Born Twice

Vasiṣṭha was a son of Brahmā, the creator, and he was born a second time from a jar. The second birth came about through a quarrel.

King Nimi, the twelfth son of Ikṣvāku, founded a city called Vaijayanta near the hermitage of Gautama, and he resolved to hold a great sacrifice to please his father Ikṣvāku. He went first to Vasiṣṭha, the foremost of the brahmin seers, to be its priest, and he invited Atri, Aṅgiras and Bhṛgu as well. But Vasiṣṭha told him, Indra, the king of the gods, has already engaged me for a sacrifice. Wait until that is over. Gautama took his place, and Nimi began his sacrifice on the slopes of the Himālaya near his city.

When Indra's sacrifice was finished, Vasiṣṭha came to Nimi to serve as his priest, and he found that Gautama had filled the place and carried the rite through. He was very angry. He sat down for a while to see the king, but that day Nimi had fallen into a heavy sleep and did not come. Then Vasiṣṭha's anger broke out. Because you passed me over and chose another, king, he said, your body will be without life.

The king woke and heard the curse, and he answered in anger of his own. I was asleep and knew nothing of your coming, he said, and blind with rage you have thrown at me the fire of a curse like the staff of Yama, the god of death. So your body too, seer, lovely as it is, will be without life. So, in a moment of anger, the king and the brahmin cursed each other, and both of them lost their bodies.

Vasiṣṭha went bodiless, like the wind, to his father Brahmā, bowed at his feet and said, Lord, by Nimi's curse I have become bodiless. All who are without a body suffer greatly; nothing can be done without one. Be gracious to me, that I may have another. Brahmā told him, Enter the seed of Mitra and Varuṇa. There, too, you will be born not from a womb, and, joined with great dharma, with all that is right, you will come back to me. Mitra and Varuṇa are gods, and Varuṇa is the lord of the waters. Vasiṣṭha took his leave of Brahmā and went at once to Varuṇa's dwelling.

At that very time Mitra was sharing the rule of the waters with Varuṇa, and Urvaśī, an apsaras, one of the women of heaven, came by chance to Varuṇa's dwelling, playing among her friends. Varuṇa saw her and asked her to come to him. She told him with folded hands that Mitra had already asked for her. Then Varuṇa, burning with desire, said he would let his seed fall into a jar the gods had made, and so be content even if she would not come to him. Urvaśī was glad. My heart is with you, she said, and my feeling for you is the greater, but my body belongs to Mitra. So Varuṇa let his seed fall into the jar, shining like a flame. Mitra was angry with Urvaśī for choosing another after he had asked first, and he cursed her to live for a while in the world of men, where she became the wife of King Purūravas.

In that jar two seers came into being. Agastya came first. He said to Mitra, I am not your son, and he went away, for Mitra's seed had gone first to Urvaśī. That seed of Mitra's came afterwards into the jar where Varuṇa's lay, and after a time Vasiṣṭha was born from the same jar, the son of Mitra and Varuṇa, full of power. As soon as he was born, Ikṣvāku, Nimi's father and the first king of the line, chose him as the priest of his house, for the good of his family.