The Unknown Story of Dattatreya

Now, it’s time for the three-faced god,  Dattatreya and the story of his birth which is quite unique in its own ways.Have we heard of the supreme goddess being jealous of  a mere mortal human being. But Anasuya was one of the names which created jealousy among the supreme goddesses .Anasuya, the mother of Dattatreya was a highly virtuous woman and had full devotion to his husband ,Atri father of Dattatreya.

Once when Narada was singing praises about the mother Anasuya , the three supreme goddesses ,Saraswati and Lakshmi and Parvati heard the wordings and asked Narada why is he singing such praises about a human.Narada answered that “Mother Anasuya is free from all vices of the world.She is free from jealousy and envy. She is very pious, and always practiced austerities and devotion”.This created jealousy among the supreme goddesses.

Then three goddesses approached their husbands and asked them to test the divinity of the Anasuya.They initially disagreed but after continuous persuasion from their wives they agreed.They transformed themselves into sages(rishis) and then went to Anasuya hermitage and asked her to feed them.Mother welcomed them inside, offer them to sit and serve food.Then the real drama began, the three sages put a condition that they would eat only if Anasuya serves them naked without any piece of cloth or jewellery on her body.

Anasuya was in a dilemma as she couldn’t let the sages leave the place without feeding and didn’t want to remove her clothes.She prayed to her husband and then sprinkled holy water to all three sages and converted all of them into infants.Then she removed her clothes and fed them food, played with them and made them sleep .She was totally taking care of them as her own child.The  world started going out of balance as three gods Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva were infants and playing with Anasuya instead of caring out their responsibilities.Now the everyone was begging before three goddesses to go before Anasuya and plead to her to reconvert the Trinity into their original forms.

Then Three goddesses went before Anasuya and asked for forgiveness for their ego and pleaded her to reconvert the Trinity into their original forms.Mother obliged them and reconverted the gods into their original forms.The gods were very impressed by the mother and wanted to give her a boon. The Mother told them as they called her “Mother” ; she  wanted to be their mother forever.Gods obliged her and told her that they would always be his son in the form of  “Dattatreya”.Then the god Dattatreya was born to mother Anasuya and god left the place to carry out their responsibility.

How Ravana got Lanka?

We all know that Ravana was the king of Lanka, which was the golden city and best fortified and the wealthiest city in the world but few among of us would know how Ravana become the king of the Lanka.How did Lanka come into existence and how did Ravana know about it when he was the son of a sage(rishi.)Now to answer all these questions we have to look back in the history.

Ravana was the son of sage Vishrava and grandson of Sage Pulastya and great grandson of lord Brahma.Vishrava had two wives : Mandakini and Kaikasi .Mandakini had a son named ‘Kubera’.Kubera was the god of wealth.There is always a misconception among people that Lakshmi is the goddess of the wealth , but in reality, Kubera is the god of wealth  while Lakshmi is the goddess of fortune .While we generally associate fortune with the wealth; that’s why this misconception arises.

Kubera who is also called ‘Dhanpati’ was once ruler of Lanka given by the Lord Brahma from where he could work on his wealth management among the people.He was also gifted “ Pushpak Vimana”, a flying chariot which was created by Vishwakarma who was the architecture of the gods on the instruction of lord Brahma. Kubera is also the guardian of one of the eight directions of the globe, North.

One day when Kubera  came to meet his father Vishrava with all his majestic style and grandeur flying in his chariot ‘Pushpak Viman’.Ravana on seeing this was struck and asked his mother “who is this fellow and from where did he get that majestic Vimana ”.Kaikasi replied that he is none other than your step brother ‘Kubera’. Kaikasi being the daughter of the demon king couldn’t control her anger and lust and told Ravana “Kubera had made his mother proud be his conduct and grandeur while your existence does not count.You are no better than an insect”. This irked Ravana who decided to show his mother that he is no less than anyone else.

He along with his brothers moved to a forest to perform deep penance to lord Brahma to get a boon from him.After thousand of years of his hard penance ,lord Brahma appeared and gave him the boon of invincibility .This made Ravana proud of his prowess and he started tormenting Kubera.He at last ,drove out Kubera from the Lanka and also snatched ‘Pushpak Vimana’ from him.Then he requested his father and mother to came along with him to Lanka while his father refused to go along with him while his mother kaikasi agreed as it was her direful wish to live in luxury and wealth which she couldn’t have while leaving with his husband Vishrava who was a sage. Thus Ravana became the king of the Lanka .

Kubera went to mount Kailasha after being defeated by his stepbrother Ravana and performed deep  penance to lord Brahma , who awarded him with a palace with most beautiful garden of the world  named ‘Alkapuri’ in Mount Mandara  and later lord shiva awarded him the lordship of all Yakshas and a guardianship of the North direction(dik-pala).