Story

Trishanku

There was once a King named Trishanku who was very beautiful to look at. He had a strong desire to go to Heaven with his physical body, so he went to his family priest, Vashishtha, and told him about this desire. Trishanku begged Vashishtha to create for him a special mountain so that he could walk right up to Heaven.

Vashishtha said to him, “You fool, nobody can do that. With the physical body you cannot go to Heaven. It is impossible. Give up this desire. It is the height of stupidity.”

Trishanku felt sad and miserable. He left his kingdom on foot to look for another Master who would be kind enough to fulfil his desire. One day he came upon Vashishtha’s sons. He said to them, “Your father could not help me, but I am sure you have more spiritual power. You are practising austerities, while your father is now old and does not practise spirituality anymore. I am not criticising your father, but please, please help me. Please grant me this boon: I want to go to Heaven with this physical body of mine.”

Vashishtha’s sons became angry at Trishanku. They said, “If Father discouraged you, if Father dissuaded you from this desire, we will never fulfil it. It is impossible! What the father says has to be carried out by the sons. We will not help you in any way, you fool. Now allow us to meditate peacefully.” Then one of Vashishtha’s sons cursed Trishanku. He made the King’s face ugly and took away his royal stature. From then on he had to become a caretaker; he could no longer remain a king.

Now Trishanku felt more miserable than ever. His Guru had not helped him, and not only had his Guru’s sons not helped him but they had been rude and ruthless to him. But he went on walking until he came to a cottage owned by the sage Vishwamitra. He told Vishwamitra his sad story and prayed to Vishwamitra to help him. Since Vishwamitra and Vashishtha were always at daggers drawn, Vishwamitra was very kind to Trishanku when he heard that Vashishtha had been unkind to him. Vishwamitra said, “I shall definitely help you. I will use all my spiritual and occult power to enable you to go to Heaven with your physical body, but I do not want to waste my power in transforming your face once again.”

So Vishwamitra used all his power and took Trishanku to Heaven bodily. But when the King arrived in Heaven, some of the cosmic gods, especially Indra, became terribly jealous of him. “You are a mortal,” they said. “How can you be here with your physical body? How can you break the cosmic Law?” And they threw him out of Heaven.

When they threw Trishanku out, it took a little time for him to fall to earth again. While he was descending, midway between Heaven and earth he cried out, “Vishwamitra, you took me to Heaven, but the gods have thrown me out. What are you going to do?”

Vishwamitra said, “Wait, wait! I am coming to save you!” With his occult power Vishwamitra kept Trishanku suspended in mid-air between Heaven and earth. Then Vishwamitra became furious with the cosmic gods. He said, “I used all my occult power to take him to Heaven; now the cosmic gods are jealous of him. I will fight against Indra and all the cosmic gods. I shall meditate and get more occult power and spiritual power to fight against them.”

Vishwamitra meditated for many, many years and mustered all his occult power and spiritual power. Then he said, “All right, if Brahma can create the universe, I too can create a universe,” and he created another world with stars, a sun, and planets, only for Trishanku to live in.

As soon as Vishwamitra created a new world for Trishanku, the cosmic gods again became jealous. They said to the sage, “Why have you made him another world? He doesn’t have to have another world. You demolish it and we shall allow him to remain in Heaven.”

Vishwamitra said, “Even if you allow him to remain in Heaven peacefully, I shall keep my world safe. Now you are promising that you will allow him to stay in Heaven, but I know that as soon as I destroy my own world, you will throw him out again. Then again I will have to meditate for many years to get occult power and spiritual power to help him.”

The cosmic gods said, “All right, we agree that he can stay either in our Heaven or in your Heaven. But we have only one request, and that is that while he stays in your Heaven, he should hang in mid-air with his head towards the earth and his legs towards Heaven.”

Vishwamitra said, “Oh, that is nothing to him. From now on his legs will remain upward and his head downward.”

So poor Trishanku stayed upside down in Vishwamitra’s Heaven, and enjoyed Vishwamitra’s new creation.

Commentary:

Nowadays we can go to the moon and to many distant places. There is no occult power or spiritual power needed for us to go and come back. Astronauts have the power of modern science; modern science takes them and brings them back. Trishanku’s Heaven is not the Heaven where souls go, but it is a vital region near the moon. We can go to the moon world and come back with the power of our scientific knowledge, but poor Trishanku went with occult power, and he is still hanging there with his head down and his legs up.

We learn something very significant from this story. When the cosmic gods, whom we appreciate, admire and adore, see a mortal become immortal or get tremendous occult power, spiritual power or any power, in the beginning they do not want to allow him to surpass them. But if that mortal really surpasses them in spite of their efforts, then they have no scope for their jealousy, and they reluctantly allow him to be immortal.

It is like a kite. In the beginning the man flying the kite holds the string, and the kite flies the way the man wants it to. He will not allow the kite to go beyond the reach of the string. The kite is his possession; it is under his jurisdiction. But sometimes the string breaks and the kite flies away. At first the owner feels sad that the kite has escaped from his control. But afterwards he gets tremendous joy when he sees that his kite has gone so high, into the universal Beyond, and he appreciates the capacity of the kite.

Similarly, the cosmic gods try to keep human beings always under their feet. But when a mortal human being does surpass them, the cosmic gods try to take the credit. At first they block human beings who are under them from going beyond them. But then, like earthly parents who see that their children have gone far beyond them, they become happy and proud. As in the ordinary world, in the spiritual world our meanness, jealousy and insecurity may come to an end if we see that somebody has really surpassed us. Instead of being jealous then, the gods say, “Oh, I saw him, I helped him. It was with my help that he was able to become so great.”