The Nagas, having learned of Janamejaya’s intentions, inquired about the real possibilities of danger they might be in. Unfortunately, the news they received did not bode well; he had in fact invited the most powerful Brahmanas in the world to preside over the ceremony, and therefore there was a solid possibility that the sacrifice would have full effect. They felt lost, and a sense of terror crept even into the souls of the bravest. Thus, wishing to find a solution, they rushed to their king to inform him of everything.
“Brothers,” Vasuki replied to them, “you must know that the elders among us knew that sooner or later a moment of crisis like this would come and that we would have to defend ourselves from the menace of the destruction of our specie.”
“We are impious beings, envious, and we use our poison to kill even when we are not threatened. Our ancestors have already been guilty of grave sins and for this, in various moments of history, we have been cursed to perish all in a great destructive fire. At the dawn of our lineage we have unleashed the wrath of our mother; with the passage of time we have antagonized many great sages, such as Utanka and the mighty Ruru, and all, without exception, have invoked the divine punishment against us. I’ll tell you what happened many millennia ago.
“Our ancestor, the wise Kashyapa, married the daughters of Prajapati Daksha, Kadru and Vinata. Both were particularly anxious to have children, so Kashyapa told them:
“Dear wives, you have done a lot for me and since I want to make you happy, I promise both of you will procreate very soon. I also want to offer you the choice between a large, but not very powerful offspring and one characterized by few, but exceptionally strong children.”
Kadru chose the first option and Vinata the second.
In the years that followed, Kadru became the mother of our lineage, while Vinata had to wait a long time before being able to conceive.
During that waiting period, one day, while they were walking on the banks of the river, the two women saw from afar a fantastic white horse running like the wind. Enraptured by so much elegance and pride of bearing, the wives of Kashyapa began to comment on its perfect features. However, after a while what had started as a simple conversation ended in a rather heated discussion.
Kadru, in fact, claimed to have seen on the tail of the superb animal some black hair, while Vinata declared herself sure to have seen it completely white and immaculate. The controversy became so strong that in the end, in order not to give in, the two women found themselves betting:
“Tomorrow we’re going to look up close to see who is right. The loser will become the servant of the other forever.”
“But at night, Kadru could not sleep. After the heat of the moment subsided, she began to doubt that she was right and she trembled with fear at the idea of becoming Vinata’s servant. Thus, she called her sons, the Nagas, and said to them:
“Dear ones, I think I made a mistake in betting with Vinata and I’m afraid she was right to say that that the horse’s tail is entirely white. But I don’t want to spend my life in her service, so please go find that animal and get confused in the hair on its tail so that I don’t have to regret forever having acted too lightly.”
But the snakes retorted,
“Mother, we marvel at you. How can you think of behaving so unfairly? We refuse to lend ourselves to this wicked game.”
At that moment, feeling abandoned by her children, Kadru, desperate, threatened them using increasingly fiery tones. Faced with their outright refusal, Kadru lost the light of reason and cursed them:
“Because you disobeyed me, know that in the future you will all be destroyed, you and your offspring. You will burn alive in the gigantic fire of the sacrifice of king Janamejaya”.
It seemed that the time had come when the curse would come true.
At those words, all the Nagas present trembled with fear, but Vasuki reassured them:
“However, there is a way to salvation. In fact, when Brahma learned what had happened, he intervened on our behalf and predicted that one day within our race a sage would be born, a great personality who would be able to avoid complete extermination.”
“The prophecy says that our savior would be born from the seed of a sage named Jaratkaru. At this moment there really is an ascetic by this name who is looking for a wife. There is no doubt; he is the predestined one. I will make him marry my sister, so that their son will save us from the flames of Janamejaya.”
Things unfolded according to the king’s plans: the Rishi Jaratkaru married Vasuki’s sister and from them was born a son named Astika, who became a Brahmana famous for his great knowledge and spiritual realization.
This is a section of the book “Maha-bharata, Vol. 1”.
To buy the complete book, click above
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