On this Mother’s Day, we bring you the beautiful story from the Great Epic Mahabharata, where Yudhishthira gets the wisdom from Bhishma on the question raised by him” who get the more pleasure in life Man or Woman? And the Answer to this question is given in the story of king Bhangaswana and Indra.
This story explains the wisdom of being a woman and as a mother is more pleasurable than as a man.
At the time of the Dwapra Era, there was a king, who had a great character and perfect skills and his wives. His name was Bhangaswana. He was known for his kind-heartedness and fair behavior. But the king was childless which was a burden he bore with himself.
King Bhangaswana performed a big Agnistuta yajna(ritual to praise Lord of Fire, Agni) But unconsciously did a mistake In the yajna and ignore the sacrifice for king Indra, the king of celestial beings, and was not made the main dignitary. After knowing this Indra thus cursed the King to become a Woman.
Unaware of Indra’s grudge, King Bhangaswana got the boon of a hundred sons. thereafter, happy and content he went about his life in the kingdom.
One day during a hunting expedition King Bhangashvana came across a beautiful lake which was created by Indra from his powers.
Bhangaswana found himself alone on his horse, hungry and thirsty, stumbling along inside the forest. The two came upon a lake. The king, by now blinded by thirst and fear, collapsed by the lake. Having put his horse to the water and safely tying him to the tree thereafter he then decided to clear his mind and body with a dip in the calm waters. But it was a strange fate that awaited the good king; when he stepped out of the water, he was no longer a man. Bhangaswana had become a woman.
Beholding himself thus transformed in respect of sex itself, the king became overpowered with shame.
Having indulged in these sad thoughts, the monarch, with great exertion, mounted his steed and came back to his capital, She went to her sons and her wives and told them everything. She set down the rules of governance that had helped build a prosperous kingdom and asked her sons to abide by them. and stayed back in the forest.
the king stayed back in the forest. Arrived there, she came upon an Ashram inhabited by a hermit. By that hermit, she gave birth to a hundred sons. These sons, then she took back to her first 100 sons. The kingdom belongs to you all, she said and left them behind to go back to her home in the forest.
The two hundred princes ruled well and lived in harmony.
The might of the kingdom increased due to the unity among the powerful children. But this was not what Indra had wanted. It made him angry that despite all his efforts, the king was still happy as a woman.
Indra then took the form of a Brahmin went to the capital of the king and meeting all the children succeeded in disuniting the princes which causes enmity between the brothers and they killed each other.
Hearing this, king Bhangaswana, who was living as an ascetic woman, burning with pain and grief. The Indra, disguised as a Brahmana, came to the ashram where the ascetic lady was living and meeting her, asked her about his grief, she told how her 200 sons after living a happy and in unity, by the virtue of bad destiny quarreled and killed each other. This is the reason for my motherhood pain and grief. After hearing Indra manifest from the form of a brahmana and told her that this is not because of destiny but about how when he was a man king during yajna disgrace his presence by not invoking him during the sacrifice.
After listening to this she fell at the feet of Indra, touching them with his head, and told him it was not his intention to disrespect him, only to seek the blessing of an heir that led to the yajna. Still, she begged for forgiveness and Indra sympathized. Indra agreed to revive either the sons the king had as a father or the sons he had as a mother.
She chose the ones she had borne as a mother because a mother’s love is always stronger than a father’s. And then Indra offered to return her identity as a male king.
But to Indra’s surprise, she refused and desire to remain a woman for the rest of her life. After asking the reason for this decision by Indra, she said, “ the pleasure of being women and mother is always much greater than what is enjoyed by men and father” And thus did Bhishma answer Yudhishthira’s question.
