Story of Maharishi Vedvyasa

The name of the king of the kingdom Chedi was Basu. He was a devotee of Indra, the king of heaven (स्वर्ग). Being pleased with the devotion of king Chedi, Indradev gifted him with an aircraft. He was so fond of that aircraft that most of the time he was flying over his kingdom. He became addicted to that aircraft.

Seeing the king roaming over them many times, the people of Chedi started calling him Uparichar Basu (Flying Basu). The name of the wife(queen) of Basu was Girika. Once the king was getting ready to go to the forest for hunting when queen Girika came to him. At that time the queen was physically ready to give birth to a child and for that purpose, she requested the king for copulation. In ancient age, people were copulating only for the birth of a child. But the king ignored her request and went on to the forest to hunt. 

It was spring season and the forest was astoundingly beautiful and romantic. The scenery of the forest was so exciting and attractive that the king got sensually aroused and in excitement, the semen of the king got discharged unknowingly and fell on the leaf of a banyan tree. Coming back to his senses he saw his semen on the leaf and didn't want it to be wasted. So he preserved the semen using some more leaves and packed it. Thereafter with the help of his pet eagle he sent it to the queen for the purpose of the birth of a child. But unfortunately, on the way, the pet eagle was attacked by another wild eagle and during their fight, the preserved semen fell into the mouth of a fish in the water of river Yamuna. The fish was a cursed fairy(परी) called Adrika. On the curse of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, Adrika had become a fish. 

Later the fish was caught by a fisherman. Finding the unusually heavy belly of the fish the fishermen broke it open and were dumbstruck by what they saw inside the fish. There were two human children inside the stomach of that fish. They are the result of the semen of king Uparichar Basu which fell into the mouth of the fish, the cursed fairy Adrika. Out of the children found inside the fish was a boy and another was a girl. As the incident was a miraculous one the fishermen reported it to king Basu. King Basu, being childless, kept the boy for himself and his queen. Unfortunately, the girl child had a pungent fish smell due to which the king gave the baby girl to the fisherman called Dasraj. In due course of time, the baby girl grew up to be a beautiful, attractive and truthful adult. Keeping in view her truthfulness she was named Satyabati (full of truth). 

        Once Maharishi Parashar was passing through the bank of river Yamuna near the village of the fishermen when he saw Satyabati standing on a small island inside the river and instantly got sensually aroused by her beauty. Feeling such an urge he tried to know internally with the help of his divine power, the reason for his instant arousal despite his austerity of years. He came to know that a great soul is destined to be born through the copulation between him and Satyavati. Then coming to conclusion he approached Satyabati with the request to copulate with her. As such Maharishi Parashar was a renowned and revered sage. So she didn't want to refuse him and decided to honor the request of the sage. But she expressed her three difficulties in copulating with him. First, she will lose her virginity. Secondly, it was daytime and people are there on both sides of the river bank. Third, the permanent fishy smell of her body.

Hearing this the great sage told her that he would remove all three difficulties with his power of austerity. Then the sage gave her three boons that she will regain her virginity again after copulating with him, that the fishy smell of her body will vanish and her body will release a sweet smell which can be inhaled within ten kilometers around her and then he darkened the locality around them with fog. The three boons materialized instantly. Satyavati's body started releasing a heavenly sweet smell and the remaining two hindrances cleared Satyabati agreed to copulate with the Maharishi. 

As a result of their copulation, immediately after that Satyavati gave birth to a glowing male child who transformed into a boy instantly. The boy immediately renounced the material world and got ready for sadhana (meditation and austerity). Before leaving, he requested Satyavati to remember him in her mind whenever she needed his help and he would be there. After the boy left, Maharishi Parashar also took leave from Satyavati. Being the son of Parashar he was called Parasharya and being born on an island he was also called Dwepayan i.e Parasharya Dwepayan. 

Later he became famous as Maharishi Vedvyas as he explained the Vedas(वेद) in a simplified manner. He also wrote the scripture Mahabharat which is also called Pancham Ved (Fifth Veda after Rig, Jajju, Sam, and Atharv). He was the author of Astadas (eighteen) Mahapuran(great scripture). Even after having authored all these divine scriptures, he was not satisfied with his creations. 

One day he was feeling very sad and dejected when Devarshi Narad appeared before him and asked him the reason for his sadness. Maharishi Vedvyas described Narad his discontentment even after authoring so many scriptures. His main problem was that he was unable to know the reason for his discontentment. Devrishi Narad explained to him that till that day all the scriptures authored by him lacked devotion (bhakti) and love for God for which he could not have been able to be content in his writing. So Devarshi Narad advised Maharishi Vedvyas to write Srimad Bhagawad to narrate the glory of the Lord and his devotees and their devotion. 

Maharishi Vedvyas is the partial incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is also reverently addressed by the devotees as Bhagawan Vedvyas. This story is from Shrimad Bhagwad Puran.