5. AHALYA’S STORY

Brahma once created, out of the ingredients of absolute

beauty, a woman, and she was called Ahalya (which in the

Sanskrit language means non-imperfection). God Indra,

being the highest god among the gods, was attracted by her

beauty and was convinced that he alone was worthy of

claiming her hand. Brahma, noticing the conceit and presumptuousness of Indra,

ignored him, sought out Sage

Gautama, and left him in charge of the girl. She grew up in

his custody, and when the time came the sage took her back

to Brahma and handed her over to him.

Brahma appreciated Gautama's purity of mind and heart

(never once had any carnal thought crossed his mind), and

said, "Marry her, she is fit to be your wife, or rather you alone

deserve to be her husband." Accordingly, she was married,

blessed by Brahma and other gods. Having spent her

childhood with Gautama, Ahalya knew his needs and so

proved a perfect wife, and they lived happily.

Indra, however, never got over his infatuation for Ahalya,

and often came in different guises near to Gautama's

ashram, waiting for every chance to gaze and feast on

Ahalya's form and figure; he also watched the habits of the

sage and noticed that the sage left his ashram at the dawn

of each day and was away for a couple of hours at the river

for his bath and prayers. Unable to bear the pangs of love

any more, Indra decided to attain the woman of his heart by

subterfuge. One day, hardly able to wait for the sage to leave

at his usual hour, Indra assumed the voice of a rooster, and

woke up the sage, who, thinking that the morning had come,

left for the river. Now Indra assumed the sage's form,

entered the hut, and made love to Ahalya. She surrendered

herself, but at some stage realized that the man enjoying her

was an imposter; but she could do nothing about it. Gautama came back at this moment, having intuitively felt that

something was wrong, and surprised the couple in bed.

Ahalya stood aside filled with shame and remorse; Indra

assumed the form of a cat (the most facile animal form for

sneaking in or out) and tried to slip away. The sage looked

from the cat to the woman and was not to be deceived. He

arrested the cat where he was with these words:

"Cat, I know you; your obsession with the female is your

undoing. May your body be covered with a thousand female

marks, so that in all the worlds, people may understand what

really goes on in your mind all the time." Hardly had these

words left his lips when every inch of Indra's body displayed

the female organ. There could be no greater shame for the

proud and self-preening Indra.

After Indra slunk away, back to his world, Gautama looked

at his wife and said, "You have sinned with your body. May

that body harden into a shapeless piece of granite, just

where you are… ." Now in desperation Ahalya implored, "A

grave mistake has been committed. It is in the nature of

noble souls to forgive the errors of lesser beings. Please … I

am already feeling a weight creeping up my feet. Do

something … please help me… ."

Now the sage felt sorry for her and said, "Your redemption

will come when the son of Dasaratha, Rama, passes this

way at some future date… ."

"When? Where?" she essayed to question, desperately,but before the words could leave her lips she had become a

piece of stone.

Indra's predicament became a joke in all the worlds at

first, but later proved noticeably tragic. He stayed in

darkness and seclusion and could never appear before men

or women. This caused much concern to all the gods, as his

multifarious duties in various worlds remained suspended,

and they went in a body to Brahma and requested him to

intercede with Gautama. By this time, the sage's resentment

had vanished. And he said in response to Brahma's appeal,

"May the thousand additions to Indra's features become

eyes." Indra thereafter came to be known as the "thousand-

eyed god."

Viswamithra concluded the story and addressed Rama. "O

great one, you are born to restore righteousness and virtue

to mankind and eliminate all evil. At our yagna, I saw the

power of your arms, and now I see the greatness of the touch

of your feet."

Rama said to Ahalya, "May you seek and join your revered

husband, and live in his service again. Let not your heart be

burdened with what is past and gone."

On their way to Mithila, they stopped to rest at Gautama's

hermitage, and Viswamithra told the sage, "Your wife is

restored to her normal form, by the touch of Rama's feet.

Go and take her back, her heart is purified through the ordeal

she has undergone." All this accomplished, they moved on,

leaving behind the scented groves and forest, and

approached the battlemented gates of Mithila City.