The great sage Durvasa saw that his fire-creature was gone, and his plan had failed. Now the Lord’s blazing disc, Sudarshana, was turning toward him! The sage was very frightened, and he began to run.
The disc followed him like the flames of a forest fire. It came so close that it almost touched his back! He ran very fast, hoping to get inside a cave in Mount Sumeru. Where could he go for help?
He fled everywhere: across the sky and the earth, into caves and the ocean, and up to the worlds of the gods. But wherever he went, the disc’s fire was right behind him, too hot to bear. He could find no shelter anywhere.
At last he came to Lord Brahma. “O my lord Brahma,” he begged, “please protect me from this blazing disc. The Lord Himself has sent it!”
But Brahma could not shelter him. The disc belonged to Lord Vishnu. “Shiva and I, and all the great ones, bow our heads to Lord Vishnu,” said Brahma. “We all do what He tells us.”
So the sage hurried on, the heat of the disc still on him. He went to Lord Shiva, who always lives on Mount Kailasa. “My dear son,” said Shiva, “none of us has the power to stand against the Lord.”
“I know the past and the future,” said Shiva, “and still we cannot understand how great the Lord’s power is. This disc is too much even for us. Go to Lord Vishnu. He will surely be kind to you.”
Then the sage went to Vaikuntha, the Lord’s own world. There Lord Narayana lived with Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. Narayana is another name for Lord Vishnu. He was the very Lord who had given King Ambarisha the disc.
The sage fell at Lord Narayana’s feet, his body trembling. “I have done a great wrong,” he cried. “I did not know how great You are, and I did wrong to Your dear devotee. Please save me!”
The heat of the disc was still on Durvasa. The Lord answered, “I am under the control of My devotees. I am not free at all. My devotees give up their homes and riches to serve Me. How could I ever give them up?”
Durvasa still trembled at the Lord’s feet. “My devotee is always in My heart,” said the Lord, “and I am always in his heart. My devotees know no one but Me, and I know no one but them.”
Durvasa had sent a creature of fire at the king. But that power did not hurt the king. “Power used against a devotee,” said the Lord, “harms the one who uses it.” And behind Durvasa, the disc still blazed.
“So go to King Ambarisha at once, without a moment’s delay,” said the Lord. “I wish you well. If you can make the king happy, then you will have peace.”
The sage hurried back to King Ambarisha, with the heat of the disc still on him. He was full of sorrow. He fell down before the king and held the king’s feet.
It did not feel right to the king to have a great sage at his feet. When the sage tried to pray to him, the king’s heart filled with mercy, and he was even more troubled. At once, he prayed to the Lord’s disc.
“O Sudarshana,” prayed the king, “you are fire, the mighty sun, and the moon. You are water, earth and sky. You are a wheel with thousands of spokes, as quick as the mind. The Lord loves you best.”
“Please be kind to this sage, for the good of all our family,” prayed the king. “Our family has given gifts and done its duty. If that is so, and if the Lord is pleased with us, then free this sage from your heat.”
Because of the king’s prayers, the blazing disc grew calm and peaceful. Its heat left the sage at last. Durvasa was free!
Durvasa was so glad that he praised the king and blessed him. “Today I have seen how great the Lord’s devotees are,” he said. “I did wrong to you, and still you prayed for my good. You forgave my wrong, and you saved my life.”
All this time, the king had not eaten, because he was waiting for his guest. Now he fell at the sage’s feet, made him happy in every way, and fed him well, with every kind of good food.
Durvasa ate and was very pleased. “Please, you eat too,” he said with great love. “My dear King, at first I thought you were an ordinary man. Now I know you are a truly great devotee of the Lord.”
Then Durvasa said to the king, “In heaven and on earth, people will sing of your goodness again and again.” With the king’s leave, and still praising him, the sage went through the sky to Lord Brahma’s world.
Do you know how long the sage was away, running from the disc, before he came back to the king? One whole year! All that year, the king had eaten nothing. He drank only water, and he waited for his guest.
His guest had eaten first. Only then did the king eat. He did not take the credit for saving the sage, for he knew the Lord had done it all. King Ambarisha had kept his Ekadashi vow, and he had cared for his guest too.
