English
Savitri and Satyavan
Source: Mahabharata, Vana Parva (Pativrata Mahatmya Parva)
King Ashvapati of Madra had no children. For eighteen years he worshipped the goddess Savitri. The goddess was pleased and granted him a radiant daughter. The king named her: Savitri.
When Savitri grew up, her radiance was such that no prince dared to come forward and ask for her hand. Then her father said, “Daughter, choose your husband yourself.”
Savitri chose Satyavan, who lived in the forest, the son of King Dyumatsena, who was blind and had been driven from his kingdom. When the divine sage Narada heard this, he grew anxious: “O king, Satyavan is matchless in virtue… but only one year of his life remains.”
Everyone tried to make Savitri change her mind. But Savitri said calmly, “The one I have once chosen in my heart is my husband.”
They were married. Savitri took off her royal clothes, put on garments of bark and began serving her parents-in-law in the forest. She kept counting the days… and when three days were left, she began a strict fast.
On the fourth day Satyavan went into the forest to cut wood, and Savitri went with him. Suddenly a sharp pain rose in Satyavan's head. He lay down with his head in Savitri's lap…
Just then Savitri saw a radiant figure standing before her, dressed in red, a noose in his hand. “I am Yama.”
Yama drew out of Satyavan's body his life, a being the size of a thumb, bound it in his noose and set off towards the south. Savitri began to follow him.
Yama stopped. “Daughter, go back. Your husband's time is over. You have come as far as any mortal can.”
Savitri said humbly, “Where my husband goes, my dharma takes me. Walking seven steps with the good makes a friendship. In the name of that friendship, hear what I have to say.” And she spoke such profound words on dharma that Yama was pleased.
“Ask any boon except Satyavan's life.”
Savitri asked: may my father-in-law's sight return. “So be it.”
Still she kept following. Yama granted a second boon, and she asked: may my father-in-law get his lost kingdom back. “So be it.”
The third boon: may my father, who has no son, have a hundred sons. “So be it.”
Still Savitri kept following him. Her words, so steeped in dharma, melted Yama's heart. “Ask one more boon, except Satyavan's life.”
Savitri folded her hands and said: “May I have a hundred radiant sons by Satyavan.”
Yama said, “So be it”… and then stopped short. How could Savitri have sons by Satyavan without Satyavan? Bound by his own word, Yama smiled, loosened the noose and gave Satyavan's life back. “Blessed one, through dharma you have conquered even death.”
Savitri came back. Satyavan woke as if from a deep sleep. When they reached the hermitage, Dyumatsena's sight had returned, and before long his kingdom too was restored to him.
What this story teaches
Savitri won what was impossible neither by weeping nor by fighting, but through patience, wisdom and dharma.
In memory of this story, married women keep the Vat Savitri vrat on Jyeshtha Amavasya (and in some traditions on Jyeshtha Purnima), worshipping the banyan tree and praying for their husbands' long life.
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