There is a story about a great king trapped in the body of a pig that I have heard many times in the 25 plus years I have been studying yoga. I want to retell it now.
King Indra, once a great king of the demigods, in the heavenly kingdom of Svargaloka was often arrogant in his post and had this tendency to offend others. One day his tendency got him into trouble. He offended Brihaspathi, the spiritual master of all demigods.
"Oh Indra," Brihaspathi roared, his thunderous voice echoing through the heavens, "Your rudeness has to be corrected. Because you act like pig, I am sentencing you to a life as one!"
The Great Spiritual Master called out to Brahmaji, the creator of earth and the entire material world. "I am sending one of my own down to you. Treat him as the pig he is, and not as a god. Let him wallow in the mud, eating nothing but man's leftovers from the filthy trough. "
So as punishment for his insolence, Indra was exiled to earth to live his life out as a pig. He soon found himself in the obese and dirty swine's body , in a small little shelter that Brahmaji created for him, surrounded by mud and with a trough located in the far corner of the pen. He was devastated. He tried using his powers to remove his spirit from the pig's body but he couldn't. He tried shouting out with a plea for release to Brihaspathi but all that would come from his mouth was a pathetic squeal.
Feeling sorry for the demi god trapped in this pig, and knowing as well that he had to obey Brishapathi's orders, Brahmaji promised Indra that he would wipe all prior memory from his mind so he would not miss his old life and could accept his pig life. He promised that he would keep the trough full with leftovers and that he would give him a mate so he did not feel so much alone. He kept his promise. Indra's memory of who he once was was wiped from his mind. The trough remained full and a lovely sow, in pig terms, was soon in the pen with Indra.
While Indra was adapting to his life as a pig, things in Svargaloka were not going so well in his absence.
"We need Indra back here," Brihaspathi ordered Brahmaji. "Go to him and tell him he is free to come home. He no longer has to be a pig!"
Delighted to be able to free Indra from his miserable plight, Brahmaji went back to earth and to the pen Indra was confined to. Sure enough, he found the pig wallowing in the mud with flies all around him. A dirty sow was by his side nursing a dozen little piglets.
"You are not a pig," Brahmaji called out.
Indra looked up and replied, "Huh? Of course, I am a pig! I have this lovely pig's body living in this wonderful warm mud with my beautiful wife by my side and all my sweet children at her breast. What else would I be? "
"You are a God and you are wanted back in heaven."
"A God? No, I am not a God, nor do I have any desire to be one. I am perfectly content being a pig. And this, where I am now, is heaven. This mud is beautiful and warm, the trough is always full. I need not do anything but wallow. What a life! Besides, I could never leave my wife or my children. There can be nothing greater than the love I have for them and them for me. No, go away Brahmaji. I am a pig and very much content with that."
Brahmaji was so surprised by this response and did not know what to do. He knew he had to get Indra back to Svargaloka as demanded by Brihaspati.
"Well, I will have to take these things you are so attached to away. He removed the mud and though Indra cried out, he still refused to be anything but a pig. "I have my trough, my children, and my wife."
Brahmaji used his powers to remove the trough.Again Indra cried out in pain.
"I still have my children and my wife."
One by one, Brahmaji used his powers to remove each piglet as Indra cried out in pain and grief.
"I still have my wife!"
And poof...the sow was gone.
Indra felt his heart breaking and the world he had come to love so much crumbling.
"Why are you being so cruel? You have taken all I love away."
"You are a God Indra and you are wanted back home!"
"I am no God. I am in this lovely warm and soft pig flesh. I am a pig! Please leave me alone to be this pig with a broken, grieving heart!"
And with that Brahmaji ripped opened the carcass Indra was in and pulled him out .
Indra emerged from the pig's body, feeling lighter than he ever felt before, feeling powerful and strong, feeling much more than the mere contentment he ever felt as a pig. He felt bliss, love and joy. He suddenly remembered who he was. His life as a pig, he realized, was nothing more than a faint dream.
"And I thought I was that," he said pointing to the pig's body? "And I thought this was heaven?" he went on...pointing to the pen. He began to laugh and laugh and laugh.
The end.
Inspired by
Sri Swami Vivekananda (n.d.) The Complete Works of Vivekananda. Kindle Edition, page 129
Suvyakta Narasimha Dasa/ Speaking Tree (Jan, 2011) When Indra Became a Hog. https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/when-indra-became-a-hog
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