For grown-ups
Where this story comes from
This story is retold from the Bhagavata Purana (Srimad-Bhagavatam), canto 9, chapter 4, verses 49–71, and chapter 5, verses 1–28. Verse numbers follow the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust translation as published at vedabase.io; that edition groups some verses (9.4.53–54 and 9.4.57–59). It follows The King Who Kept the Fast (9.4.13–48). The sage Shukadeva tells the story to King Parikshit. The Bhagavata calls the Lord by many names, among them Vishnu, Narayana, Acyuta, Hari, Krishna and Vasudeva; the story uses Vishnu and Narayana, as these verses do, and otherwise says “the Lord”. The translation calls the Lord’s consort “the goddess of fortune” (9.4.60); the story gives her name, Lakshmi. Sudarshana is spelled Sudarśana in the translation. A note on today’s custom: families who keep the Ekadashi fast end it on Dwadashi at the parana time their panchang gives (our Ekadashi guide gives the steps). Ambarisha’s year on water (9.5.23) is his own devotion to his guest. It is not a rule for families, and it is not part of the Ekadashi vow. It is a faithful simplification. We shortened and left out parts, and we name them below. We did not add events, and we did not change anyone’s reasons. The dialogue is a plain rendering of the translation, not a word-for-word quotation. Where the translation says “burning” or “scorched”, the story says “the heat of the disc” (9.4.61, 9.5.10–12). Ten lines need a note.
1. Page 5, “The disc belonged to Lord Vishnu.” Durvasa says the disc was “sent by the Supreme Personality of Godhead” (9.4.52), and 9.4.50 calls it “the disc of the Supreme Personality of Godhead”. Brahma’s answer names that Lord as Vishnu (9.4.53–54). “Could not shelter him” renders “refused by Lord Brahma” (9.4.55), with Brahma’s own reason.
2. Page 7, “how great the Lord’s power is.” Shiva says “we cannot understand how expansive that illusory energy is” (9.4.57–59).
3. Page 8, “Narayana is another name for Lord Vishnu.” Shiva sends Durvasa to Vishnu (9.4.57–59), he goes to Narayana (9.4.60), and 9.5.1 says he went to the king “when thus advised by Lord Vishnu”.
4. Page 12. The line “Durvasa had sent a creature of fire at the king” is our link to the first story (9.4.46–48), told in narration. The Lord does not name the fire-creature. His words are 9.4.69: prowess “employed against the devotee, certainly harms he who employs it. Thus it is the subject, not the object, who is harmed.”
5. Page 15, “It did not feel right to the king.” The translation says the king “was very much ashamed” when Durvasa touched his feet (9.5.2). He was ashamed that a great sage was at his feet, not of anything he had done, so the page gives that reason. “Filled with mercy, and he was even more troubled” renders “because of mercy he was aggrieved even more”.
6. Page 16, “The Lord loves you best.” The translation says “O most favorite of Acyuta” (9.5.4). “Wheel” is the translation’s own word (9.5.5).
7. Page 19, “You forgave my wrong.” The translation says “overlooking my offenses” (9.5.17).
8. Page 21, “a truly great devotee” renders “the most exalted devotee of the Lord” (9.5.20).
9. Page 23, the year. 9.5.23 says that from the time Durvasa left until he returned, “for one complete year — the King had fasted, maintaining himself simply by drinking water.” The vedabase chapter summary also says the king stood in one place all that year; that is not in a verse, and the story does not say it.
10. Page 24, the order of the meal. 9.5.24 says the king “fed him … and then he himself also ate.” The page says the guest ate first and then the king ate. It does not say whether the sage was still there. The BBT glosses the Sanskrit word gate in this verse as “on his return”, but the word can also mean “having gone”; so some tellings say the king ate after the sage had left.
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Three things this telling leaves out, and why
- The snake in the chase (9.4.50). The disc followed Durvasa “as the blazing flames of a forest fire pursue a snake.” The story keeps the forest fire and leaves out the snake, so that a great sage is not likened to one.
- The end of the universe (9.4.53–54). Brahma says that at the end of time Lord Vishnu, “by a flick of His eyebrows, vanquishes the entire universe, including our places of residence.” A child can take this as the world being destroyed, so page 5 keeps only the bowing heads.
