Sanathan Dharma has reasoning and justification for all of the Sanskrit (Sanskrit is the English name of Ancient Indian Language — Samskrutham) words and its literature. There is an interesting history recorded on why minute (unit of time) is called “Nimisha”.
Long ago there was an Emperor named “Nimi”. He once wanted to do a Yagna and requested his Maharishi Vashista to help him perform the Yagna. Vashista maharishi tells the king that he has already given appointment elsewhere and he needs to go to Swarga (Heaven) to perform another puja there. Emperor Nimi, not knowing how long it would take for Vashista maharishi to return asks another Rishi to perform the Yagna as Vashista is not available.
Yagnas in those days were performed for several days. During the course of Yagna, Vashista returns from Heaven and comes to know that Nimi was performing Yagna with help of another Rishi.
This angers Vashista and curses Nimi with death. Emperor Nimi who has also done great Tapasya in turn curses Vashista with death. Both their souls leave their bodies during the process of the Yagna ( Vashista is born again to Urvashi later).
Rishis who do not want to stop Yagna, preserve Nimi body in a special medical solution and pray to Indra to bring their Emperor Nimi back to life. Lord Indra appears after Yagna is completed and tells everyone that he can bring Nimi back to life.
However, the soul of Nimi speaks from the body that he is not interested in coming back to life through his body. Nimi tells them that even though he acquired lot of knowledge through Tapasya, he was not able to win over his anger and he hastily cursed Vashista with death. Nimi tells that he doesn’t want the body as it is susceptible to worldy desires and emotions.
However Lord Indra says that he cannot return back without granting any boon. Nimi then asks him that he can be present as “Jeeva Shakti” (Lively power) in eye lashes of human beings. Indra grants the boon and disappears. Since we blink eye lashes few times about every minute, that unit of time is named as Nimisha after Nimi Chakravarthy (Emperor) who resides in divine form.
Later Rishis perform a surgical procedure to extract a baby out of Emperor Nimi’s body. They name the baby as “Janaka”. Janaka means father, someone who originated from father. Janaka was not born out of mother’s womb. Later King Janaka gets Sita maatha while ploughing his field.
What we need to learn from this story is, ancient Indian kings always gave priority toward self realization and Dharma than worldy pleasures. Even though Nimi Chakravarthy had the option to get back to life he instead choose not to, as he could not win over his anger! However he became eternal by residing in the eyes of mankind.
Sri Rama Jayam.
Source: Sri Garikipati Pravachanam
