Chyavana Muni and the Fountain of Youth

(written on January 17, 2020)

Cyavana Muni was a great sage who was born into the family of Bhrgu. One day, King Saryati came to Cyavana Muni’s ashram with his daughter Sukanya. Sukanya along with her friends were picking various fruits and flowers from the forest when her eyes landed upon an earthworm hole within which there were two glowing objects. She pricked the earthworm hole with a thorn and immediately blood began to ooze out. As a result, King Saryati and his men who were present there were unable to pass stool or urine. They sought out a reason for why such a thing would happen and they realized that Sukanya had polluted the ashrama by poking the hole with a thorn. King Saryati tried to appease Cyavana Muni in many ways and finally he offered his daughter Sukanya to him as his wife, even though he was a very old man. Sukanya was a very chaste wife and she took care of Cyavana Muni even though he was an irritable person at many times. After some time, the Ashwini-Kumaras, who were experts in Ayurveda came to Cyavana Muni’s ashram and here Cyavana Muni asked them to give him a youthful life. They took Cyavana Muni to a specific lake (the name of the lake is not specified in Srimad Bhagavatam) and they entered the lake with him as he was too frail to bathe himself. After coming out, the Ashwini-Kumaras and Cyavana Muni came out looking the same. Being the chaste wife that she was, Sukanya took shelter of the Ashwini-Kumaras and asked her to show who her real husband was. This lake, which is unnamed, is the original Fountain of Youth. The westerners took this concept and turned the Fountain of Youth into a concept of mythology.