The Baptism of Dhanishta

Bhishma

The most important story of the eight vasus begins with them stealing the wish granting cow, Kamdhenu, from the sage Vashishta. The reason they stole it was for Prabhas Vasu, whose wife wanted that cow. For this act, the Sage Vashishta curses them to be born as humans. Seven of them apologize, but Prabhas Vasu, the ringleader, does not. So, the Sage Vashishta takes pity on them, says he cannot run back his curse, but that their births would be short, and they’d die soon after being born. The same does not apply to Prabhas Vasu. With this knowledge, the seven Vasus then go to the river Ganga, to ask that she be their mother when they are born into their human lives. She agrees to give birth to all eight of them.

The Vasus are born to a union between King Shantanu and the river Ganga, and while Ganga drowns 7 of them, the body containing Prabhas Vasu’s soul is the one that, as promised, has to live a life on earth. He is named Devavrat, and is first taken by his mother Ganga, and trained by various divine masters, and then, when he is a bit older, he is handed over to King Shantanu, as his heir. He grows up to not be heir, to promise his life to celibacy, and promises to serve the King on the throne no matter what. For these extreme promises, he grows up to be known by the name Bhishma, which means extreme.

Many times, Bhishma’s choices are questioned. He abdicates his throne, and then devotes himself to celibacy, so that his father’s new wife’s children can be his heirs. Within 2 generations, it turns out that it is impossible for that line to have kids. At this point, his stepmother, who made him make this promise, begs him to go back on it, for the sake of the throne. He refuses. His own guru, Parashuram, attacks him due to him not marrying a woman he should marry for the sake of her honor. He refuses, again, and fights his own guru.

Even on his deathbed, Draupadi challenges him, asks him why he never stopped her humiliation by Duryodhan (the king at the time) in the form of her cheerharan (taking off her clothes) when he had the power to question him. He doesn’t reply, but the answer is because he promised to never question the monarch of Hastinapur. His name, Devavrat, means godly oath, and he did maintain his oaths completely. When he dies, he says, “I don’t know how I ended up this way. All I wanted was to be righteous and serve the Divine”. And, after he dies, the heavens celebrate his life. And, what he attains is not just heaven, but Maatru Loka, which is even higher than the heavens.

Xie Lian

(warning for spoilers of Heavenly Official’s Blessing, By Mo Xiang Tong Xiu)
Xie Lian is the main character of Heavenly Official’s Blessing, a danmei. He is born as a Prince, and dedicates his life to daoism, and becoming a god. When he is 17, he participates in a Procession, for the luck of his kingdom, where he is supposed to perform a fight with an enemy for multiple rounds, to indicate multiple years. He can only perform this fight for 3 rounds, because during the middle of the procession, he sees a child that falls, and chooses to save this child. This is considered very bad luck, and he is told to either seal one of the five senses of the child he saved, or to apologize to the heavens. He says that he will do neither, and that he is not sorry for his actions, because he does not see saving a child as being wrong. He ascends to the heavens as a god, and after 3 years, his kingdom falls. After his kingdom falls, he too, falls as a god for being too involved in his countries affairs. His powers are stripped from him, and he is forced to be on earth.

But, Xie Lian’s fall from heaven’s does not last too long for the first time. He ascends again, but this time, he goes to the emperor of the heavens, and then asks him, not to remove the shackles that bind his power, but to add another shackle to remove his luck entirely, and he chooses to fall again, and so, he suffers on Earth, with bad luck and without his powers. This time, he does choose to be on Earth out of guilt, because he was saved by someone who took the fall for his consequences, and he wants to suffer again, as penance.

An interesting thing to note is that Xie Lian suffers through a lot of humiliation and loss, due to the loss of power and luck, and takes on enemies that are objectively much stronger than him. He often wins, but his bad luck means that he cannot enjoy victory too often. He lives this way for 800 years.

When Xie Lian loses his shackles, his 800 years of self imposed penance means that he is the most powerful god in the world, maybe the most powerful being in the world. He does not follow all his oaths in the same way as Bhishma, for example, he does break his own vow of celibacy, because this is, after all, a romance novel. But, similar to Bhishma, he sees his actions through completely with their consequences, and even beyond the consequences.

Another interesting thing to note is that the child he saves grows up to become his partner, similar to Prabhas Vasu’s first sin being to steal a cow for his wife.

Austerities

The similarity between the two stories is not necessarily of not breaking a promise, but rather, making a choice and seeing the consequences through completely and even beyond. Bhishma’s birth name is Devavrat, which does mean godly oath, but the word vrat also often symbolizes austerities, specifically things such as fasting, or not talking, or some sort of a stepping back from a power that you currently have. To some extent, the stories of Bhishma and Xie Lian both, is not of austerities as penance, but austerities as a way to consolidate power. It might not be a conscious choice, but in some sense, the suffering that they both go through is immense, but leaves them in a better place than when they began. In a place where they have to worry less about the limitations of what they can do, in a place where they do not have to please anyone to survive.

Dhanishta, then, is not a nakshatra of just suffering, but as the austerities that are required for growth. Bhishma suffering through his earthly life to gain a position in a place that is higher than the heavens. Xie Lian suffering not to become just a god, but the most powerful god of all. This nakshatra eradicates the limitations placed on them, by doing what is taboo, that is not allowed, and just seeing through it entirely. No apology, no remorse, just moving ahead, and through the humiliation and suffering, becoming internally unshakable.

Wrong and right is not necessarily the point here. The point is growth and power. In many ways, you can argue that they did little that was wrong. In some ways you can see Bhishma himself as being free from sin, because he has Ganga herself running through his veins, cleansing him of any sin that he commits. Xie Lian, too, is a character who has just saved a child and is then punished for it.

The thing about their crimes is that it was very small for the consequences that followed. But, Dhanishta is not seeking redemption or salvation. That is not their goal. Their goal is power. The goal is growth, to be further than they are now, to be so powerful as to never be questioned. And, for that, they will take any suffering