Cūḍālā

The Ṛṣikās · Ṛṣis and Ṛṣikās

The queen who came to rest in the Self while her husband laughed at her, ruled his kingdom when he fled to the forest, and went to him as the boy-sage Kumbha until he too was free.

Cūḍālā, a princess of Surāṣṭra, was the queen of King Śikhidhvaja of the Mālavas. When youth passed, she turned within, asked herself who she was, and came to rest in the Self; and when she told her husband, he laughed and called her a child. He left his kingdom to do austerities in a forest on Mount Mandara, and she ruled in his place. When his mind was ripe she went to him in the form of a young brahmin named Kumbha, taught him until he was free, tested him with heaven and with a lover, and then showed him her own face. Together they went home and ruled for ten thousand years.

Contents

  1. The King and the Princess of Surāṣṭra
  2. What Am I?
  3. You Speak like a Child
  4. The Powers She Did Not Show
  5. The King Goes to the Forest
  6. Eighteen Years
  7. The Boy from the Sky
  8. Kumbha's Teaching
  9. The Fire in the Hermitage
  10. Still as a Rock
  11. A Woman by Night
  12. Heaven Refused, and the Lover
  13. I Am Cūḍālā
  14. The Return

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