Maṅkaṇaka’s Dance
Maṅkaṇaka is a ṛshi who did hard tapas (austerity) with the Śiva mantra. When a wound opened in his hand, sap flowed from it and not blood, and he danced for joy. The Kūrma Purāṇa tells how Parameśvara showed him a sign that ended his pride, and then taught him the truth of the three tattvas (basic principles) and of Devī Pārvatī. The Padma Purāṇa tells the same event in a second way, set at Prācī Sarasvatī near Pushkara.
The tapas at Saptasārasvata
Maṅkaṇaka was a devoted worshipper of Śiva. He lived among the brahmarshis at the tīrtha (holy place) of Saptasārasvata, the place of the seven Sarasvatīs. He did tapas with one aim, using the five-syllable mantra of Śiva:
Namaḥ Śivāya
The mantra means “Bowing to Śiva.” He chanted it so hard, with his mind fixed on Parameśvara without a break, that his body blazed with tapas-tejas (the light of tapas). (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
The thorn and the sap
While Maṅkaṇaka lived at the tīrtha, a thorn pierced his hand. When the wound opened, what came out was not blood but śāka-rasa, the sap of vegetables. This was a sign of the tapas-śakti (power of tapas) that had gathered in him through years of single-minded Śiva-japa. He was full of joy and wonder at this sign of his great power, and he broke into a dance. He could not hold back his joy at what had been shown. (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
Parameśvara’s question
Parameśvara watched his devotee, unseen. He saw both the power of the tapas and the tapas-garva (pride in the tapas) that made Maṅkaṇaka dance. He appeared before him and asked gently: “Why do you dance like this?”
Maṅkaṇaka’s pride was not yet gone. Even after he saw Bhagavān Śaṅkara standing before him and heard his question, he went on dancing. He was so full of his joy that even the presence of Bhagavān Śiva did not stop him at once. (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
The bhasma and the universal form
Parameśvara saw that pride was what kept the dance going, and he decided to end it. He pressed his own thumb. The thumb opened, and from it came not blood but a stream of bhasma (sacred ash), the mark that Śiva wears on his body. The sap in Maṅkaṇaka had made him dance. What flowed from Śiva’s own body was the ash that is beyond all such signs.
Then, to overcome Maṅkaṇaka fully, so that no ground was left for pride, Parameśvara showed his viśvarūpa (universal form) with a thousand arms. It had a thousand heads, a thousand eyes and a thousand feet. It had blazing fangs in a vast face and was ringed with waves of fire. It blazed with the light of a thousand suns. Beside him stood Devī Pārvatī in her own vast universal form. She shone with the light of ten thousand suns, her face was calm, and her beauty was beyond words. She is the first śakti (power), standing beside Mahādeva in her highest form.
Maṅkaṇaka saw this double form, Śiva’s terrible universal form and Pārvatī’s matchless light, and was seized by great fear and trembling. All his pride was gone at once. He fell flat on the ground, chanted the Śatarudrīya, and surrendered himself fully. (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
The embrace and the questions
Tryambaka, who loves his devotees, was satisfied that Maṅkaṇaka had surrendered fully. He drew back his universal form and took his own form again. Pārvatī also vanished. Parameśvara went to his humbled devotee and embraced him. He said: “Do not fear. What do you wish?”
Maṅkaṇaka now lay in pure bhakti (devotion) and not in pride. He asked the questions that had come to him on seeing the double form. What was the nature of that universal form? And who was the shining woman standing at Śiva’s side? (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
The teaching of the three tattvas
Parameśvara answered by teaching Maṅkaṇaka the highest teaching of the three first tattvas, through which the whole world moves. The world arises, is kept, and dissolves through three principles:
- Pradhāna: the first, unmanifest Nature, the ground of all that becomes material
- Purusha: the cosmic Person, the twenty-fifth tattva, pure witnessing awareness
- Īśvara: the Supreme Controller, who governs both
The śruti (the Vedas) also names these three as Vishṇu, Brahmā and Rudra in the form of Time. All three are without beginning or end, and all three rest in the highest Brahman. None of them can be reduced to another, yet all three together make up the whole of the world. (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
Who Devī is
Parameśvara said that the woman beside him was no stranger and no separate being. She was his own māyā-śakti (power of māyā). The ṛshis call her “Śakti,” “Jagad-yoni” (the womb of the world) and “Sanātanī” (the eternal one). She is Parāmāyā-Prakṛti, the power by which the whole world is made, kept and dissolved. As he is Parameśvara, so she is Parāśakti, and the two are not different, for she is his ātmā (self) and his bliss shown in form.
Parameśvara said: “Know me alone as the pure, highest tattva. Worship me with bhakti-yoga and you will have darśana of the Paramapurusha.” (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
After the teaching
Maheśvara finished his teaching and went out of Maṅkaṇaka’s sight. The ṛshi stayed at the tīrtha of Saptasārasvata and went on worshipping Śaṅkara through bhakti-yoga.
The Purāṇa says that the Saptasārasvata kshetra is therefore most holy. Brahmarshis live there and groups of brahmarshis visit it. Any wise brāhmaṇa who comes there to do pūjā (worship) and to bathe will find all his pāpa (sin) destroyed. Worship of Śaṅkara at Saptasārasvata gives the same fruit as an Aśvamedha yajña (fire ritual). (Kūrma Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34)
The Padma Purāṇa account at Prācī Sarasvatī
The Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18, tells the Maṅkaṇaka event at the Prācī Sarasvatī, the east bank of the Sarasvatī at Pushkara.
The tip of a darbha (kuśa grass) pricked Maṅkaṇaka’s hand, and śāka-rasa flowed instead of blood. He danced with joy.
Indra and the devas were alarmed because all creation was dancing along with Maṅkaṇaka. They went to Brahmā and asked him to stop it. Brahmā then told Rudra to go and hold Maṅkaṇaka back.
Rudra pressed his thumb and showed bhasma. In this account there is no universal form and no teaching of the three tattvas. Maṅkaṇaka bowed flat on the ground and praised Rudra as the base of all creation.
Rudra then gave two varas (boons). First, Maṅkaṇaka’s tapas would grow a thousandfold. Second, Rudra promised to live at Prācī Sarasvatī for ever, with Maṅkaṇaka. By this vara Prācī Sarasvatī became a place of Rudra’s eternal presence. (Padma Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18)
Sources
- Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 34
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18