Before knowing the modern perspective of Ahilya, let’s know; who was Ahilya?
The Story of Ahilya
According to Hinduism, Lord Brahma is the creator of the universe. In the initial days of creation, Lord Brahma created several beautiful ladies. Out of them, Ahilya was his finest creation.
She was so beautiful; Lord Brahma thought to hand over Ahilya’s responsibility to someone, who could take proper care of her and return when she gets young.
In that era, Sage Gautama was one of the most renowned sages of the time. He was the masters of the Vedas and known for his sanity and moral virtues.
Lord Brahma ordered Sage Gautam to take proper care of the Ahilya and return her once she attains her womanhood. Accepting the commands of the Brahma, sage Gautama raised her with all the responsibility.
Throughout that time, the sage never had any malicious thoughts for her and maintained his dignified form and intelligence.
Ahalya was a remarkably beautiful lady who was attaining her youthful attire. Days keep passing, the glory of Ahilya’s beauty, virtues start spreading.
She had the boon that she will always have the body of an 18-year-old girl. Due to the divine beauty of Ahilya many humans, Asuras, Gandharvas were tempted on her.
On the other side, with his profound wisdom and knowledge, Sage Gautama taught the divine knowledge to Ahalya.
When Ahilya turned young and well aware of Vedas, Sage Gautam decided to return her to Lord Brahma.
One day sage Gautama took her to Lord Brahma and retuned her without asking anything. After noticing the guiltless nature of Sage Gautama, Lord Brahma surprised. He decided that Ahilya should get married to sage Gautama.
Sage Gautama and Ahilya were married with all the Rituals. Lord Brahma gave them an appropriate place Brahmagiri to start their new household. But, Indra and other deities were not happy with the marriage of Ahilya and Sage Gautama.
They continued stalking her in various places. Indra noticed that every morning sage Gautama used to go for a sacred bath on the bank of Ganga.
To fulfill his wicked desire, Indra asked the moon to make the sound of the chicken in the middle of the night.
After hearing to the chicken in the midnight, sage though that time has come to take the sacred bath.
He came out of the Ashram in the middle of the night and noticed, the moon is brighter than the usual day.
Sage Gautama had no idea that Indra convinced the moon to make the sound of the cock in the middle of the night.
Taking advantage of Sage Gautama’s absence, Indra decides to descend on earth in the appearance of sage Gautama.
Indra entered the Ashram and reached out to Ahilya. She was the consort of sage Gautama; so, she had the spiritual yogic energies to view the reality of the Indra.
Indra was the king of the deities and full of charismatic looks that flattered Ahilya. For a moment, she starts thinking that Indra is so handsome. And Indra came to meet her, ignoring the condemnation of the world.
Indra saw her and said poetic lines on her, and both got committed in the sinful act. However, Ahilya regained her consciousness and realized her mistake.
She ordered Indra to leave her. She was feeling guilty about her mistake. She ordered Indra to leave immediately.
Indra was scared of Ahilya and sage Gautama’s wrath. He decides to leave the hermitage as soon as possible.
Meantime, sage Gautama arrived in the hermitage after the bath. He saw Indra in the guise of Sage Gautama. Through his yogic power, he saw everything.
Sage Gautama became furious on Ahilya. He condemned Ahilya for breaking the moral code of conduct.
He cursed her to become the rock in the middle of the Ashram for her unforgiven mistake. On her continuous request, the sage told her Lord Rama will liberate you from your sins.
Indra was running from the corner, trying the escape the wrath of sage Gautama. Indra was also terrified by the furry of sage.
Rishi Gautama turned towards Indra and said: “You are a shameless God. I curse you to become impotent. You will lose the thing which is necessary to unite with the woman.
I also curse you to have thousands of vulvae on your body. That will be a reminder that you were involved in the sinful act. I further cuss the moon to have dark spots on him.”
Sage went to the Himalayas after that; while, Indra reached to Lord Brahma and apologized for his mistake.
Lord Brahma advised Indra to perform the penance upon Lord Shiva. His life became a shame for a prolonged period.
After the hard penance of Indra, Lord Shiva came and replaced the 1000 vulvae into the eyes. That is how Indra became the deity with 1000 eyes.
Later, Lord Rama came to sage Gautama’s hermitage and liberated Ahilya from the past sin.
The post story of Ahilya after the curse is elegantly featured in the book Maryada Purushottam Rama: The story of Lord Rama.
