This is a summary of the life of ancient atheist King Vena compiled with references from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and Vāmana Purāṇa. The inspiration for this article was a discourse by His Grace Sundar Gopāl Prabhu in Singapore on 23 December 2017.
The lesson from this ancient history is becoming increasingly relevant today because the whole world is tending heavily towards atheism. Atheism comes at a heavy price. Time and time again has it been proved. This is another reminder of what to expect if one chooses to tread the dangerous path of atheism. Some people may call it a scare tactic but it is not. It is just like warning a criminal of the natural consequences of his crime.
KING AṄGA’S DILEMMA
From Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, we understand that long ago there lived a very pious king who bore the name Aṅga. King Aṅga was so pious that he did not commit a single sinful activity during his entire lifetime. Once, he was performing an aśvamedha sacrifice (horse sacrifice). Everything was conducted in perfect accordance with the scriptural injunctions and the brāhmaṇa priests chanted every mantra properly. But the demigods, though invited, did not attend and did not take their share of the sacrifice.
The pious king inquired from his council of brāhminical advisors as to what the cause is for this unfortunate situation. The sages, headed by Bhṛgu, informed him that in his current life, he had not committed any sinful act but in his previous life he committed some sinful activities due to which he has no son. So the priests suggested to him that he perform a sacrifice to please Lord Viṣṇu in order to get a son. Their idea was that if the Supreme Lord becomes pleased and comes to accept the offerings of King Aṅga, all the demigods, who are, after all, Lord Viṣṇu’s faithful servitors, will come with Him and partake of their shares of the sacrificial offerings.
Thus the king performed the yajña (sacrifice) to please Lord Viṣṇu. From the fire of that sacrifice, an effulgent personality came forth with a golden pot in his hands that contained rice boiled in milk and he handed that pot to Mahārāja Aṅga. The king then gave some portion of the rice to his wife Sunīthā to eat and he himself ate the rest of it. Soon his wife became pregnant although she had not been pregnant for a long time prior to this sacrifice. All the demigods finally partook of their share of the sacrifice.
KING AṄGA DISAPPEARS
Soon she gave birth to a very crooked son called Vena. The boy’s maternal grandfather was death personified and therefore he grew up to be his follower, a greatly irreligious person. In fact, he started committing heinous sins from his very childhood. As a child, he would go to the forest with his bow and arrow and unnecessarily kill innocent deer. While playing with his friends, even upon a trivial disagreement, he would mercilessly murder them as if they were animals meant for slaughter.
Mahārāja Aṅga was very gentle and he could not tolerate such atrocities of his son Vena. He tried to discipline him in so many ways but to no avail. He then became thoroughly disgusted with family life and passed many sleepless nights. One night, while his wife was fast asleep, he silently left home and renounced his undisputed, opulent kingdom and went incognito into the forest for a life of renunciation and austerity in order to purify himself.
The citizens, who considered Mahārāja Aṅga to be like a gentle father, were greatly aggrieved at his sudden disappearance and tried to search him out. They searched in all directions for a long time but could not find him and they returned to their kingdom dejected. The council of sages had to quickly make somebody a king because without a king, thieves and rogues would flourish and the citizens would suffer greatly.
CRUEL VENA BECOMES KING
After a thorough consideration, they reached a consensus thus: although Aṅga’s son Vena does not possess any gentleness in his character and is an atheist on top of that, there was no other who had the capacity to rule. Thinking that a bad king is better than no king at all, they made him the king hoping that he would protect the citizens from at least rogues and thieves by his high-handed governance. All the ministers disagreed but were helpless due to the unavailability of an able ruler.
Soon after he was enthroned as king, his pride increased manifold due to the unrestricted power he had acquired. All the rogues and thieves trembled at the mention of his very name and they hid themselves from him just as rats hide themselves from snakes. Thus, in one sense, the citizens were protected from these unwanted elements but on the other hand, he was their greatest plunderer. He entirely stopped all brāhminical culture and all kinds of worship of deities in the temples, sacrificial performances and works of charity. He forced everyone to worship only him and no one else. He also began openly insulting great saintly personalities.
The great saintly sages, after having observed the activities of the cruel king Vena, realized that a great calamity was approaching the world because of the absence of the performances of sacrifice. They deeply considered the delicate and precarious situation. On one side, the cruel king had instituted complete atheism and was plundering them and on the other hand, if there was no king, the rogues and thieves would plunder the citizens. Moreover, they themselves installed him as the king owing to a political crisis after the sudden disappearance of Mahārāja Aṅga but now he has become a source of great trouble for the people in general.
