Queen Madalsa
“You are pure, enlightened, and spotless. Leave the illusion of the world and wake up from this deep slumber of Delusion.” – Madalsa
According to Markandeya Puraan (Markandeya Puraan is one of the 18 puraans written by sage Vyasa), Queen Madalsa (मदालसा) was a great, spiritually inclined, highly educated, learned and enlightened woman. She was a great mother and an extraordinary educator. She possessed both beauty and intellect. History speaks that Madalsa’s children were the first to enhance the supreme consciousness and hence became the first sanyasis (renunciants) and yogi (spiritualist).
She was the daughter of the king of Gandharvas named Visvavasu. She was married to the son of Satrujit, named Ritudhvaja (also KuvalayAswa). During their marriage, Madalsa made a bond to king that upto 5 years of their children’s birth, no one would interrupt her in educating and upbringing her sons. The king agreed to it. The couple gave birth to four sons. When the children were in her womb she used to take specific herbs every month and continued till her all three trimesters. She started preaching her children with holy hymns in her womb itself before their birth.
When the first child was born he was named Vikrant( Brave and powerful)by the father king.When the baby was in the cradle mother Madalsa used to sing a lullaby of Jnana(knowledge) which is a set of nine shlokas to calm down the crying baby. This is known as the Madalsa Upakhyan. The child grew up with the words of wisdom and spiritual knowledge and transformed into a young Prince. But he was not at all passionate about the kingdom, instead was interested to move out into the forest to perform a severe penance to clean the path of Salvation. He was allowed to move on to his desired path by the king.
When the second child was born, the king named him Subahu (strong, beautiful and powerful armed ). Madalasa brought her up in the same way, as the first child. She kept him illuminating with pure awakening wisdom and knowledge.He too was not interested in worldly pleasure and moved out in forests for salvation.
When the third child was born, the king name him Shatrumardan( Conqueror of the enemies). During the naming ceremony mother Madalasa could not stop laughing at the name and at her level she was surprised to the king how he could name his sons with such names. The third child was also brought up in, the same way as the previous two.
The king was deeply saddened and constantly worried about his sons giving up the reigns of the Kingdom. So he requested his queen to preach the fourth child in such a way that he takes up his Kingdom and bring it to the utmost fame and prosperity and not to preach the fourth child in the previous manner.
She gave birth to the fourth son and named him Alarka (mad dog). She hummed the song of bravery and valor to transform him into a great king. The king asked the queen, the reason behind naming him so. The queen laughed and quoted as- ” the name is for the sake of communication only, which has been coined by the mortals. The omnipresent is beyond names and forms. By which name can we address him”. So you don’t be happy that you have chosen meaningful names of your three sons.
“Yadi samvyavharartham asannamma prakalpyate, Namni kasmaat alarkhye nairarthyam bhavto matam“.
Vyavhar (communication) is illusion. So we can call this model body made up of five elements , namely, (Earth, Sky, Water, Air and Fire) by any name. So if you think I have named the prince “Alarka”, with a meaningless name, you have misunderstood actually. If everything is meaningless in this world, let it be too so. This was the Vedant taught by an Indian queen to his king.
Alarka was taught Raj Dharm( How to rule with might and justice), Varnashram Dharma( how to treat all the sectors of society), Grihstha Dharma( how to keep a family and it’s tree prosperous, wealthy and happy), Nithya Naimittika Shraddha Dharma, Paarvana Shraddha Dharma, Prashastapratishtha, Sadachar varnan, Varjyavarjya by his mother Madalasa, who made her a righteous, mightious, warrior and intellectual king.
As the Indian Kings did, Ritudhwaj too retired from his Kingdom and moved out to forest (Vaanprastha) to perform the penance and clean the path of Salvation. Queen Madalasa too joined her. But before moving out, she gave her son a ring, in which was hidden a piece of advice in the form of minute letters inscripted in it. The advice was,” if you are not capable to perform , then move out of the society. If you are not able to do this also, then join the sadhus(renunciant), whose company will bring your life on the path of ultimate bliss and salvation. thus he became an erudite scholar, brave warrior and a great ruler. Thus Queen Madalasa has impressed the entire world, as a women of unbound intelligence, and in the entire Indian Vedant society as Yogini( a woman proficient in Yog) and a Brahmavadini mother.
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