The book is available on Amazon’s store.
India – https://www.amazon.in/dp/B084X6HNLT
USA – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084X6HNLT
The story of Ahilya is devoted to the perspective of womanhood. Through this post, we celebrate and express our gratitude towards them.
The woman from a modern perspective
Women are the backbone of their families. You can not ignore their contribution to the development of our modern societies.
Without their support and sacrifices, we couldn’t achieve such heights in every aspect of the world’s modernization.
She is a mother, daughter, wife, and sister; a woman has multiple aspects through which she is contributing to world peace and progress.
On the other side, it is also a common thought that she is the most challenging puzzle for every man. You can measure the depth of the ocean, but not the profundity of a women’s feeling.
Let’s try to understand why ladies are so mysterious for men through an ancient fictional story?
It was the time when God was creating the world.
When God was creating women, he took a profound amount of time to craft his creation. That time angels were confused and eager to know why God is taking so much time to create woman.
During the creation of the women, seven days passed, but Lord was still working on his creative work. That wondered angels and thought, why Lord is taking so much time to craft women?
He never took so much time previously creating anything like that?
Therefore, a conversation started between the Lord and the angels.
An angel asked, “Oh dear god, you created this world within a day, but why you are taking so much time in creating women.”
Lord heard the question of the angel and answered every query.
Lord Said, “my dear angel, did you saw the virtues of the women which I’m creating?
She stands in every challenging situation. No matter how the worse situation may get for her. She will never back down from her aim. She has so many virtues that she will never differentiate between her children.
The woman whom I’m creating, not only takes care of herself but even in illness; she can take care of her family members.
My dear angels, tell me the woman whom I’m creating isn’t she worth giving the time. She has so many emotions in her heart.
Indeed her heart is filled with an extensive amount of Love and care. The woman whom I’m creating will go through various hardships, but the amount of devotion, love she has in heart will never get less.”
Angels were amazed after listening to God. They wondered, is that possible that women can do so much for others?
Lord was feeling the turmoil of angels’ hearts. He said to angels, “It is the reason, she is my finest creation.”
Angels request the Lord to show them a glimpse of women. Lord Accepted their request and showed them his craft.
Angels noticed the soft skin of women and wondered about the strength of the women.
He asked the Lord, “My Lord, she seems to be too soft? Will she able to handle all hardship? “
Lord Said, “Dear angel, she seems to be soft from outside. But she is incredibly powerful from the inner side. In the appropriate time, she will get adjusted according to the circumstances. Therefore, my dear angel, don’t misunderstand her by thinking her weak.”
Angel said, “My Lord, I think, it doesn’t matter how strong she is; but, she will remain weaker in comparison to men.”
Lord said, “Dear angel, she is far superior to men. Her practical thinking is far better than men. She not only knows thinking but also knows to solve any issues from her life. She can be a maker as well as a destroyer like me. It depends on the people how they treat her.”
Then, the angel saw teardrop and asked: “what is this, my Lord?”
Lord Said, “It is the tear in her eyes, my dear!”
Angel said, “it will make her weak.”
Lord Said, “No, my dear; it is her biggest strength. Her tears are the most excellent tool she has to remove all the pain and sorrows from her life. She removes all the sadness of life through her tears and becomes powerful again after that.”
Angel said, “Dear God, I do agree that your creation is incredible in all aspects.”
The story describes that every woman is special in that way. According to Indian society, women are always praised and seen from the perspective of divinity.
Modernization
Even in today’s, century; ancient beliefs are the same. But now women have greater freedom and opportunities to take responsibilities on their shoulders. Previously, these opportunities were not there for them.
As the world is getting smart, it also becomes smaller. People want to achieve success in lesser time or without putting a genuine effort to get success.
Most of the orthodox rules are breaking down by people, which is exceptional to a particular aspect. Women are also facing a shift in time.
In such circumstances, the modern generation has no ideal information which route to follow in life.
The things which were taboo subjects to the previous generation have become familiar things to the new generation.
The problem is most of the new generation misunderstands freedom with the generation gap. Indeed, the concept of the generation gap is something else.
Here the topic we are discussing in this post is dependent on fundamental human values and morality. Teenagers, particularly modern girls, need to understand where they want to take their life.
Only Ideal characterization and strong moral values can make a teenager strong enough to face life challenges. From a women’s perspective, every lady should explore their possibilities to lead the country and society in a positive direction only.