Dāruvana Līlā

The Dāruvana Līlā is the account of the līlā (divine play) of Bhagavān Śiva in the forest of Dāruvana. Parameśvara came there in disguise, as a naked and extremely beautiful ascetic, to test the ṛshis who lived in the forest. Their wives were drawn to him, and the ṛshis gave him a śāpa (a curse). The śāpa could not touch him. Brahmā then taught the ṛshis who he was. After a year of tapas (austerity) they praised him, and Bhagavān Śiva showed himself and gave them the Pāśupata Vrata.

Two Purāṇas tell this episode. The Liṅga Purāṇa (Pūrvārdha) gives the first account below. The Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa (Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 27, titled “Dāruvanapraveśa — Bhasmasnānavidhi”) gives the second, set in the Kṛtayuga in a devadāru forest on a Himālaya slope.

The account in the Liṅga Purāṇa

The setting

A community of great ṛshis lived in the Dāruvana forest and practised hard tapas. Their wives were pativratās (wives of the deepest devotion to their husbands). Brahmā and the other devas wished to show these ṛshis the supreme nature of Bhagavān Śiva, and they appealed to Parameśvara.

Śiva’s disguise

At Brahmā’s request, Maheśvara entered the Dāruvana forest in the form of a digambara (unclothed) ascetic of extraordinary beauty. His body blazed with divine tejas (radiance). His face was the most beautiful ever seen in the three worlds. Bhagavān Vishṇu went with Bhagavān Śiva in the form of a very beautiful woman.

The enchantment and the śāpa

The wives of the ṛshis saw the beautiful ascetic. They were strongly drawn to him and lost all awareness of the world around them. The ṛshis saw their āśramas thrown into disorder. They did not know that this was Parameśvara, and they were filled with anger. They gave him a śāpa: because he walked about in such a disgusting way, they said, his liṅga should fall to the ground.

The ṛshis saw at once that the śāpa had no effect. The power of their tapas, which could burn the three worlds, did not touch Bhagavān Śiva even a little. This only made them more confused and troubled.

Brahmā’s teaching

Brahmā appeared before the bewildered ṛshis and taught them about the one they had tried to curse. He said that the beautiful digambara ascetic was Parameśvara himself, the source of all creation, the master whom Bhagavān Vishṇu and Brahmā both honour as their own master. No śāpa can reach Bhagavān Śiva, because all power, even the power of tapas, comes from him. Brahmā went on to say that Bhagavān Vishṇu came from Śiva’s left side and Brahmā from his right side, and that all creation is the expression of Maheśvara’s will.

Śveta Muni and Yama

Inside the Dāruvana account is the account of the muni Śveta, who lived in the same forest region. Śveta Muni was firmly established in japa (repeated recitation) of the Mṛtyuñjaya mantra. When Yama, the deva of death, came to his āśrama, Śveta Muni said without fear that he had nothing to fear from any side, because the grace of Mahādeva protected him.

Yama tried to bind Śveta Muni. Bhagavān Śiva himself came out of the nearby Śivaliṅga with his triśūla (trident) and struck Yama down. Then, by his grace, he brought Yama back to life, because Yama is himself a devotee of Bhagavān Śiva. He showed that true worship of the Mṛtyuñjaya Liṅga gives complete freedom from the fear of death.

The ṛshis’ tapas

After Brahmā’s teaching, the ṛshis of Dāruvana did intense tapas for one full year in honour of Bhagavān Śiva. They fasted, kept hard disciplines, and fixed their minds on Mahādeva with full surrender.

Śiva appears and the stotra

At the end of the year Parameśvara appeared before the ṛshis in his fearsome vikarūpa (extraordinary form). His body blazed with divine fire, and Pārvatī was with him. The ṛshis knew the supreme Bhagavān Śiva. They fell down before him, and they composed and recited the famous Dāruvana Ṛshi Stotra. It begins “Nīlakaṇṭhāya devāya citābhasmāṅgadhāriṇe…” It praises Bhagavān Śiva as the brahman among the devas, as Nīlalohita among the rudras, and as the very ground of all existence.

The gift of the Pāśupata Vrata

Maheśvara was pleased with the stotra and with the ṛshis’ surrender, and he gave them the Pāśupata Vrata, the highest discipline of Śaiva sādhanā (spiritual practice). He taught a threefold practice: bhasma snāna (bathing in sacred ash), liṅga dhāraṇa (wearing or meditating on the liṅga), and virakti (detachment). He said that a person who bathes in bhasma three times a day, wears the liṅga and stays always absorbed in thought of Bhagavān Śiva will reach Gaṇādhipatya (lordship of the Gaṇas) and in the end will live in Kailāsa.

The account in the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa

The ṛshis of the devadāru forest

Many great ṛshis lived in this Himālaya devadāru forest and did extreme tapas. Some ate only śaivāla (moss). Some lived in water. Some lay open to the sky. Some stood on one toe. Some used their own teeth as a mortar. Some covered themselves with grass. All were wholly absorbed in their tapas and tejas. The ṛshis named as those who later receive Śiva’s teaching are Gautama, Aṅgiras, Bhṛgu, Vasishṭha, Viśvāmitra, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Marīci, Kaśyapa and Saṃvarta.

