When anger gives birth to a person

He was an avatar of Lord Shiva. Notorious for his anger, he was dreaded by even the mightiest of the kings. No one wanted to be a subject of his wrath. Even Lakshmana thought it better to embrace death than to put their entire kingdom face this person’s curse. But, he was a learned Brahmin. No Kshatriya could deceive him. Who was this man?

When Shiva gets angry, he often performs his Tandav dance, An image of Shiva in his angry mode. Image Source: Myimgstock

One day, Anasuya left her kid in the care of her husband to bring water from the nearby pond. The Sage kept himself busy by performing some rituals. The baby, of three months age, got thirsty and kicked hard on the pots lying nearby. This alarmed the Sage. He understood that his son was probably hungry or thirsty. So, he took a strand of darbha grass, a long pointed type of grass used in Hindu rituals (known as ‘Durva’ in Sanskrit), and put it near the child’s mouth. The dew from the grass quenched his thirst and, thus, he was named “Durvasa.”

Durvasa was not just any sage. He lived from the time of the Vedas to the Mahabharata war. Based on the Hindu timeline, this Sage must have lived for a minimum of 8,000,000 years. How was it even possible? Indian scriptures do talk about longevity in life, provided the person lives a balanced lifestyle. But living for millions of years seems absurd. We shall find out more about it in the next section.

The dev-lok was filled with a tense atmosphere. Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva have entered into a gruesome quarrel. The other devas could do nothing about it. They did not want to barge in between these powerful Gods. They had a better solution: to leave the conversation than to remain tensed in between them. One after another, the devas fled from the scene.

This enraged Lord Shiva. He was burning with anger. Lord Brahma left the field. Now, all Shiva was left with was his consort, Parvati. She tried to keep her calm. But seeing Shiva fail in subduing his anger, all she could do was complain that Shiva has become difficult to live with. Now, that was another serious problem he had to tackle.

Shiva soon realized how devastating his anger could be and so devised a solution for it. He decided to dump all his anger into the womb of Sage Atri’s wife Anasuya. Sage Atri, according to the Rig Veda was one of the most learned people of those times. One among the seven Rishis (Saptarishis), he was blessed with boons from the trinity Hindu gods- Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

The child, thus born, was named Durvasa. Born out of anger, this child got the name because he was 'difficult to live with'. He was thus, attributed with a cantankerous nature. He was an avatar of Lord Shiva.

The child, thus born, was named Durvasa. Born out of anger, this child got the name because he was 'difficult to live with'. He was thus, attributed with a cantankerous nature. He was an avatar of Lord Shiva.

According to another tradition, Anasuya was being tormented by a king for a long time. After being born, little Durvasa set his eyes on the king angrily for causing pain to his mother. The king burned into ashes. This made Sage Atri and Anasuya realize how powerful the eyesight of their son could be whenever he gets angry.

 An angry Sage Durvasa cursing a woman. Image Source: huffpost