VENA’S VANITY
They discussed among themselves and decided that they would try their very best to persuade him to cooperate with them and if he does not yield to their proposal, they would kill him by brahma-śāpa, or the invincible curse of the brāhmaṇas, imbued with the power of their austerity.
Concealing their real anger, the sages approached Vena with sweet words in order to amicably induce him to agree. They spoke as follows: “We have come with some good advice and if you follow it, you will get all blessings, opulence, strength and reputation. If you hinder the spiritual progress of the general populace, you will fall down from your position. Therefore, you should not stop them from performing religious rituals for their elevation. You should divide the population by the scientific system of varṇāśrama and engage everyone in the service of the Supreme Lord Hari through their particular occupations. When the Supreme Lord is pleased, there is nothing impossible to achieve. All the demigods, who are His devotees, shall also be pleased and will shower their blessings upon you. In this way, prosperity shall reign for you and your subjects. Therefore you should not stop the brāhmaṇas from performing various kinds of rituals. If you stop them, you will disrespect the Supreme Lord and the demigods and thereby invite their wrath.”
King Vena, being highly intoxicated with pride, did not heed their advice. Puffed up with vanity, he replied as follows: “It is very regrettable that you brāhmaṇas, who are supposed to enlighten the masses, are in complete ignorance yourselves. Your devotion to the different demigods and Hari is just like that of an unchaste woman who neglects her husband and looks for a paramour instead. I, the king, am your real protector and shelter, like a husband. Instead of worshiping me, why do you worship someone else? In fact, all the various demigods reside in the body of the king. Therefore you should give up your envy for me and worship me with full devotion. If you are intelligent, you should understand that there is no personality superior to me.”
KING PṚTHU’S UNCOMMON BIRTH
Thus the king, being bereft of all good fortune owing to a sinful life, could not accept the good counsel of the sages and was thus condemned. The sages, being disappointed with his attitude, became very angry. By blaspheming the Supreme Lord, he was as good as dead. Therefore the sages, without using even a single weapon, killed him instantly just by uttering a curse.
Upon the death of Vena, the world had no ruler. Understanding the danger of such anarchy, the sages, using their mystic power, churned the king’s thighs with great force and according to a specific method. As a result of this churning, a person named Bāhuka who was of dark complexion and of short stature came out. He was very humble and meek but he embodied all the sinful activities of King Vena. They let him live and expand his race in the hills and forests but saw him unfit to rule the world.
Then they churned both the hands of Vena and a couple came out — one male and one female. The male was Pṛthu and the female was Arci. They were partial expansions of Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī Themselves. They, being an eternal couple, married each other and Pṛthu ruled the world with complete devotion to the Supreme Lord and thus satisfied all His subjects with abundant supply of natural resources and with religiosity.
VENA’S DARK FUTURE
In the Vāmana Purāṇa the history of Mahārāja Vena and his degradation are fully described. When Mahārāja Pṛthu heard from Nārada Muni about the hellish condition of his departed father, Vena, who was suffering from leprosy in a family of mlecchas (degraded low-cultured people), he at once brought the former king to Kurukṣetra for his purification and relieved him of all sufferings.
A HEAVY PRICE FOR ATHEISM
From this we can understand that one has to pay a very heavy price for being an atheist. Fortunately, the son of Vena, King Pṛthu, being an incarnation of Lord Viṣṇu Himself, and also a religious and righteous son, delivered his father from going to hell. But in the present scenario of kali-yuga, atheists almost never have such advantages. So one has to undergo untold suffering for millions of years.
Lord Kṛṣṇa confirms this in the Bhagavad-gītā 16.18-20 as follows: “Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger, the demon becomes envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is situated in his own body and in the bodies of others, and blasphemes against the real religion. Such envious and mischievous people, who are the lowest among men, are cast by Me into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life. Attaining repeated birth amongst the species of demoniac life, such persons can never approach Me. Gradually they sink down to the most abominable type of existence.”
Therefore, it does not pay to be an atheist. To save oneself from such horrible fate, one simply has to accept the supremacy of Lord Kṛṣṇa and become His devotee under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master. Then all success is assured both in this life and in the next. [End]
