Stories from Mahabharatha: Uttanaka and the celestial earrings

  

Utanka was endued with austere penances. He was completely devoted to his teacher, the great sage Gautama and Gautama was also very highly pleased with the self-restraint, purity of behaviour and devotion of  Utanka

One after another, thousands of disciples completed their studies and after taking Gautama's permission, returned home, however, Gautama didn't permit Uttanka to leave his ashram due to his love and attachment towards Uttanka. One day, while doing some work, a strand of white hair came out of Uttanka's matted lock, seeing  it, Utanka became very sad and started crying. On Gautama's enquiry, Utanka told that he had completely devoted himself to the service of his teacher for several years while hundreds & thousands of other students had left the hermitage and are doing quite well in their lives. He asked, what should be given as Guru dakshina to Gautama to get his permission for leaving. 

Gautama said, he is highly pleased  with Utanka's devotion and using his powers of penance, he turned Utanka into a young man of 16 years and also offered his own daughter in marriage to him. Now, Utanaka told Ahalya, wife of Gautama to ask for any gift. On much insistence, Ahalya asked him to get the celestial ear-rings which are worn by the wife of King Saudasa. 

Uttanka immediately left to get those ear-rings, however unknown to both Ahalya & Uttanka, the King Saudasa. was cursed by his Guru Vashistha to become a cannibal. When Uttanka reached the court of Saudasa, the king was ready to have his meals and was extremely terrifying to even look at. The King was  very happy to see the meal(Uttanka) walking unto him. Uttanka however wasn't scared and told him that he has come for his teacher's sake and as per scriptures he should not be harmed till that work is done. He proposed to come back once he accomplishes the work. The King agrees and ask Uttanka to go and seek the celestial ear-rings from the queen. The queen gives the ear-rings to Uttanka and also asks him to be extremely careful as the ear-rings are of divine nature and all the devas, nagas, gandharvas and other beings always want to get hold of them. Any slight carelessness on his part will cause them to take away the ear-rings. Uttanka then goes back to the King and says,since the King should always respect and protect Brahmins, what advice would the King give to him. The King says,  I'll surely kill you, if you come back, so please go to your teacher and don't come back to me. 

Uttanka proceeded with haste to his preceptor's ashram and taking extreme care to protect the earrings. On the way he got hungry and as he was trying to pluck some fruits, the earrings fell down on earth and immediately were taken up by a snake, who took them in his mouth and went inside the earth to the nether region of the Nagas. Now, Uttanka was filled with rage and he started to dig that snake pit with his stick. The Lord of the celestials(Indra) took pity on Uttanka and he added the strength of his thunderbolt(Vajra) to the stick of Uttanka. With this added strength, soon Uttanka reached the nether regions inhabited by Nagas. The region of Nagas was huge and Uttanka didn't know what to do there. As he was contemplating on his next course of action, the the sacrificial fire(Jataveda) appeared there in a form of a divine horse and asked Uttanka to blow air into my back to get back the earrings. The sacrificial fire was very pleased with Uttanka as for many years Uttanka had worshipped it at his teacher's hermitage. As soon as Uttanka blew air on the horse back, the whole Naga region started to burn with fire coming out of the divine horse's mouth and ears. The nagas got frightened and immediately came out to pacify Uttanka and gave him back the earrings. 

Finally, Uttanka took the earrings to his teacher and presented them to his teacher's wife. He also narrated his whole experience to Gautama who was very pleased with the conduct of Uttanka and then had his daughter married with Uttanka.