Sage Markandeya lived on the banks of Pushpa Bhadra River in the Himalayas. Here he performed intense austerities. Indra, the king of Devas, grew suspicious about the intentions behind the unbroken austerities and life of meditation of the sage. Indra misunderstood the sage and thought that his penances had the ultimate objective of becoming an Indra himself, in which case, the former would be usurped of Indra-hood.
So, Indra sent Kamdev along with the most accomplished apsaras to sing and dance in front of the sage and upset his mental balance. They arrived in the premises of the sage’s Ashram with all their paraphernalia like spring season, gentle breeze, fragrance, full moon, crisp air and such other things which would incite any mind. They started their music and the thinly clad, lascivious apsaras started their dance.
As the music and dance picked up temple, Kamdev got ready to fling his set of five arrows at the sage, which had the capacity to flare up simultaneously the five unbalancing powers namely, thinking out the mind’s firmness, delusion, kindling the mind with desire to enjoy the company of the opposite sex, heating up the mind with that desire and lastly intoxicating the mind with that desire.
The nymphs stepped up the tempo of their dance, twisted and curved their bodies; their beautiful tresses loosened and the fragrant flowers fell off from them; their clothes no longer could stay at their whirling waists and they dropped down. At that moment Kamdev released his arrows at Sage Markandeya.
Sage Markandeya, who was in deep meditation, felt a little disturbed by all this nonsense going on around him and he opened his eyes. The spiritual aura around him burned up the arrows of Kamdev. It then threatened to burn Kamdev, the singers and dancers. Unable to bear the yogic heat, all of them beat a hasty retreat.
Sage Markandeya, however, bore no malice or anger towards Indra for his misdeeds. He lived ever-contented in his humble abode.