Chapter 90 — Indra’s & Ahalya’s Attachment through Reincarnations

The Sun said:—

The lotus-eyed king, thus defied by this perverse Indra, addressed sage Bharata who was sitting by him. The king spoke, “Lord, you are acquainted with all morality. See this ravisher of my wife and hear the arrogant speech that he utters before our face. Please, O great sage, pronounce your curse upon him without delay, because it is a breach of justice to spare the wicked, just as it is to hurt the innocent.”

Being thus asked by the great king, Bharata, the best of the wise munis, considered the crime of this wicked soul Indra. Then he pronounced his curse by saying, “Do you, O reprobate sinner, soon meet with your perdition, together with this sinful woman who is so faithless to her husband.”

Then they both replied to the king and his venerable sage, saying, “What fools must you be to have wasted your curse, the great gain of your tapas, on our devoted heads. The curse you have pronounced can do us very little harm. Though our bodies should fall, yet it cannot affect our inner minds and spirits. The inner principle of the soul, owing to its inscrutable, subtle and intellectual nature, can never be destroyed by anybody anywhere.

The Sun added:—

Then this fascinated pair, head over heels in love, fell down by effect of the curse, just like when branches cut from a tree fall upon the ground. 10 Being subjected to the torment of reincarnation, they were both born as a pair of deer in mutual attachment, and then as a couple of turtle doves in their inseparable alliance. 11 Afterwards, O lord of our creation, this loving pair came to be born as man and woman, who by their practice of austerities, came to be reborn at last as a brahmin and brahmani.

12 Thus the curse of Bharata was capable only of transforming their bodies. It never touched their minds or souls which continued in their unshaken attachment in every state of their reincarnation. 13 Therefore wherever and in whatever shape they come to be reborn, they always assumed the form of a male and female pair by virtue of their delusion and memories. 14 Seeing the true love that existed between this loving pair in the forest, the trees also become enamored of the other sex of their own kinds.