Love and Lust

SATYAVATI

Bhiṣma continued, “Satyavati would become a second mother to me. She had been born of a forest sage and a river mermaid then left to die on the banks of the river. The history of this great queen was not fully known to me until later, when it was my duty to continue the dynasty of the Kurus. At that time she confided in me the entire story of how she had met the sage Parashara, and how the island-born Vyāsa, compiler of the Vedas, had been born to her. Now I will tell the story of Satyavati, my father's second wife.

“By the good fortune of Kṛṣṇa and the gods, Satyavati was saved by a fisherman and raised as his daughter.  She was a mere girl who ferried passengers across the Ganges in a small boat, built for the purpose. She was a nubile maid, a child of the river.

Satyavati crossing river.

 “Her father, a crafty fisherman had raised her to ferry passengers across the Ganges. As she lived in a bamboo shack beside the river with her father, she spent every morning cutting and scaling fish. After morning duties, she ran the ferry. 

Now it came to pass that one morning a great saint by the name of Parashara Muni had to cross the river. 

Now Parashara had spent a long time in the mountains meditating on the nature of the absolute and had not seen a woman during his time there. When he came upon this innocent girl, he was stunned by her beauty and determined to lay with her.

 “Satyavati, of course, had never considered herself a great beauty, for everyone insulted her and called her foul-smelling and 'fish-breath'. In truth, her mother had been a beautiful water-sprite of the river, an apsara, a kind of mermaid. How could she understand the attractive power of her beauty and the madness it would provoke in a saint? As the boat entered the smooth waters of the Ganges, Parashara, beholding her nymph-like charms, approached her gently, saying, “Oh divine nymph, come to me. Allow me to embrace you and let us know the joys of mortal love together.”

The young Satyavati was furious at the forest sage whose green eyes had a penetrating and hypnotic stare. She laughed at him and made as if to strike him with an oar if he came any closer.

“Stay away from me,” she said.

Parasara Muni and Satyavati

“I have acquired certain mystic powers by dint of my long years of penances and austerities in the mountains of the Himalayas.” He said. “Tell, me, what is your heart’s desire?”

“No closer.” she said.

“I can grant you a boon or benediction as you wish.” He said. “Don’t be afraid of me.”

“Well, if you really have any mystic powers at all,” she said, softening “Make me fragrant. The fishy smell that permeates me offends all suitors and young men everywhere.  Please help me. I have lived so long in the house of a fisherman that I smell like a fish and no one will touch me.”

“Done.” He said, and her new aroma of sandalwood and roses permeated both sides of the river with a strange and lovely perfume for eight miles in all directions.

“What more do you ask of me,” said the sage, moving closer, with his strange visage and matted hair, dressed as he was in a deerskin. “Come to me.” he gestured to her.

“Satyavati Fault Lines VIII"   Karthika Naïr 

“Well, if we are to know the joys of mortal love, transform yourself into a handsome young man in fine clothes.” she challenged.

Parasara Muni

“Done,” said the mystic and assumed temporarily the aspect of a handsome young man in fine clothes. “So now leave the oars. Come to me.”

“We shall be seen!” she exclaimed, at once alarmed and attracted. “My reputation will be ruined.”

“I’ll see to that.” He said, and so a fine mist began to pervade the atmosphere of the river. Their boat stopped dead in the water, it floated into a vast clump of golden lotus flowers. The fragrance of Satyavati changed with her mood and she now exuded the scent of jasmine flowers in the sunset.

 She smiled, coyly. “If I fall into your embrace,” She said, then I will no longer be a virgin.”

“Then“ the sage smiled, “By the mystic power of the great yogis achieved after long penance and austerities - I shall restore your virginity.”

“Can such a thing be done? What if I am with child?”

“Your child shall be born immediately. We shall leave him on yon island. His name will be Vyāsa and he will be the greatest of sages and the writer of the Vedas. His dynasty shall rule the earth. What more would you ask?”

"She smiled, her objections overcome. They embraced in the cool privacy of the scented mist.

When they reached the other side of the river, the saint Parashara once more assumed his normal appearance, an old man with matted hair in a deerskin. He again retired to the mountains of the Himalayas to pass a long time in meditation."

Riverboat,Ganges

"The river-born Vyāsa was left on an island where he was later found and raised by river spirits and mountain sages. Satyavati was now a woman and her beauty famous. Not only were her eyes pure, her form shapely, but her perfume, which changed with her mood, was now redolent of sandalwood, then jasmine, and then the musky aroma of lotuses at sunrise."

From Mahabharata TV Mini Series: Sayantani Ghosh as Satyavati

And so it was that my father, childless and forlorn, having conquered vast lands beyond his own kingdom, met and fell in love with the beautiful Satyavati. Upon crossing the river he was utterly enchanted and lost his wits in the charms of love.

King Shantanu and Satyavati