Oh, that’s a most fascinating story, one of my favorites. The story is from the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata. The daitya guru Shukracharya has discovered the Mrit Sanjivani to revive the dead. Thus he is able to revive all the Asuras increasing the burden of darkness and chaos upon earth. Kacha, son of the Devguru Brihaspati goes to the kingdom of the Asuras to learn about the vidya. He enrolls as an obedient disciple especially as Devyani, daughter of Shukracharya, the Daityaguru, falls in love with him. Kacha does not reciprocate actively but doesn’t refute it either. The result is the Devyani rescues Kacha from the suspicious Asuras who kill him thrice. Shukracharya revives him each time by the power of Mritsanjivani Vidya. The third time the Asuras not only kill Kacha but mix his remains in Shukracharyas wine. Now Shukracharya faces a dilemma. To satisfy his daughter he must revive Kacha. But the moment Kacha is revived, it would mean that Shukracharya would die as the revived Kacha would have to tear up and burst open Shukracharya’s belly to come out. He resolves the problem by teaching the revived Kacha in his belly, the Sanjivani mantra. Kacha emerges tearing the belly of Shukracharya and, keeping his promise and displaying a noble character revives Shukracharya. Thence he returns to his kingdom refusing the proposal of Devyani to marry him. He cites that now that he has emerged from her father’s belly he is now her brother and hence cannot marry her.
What follows is a series of curses, Devyani’s eventual marraige to the great Chandravanshi King Yayati thereby creating a mixed lineage of asuras and the gods culminating in the battle of the Mahabharata between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, both from the same lineage. As an aftermath of the story the gods plan for the Samundra manthan to discover the nectar of immortality.
The story is clearly not an event of the material plane but of the subtle inner worlds. The gods are divine powers of light descending from Above. The Asuras are the deformation and distortion of the Divine Force working from below. Their field is material creation where they have the strongest hold. The battle between the gods and asuras is the meeting and adaptation of the forces governing material existence and those that work upon the heights of creation. The asura guru Shukracharya is originally a divine power that has fallen from the heights, the revolted angels of other mystic tradition. It is helping the asuras revive again and again thereby creating a constant negative shift in the balance of earth’s evolution. Kacha is a divine being who goes into the Camp of the Asuras to learn the secret of their strength and ability to revive the dead. For this he enters the very womb of the knowledge held back in the darkness (Shukracharya). In the process of his return he is helped by Devyani, the power of love which is a godlike power as the name suggests, though in the fallen sphere of the asuras helps Kacha get the secret and return. Though he is unable to rescue Devyani from her fallen state, she too eventually returns by taking a human birth and being married to the scion of the lunar dynasty, Yayati. It is dynasty of kings such as Ayush, Yayati, Puru who are all striving for finding the secret of immortality upon earth.
Shukracharya is the power the helps the Asuras. Kacha is the Divine power that enters the womb of this dark knowledge by sacrificing his own life. He returns a victor discovering the secret strength that lies behind the victory of the asuras. The symbol is clear. Its modern equivalent would be Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekananda going to the heart of the Western civilisation to discover their secret. The Mother is actually born there and so is sister Nivedita. They discover the strength of the Western civilisation living largely with dehatmabodh, like the asuras (focused around the body). This knowledge plus the nectar of immortality means both spiritual and material knowledge that will help the godlike humanity to evolve further leaving behind the egoistic ambitious asuric type. This is the gist. There are several other layers and ramifications of the story that we can leave it for now.
Affectionately,
Alok da
