Markendeya Rishi

-Srila Gurudeva

 

23 Aug: Presently, we are in this black age of Kali-yuga. The span of time for this Kali-yuga is 432,000 years. Double of this (864,000 years) is the duration of the Dvapara-yuga. Triple of the Kali-yuga (1,296,000 years) is the duration of the Treta-yuga and quadruple it (1,728,000 years) is the length of the Satya-yuga, the ‘Golden Age’. If you add the total time of these four yugas together, the sum is 4,320,000 years. If the span of time covered by these four ages is multiplied by seventy-one (306,720,000), then that is the span of life of one Manu. The fourteen Manus are sons of Brahma, and are called ‘Manu’ because they were created by the mind of Brahma. The total number of years in which the lives of fourteen Manus have passed, (14 * 306,720,000 = 4,294,080,000 years) equals one day of Brahma. Such seven days (30,058,560,000 years) would be the lifespan of Markendeya Rishi. How did he get such a boon?

 

Mrikanda had learned from an astrologer that his son, Markendeya would die at the age of ten. So, he was in a very melancholy state. He could find no peace of mind. “Here is my only son,” he thought, “and that son will die at the age of ten?” He went to his son and instructed him, “Whenever any elder persons come to see you, you should bow down to him. You should make prostrated obeisances to him.” As per the instructions of his father, whenever an elder person of respectable stature came to their house, Markendeya made prostrated obeisance to him.

 

By chance, the Saptarishis (the seven rishis), also the sons of Brahma, set their holy footprints in the house of the descendents of Bhrigu, and the boy, Markendeya, fell flat at their feet.

The rishis blessed him. “May he live eternally!” they exclaimed.

 

The boy’s father was astonished. He approached the rishis and said, “But my son is destined to die at the age of ten. Now you have given him a boon, but will this boon be effective?”

 

“Oh, is that true?” the rishis asked. They were perturbed because they wanted to award the child some sort of boon. They took the boy to Satya-loka, the planet of Brahma. They told their father, “We went to this boy’s house only to set our holy footprints there and this boy, out of affection, fell flat at our feet. He is unfortunately destined to live ten years only.”

“No!” cried Brahma. “His span of life is seven days – of mine!” Thus, Brahma gave him this boon.

 

We should never ignore our superiors. We are learning this lesson from the son of Mrikanda, Markendeya Rishi. If we bow down to parents, elders, Vaishnavas and Sadhus, then by their grace, we shall be able to get things we cannot imagine.