Story Of Ved Vyas

Vyasa is the legendary author of the Mahabharata, Vedas and Puranas, some of the most important works in the Hindu tradition. He is also called Ved Vyasa or Krishna Dvapayan. The festival of Guru Purnima is dedicated to him. It is also known as Vyasa Purnima, the day believed to be both of his birth and when he divided the Vedas. Vyasa is considered one of the seven Chiranjeevis who are still in existence and will continue to live till the end of time on earth. Vyasa appears for the first time as the compiler of and an important character in the Mahabharata. He is the son of Satyavati and sage Parashara, who is credited with being the author of the first Purana, Vishnupurana. He was born on an island in the river Yamuna in the Mauli of Tanahi district around 5000 years ago, which is now in Nepal. Due to his dark complexion, Vyasa was given the name Krishna in addition to the name Dvapayan, meaning island-born. Ved Vyasa received his knowledge from great sages like Vasudev and Sanakadik. He described that the most important goal in one's life is to attain Narayan or the Divine Supreme. He is considered as a part incarnation of Lord Vishnu. It is said that he came to the earth in Dwapar Yuga to put all the Vedic knowledge in this universe in the form of written words and make it available to everyone. Before Ved Vyasa, the Vedic knowledge only existed in the form of spoken words. He is called Ved Vyasa because he had split and categorized the original version of the Vedas into four parts. Ved Vyasa literally means the splitter of the Vedas. It was because Ved Vyasa had split the Vedas that it became easy for people to understand it. This is how the divine knowledge was made available to everyone. It is still not clearly known whether Ved Vyasa had split the Vedas all by himself or if he did it with the help of a group of scholars. According to a legend, in his previous life, Vyasa was the sage Apantaratmas who was born when Lord Vishnu uttered the syllable Bhu. He was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Since birth, Ved Vyasa possessed the knowledge of the Vedas, the Dharma Shastras and the Upanishads. Ved Vyasa was the son of sage Parashara and the great-grandson of sage Vashistha. Prior to Vyasa's birth, Parashara had performed a severe penance to Lord Shiva. Shiva granted him a boon that Parashara's son would be a Brahma Rishi equal to Vashistha and would be famous for his knowledge. Parashara begot Vyasa with Satyavati who later became the wife of King Shantanu, the one who lays the foundation of Mahabharata. During her maidenhood, Satyavati used to help her father Dusharaj in the routine business of ferrying passengers on the river Yamuna. She was born with a peculiar smell of a fish and was unpleasant too. One fine day, Rishi Parashara was travelling on her boat. He looked at her and his desires aroused. He wanted to unite with a lady of the unusual smell but submissive beauty. The desires ruled and sage Parashara expressed his wish. The lady understood the determined sage and honoured the desires but put forth a condition. She said, I stink like a fish and the union in such an unpleasant smell will not be fruitful. The sage understood and with his yogic powers turned the unpleasant smell to a musk fragrance. This union impregnated the young lady and in due time she gave birth to a boy in an island on the river Yamuna. The boy was born with the powers of Rishi Parashara with unmatched intelligence. Parashara took away Vyasa with him when he was born. She kept this incident a secret, not telling even King Shantanu, whom she was married to later. As the boy grew, he walked into the woods and followed the path of ascetism. He promised his mother that whenever she would need him, he would come and help her. Vyasa acquired his knowledge from the four Kumaras, Narada and Lord Brahma himself. In the Mahabharata, when Bhishma took an oath to give away his kingdom to the future sons of his father Shantanu and his new wife Satyavati and remain a celibate or brahmachari, little did he know that the bloodline to the throne of Hastinapur would soon come to an end. Upon Shantanu and Satyavati's marriage, they had two sons named Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. Chitrangada was killed by the Gandharvas in a battle, while Vichitravirya was weak and ill all the time. Upon Chitrangada's death, Vichitravirya took over the throne of Hastinapur, but Vichitravirya lost his life early as well, and his two wives, Ambika and Ambalika, were left widowed and childless. The throne was left without a king and the crown without an owner. Satyavati tried to persuade Bhishma to ascend the throne, but Bhishma did not agree. She even tried to free Bhishma from her father's promises made during her marriage with Shantanu and requested him to bear children with the widowed wives of Vichitravirya. But in vain. Bhishma's vow was firm. He had already decided to serve the throne for a lifetime and not have an heir of his own bloodline. Satyavati's worries increased multifold as there was no heir to the throne. Satyavati then secretly calls for Krishnadwapayan to copulate with the two widowed princesses. The matted-locked and dark-complexioned ascetic with long beard and firmness in his eyes arrives at Hastinapur. When Satyavati asked him for the help, initially the sage was reluctant, but eventually he couldn't refuse the request of Satyavati. He said, I need some time to prepare myself for this union. I appear unpleasant due to the rigorous austerities. But Satyavati did not want to wait any further. She wanted the kingdom to get its heir as soon as possible. The sage then agreed to the wishes of Satyavati. Satyavati convinced Ambika to enter the quarters of the sage for the union. But the harsh looks on the face of the sage frightened Ambika. She couldn't hold the sight for long and closed her eyes while her union with the sage. The sage foresaw the future and told Satyavati that the child born out of their union would be blind. The citizens would not accept a blind king and hence Satyavati requested Krishnadwapayan to bless her second daughter-in-law Ambalika. She asked Ambalika to enter the chambers of the sage as she had requested Ambika before. But Ambalika couldn't face the frightening looks of the sage and went pale. The union of the sage with Ambalika was about to bear a child with a pale look. He would be physically normal but not well built and ideal for being a king. Satyavati's miseries grew. She didn't want the throne to be decked with a king who lacked any of the kingly qualities. She tried to persuade Ambika again but this time Ambika secretly sent her maid into the quarters of the sage. That maid ensured the comfort of the sage and dutifully served him without any fear. The maid of Ambika then bore a healthy child. In due course, Ambika gave birth to a blind son, Dhritarashtra, Ambalika gave birth to a pale child, Pandu, and the maid of Ambika gave birth to a healthy child, Vidura. Vidura was born with all the supreme knowledge. The three children, then under the supervision of Bhishma, grew and gained the knowledge of scriptures, warfare, and politics. While Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura were Vyasa's son, he had another son named Shuka, born of his wife, Pinjala. In reality, Shuka was Veda Vyasa's true spiritual heir. Shuka appears occasionally in the story of Mahabharata as a spiritual guide to the young Kuru princess. Vyasa is traditionally known as the chronicler of the epic Mahabharata and also features as an important character. Vyasa then asks Ganesha to assist him in writing the text. Ganesha imposes a condition that he would do so only if Vyasa would narrate the entire story of Mahabharata without a pause. Vyasa then set a counter-condition that Ganesha would understand the verse first before transcribing them. Thus, Vyasa narrated the entire Mahabharata in one go while Lord Ganesha wrote it. The ancient cave where they wrote the Mahabharata still exists in Nepal.