Urvashi curses Arjuna

Indra asked the gandharva Chitrasen to arrange for a place for Arjuna to stay. Once that was done, Indra asked him to send Urvashi to Arjuna's quarters.

Chitrasen took Arjuna to a lavish room and said this was where he would be staying.

Leaving Arjuna, Chitrasen went to Urvashi and asked her to go where Arjuna was.

Decking herself, Urvashi went where Arjuna was.

The guard at the door announced to Arjuna that Urvashi had come to meet him. Arjuna came and greeted her.

Urvashi said she had been asked to come to him and spend the night with him. This was Indra's orders. Arjuna put his hands on his ears and said this was unacceptable.
He said I will not be able to hear these words of yours. Why do you use such vile words, respected woman. You are like a mother to me. I have heard from the great sages that it was because of you the Puru dynasty prospered.  I looked at you with that respect.

Urvashi said I belong to no one and I go on my free will. Leave the bonds aside and stay with me. All the people who you call my descendants have also stayed with me. No one cares for sentiments.

Arjuna said I treat you like my mothers Kunti and Madri and like Sachi, wife of Indra.

Urvashi was angry. She said I came because your father, Indra, asked me to come and you refuse to accept. I curse you to loose your masculinity. You will live among women like a eunuch. You will dance and sing. This is my curse.

Saying so, Urvashi left. Arjuna did not sleep a wink, and kept thinking of what Urvashi had said.

In the morning, Arjuna approached Indra and told him what had happened.

Indra praised Arjuna and said such self control was worthy of praise. He said Such actions have purified the Kuru dynasty. The curse of Urvashi will help you. When you have to go in hiding, you will become an eunuch. You will stay like that for a year, after which you will regain your masculinity. 

Pandu is cursed

As Dhritarashtra was ruling, Pandu along with his wives and followers was roaming in the forests. Hunting was a favorite past time and Pandu would roam around hunting deer. One Pandu found a deer and shot an arrow, targeting the animal. This deer actually happened to be Kindam, son of a sage who was having intercourse with a doe then.
Shot by Pandu, Kindam collapsed on top of the doe. Kindam asked Pandu how he could do such a thing. Pandu said it was right as per the law to shoot deer.
Kindam said while it was fine to shoot a deer, it was not correct to shoot and kill an animal which was mating. Saying he cursed Pandu, that is Pandu tried to have sex with anyone going forward, he would die.

Pandu was grieved. He performed the last rites of the dead sage and then decided to stay back in the forest forever and not go back to rule. He asked his wives to return back while he decided to live in the forest and give up his life.

The queens devastated started crying. They told Pandu they were fine with his forsaking them, only on the condition that he lets them die first.

Moved Pandu said that forest life would not be simple and if they were ready to face the hardships they could accompany him. When they agreed he asked them to leave all their fine clothes and jewels and dress like hermit women and come with him.

Talking to his followers, Pandu asked them to return back to Hastinapur with the news that Pandu and his queens would not return.

Dhritarashtra and Vidura could not control their grief when they heard this.

The curse of the Vasus

Shantanu saw a beautiful woman on the banks of the river Ganges (Ganga) and asked her to marry him. She agreed but with one condition: that Shantanu would not ask any questions about her actions. She said that if he ever questioned her actions, he would never see her again.
A beautiful son was born soon after and the child was drowned by its mother in the water of the Ganges. Shantanu could not ask her the reason, because of his promise, lest she would leave him. One by one, seven sons were born to them and were drowned by Ganga. When Ganga was about to drown the eighth son, Shantanu, devastated, could not restrain himself and confronted her. 'What kind of enchanted person are you, who kills its child, the moment it is born'.

Ganga then said - I am the river Ganga. I was cursed to be born as a human and I had to bear the eight Vasus as my children. The Vasus had come to me and asked me to relive them of the curse, which is why I took the child when it was born and threw it in the waters.

The king wanted to know why the Vasus had been cursed.

Ganga said - Vashistha, son of Varuna, lived in the Himalayas. He was married to Surabhi, a daughter of Daksha. He had a  cow called Kamadhenu. One day the eight Vasus came to visit Vashistha along with their wives. (As per Hindu mythology, the Vasus were demi Gods and lived in the court of Indra and then later in the court of Vishnu.). They roamed around in the hermitage of Vashistha.

