Shesha Performs Austerities and Receives a Boon from Brahma
Disgusted by the wickedness and jealousy of his serpent brothers, Shesha abandons them to perform terrible penances. When Brahma appears and offers him a boon, Shesha asks not for power or revenge, but for a mind that always delights in righteousness and peace.
Shesha left them all — his mother Kadru and his countless serpent brothers — and went into the wilderness alone. He was disgusted. His brothers were wicked of mind, consumed by jealousy, always at each other’s throats like great enemies. Worse, they nursed a relentless hatred for their stepmother Vinata and her son, Garuda, who was also their brother. Because of a boon from their father, the sage Kashyapa, Garuda was far stronger than they were, and the serpents’ hatred was poisoned by their own impotence. Shesha could not bear to live with them. He decided to shed his very body rather than associate with them, in this life or another.
He began to practise severe austerities. He lived on air, observed rigid vows, and controlled his senses completely. He moved from one sacred tirtha (pilgrimage site) to another — Badari, Gokarna, Pushkararanya, the slopes of the Himalayas — his skin, flesh, and muscles drying up from the effort. He became an ascetic with matted hair, dressed in bark.
The grandfather of the universe, Brahma, saw him engaged in these terrible penances. He appeared before the emaciated lord of snakes and asked, “O Shesha! What are you doing? Let the welfare of all beings also be in your thoughts. You are causing pain to all beings through your severe austerities. Tell me what the wish in your heart is.”
Shesha explained his reasons: the wickedness of his brothers, their hatred for Vinata and Garuda, his own revulsion. “Therefore, I shall carry on with these austerities until I have shed this body of mine. I will not associate with my brothers.”
Brahma listened, then replied. He knew the deeds of Shesha’s brothers and the great danger that loomed before them because of their mother’s offence. But he had already provided for an exception to their fate. “O Shesha! Do not grieve for any of your brothers. Choose whatever boon you wish for from me. I am extremely pleased with you. It is good that your mind is fixed on dharma. Let your mind be established even more firmly on dharma.”
When offered anything he desired, Shesha’s request was not for power, escape, or retribution. He said, “O divine grandfather! I ask for the boon that my mind always delight in dharma (righteousness), in tranquillity and in austerities.”
Brahma was pleased with this self-denial and desire for peace. “For the welfare of all creatures, let the words that you have expressed be fulfilled at my command.” Then he gave Shesha a task. “O Shesha! This wide earth is very unstable with its mountains and forests, towns, habitations and oceans. Bear it up properly and well, so that it is stable.”
Shesha accepted immediately. “As you command, I will hold the earth steady. Please place it on my head.”
Brahma instructed him to go under the earth, which would open a passage for him. “By holding up the earth, you will perform an act greatly valued by me.”
Shesha agreed. The first-born of the snakes entered the passage and remained there. He placed the goddess earth, encircled by a girdle of oceans, upon his head. Brahma blessed him: “O Shesha! You are the best of the snakes. You are the god of dharma, because you singly hold up the earth, encircling her with your endless coils. This is no less than what I myself can do.”
Thus, the powerful snake Ananta — the endless one — lives under the ground, holding up the earth on Lord Brahma’s command. And Brahma provided Garuda, the very brother the serpents hated, to Ananta as a helper.