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Chapter Summary

Purport

The summary of this Fourteenth Chapter is given as follows. This chapter describes Soma and how he kidnapped the wife of Brihaspati and begot in her womb a son named Budha. Budha begot Pururava, who begot six sons, headed by Ayu, in the womb of Urvasi.

Lord Brahma was born from the lotus that sprouted from the navel of Garbhodakasayi Vishnu. Brahma had a son named Atri, and Atri's son was Soma, the king of all drugs and stars. Soma became the conqueror of the entire universe, and, being inflated with pride, he kidnapped Tara, who was the wife of Brihaspati, the spiritual master of the demigods. A great fight ensued between the demigods and the asuras, but Brahma rescued Brihaspati's wife from the clutches of Soma and returned her to her husband, thus stopping the fighting. In the womb of Tara, Soma begot a son named Budha, who later begot in the womb of Ila a son named Aila, or Pururava. Urvasi was captivated by Pururava's beauty, and therefore she lived with him for some time, but when she left his company he became almost like a madman. While traveling all over the world, he met Urvasi again at Kurukshetra, but she agreed to join with him for only one night in a year.

One year later, Pururava saw Urvasi at Kurukshetra and was glad to be with her for one night, but when he thought of her leaving him again, he was overwhelmed by grief. Urvasi then advised Pururava to worship the Gandharvas. Being satisfied with Pururava, the Gandharvas gave him a woman known as Agnisthali. Pururava mistook Agnisthali for Urvasi, but while he was wandering in the forest his misunderstanding was cleared, and he immediately gave up her company. After returning home and meditating upon Urvasi all night, he wanted to perform a Vedic ritualistic ceremony to satisfy his desire. Thereafter he went to the same place where he had left Agnisthali, and there he saw that from the womb of a sami tree had come an asvattha tree. Pururava made two sticks from this tree and thus produced a fire. By such a fire one can satisfy all lusty desires. The fire was considered the son of Pururava. In Satya-yuga there was only one social division, called hamsa; there were no divisions of varna like brahmana, kshatriya, vaisya and sudra. The Veda was the omkara. The various demigods were not worshiped, for only the Supreme Personality of Godhead was the worshipable Deity.