Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1409

c4.1409

After their marriage, while they were living together in a place called Puṣkara tīrtha, an unexpected event happened which interrupted the happy course of their life. One evening, the husband was sleeping with his head in the wife's lap, under a tree. The sun was about to set. As the Maharṣi did not wake up before sunset, the wife became anxious. It is believed that he who does not wake up before sunrise and he who does not offer prayers at dusk will be guilty of the sin of Brahmahatyā (killing a Brahmin). Nor was it proper to wake him up from a sound sleep. But in the end, she did wake him up. The husband sprang up in great fury. He renounced the wife then and there. Weeping bitterly, she begged for his forgiveness. At last Jaratkāru relented and told her: "You will have a very noble, brilliant, renowned, virtuous, scholarly and devout son who will be a devotee of Viṣṇu and a preserver of the family". After this Manasādevī set out to Kailāsa. When she reached there Parama-Śiva and Pārvatī comforted her. Manasādevī was pregnant. The precepts and spiritual advice given by Jaratkāru, Parama-Śiva and Pārvatī were heard by the child in the womb and so even before his birth he became a Jñānī and a yogī. In due course Manasādevī gave birth to a son who was a part of Nārāyaṇa (Viṣṇu). Since he was the son of Manasādevī who had deep devotion to the Guru and to the Gods, the boy was named Āstika.