One of the Vasus, Divya, had a wife who seeing the cow wanted it. She told her husband to get her the cow. Getting convinced by his wife's idea, the Vasu started pulling the cow, to take it along with him. With the help of the other Vasus, he stole the cow and took it home.

When Vashitha noticed his cow missing, he went into a trance and discovered that the Vasus had stolen his cow. He cursed the Vasus to be born as humans.

The Vasus went to Vashistha and pleaded with him. Relenting, Vashistha said while the seven who had assisted in the stealing would be born and would die the next day and be relieved, the Vasu who had performed the act of stealing would have to live long on earth.

They went to Ganga who agreed to drown them the moment they were born. The eighth child that was destined to live could not be drowned.

Ending her story Ganga said she would leave with the child. When the child had grown up, she would bring him over to his rightful place.

Saying this, Ganga vanished along with the new born child.

Yayati Cursed

One day Yayati went with Devyani into the forests to just roam around. Sharmistha happened to be there with her three sons. The sons seeing their father, called out to him and went to him. Devyani asked the boys who they were. The boys said that they were the sons of Yayati and Sharmistha. She asked Sharmistha to tell the truth. Sharmistha said, as Devyani's maid, the king was her lord too and that was the reason why she had sons with the king. She said her sons were willing to serve her sons also.

Angry, Devyani left the king's land taking her sons along with her. She went to her father's place. The king followed trying to console her. It was all futile. Devyani went to her father and said that her husband had secretly married Sharmistha and also had sons with her.

Shukra in anger cursed Yayati to age immediately and become old. The king's body began to age. His hair started turning grey. Turning to Shukra, he said if I become old and die, your daughter will be widowed.

Shukracharya also said that his curse once uttered, could not be taken back, and added that the only concession he could give was that if Yayati wanted, he could give his old age to someone, and take his youth from him.

Devyani's curse

One day Devyani asked Kacha to get some flowers. She wanted to worship the Gods and wanted some flowers for that. The asuras seeing him, killed him again., This time, they cut him up, ground him into a fine paste and fed him to Shukra.

Seeing no sign of Kacha in the evening, Devyani went to her father and wanted to know he could help Kacha. She said she feared that the asuras had killed him again. She said she loved KAcha and would not live without him. Shukra tried to console her, but she would not listen.

Shukra sat in meditation and relaized Kacha was inside his own body. He wanted to know how this had happened. Kacha told him the whole story.

Shukra started thinking what to do. If Kacha came out, Shukra would die. If Kacha did not live, Devyani would kill herself and also he would get the sin of the death of Kacha.

He decided to teach Kacha the mantra and asked to use that, come out and revive him. Tearing Shukra's belly. Kacha came out and then using the mantra, he revived Shukra.

He cursed the asuras who mixed Kacha's flesh in his drink, saying if a brahman ever drank alcohol after this, it would be considered a sin.

Having learnt all he could, Kacha decided to take leave of Shukra and Devyani. Devyani said she would not be able to live without him and asked Kacha to marry her.

Kacha said he would not be able to do so. As his guru's daughter, she was his sister and marrying her would be a sin.

Angry she cursed Kacha, saying all that he had learnt so far, he would forget. Kacha in turn cursed her, saying she would marry a Kshatriya (which was below her level, as she was a brahmin). He also said, he would not use the matras, but teach his disciples, who would put mantras to good use.

Curse of Parikshit

In the clan of Pandavas was born a king called Parikshit. One when out hunting he lost his way., Tired and thirsty he kept roaming around. He suddenly saw a person sitting on the ground. 'I was hunting and a deer escaped from me. Do you know where the animal went', the king asked this person.
This person was a sage who had taken a vow of silence, something which was not known to the king. The king was offended. He saw a dead snake lying on the ground. Picking that by his bow, he placed it on the sage and left.
The sage had a son called Sringi. Sringi had a friend called Kusha. Kusha pointed out to Sringi the antics of the king. Sringi in anger, took some water in his hand and cursed the king. 'Within seven days from today, the naga Takshaka will bite you and will die'.
The sage breaking his vow got up and said what the king did was out of ignorance. You have cursed a great king and thus you have also lost all the virtue that you had attained so far through your prayers and meditation.
The sage then called a disciple of his and asked him to go and inform the king about the curse.
The king asked the disciple to convey to the sage, that he was very hurt by his own actions.

