Ramayana Simplified: Part 14: Shapamoksha for Ahalya
Maharishi Vishwamitra and the two young princes, Rama and Lakshmana, on their way to Mithila, saw a beautiful ashram. The ashram was in a devastated state. Rama and Lakshmana wanted to know more about it. Maharishi Vishwamitra thus started narrating the story of Maharishi Gowthama and Ahalya.
Story of Ahalya
Ahalya was the wife of the Maharishi Gowthama. She was the daughter of Lord Brahma and she was extremely beautiful that Lord Indra got attracted by her beauty.
Once Maharishi Gowthama woke up to take a bath, thinking that the brahmamuhoortha (time between approximately 96 minutes and 48 minutes before sunrise)had started. He walked back home when he realized brahma muhoortha had not started. When he reached home, he was shocked to find that his wife, Ahalya was getting involved in sexual activity with someone else who was none other than Lord Indra. Maharishi Gowthama cursed her to become a stone and said that she can get shapamoksha (get released from the curse) and go back to her original form when Lord Rama, the avatar (incarnation)of Lord Vishnu, goes through that place after many years and touches the stone.
Ahalya gets Shapamoksha
As Rama and Lakshmana walk through that forest, Rama happens to touch the stone and Ahalya gets shapamoksha. She returns back to her original form and praises Rama which came to be known as ‘Ahalya Sthuthi’.
Few Insights…
- Here, we clearly see the importance of the mutual trust that is expected to be there between a husband and a wife. In the previous story, we learned about Sheelavathy who teaches us the importance of Pathivrithya (love and respect for husband). Ahalya is shown as someone who broke this trust and shown as someone who cheated on her husband. At the end of the day, she gets punished. Hindu dharmas and our culture have always considered marriage as a sacred thing and always stressed the importance of this mutual trust that is expected to be maintained between a husband and a wife.
- Why are we stressing so much about Pathivrithya? If the same is done by a man, will the Indian traditions excuse him?
Undoubtedly, the same is applicable to a man also. We talk of mutual trust here, so a man cheating his wife and a woman cheating a husband are both treated as equally unacceptable. Often, we come across couples where the husbands expect their wives to be a ‘pathivritha’ (have love and respect to husband), but they go on cheating on their wives. Such people are expected to show the same amount of love and respect towards their wives as they(husband) expect from them(wives).
- Here, Lord Indra, in a way can be compared to our minds. The word ‘Indra’ can also be interpreted as the king of Indriyas, which is none other than our manas or mind. Lord Indra, who is the king of the devas is supposed to be staying in the devaloka where he is surrounded by extremely beautiful women like Urvashi, Menaka, Rambha, etc., but still, he was not satisfied and came to sexually engage with someone from the Earth. Our mind, in a very preliminary stage is also like that. Often, we never get satisfied. Even when we are surrounded by everything in the universe, we complain about the things we don’t have.
