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Appendix 1
- State University of New York Press
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Appendix 1 The following is a paraphrase of the story from the Mahābhārata in which Śakuntalā narrates to King Duḥṣanta the story of her birth, which resulted from the celestial nymph Menakā’s seduction of the renowned hermit Viśvāmitra. This classic tale underscores the yogic powers accrued through brahmacarya and also the challenges of controlling sensual desires. All the quoted material is from Van Buitenen’s the Mahābhārata (Volume 1), unless marked otherwise. Sage Viśvāmitra performed great austerities so that “he bitterly mortified Indra, lord of the hosts of Gods. Fearful lest the ascetic, whose puissance had been set ablaze by his austerities, would topple him from his throne, the Sacker of Cities therefore spoke to Menakā. ‘Menakā, you are distinguished in the divine talents of the Apsarās. Take my welfare to heart, I do ask you, listen. That great ascetic Viśvāmitra, who possesses the splendor of the sun, has been performing awesome austerities that make my mind tremble . . . and lest he topple me from my throne, go to him and seduce him. Obstruct his asceticism, do me the ultimate favor! Seduce him with your beauty, youth, sweetness, fondling, smiles, and flatteries, my buxom girl, and turn him away from his austerities.’ ” Considering the difficult task at hand, Menakā expresses her own fear: “Should I not fear him of whose heat, austerity, and fury you yourself stand in fear?” Viśvāmitra was by birth a kṣatriya, but later became a Brahmin due to the force of his austerities. His prowess was legendary: he had been known for creating “an unfordable river of plentiful waters” and even creating a new galaxy. “A man of such austerity, blazing like a fire, master of his senses—how could a young woman like me ever touch him?” pleads Menakā. However, the fair-skinned Menakā, bound to fulfill the order of the King of the gods, descends from celestial regions to the āśrama of the sage. To 223 224 Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism protect herself from the wrath of the ascetic, she begs assistance of the Wind-god to blow open her skirt, and the “callipygous nymph” approaches the sage’s hermitage. Then, while she, after saluting him, Was sporting in the sage’s presence. Away the Wind-god carried Her garment, white as moonlight.1 Thus, the ever-moving wind blew her skirt and exposed her to the sage. The seer saw young and beautiful Menakā nude and became overwhelmed with her celestial beauty. “And remarking the virtue of her beauty the bull among brahmins fell victim to love [kāmavaśa] and lusted to lie with her. He asked her, and she was blamelessly willing. The pair of them whiled away a very long time in the woods, making love . . . and it seemed only a day.” Thus, out of that bond of love the daughter Śakuntalā was born to the hermit and the Apsarā, Menakā.2 ...