this very body you will enter the cave of my belly, and you will come out again by the way of the seed, and so become my son.” The Purāṇa has already shown how that came true, in the war with Andhaka.

“Now,” Śiva went on, “I give you a boon that even my own attendants cannot easily win — something I have kept hidden even from Brahmā and Viṣṇu. I have a spotless vidyā called Mṛtasañjīvanī. I made it myself, by the power of my own great tapas. That vidyā, which has the form of a mantra, I give to you. You are fit to receive it. Whenever you repeat this vidyā of the Lord of all knowledge with someone in mind, that person will surely come back to life. This is the truth.”

A place among the planets

Śiva did not stop there. “Your blazing light in the sky will surpass the sun and fire. You will shine, and you will be foremost among the planets.”

He set out what that would mean for people on earth. A man or woman who sets out on a journey facing Śukra will find their work undone by his glance. Marriages and the other rites of dharma will bear fruit only when they are done while Śukra is risen. All the Nandā tithis — the first, sixth and eleventh days of the lunar fortnight — will be auspicious when they fall together with him. And those devoted to Śukra will be full of valour and blessed with many children.

Śukreśvara

Last, Śiva named the liṅga. “This liṅga that you have established will be called Śukreśvara. Those who worship it will see their undertakings succeed.”

He added a particular observance and its fruit. Those who, for a full year, keep the vow of eating only at night, and who on every Friday bathe in Śukra's well, offer libations there and worship Śukreśa, will never find their seed barren. They will have sons and great vigour; they will be blessed with strength, good fortune, learning and happiness. Of this, Śiva said, there is no doubt.

Having given these boons, Śiva merged back into the same liṅga from which he had come. And Śukra, glad at heart, went home.

“So, Vyāsa,” Sanatkumāra concludes, “I have told you how Śukra won, by the strength of his tapas, the vidyā named after Mṛtyuñjaya.”