The Voice in the Womb

Śakti, the eldest son of Vasiṣṭha, was killed and eaten by King Kalmāṣapāda, who was possessed by a rākṣasa, and after him the rest of Vasiṣṭha's hundred sons were eaten too. Vasiṣṭha, in his grief, tried again and again to end his own life, but when he threw himself from Mount Meru he fell as if onto a heap of cotton, the fire was cool to him, the sea set him down on dry land, one river cut the cords he had bound himself with, and another fled from him in a hundred streams.

As he walked back towards his hermitage, he heard behind him the sound of the Veda being recited, with all its six limbs, the six sciences that serve it, clear and complete. Who is following me? he said. It is I, Adṛśyantī, the wife of Śakti, said his daughter-in-law. Daughter, whose is this voice reciting the Veda with its limbs? said Vasiṣṭha. I heard the Veda recited like that once before, by Śakti. Śakti's child is in my womb, she said, your son's child. He has been reciting the Vedas in my womb for twelve years.

When he heard that, Vasiṣṭha rejoiced. My line will go on, he said, and he turned back from death.