Shukracharya and Kacha: The Unlikely Guru and Disciple

Shukracharya is known to be the guru (teacher) or asuras (demons) and his teaching would always help them win against the devas. In the ever-persistent war of good and evil, the devas would do much harm to the asuras but every time Shukracharya would bring the fallen demons back. The asura-acharya knew the ’Mrita-Sanjivani Mantra’with which he could revive all the dead asuras who were brought to him. Devatas were fed up with this trick of Shukracharya and decided to send Kacha, deva-acharya Brihaspati’s son to Shukracharya. It was devised that he would become the guru’s disciple and learn ‘mrita-sanjivani mantra’ from him. This would help devas to even out their war-field and won against the asuras. Kacha did as instructed with due diligence and impressed the asura-acharya and asked him to make the former his disciple. Shukracharya, accepted the young deva and Kacha started his training under the guru in his ashram. Shukracharya’s daughter Devyani also resided in the ashram and fell in love with Kacha. The two became inseparable over time and the asura became unhappy about the whole situation. They were getting suspicious with Kacha’s training in the ashram and with Devyani’s giving him her attention, they became even more jealous of the young boy amidst them. 

The asuras finally decided that they will kill Kacha. One day when the boy went for cattle grazing, the demons followed him to the jungle. They caught him deep in the forest and killed him and fed him to the wolves. When the cattle came back alone in the evening with no sign of Kacha, Devyani got worried and appealed for his father to see where he is. Shukracharya divined Kacha’s fate and brought him back to life. The asura got infuriated and after a few days caught him again. This time they killed him and threw his body in the ocean. Asura-acharya brought him back to life again with his life-saving mantra. 

Now the asuras were irked. They changed their plan of killing Kacha. This time after killing the boy, they burnt his body converting it to ashes. The asuras then mixed the ashes in wine and tricked Shukracharya into drinking it. As soon as Shukracharya drank it, he realized their treachery but it was too late. The ‘mrita-sanjivani mantra’ could not be used to bring back Kacha to life as this would mean the death of Shukracharya. Devyani started bawling when she came to know about the situation. Shukracharya could not bear to see his daughter in pain and devised a new plan. He took a vow from Kacha, now inside his stomach, that he will teach him the nuances of ‘mrita-sanjivani mantra’ but he will use it to revive Shukracharya once he was out of his stomach. Kacha agreed to do this and once he tore his way out of the asura-acharya’s stomach he brought Shukracharya back to life. 

Now that he knew the mantra Kacha asked leave of Shukracharya. Seeing this Devayani asked him to stay and marry her as she was in love with him but Kacha denied her request. This angered the girl who cursed him that Kacha will forget his knowledge when he would need it the most. Enraged by this treatment Kacha also cursed Devyani that she will never marry a rishi-putra. Kacha returned with a heavy heart to the devlok taking the mantra with him for the deva’s win.