Dārukāvana Bhikshā

In the great forest of Dārukāvana lived a community of ṛshis who were doing hard tapas (austerity). Parameśvara Śiva came to them as a naked beggar, a bhikshu. With him came Bhagavān Vishṇu in the form of a beautiful woman. The ṛshis’ wives were drawn to the beggar and the ṛshis grew angry. Their attacks did nothing. Then Parameśvara showed his true form and gave them the highest teaching.

The ṛshis of Dārukāvana

The forest called Dārukāvana was the home of many ṛshis. They were learned and self-controlled, and given to tapas and the agnihotra (the daily fire offering). They lived there with their wives and disciples and carried out the long rites of the karma-kāṇḍa (the ritual part of the Veda) with great care. Parameśvara is bhaktavatsala, loving toward those who are devoted to him. He chose to visit them.

The bhikshu comes

Parameśvara entered Dārukāvana as a naked digambara bhikshu (one clothed only by the sky). His beauty was beyond any the ṛshis had ever seen. He carried a kapāla (a skull bowl) to collect alms. His ornaments were serpents. His smile was the smile of one who knows everything and is troubled by nothing.

With him, as a woman of great beauty and as his companion, came Bhagavān Vishṇu. He had taken this form at Parameśvara’s wish, as a divine play. The two of them walked together along the forest paths of Dārukāvana.

The wives and the anger of the ṛshis

As soon as the bhikshu came in, the ṛshis’ wives were filled with a pull toward him that they could not explain. These were women of great tapas, true to their husbands and to dharma. They followed him and left their rites unfinished. Their minds were fixed on his form.

At the same time the ṛshis who were gathered there grew furious. They saw only the outside: a naked wanderer, a madman or an upstart, breaking the peace of their āśrama (hermitage) and drawing their wives away.

The attacks fail

The ṛshis used every power they had. They performed abhicāra-karma (rites meant to harm an enemy), the strongest they knew, against the bhikshu. They made a great fire from their homa-kuṇḍas (fire pits) and sent it at him. They sent fierce tigers and serpents. They hurled trees.

The bhikshu met every attack calmly, and none of it touched him. The fire did not burn him. The tigers lay down quietly at his feet. The serpents wound around him like ornaments. The ṛshis spent all their tapas-power and found it far too weak. All their skill in ritual could not touch him.

Parameśvara shows his true form

When every attack was spent and every power was used up, the bhikshu showed his own form (svarūpa). The beautiful wanderer faded, and Parameśvara himself stood there. He was Śūlī (the bearer of the trident), Trinayana (the three-eyed) and Nīlakaṇṭha (the blue-throated), with Devī beside him. He blazed with the full radiance (tejas) of the one from whom the whole cosmos comes.

The ṛshis were overcome. They fell to the ground with all their households. All their pride, all their fury and all sense of their own authority from tapas was gone. They sang stotras (hymns of praise) and gave themselves fully to him.

The teaching on jñāna-yoga and the Pāśupata path

Parameśvara was pleased by their surrender and gave them the highest teaching.

Jñāna-yoga is higher than karma-yoga. The rites of the karma-kāṇḍa (the yajñas, the agnihotras and the long ritual sequences) have their place and their fruit. But they work within saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). Only jñāna-yoga leads to moksha. It is the steady growth of knowledge of one’s own nature and of the nature of Parameśvara. The ṛshis had done karma-yoga with great sincerity, but without jñāna it could not take them beyond the cycle.

The Pāśupata path is the way of complete surrender to Parameśvara. In it the separateness of the bound jīva (the living being) dissolves into Śiva’s śakti (power). It is the highest of all paths, and the direct one. It does not rest on gathering the puṇya (merit) of rituals. It rests on a deepening bond between the jīva and Parameśvara, through śraddhā (faith) and bhakti (devotion).

Branches not to be followed. Parameśvara named the paths that are not the Pāśupata path and must not be followed: Vāma, Vāma-Pāśupata, Soma, Lākulam and Bhairava. These are branches of the Vāma-mārga. They lead away from the direct path to Śiva. He named them clearly so that the ṛshis would know them and keep away from them.

The ṛshis’ stotra

After the teaching the ṛshis of Dārukāvana sang a full stotra to Parameśvara. They praised him as Jagadguru, the teacher of the world, who had come to the forest to give them the jñāna they lacked. They praised him as Mahādeva, Parameśvara and Śaṅkara, as the one who is both Brahman and the person of Parameśvara, and as the giver of the highest liberation. From then on they gave themselves to jñāna-yoga in the Pāśupata way.

Sources

• Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 37