1.1 MAHABHARATA-ADI PARVA-SECTION 1-CHAPTER 1

Om vakra tunda mahaakaaya surya koti samaprabha|

nirvighnam kuru me deva sarva kaaryeshu sarvadha||

(A sloka to Ganapati,the lord who weeds away all obstacles)

With this,we now enter into the grand story of the Mahabharata..be with me on this journey and hold tight!!

“Tell me,O Lotus eyed Sauti,what is the reason for your arrival here,and where have you spent your time on your way to this place?” asked one of the ascetics who had assembled in the sacred forest of Naimisha(Naimisha-aranya=naimisaranya in Uttar Pradesh) , to the scholarly and humble Ugrasrava,son of Lomaharshana(Ugrasrava was also known as Sauti).

The sages had assembled there to attend a 12 year sacrifice of a certain person named Saunaka a.k.a Kulapati.

Sauti completed the customary salutations and replied that he had visited the snake sacrifice conducted by Janamejaya,the son of the great ruler Parikshit and had heard the wonderful story – The Bharata –  from the great Rishi Vaisampayana. He had then proceeded to the place where the great war of Kurukshetra had taken place and had come to pay the sages a visit.

The sages,clearly interested in hearing the wonderful story, asked Ugrasrava to narrate it to them .

Sauti started his narration with salutations to the divine (as is the custom). He then started to detail how the world as we know it came into existence.

“In the beginning there was only darkness everywhere,then emanated the golden inexhaustible egg Hiranyagarbha in which was Brahman, the imperishable,indivisible,eternal source of the universe.From this egg came in succession

Brahma(the creator),

21 Prajapatis(Lord of creatures),

Vishwe-Devas(The Devas or the royal people in heaven),

Adityas(Sun-Gods),

Vasus(earth,fire,wind etc.),

the Aswini twins(Aswini Kumaras),

Yakshas(spirits),

Sadhyas,

Pisachas(ghosts),

Guhyakas(associates of Kubera-the lord of wealth),

Pitrus(forefathers),

Brahmarishis(Sages),

Rajarishis(Royal sages) .

At the end of each Yuga(time cycle) all things will be annihilated or absorbed into the one whole(the golden egg) and when the time for the next Yuga comes,the process repeats.This goes on eternally.”  said Sauti the wise.

He then went on to detail the generation of the 33000 Devas,which we will see in the next post.

(My source is the translation of the Mahabharata by KM Ganguli,great man)