Śiva arrives and the enchantment

Maheśvara came into the forest to show grace to these tapasvis (ascetics). His whole body was smeared with bhasma. He was digambara (naked). His hair was wild and untidy. His teeth were frightening. He carried burning sticks in his hands. His eyes were red and tawny. His look changed between fierce and beautiful. His wife Pārvatī came with him in an equally striking form.

Bhagavān Śiva laughed, sang, danced and wept. He wandered through the āśrama like an unmatta (a possessed man), begging for alms, and at times he brayed like a donkey. The wives of the ṛshis were captivated. They followed him and forgot their duties.

The śāpa that could not touch him

The ṛshis were angry and gave the stranger every kind of śāpa. They found at once that none of their śāpas had the slightest effect on him. The śāpas vanished like stars in sunlight. Even the tapas-energy that could burn the three worlds had no power over the source of all tapas. The tejas of the ṛshis was drained and they lost their prabhāva (power). Confused and shaken, they gathered and went to the world of Brahmā.

Brahmā’s instruction

Brahmā entered dhyāna (meditation) and knew who the strange figure was. He taught the ṛshis:

He is Mahādeva himself, the master of the devas, the ṛshis and the pitṛs (ancestors). He alone will destroy all beings at pralaya (dissolution). He alone creates them again. He is both Cakrahasta Vishṇu and the one marked with Śrīvatsa. In the Kṛtayuga he is called Yogī, in the Tretā he is the Kratupota, in the Dvāpara he is Kālāgni, and in the Kali he is Dharmaketu. The three divisions, tamas with Agni, rajas with Brahmā and sattva with Vishṇu, all flow from him. His form as Dik-vasana (the one clothed in the quarters) is called Śiva. Worship his liṅga with focused devotion. Only then will you see what the unpurified cannot see.

The year of tapas and Śiva’s return

The ṛshis went back to the devadāru forest. For one full year they did sādhanā directed at Īśāna. They worshipped him in holy places, mountain caves, riverbeds and consecrated grounds.

At the end of the year, as spring came, the forest was in full bloom, the bees hummed and the kokilas (cuckoos) sang. Bhagavān Śiva came back to the forest in the same form. The ṛshis were now purified and changed. They gathered round him with fully steady minds and offered a great stotra. It praised him as Bhava, Śambhu, Tripura-nāśaka and Kapardī, and by a long run of other names. They praised him as Sāṃkhya-yoga-pravartaka (the one who sets going Sāṃkhya and yoga), as Ardhanārīśvara-śarīra (the one whose body is half woman), as the one who wears elephant hides and serpents as sacred threads (yajñopavīta), and as the foundation of the whole universe.

The teaching on bhasmasnāna

Bhagavān Śiva was pleased and showed himself fully established in his own nature (prākṛtastha). The ṛshis asked: “O Bhagavān Śiva, teach us the truth of bhasmasnāna, of nakatva (nakedness), of vāmatva and of pratilomatva.” Bhagavān Śiva then gave his supreme teaching:

• Bhasma is my vīrya (creative essence). Agni and Soma are the two first principles. I am Agni and Ambikā is Soma. All the world is made by Agni-Soma. Bhasma is what remains of Agni, so it is my own vīrya poured out. Whoever bathes in bhasma (bhasmasnāna) is bathed in me.
• Bhasma destroys all pāpa (sin) as fire destroys a forest. Whoever does bhasmasnāna three times a day with a steady mind reaches Gaṇapatya (lordship of the Gaṇas) and then moksha.
• Those who go by the uttara-mārga (northern path), absorbed in meditation on Mahādeva, reach amṛtatva (deathlessness, moksha). Those who follow the dakshiṇa-mārga (southern path) through the rites of the śmaśāna (cremation ground) gain the eight amanūsha powers, which are aṇimā, mahimā, laghimā, prāpti, garimā, prākāmya, īśatva and vaśitva, and also immortality.
• As for nakatva: all beings are born naked. The devas and ṛshis are born naked. Covering the body with cloth does not stop kāma (desire). Only vijaya (victory) over the indriyas (senses) can do that. The true coverings are kshamā (patience), dhṛti (steadiness), ahiṃsā (non-violence), vairāgya (detachment), and tulyatā (evenness) in honour and dishonour.
• The learned should never laugh at those who smear themselves with bhasma, keep the dharma-śāstra and stay devoted and in control of their senses. Whoever dishonours a devotee of bhasma dishonours Mahādeva himself. Whoever honours them worships Bhagavān Śiva.

Bhagavān Śiva ended with these words: “These devotees of bhasma, purified by their practice, cannot be reached by any harm.”

The ṛshis were freed from moha (delusion) and fear. They bowed down at Bhagavān Śiva’s feet, and Maheśvara returned to his own natural form. The liṅga was set up again. All the ṛshis, full of joy, did abhisheka (ritual bathing) with pure water, herbs and garlands, and chanted the Śiva-mahāmantra.

Sources

• Liṅga Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrva Bhāga, Chapter 27 (“Dāruvanapraveśa — Bhasmasnānavidhi”)