Vishwamitra

The Story

As King Kaushika, Vishwamitra once visited the hermitage of the sage Vasishta with his entire army. When the wish-giving cow Nandini created an army of her own and destroyed his soldiers, the king realised that true power was not in arms but in spiritual mastery — and he vowed to become a sage greater than Vasishta.

His penance was the fiercest in mythology: he gave up his kingdom, his family, and his comforts; he endured torment from the gods who feared his growing power; he was tempted by the apsara Menaka; and he nearly fell — but each time he rose again, and in the final test of serenity he attained the rank of brahmarshi, acknowledged even by his rival Vasishta.

It is Vishwamitra who brought the young princes Rama and Lakshmana to the forest to slay demons, who revealed to them the great weapons of the gods, and who conducted the sacrifice at Mithila where Rama first strung Shiva's bow — setting the Ramayana itself in motion. To him is attributed the Gayatri Mantra, the most sacred verse of the Vedas.