Nara, Narayana, Urvashi and Pururavas
Nara and Narayana are two ancient Rishis who are considered to be the twin incarnations of Lord Vishnu. It is said in the Bhagavata Purana that they are the sons of Dharma and Ahimsa. The Nara-Narayana description is also sometimes applied to Arjuna and Krishna in the Mahabharata. The stories of Nara-Narayana are found in the Bhagavata Purana and the Vamana Purana. Symbolically, Nara, human, and Narayana, the Supreme Being, are always in a divine union, though only few lucky souls realize it.
Legend has it that Nara and Narayana, the two sages, were undergoing penances and austerities (Tapas) at Badrinath in the Himalayas. Demons (Asuras) and Devas (Demigods) wanted to know what Nara and Narayana were seeking.
Asuras, in accordance with their innate nature thought the two Saints were seeking power. They therefore, sent an army to fight them but the two saints refused to fight. But due to the powerful Tapas conducted by them, the grass that was around the two rishis protected them, and those demons that tried to attack them were burned down.
Indra, the king of the Devas, according to his innate character, thought that the two wanted to overthrow him and rule over heaven. So he sent Apsaras (nymphs) to disturb the two saints through sexual distraction. Seeing the Apsaras, Narayana placed a flower on his thigh and immediately there sprung from it a beautiful nymph whose charms far excelled those nymphs sent by Indra. Since this beautiful nymph came out of the thigh she was called Urvashi. Narayana bestowed her upon Indra and she went to his court.
Finally, Nara and Narayana revealed that their Tapas was to seek the ultimate goal of Moksha and that they were not after power and pleasure which are but temporary.
Pururava was the first king of the Lunar (Chandra) dynasty. He was born to the planet Budha and the maiden Ila. Pururava was a regular invitee to Indra’s court. Once he saw the divine nymph Urvashi and was consumed with great longing for her. Urvashi often stole to the earth at night with her friends to feel the wet dew under her feet and the soft breeze against her body. During one such trip, Urvashi was returning to heaven just before dawn with other apsaras, when she was abducted by a demon. Pururava saw this and chased the demon on his chariot and freed Urvashi from the demon’s clutch and left her with her friends; but when they parted each was madly in love with the other.
Urvashi was a woman in a man’s world and in keeping with the tradition of the times expected the man to make the first move. Pururava on the other hand feared rejection because he did not expect the pride of heaven to come and live with a mortal, and hence did not approach Urvashi. So both pined for each other. Urvashi was giving a dance performance in which she was portraying Vishnu’s consort, Lakshmi. Her mind was with Pururavas and she called out her beloved’s name instead of saying “Vishnu”. Her teacher, the sage Bharat, got offended and cursed Urvashi. “You will get to live with the person you are thinking about,” he said, “And you will also give birth to his son. But you will have to choose between Pururavas and your son, because the day they see each other you will have to leave them both and return to heaven.”
Pururava was a married man. His wife was Aushiniri. They did not have any children and it was the accepted custom of the time to opt for a second wife to save the royal lineage. So when Pururavas met Urvashi he was already distanced from his wife and hence was more easily drawn towards the apsara.
He decided to live with Urvashi in the forest of Gandhamadana. He arranged for all princely comforts and they spent their time in love and discourse; Urvashi sang and danced for Pururavas; the king was content to have her with him. For Urvashi it was a unique opportunity to live with mortals and to experience their joys and sufferings, while Pururavas revelled in the fact that the pride of heaven and Indra's favourite was his and his alone. In fact the only discordant note in their ethereal music was their repeated argument as to who were more fortunate, the Devas or the mortals.
Once Urvashi and Pururava were walking along the bank of a stream in animated conversation. Pururavas noticed a maiden knee deep in water washing clothes and for a second his concentration faltered. Urvashi went into a fit of jealous rage and ran away. So maddened was she that she stepped into Kartikeya's grove. Kartikeya is the God of War and women were forbidden to enter his grove and if they did so they would be turned into creepers. This was seemingly the fate Urvashi met.
Because of Sage Bharat’s curse, Pururava and others suffered a hallucination that Urvashi had become a creeper; but this was not so in reality; Urvashi had just become invisible. This was because being a divine nymph (aspsara) and also the daughter of Nara-Narayana she was unaffected by this curse. For His Divine play, God destined her to meet such a fate temporarily.
For many months Pururava searched for Urvashi. He prayed to the Gods for their favour. He recounted the numerous times he had fought shoulder to shoulder with them in their incessant war against the Demons. Kartikeya relented and gave Pururavas a crimson jewel and asked him to rub a particular creeper in his grove with it. When the king did so, Urvashi was freed.
By now everyone, including Aushiniri had accepted Urvashi as the king's consort. There was no need for them to stay at Gandhamadana. The two went to the capital city of their kingdom and continued to enjoy each other's company as before. In all Urvashi and Pururava spent sixteen years together. The gem with which Pururava had freed Urvashi in Kartikeya's grove was Urvashi's favourite. One day a raven snatched the gem from the hands of Urvashi's maid. Pururava raised his bow but before he could fire an arrow someone else hit the bird and it fell into the palace courtyard. The arrow was retrieved and given to the king. It was the custom in those days that each arrow bore the name of its owner and this arrow was seen to belong to Ayu, the son of Pururavas and Urvashi.
Urvashi had desired to bear a child, so without Pururavas' knowledge she had conceived and given birth to his son. The incident at Kartikeya's grove was a ploy by the Gods to give Urvashi time for bearing the child. The reason for the secrecy lay in the curse sage Bharat had given Urvashi many years earlier. "You will have to choose between your son and your lover, for, the day the two meet you will have to return to heaven." The love of Urvashi for Pururava had yet not been satisfied so she had left the newborn child in sage Chyavan's hermitage in the care of his wife Satyavati.
Sage Chyavan explained everything to the astounded king. The time had come for Ayu to meet Pururavas, but unfortunately the same time necessitated the departure of Urvashi.
Pururavas crowned Ayu as King and left for Gandhamadana, where he had spent memorable seasons with the apsara. But the story does not end here. The Demons attacked Heaven and with Pururava's help the Gods succeeded in driving them away. In return Indra allowed Urvashi to go back to Gandhamadana where she spent many more years with Pururava and bore him many more sons.