- “Fit for going to hell” (9.4.62). Durvasa says the Lord can save even a person “fit for going to hell” by the holy name. Page 9 keeps his own confession and leaves this clause out.
- The Lord’s words about the sage (9.4.69–70). The Lord says Durvasa “acted with self-envy”, and that austerity and learning are “most dangerous” in a person “who is not gentle.” The story keeps the rule (power used against a devotee harms the one who uses it) and the Lord’s kindness (“I wish you all good fortune”, 9.4.71). Durvasa is never called bad on a page.
- The simile of wives and husbands (9.4.66). The Lord says that devotees bring Him under their control as chaste wives bring gentle husbands under control by service. Verses 63 and 68 carry the same meaning, and the story uses those.
- The disc in battle (9.5.6, 9.5.8, 9.5.9). In his prayer the king calls the disc “an inauspicious comet for the irreligious demons” (9.5.6), and says that among the Daityas and Danavas it cuts off arms, bellies, thighs, legs and heads (9.5.8) and kills envious enemies (9.5.9). The prayer on pages 16–17 keeps the sun, the moon, the spokes and the plea for the sage.
- The burning (9.4.61, 9.5.10–12). The translation says Durvasa was “scorched” and speaks of “the burning caused by the Sudarśana cakra.” The story says “the heat of the disc”, and the pictures never show the disc touching him or any burn.
- The end of the chapter (9.5.25–28). The chapter closes with the king’s wisdom, his later life (he divided his property among his sons and went to the forest to fix his mind on the Lord, 9.5.26), and the promise that anyone who hears or thinks of this story becomes a devotee of the Lord (9.5.27–28).
Some details go to this page instead of the story. In the chase, the translation names “the planets of the rulers of the three worlds” and “the heavenly planets” (9.4.51); page 3 says “the worlds of the gods.” Brahma names Daksha, Bhrigu and the rulers of living beings, men and gods among those who bow to Vishnu (9.4.53–54). Shiva says that universes come and go at the Lord’s direction (9.4.56), and he names those who know past and future: Sanat-kumara, Narada, Brahma, Kapila, Vyasa (Apantaratama), Devala, Yamaraja, Asuri and Marici (9.4.57–59). Durvasa calls the Lord “infallible, unlimited … protector of the entire universe” (9.4.61). The Lord also says that even the devotees of His devotees are dear to Him (9.4.63), that without His saints He does not want His own bliss and riches (9.4.64), and that His devotees do not want even the four kinds of liberation (9.4.67). He calls Ambarisha “the son of Maharaja Nabhaga” (9.4.71). The king’s prayer also calls the disc air, the senses and their objects (9.5.3), religion, truth and sacrifice (9.5.5), and the light that drives away darkness (9.5.7); it names ceremonies and the guidance of learned brahmanas among his family’s good deeds (9.5.10). The verses call Durvasa “this brahmana”; the story says “this sage.” Durvasa said that nothing is impossible for the Lord’s servants, whose holy name purifies (9.5.15–16), and that he was pleased “simply by seeing you, touching your feet and talking with you” (9.5.20). The praise on page 22 is sung by “the blessed women in the heavenly planets” and “the people of this world” (9.5.21). Brahmaloka is “devoid of agnostics and dry philosophical speculators” (9.5.22). In 9.5.24 the king understood that by the Lord’s grace he too was powerful, and still took no credit.
The question children ask here
“Why didn’t the king just eat after his fast ended?” Because his guest had not eaten yet. The Bhagavata shows it step by step:
- his Ekadashi fast had already ended in time, on Dwadashi, with a sip of water (9.4.39–41);
- he had asked the sage to eat (9.4.36), and a guest is fed first: the sage’s own complaint was “you yourself have eaten first” (9.4.45);
- “expecting the return of Durvasa Muni, the King had not taken his food” (9.5.18), and he lived on water for one whole year, until the sage came back (9.5.23);
- when the sage returned, the king fed him, “and then he himself also ate” (9.5.24).
“His fast was over, but his guest had not eaten yet, so he waited to feed his guest first.”
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