Story of Apala, a Female Rishi

We have already seen about Ghosha and Vishwavara.
Veda mantras have been revealed through them.
They have the status of Rishis.
Today, we are very casually using the word Rishi.
We even use an English equivalent to Rishi, seer—
Seer of this mutt, seer of that ashrama,
Seer of this community, even.
Writer and media people do not understand the significance of the term Rishi.
For them, rishi means someone who sees.
Everyone sees, then everyone should be a rishi.
Samsara param pashayateeti rishi, jnanena.
They can say what is beyond the visible world,
Through knowledge.
Rishis are also the ones to whom mantras were revealed, first time ever.
Every mantra has a rishi.
They are not authors or creators of mantras. Mantras, pre-existing mantras, are revealed to them.
Nobody writes mantras, nobody has a copyright over mantras.
Today, you chant a mantra, a Veda mantra, and try uploading it on YouTube.
You immediately get a copyright claim saying that this music company has a copyright over this mantra.
Every time we do live streaming, we get a series of such claims.
You chant Atharva Sheersha, then copyright claim from this music company.
You chant Sri Rudram, then they say it belongs to this company.
You can ignore, then they start showing advertisements on your channel,
And give the revenue to the music company which claims that Atharva Sheersha belongs to them or Purusha Sukta belongs to them.
You can challenge. Then the other party has to agree, which seldom happens, why would someone who is there to make money do that?
You can appeal, then again YouTube will ask the owner of Atharva Sheersha, 'Do you agree?'
If again they say that 'No, this is ours,' then your channel itself is blocked.
For the fear of this, you just keep silent and allow them to show advertisements.
You are not copying their video.
Vedic scholars are sitting and chanting, you can see that. It is not even a studio-recorded professional video.
You can hear all kinds of background noise. It is streaming live.
Still, music companies come and claim, Purusha Sukta is mine, Shree Sukta is mine.
Bhagya Sukta—two companies will come.
This is where spirituality is now.

Something more about Rishis:
Rishis are also of seven kinds:
व्यासाद्याः महर्षयः
भेलाद्याः परमर्षयः
कण्वादयो देवर्षयः
वसिष्ठाद्याः ब्रह्मर्षयः
सुश्रुताद्याः श्रुतर्षयः
ऋतपर्णादयो राजर्षयः
जैमिन्याद्याः काण्डर्षयः

Today, in Kali Yuga also, we have so many self-proclaimed Rishis.

Anyway, coming back.
These female Rishis are also called Brahmavadinis.
Feminine form of Brahmavadi.
Brahmavadi means
'ब्रह्मवादो वेदपाठोऽस्य अस्तीति ब्रह्मवादी.'
They have Veda with them.
But if you see all these female Rishis, nowhere you will find that they went to Gurukuls and learned Veda in the traditional way.
Some mantras were revealed to them due to their merit and intense tapas.
It doesn’t say that they learned under a Guru by going to a Gurukula.

One more such Brahmavadini was Apala.
Seven mantras of Rigveda, eighth mandala, 91st Sukta,
They were revealed to her.
She was Atri Maharshi's daughter.
She had a skin disease.
These mantras were revealed to her and she praised Indra with these mantras.
When she developed this skin problem, her husband abandoned her.
You can’t presume that Atri got his daughter married to some kind of male chauvinistic imbecile.
Then why did he abandon her instead of taking care of her?
Just look at this way. He could have got her cured with medicines or with his own siddhi.
But then, would she ever have become a Brahmavadi?
Will we speak about her greatness now?
If you don’t look at the whole picture, then you can be misled into the wrong conclusion.
Abandonment by her husband made her come back to her father’s place, and then she did intense tapas.
If you see it only as a husband abandoning his wife, then it is absolute cruelty.
As per today’s law, he will be behind bars and paying alimony.

'दुर्भगेति भर्त्रा परित्यक्ता पितुराश्रमे द्वग्दोषपरिहाराय चिरकालं इन्द्रमधिकृत्य तपस्तेपे.'
Her tapas was focused on Indra. She knew Indra was the right God to help her.
Aswini Kumaras were there, the divine doctors.
But she did Indra’s tapas.

Indra is very fond of Soma rasa.
One day, when Apala was returning from the river after taking a bath, she found Soma lata on the way.
She started chewing the Soma lata.
Indra heard the sound of her teeth chewing the Soma plant.
He thought someone was grinding Soma to offer to him. He immediately appeared before her.
And asked her, 'Who is extracting Soma rasa here?'
She said, 'No, no, I found this Soma lata and I was just chewing on it.'
Indra started going back.

She realized that it was none other than the Deva he was doing tapas for—Indra himself.
She said, 'Please don’t go back. You go from house to house to drink Soma whenever a Soma Yaga takes place.
Here the juice is already ready, why don’t you accept it from me?'
Indra drank the Soma juice that was there in Apala’s mouth.

Then, Apala told Indra Deva, 'I have three problems.
My husband has abandoned me because of my skin disease.
My father is bald, he doesn’t have hair on his head.
Our land is not fertile.'

See the simplicity. She is not asking for Brahma Jnana.
Intense tapas she had done—चिरकालं इन्द्रमधिकृत्य तपस्तेपे.
But when Indra appeared before her, she is asking for things, like what we all ask for.
Or maybe even more mundane.
Some of us pray for world peace, universal welfare.
Here, a female Rishi, a Brahmavadini, is saying,
'Cure my skin problem, my father is bald, bring some hair on his head, make our land fertile.'

You don’t have to feel guilty when you ask for such things.
This is what Rishis also do.
Vyasa Maharshi did tapas to beget a child. Then Shuka Deva was born.
Lord Krishna did tapas, and Samba was born.

Indra obliged and blessed her. All her problems were solved.

This is the greatness of Apala. Demonstrating that divinity, divine blessing, can be achieved through sincere sadhana.
Problems can be solved by taking refuge in the divinity.

You will be surprised—Indra drank the juice that was in Apala’s mouth.
Isn’t that ucchishta?
Simplicity, sincerity—there are no rules anymore. Remember the case of Shabari.
If you want to be formal with God, he will also be formal with you.
Then he will insist that every rule is followed.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi