Ajāmila Upākhyāna
The Ajāmila Upākhyāna is the sacred narrative of a brāhmaṇa of Kānyakubja who fell from dharma and lived in adharma for eighty-eight years. At the hour of death he called out the name “Nārāyaṇa”, meaning his young son, and the servants of Bhagavān Vishṇu came to save him. Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells it to King Parīkshit in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapters 1 to 3. It shows the greatness of the name of Bhagavān Vishṇu (nāma-mahimā). It ends with Yama Dharmarāja’s own teaching to his dūtas (messengers) on devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu and on the twelve great mahājanas.
Parīkshit’s question
Parīkshit Mahārāja opened the 6th Skandha with a hard question. A person knows what is pāpa (sin) and what harms him. Yet his mind is not under control, so he does the same pāpa again even after doing a prāyaścitta (act of atonement). He is like an elephant that bathes and then rolls in dust at once. So Parīkshit said that a prāyaścitta based on karma cannot pull out the root (āsana) of pāpa. He asked Śuka Maharshi for the true cure.
Śuka told him that the old itihāsa of the debate between the Vishṇudūtas and the Yamadūtas would answer this question. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapter 1)
Ajāmila’s life and fall
A brāhmaṇa named Ajāmila lived in Kānyakubja. In his youth he was good. He knew the mantras, spoke the truth, was pure and gentle, kept his senses in control, served his elders, did good to all beings and spoke little.
One day he was coming back from the forest with things for the ritual. He saw a śūdra viṭa (a low man of loose ways) playing shamelessly with a dāsī (a servant woman). Kāma (desire) seized his heart. He could not overcome it, though he had viveka (clear judgment). He became wholly taken with the dāsī. He spent all his father’s wealth on her. He left his lawful wife, who was faithful to him (pativratā), and took the dāsī as his partner. He kept her household going by force, gambling, cheating and theft. He lived for sixty years without śauca (purity). (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapter 1)
The youngest son named Nārāyaṇa
Ajāmila had ten sons by the dāsī. His heart was most attached to the youngest, who was named Nārāyaṇa. He was eighty-eight years old when death came near. All his mind was lost in this child: feeding him, watching him play and talking to him. In this state he did not see that his own end had come. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapter 1)
The Yamadūtas arrive
At the moment of death Ajāmila saw three frightening figures with ropes in their hands, crooked mouths and hair standing on end. They were the dūtas of Yama. They had come to take his subtle body (sūkshma-śarīra) out through the heart and carry it to Yama’s realm. In fear he cried loudly to his youngest son, “Nārāyaṇa! Come!” The child was lost in play.
But the Vishṇudūtas heard the name of their master, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, and came at once. They were bright and four-armed. They carried the śaṅkha (conch), cakra (discus), khaḍga (sword), gadā (mace), dhanus (bow) and padma (lotus). They wore golden yellow cloth (pītāmbara) and garlands of lotus flowers. They held the Yamadūtas back by force. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapter 1)
The great debate on dharma
The Yamadūtas asked the Vishṇudūtas, “By what right do you stop the order of Yama? Who are you?” The Vishṇudūtas asked in return, “If you serve Dharmarāja, explain dharma. Who deserves punishment, and what is the true measure?”
The Yamadūtas said that the Veda is the source of dharma. The Veda is apaurusheya (not made by any person) and is the very form of Nārāyaṇa. Those who do adharma deserve punishment. The witnesses to their acts are the sun, fire, ākāśa (space), vāyu (air), the senses, the moon, the twilights (sandhyā), night and day, the directions, water, earth, kāla (time) and dharma himself.
The Vishṇudūtas answered that this man, though he had done pāpa, had already done prāyaścitta for crores of births of pāpa. The moment he said the four-syllable name “Nārāyaṇa”, even while calling his son and not Bhagavān Vishṇu, the pāpa was destroyed. The name of Hari, said in any way, destroys all pāpa: when stumbling, in laughter, in song, in mockery or by chance. Great prāyaścittas take away the act of pāpa but not the vāsanā (the habit) that causes it. The kīrtana (chanting) of Hari purifies the antaḥkaraṇa (the inner mind) itself. A strong medicine heals even if taken without knowing, and in the same way the name of Hari works by its own power (śakti). They said, “Let this man go.” (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapters 1 and 2)
Ajāmila’s regret and yoga practice
Ajāmila was free, and he came to himself. He remembered with deep regret that he had left his faithful wife, neglected his old parents and lived a life of pāpa. He made a firm decision. He would practise prāṇāyāma (breath control), pratyāhāra (withdrawing the senses) and dhāraṇā (fixing the mind). He would free himself from the grip of māyā. He would purify his antaḥkaraṇa by chanting the name of Bhagavān Vishṇu and fix his mind on Bhagavān Vishṇu. He saw that the māyā of Śrī Hari had caught him through a woman and made him dance like a monkey, and he vowed to free himself.
He went to Haridvāra and sat in a holy place (devasthāna) on the bank of the Gaṅgā. There he followed the path of yoga step by step. He drew the senses back from their objects (pratyāhāra). He merged the mind in the Ātman (dhāraṇā). He became fixed in the Ātman as one with Brahman (Brahma-ābhinna Ātma-nishṭhā). (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapter 2)
Liberation and the ascent to Vaikuṇṭha
While he was fixed in the Ātman, the four Vishṇudūtas appeared before Ajāmila again. He knew them and bowed to them. At their darśana (sight) he left his body on the bank of the Gaṅgā at Haridvāra. At once he took a form like that of the Vishṇudūtas. He rose in a golden vimāna (flying chariot) and went through the sky to Vaikuṇṭha, the home of Lakshmīpati. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapter 2)
Yama’s teaching on the name and the twelve mahājanas
The Yamadūtas went back and told Yama Dharmarāja all that had happened. They were bewildered. Yama gave a deep teaching in reply. He said that the highest place of Bhagavān Vishṇu is the great secret of dharma. It is known only to the twelve mahājanas (the Dvādaśa Mahājanas):
- Brahmā
- Nārada
- Śiva
- Sanatkumāra
- Bhagavān Kapila
- Svāyambhuva Manu
- Prahlāda
- Janaka
- Bhīshma
- Bali
- Śuka, the son of Vyāsa
- Yama himself
Yama then told his dūtas never again to go near the devotees of Vishṇu. These are the people who keep the name of Bhagavān Vishṇu on their lips, whether chanting it, remembering it or hearing it. Bhagavān Vishṇu is the inner controller of all beings, and even Yama is under his rule. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapter 3)
What the narrative teaches
Parīkshit asked how a person who has done pāpa and cannot control his mind can be freed. The narrative answers this. The kīrtana of the name of Hari, even when said by chance, does what no tapas, dāna (giving), vrata (vow) or prāyaścitta based on karma can do. The narrative shows these points:
- The power of the name works whatever the intention of the one who says it.
- The antaḥkaraṇa purified by kīrtana does not go back to adharma. An outer prāyaścitta leaves the vāsanā as it was.
- Devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu is the best of all paths (sarva-śreshṭha mārga). Beyond it there is no fear.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 6th Skandha, Chapters 1 to 3