He then called his ministers to see if there was a way to avoid this curse. The ministers told the king to create a house on the top of a tall pillar. When the house was built, the ministers had those herbs placed all around the house that would repel snakes.

Indra cursed by Balakhilya

Once Indra and the other Gods were carrying wood for their father, Rishi Kashyapa. On the way they saw the Balakhilya rishis. The Balakhilya rishis were the size of a thumb . These rishis were struggling to pull a piece of wood.
Seeing this, Indra started laughing.
Offended the Balakhilyas went and started a sacrifice. They wanted a being was stronger than Indra in strength, who was invincible and who was just. The Gods went to the Rishis asking why they wanted to create a second Indra. The Rishis said they had been humiliated by Indra and they wanted to avenge that.
Kashyapa and the other Gods asked the rishis to stop this. The rishis said they were not able to stop the process but they would be able to deviate the same.
At that time, Kashyapa's wife , Vinata, was meditating to get a child. Kashyapa asked the rishis to have the second Indra to be born from Vinata, as the lord of all flying creatures. Thus was born Garuda, in the form of a great bird.

When Garuda approached the heavens, the army of the Gods started showering weapons at him, but no none of the weapons could pierce him. They would fall off, the moment they touched him.
Garuda started flapping his wings and a huge dust storm was created. The Gods were blinded. Indra then asked Pawana, to clear the dust. The Wind God blew off the dust. They started showering weapons at Garuda again. Garuda now attacked them with his beak. The Gods fled.

Garuda then went to the place where the nectar was stored. He saw that surrounded by fire. He doused the fire by getting water. Beyond the fire wall, he saw discus. It was huge in size and had very shard edges. it was revolving very fast, in all directions. So fast was its pace, that even if a fly tried to pass, it would get cut into pieces. Garuda noticed that there was a small hole in the discus, the size of the eye of a needle. He suddenly made his size smaller than that hole, and travelling faster than the discus he entered the hole. He saw the pot of nectar, increased his size, smashed the discus and flew away the pot.

Curse of Vinata - Continued

When the two sisters saw the horse, it was evening. Kadaru asked her sister, can you guess the color of the horse? Vinata said it is white. Kadaru said no, it is black.
They kept arguing amongst themselves. Then Kadaru said one who lost the wager would serve as the slave of the other sister. Vinata agreed.
Kadaru in the dead of the night called her sons and told them what had happened. The nagas said it was not fair. All knew the horse was white. And Vinata was also like a mother to them and it would not be fair to deceive her.
Kadaru seeing her sons refuse cursed them to get destroyed in the snake sacrifice of Janamjeya.
The snakes then went to the horse and slowly crept over it so from a distance it looked that the horse was dark in color. Seeing the color of the horse, Vinata was forced to be the slave of Kadaru.

Vinata cursed

The sages listening to the tale from Sauti wanted to know more. Sauti continued.
Prajapati Daksha had two beautiful daughters - Kadaru and Vinata. He got them married to Rishi Kashyapa.
The two wives used to serve their husband dutify. One day, pleased, Kashyapa asked them to ask for a boon. Kadaru said she wanted thousand Nagas as her sons. Vinata said she wanted two sons, who would be greater in strength than the combined strength of Kadaru's sons.
In time, the two wives became heavy with child.
Once when Kashyapa was away, the two wives gave birth. Kadaru had a thousand eggs and Vinata had two eggs.
They careful kept the eggs in safe place to hatch. In time, Kadaru's eggs hatched and a thousand snakes were born from that.
Vinata was hurt. She and her sister had given birth at the same time, so why did her eggs not hatch. Not able to control herself, she went and broke one of the eggs. From that egg emerged a child who skin color was like copper. The child was only half formed. Angry at being brought forth before time, the child cursed his mother. You were not patient and could not control yourself. I curse you. You were jealous seeing your sister's sons born before yours, and now you will have to serve as a slave to that same sister. You have one egg left. Do not touch that. One who will be born from that will be responsible for lifting your curse.
Dejected Vinata left.

One day Kadaru and Vinata were sitting when they saw Uchchaihshravas passing by. Uchchaihshravas was a wonderful looking horse. Decked in gems, it had a regal gait. This horse was born, when the cosmic ocean was churned.