01-Nov-2025

https://www.boloji.com/articles/55060/when-the-sun-rises-not

When the Sun Rises Not

P C K Prem

A Page from Ancient Literature

Long ago, a brahmin suffers from leprosy, lives a wretched life- the consequence of past karmas. Fortunately, his devoted wife looks after without caring for comforts and tries to fulfill husband’s desires even if unethical. She devotes life to prayers and worship so that god grants healthy life and freedom to the suffering husband. Once, he looks at a prostitute and asks his wife to carry him to the woman of easy virtues. She agrees and carries him on tender shoulders. On the way, he hurts a sage unknowingly and hence, a curse visits and so the miserable brahmin’s death is a certainty. ‘He will meet death when the sun rises next morning’ is the curse that cautions the woman. However, the holy woman learns and asks the Sun not to rise again.

Angry words resound in the air, cause anxiety and darkness. The echoes of the voice overwhelm everything and the Sun does not rise. It disturbs lives of created beings and gods. Genuine worries give birth to chaotic situation. Men fail to perform virtuous karmas -prayers, worship and yajnas. Gods of heavens and the cosmic system suffer. The Supreme Lord advises gods to pray before Anusuya. Ultimately, Anusuya on the request of gods, visits the holy woman and speaks of her devotion to husband and seeks relief and forgiveness for the suffering beings including gods. She agrees to what Anusuya says and grants relief. The Sun rises again and the cosmic system functions normally while her husband gets blessings of the gods. He is a handsome young man now free form any ailment. Devotion to husband blesses a woman with unique divine powers. Service to suffering humankind is the genuine joy and the cause of the supreme blessing.

Wise men believe that the fire of the world like the sun scorches man to death. They compare the world to a burning sun because of its passions, lust, greed and violence. If a man is not free from the bondages of the world of heat and passions, the burden of wicked thoughts and acts ensnare and gradually drive him to hell. Only a man of knowledge and wisdom is liberated. A man of Supreme knowledge carries the blessings and virtues of the attributes of detachment as he discharges duties through words and acts towards the world.

Many people believe that a man lives life in contentment and delight or anguish or sorrow based on the nature of virtuous, sadistic or violent karmas of earlier life.

Ages ago, Kaushik, a brahmin lived in Pratishthana, a notable town in ancient times. His life was miserable and wretched because an incurable disease of leprosy struck him, and therefore, people abhorred coming near him, and this was cause of disillusionment to the brahmin. When he delved deep, he learnt that he suffered from the sway and castigation of sinful karmas of previous life and now, he undergoes sufferings. However, his dearly loved wife was god fearing and had devoted life to prayers and worship. She was a faithful wife, and with purity of heart prayed before god so that sick husband got rid of the most loathsome malady. She looked after her husband like a god and worshipped him. Though a deadly and terminal disease smote him, yet she considered him as god and continued to look after him.

She messaged feet while pressing different limbs and parts of the body to relieve him of pain. She helped him clean body, and then, he took bath as she assisted. She helped him put on clean clothes and then fed him with hands. Not only this, she cleaned muck, cough, urine and human soil when he urinated and defecated and if blood flowed out of the wounds, she dutifully washed his wounds without articulating distaste and aversion.

When the couple was alone in the house, she served, stayed near and pleased him with soft words and voice of hope and inspiration. Thus, with humility and politeness, she continued to dedicate time and comforts, and almost worshipped him. Despite perseverance, loyalty, and service with a pure heart, she could not win his love, for he was edgy, bitter and uncertain about life. He was not loving and affectionate because a terminal ailment did not give any hope or zeal for life and he lived life in darkness as if. She knew the reasons of Kaushik’s melancholy and discontent. It is difficult to believe the theory that a man is like a god to woman. To maintain sanctity, purity, equanimity, harmony in human relations and society, people often advocated ideal concepts of relationships during ancient times it looks …and it continues. It does not mean that women were pure of heart and mind. They were weak in minds and bodies and did not hesitate to earn livelihood or entertain elite of the society as it happens now, for they utilized beauty of bodies. People may consider it a stigma yet no concrete solution is visible to the societal ailment that undermines morality and sanctity of relations. A man ought to know how far he is responsible for the corruption in values and human dignity.

He invariably appeared angry, for terminal disease became the cause of anger, hate and pessimism. With an irascible mindset, he spoke pungent and unsympathetic words, and thus, hurt his wife immensely. Kaushik’s rebukes, reprimands and scolding language did not dishearten her. Notwithstanding harsh words, she did not stay away from wife’s obligations, and therefore, served him with enthusiasm, commitment and dedication. When he got angry, she fell at his feet and worshipped him like a god. Frail body, words, figures and looks of the brahmin were abominable and repulsive. However, a woman of saintly nature considered him the greatest among men.

Immoral thoughts assail the sick man when he notices a prostitute walking on the path situated in front of his house, unhealthy desire to enjoy her alliance arise, and so he feels distressed. To fulfill Kaushik’s desire, she takes him to the prostitute and abruptly meets a sage of penance Mandvya undergoing punishment.

Kaushik was unable to walk or move and lived almost a static life. As a man of wicked nature, he nursed sick and lascivious thoughts. Therefore, he continued to suffer castigation and never thought of virtuous karmas but harboured immoral and impious thoughts and feelings of earlier life. One day, he sat on a cot after she cleansed, washed, dressed up and fed him befittingly. As usual, she also washed, cleaned and messaged his wounds. He looked at her as lips quivered and then, he stretched the frail body a bit, he said, “O woman of dharma, a few days back, I saw a prostitute in front of the house while she, I guess, went somewhere.”

He looked at the road with vacant eyes, thought for a while and then, said, “O dear woman, please take me to her. I want to meet her as she resides in my heart. I love her. I am unable to avoid the thought of the woman until now as I am much enamoured of her. I want to love and if she does not embrace me with love and passion, then, you would find me dead within no time.”

He was impudently foolish and atrocious in words and attitude. He used repulsive and unethical words before a loyal and faithful wife, who served as a slave considering him a god in the shape of sick man with no hope of recovery.

When he stupidly and impertinently expressed a desire for a prostitute, she was aghast. As she looked at the weak and sickly pale face, he disturbed, “O woman, for men, the lord of love is very unkind. He disturbs men even at the thought of a woman. I am not an exception. Many men adore, appreciate and love prostitute. However, I have no strength to go there. Therefore, I feel troubled today. Feelings of weakness cause sufferings and I cannot move. It is a moment of crisis.”

After listening to feelings and thoughts of lust and passion from Kaushik, she was stunned. As a wife, she felt it was a duty to obey whatever might be the gravity of thoughts and probable sins. She belonged to a highly respected family that considered her as the most fortunate child, and afterward, people appreciated her for the qualities of head and heart.

She thought over the wicked desire. Kaushik wanted to visit a prostitute, was obvious. Without anger or disgust, she took sufficient money as fee to the woman of easy virtues. She lifted, put him on tender shoulders and carried Kaushik to the house of the woman he desired.

It was time of night and to add to her difficulties, the clouds covered the entire sky, and therefore, the intensity of darkness proved a great hindrance. Whenever the lightning thundered, she surveyed the path as if, and thus, with immense difficulty, carried Kaushik to the house of the woman. At that moment, the holy woman of brahmin took the royal road to attain goal of life. She carried husband on fragile and weak shoulders but did not reveal the pain of burden, and as a dutiful wife, she went ahead.

She did not observe a huge and long iron pillar installed as a punishing rod, a rod of crucifying a criminal or a sinner or a thief. Perhaps the pillar might be made of some strong piece of wood one could guess. The king often determined the quantum penalty to the thieves or other antisocial elements and put such elements on the pointed rod. However, it mattered little. As the woman carried Kaushik on shoulders with legs spread out, he touched the crucifying pillar while going along the road. Naturally, she had not seen the pillar in the darkness. The moment, the sick man touched the pillar with feet it caused intense pain to the sage, who cried loudly.

She tried to understand the reason of cries and found out that the great sage Mandvya sat still on the pointed rod while it pierced the body from behind giving intense pain. Severity of pain gave acute agony and drops of blood trickling down incessantly looked disgusting but he suffered punishment without a groan.

Mandvya was very angry, and therefore, said furiously, “A man, a sinner and a man of adharma, who shook the crucifying pole with feet and gave immense pain and enhanced sufferings, would meet death when the sun rises next morning. The moment, he sees the sun, death and destruction would visit the sinner.” Terse, harsh and cursing words echoed. Naturally, the words caused fears and tension in the mind of the brahmin sitting on the shoulders of the woman.

Stern expressions of Mandvya disturbed a devoted wife. She was very much distraught, and therefore, out of deep pain, said, “I say the sun will not rise next morning.” She pronounced a decree it appeared. The dictates of a woman, a faithful wife of devotion was severe and could not go waste.

The curse of a faithful devotee proves true and the sun fails to disobey the commands of a woman, a loyal wife, who serves her husband as if he were a god. It causes widespread anxieties and the created beings on earth, the celestial beings, the saints and sages and the gods are equally worried as religious karmas stopped even as scriptural teachings stand ignored because of prevailing darkness.

They seriously deliberated over the catastrophe and on the counsel of the Supreme lord all the gods of heavens go to the hermitage of saintly woman, the daughter of sage Kashyap and spouse of another sage Atri and revealed the cause of sufferings and disturbance in the divine territory.

01-Nov-2025

More by:  P C K Prem