The guru of curse – Sage Durvasa(2)

Following are the incidents where Durvasa has been involved with various people which resulted in curse. This is in continuation from this article.

 Curse on Durvasa by sage Orga

 Once Durvasa saw a Gandharva playfully bathing in a river with his wife . The sage was influenced by the scene and he desired to marry to enjoy conjugal life . Soon , he married Kandali , the daughter of sage Orva . However Kandali was arrogant , obstinate , rude and impolite . Durvasa could not bear her nasty behaviour for long and he reduced her to ashes by his curse . Just then the sage Orva arrived there and was very sad for the death of his daughter . At once , he became angry and cursed Durvasa  —  ” One day you will be insulted by the entire world for your anger and pride ”

Curse on Ambarish

This was the turning point in the life of Sage Durvasa . Durvasa plucked a hair and directed to kill Ambarish. Lord Vishnu ‘ s came to help his devotee. He used  Sudarshana Chakra , which, after killing the demon , started to chase Durvasa . The sage sought protection from Brahma who expressed his helplessness . When approached , Shiva also cited helplessness and directed the sage to seek Vishnu for protection . However Vishnu said , ” let us all approach Ambarisha for relief ” .

Durvasa curse to Ambarish

Seeing the dangerous state of the sage , Ambarisha said , ” Oh ! Sudarshana Chakra ! If I am righteous and if I am obedient to the pious people , may the sage Durvasa be saved ” . Then Sudarshana Chakra was pacified and it vanished . Tha anger and pride of Durvasa was humbled . The sage felt glad that he was cleansed of his evil trait .

Sudarshan Chakra chasing Durvasa

Curse on Shri Krishna

Durvasa did not spare Krishna also from his wrath. One day, Durvasa was eating kheer (a sweet dish made of rice and milk). Krishna was present. Durvasa ordered Krishna to apply the left over kheer on his body. Krishna applied it on the full body but did not apply on his feet. Durvasa got angry at this and cursed Krishna that since he did not obey his orders and did not apply the kheer on legs, his legs will not remain impenetrable and
unbroken. Combined with this curse and Gandhari’s, as she had cursed Krishna to die an ordinary death. She thought that Krishna was the root cause of death of her sons.

The guru of curse – Sage Durvasa (1)

Sage Durvasa – famous for curses

Durvasa is famous for his anger and his curses are mentioned frequently in ancient texts. Following are the few incidents  related with this trigger happy sage. The meaning of Durvasa is someone who is difficult to live with.

Curse on Indra

His most famous curse is on Indra, which led to churning of ocean. Once, Durvasa presented Indra a garland. Indra put that on Airawat’s (Indra’s elephant) head. The elephant has thrown the garland on the floor. Enraged by this incident,  Durvasa cursed indra. As a result, the devas become weak and went to vishnu for help. Vishnu helped Devas which resulted in gods getting hold of amrita.  The complete story is available in Kurma avatar – Vishnu dashavatar. 

Churning of ocean due to curse of Durvasa

Curse on Shakuntala

May be hindi movies are inspired by this incident. Manmohan desai made lot of hindi movies on lost and found formula. We have similar incident in mythology as well. Durvasa cursed shakuntala that her lover would forget about her. She could not notice the sage as she was thinking of Dushyant. She begged for forgiveness.  Durvasa, softened his stance that he would remember her after seeing the ring he has given to her.

Durvasa curse on Shakuntala

Durvasa curse on Shakuntala

The incident which consumed Laxman ( an incident from the Ramayana)

Durvasa one day visited Rama. He wanted to meet Rama and asked Laxman to let him meet. Laxman denied him because Rama was in a confidential meeting with death. It was understood that who so ever appears during that meeting, will die. Durvasa was adamant and he was threatening to curse whole of Ayodhya. Fearing this, Laxman thought that it is better to sacrifice his life instead letting Ayodhya suffer.

There are other incidents where incidents related to Durvasa sage are worth mentioning. These will be detailed in next article:

1. Curse on Ambarish

2. Curse on Durvasa by sage Orga.

3. Curse on Shri Krishna

4. Pandavas were on the verge of receiving a curse from Durvasa, but they were rescued.