Jayadhvaja Caritra

In the Narasiṃha Purāṇa, Chapter 33, a rākshasa named Bahuroma tells the Pāṇḍavas about his past lives. He was once Jayadhvaja, a king of the Candravaṃśa (the Moon dynasty). Before that he was Raivata, a brāhmaṇa who lived a very wicked life. Two small acts in a temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu, done without any thought of pūjā, gave him so much puṇya (merit) that he was at last freed.

Mārkaṇḍeya uses this account when he teaches Sahasrānīka about the great puṇya of sweeping and cleaning the temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

The Pāṇḍavas in the forest

The Pāṇḍavas were in exile in the forest. Dharmarāja Yudhishṭhira was walking with his brothers and Draupadī through a thorny forest, on his way to a sacred tīrtha (pilgrimage place). Nārada met them there. He had come from svarga earlier to visit the same tīrtha.

During this journey two rākshasas arrived, Bahuroma and Sthūlaśiras. They had taken the form of brāhmaṇa ṛshis. Bahuroma sat on a darbha grass seat in a false pose of dhyāna (meditation). He carried a kamaṇḍalu (water pot) and muttered japa (repeated prayer) with a rudrāksha mālā (a string of beads).

The rākshasas’ trick

Yudhishṭhira saw what looked like a great ṛshi. He bowed and asked about the sacred tīrthas nearby. Meanwhile Sthūlaśiras came in the form of a brāhmaṇa in distress. He said that a rākshasa had robbed and beaten him and had taken his crystal mālā and his kamaṇḍalu. The Pāṇḍavas believed him and went after the rākshasa. They left Draupadī at the āśrama with the false ṛshi.

When no rākshasa could be found, Yudhishṭhira saw that something was wrong. He sent Arjuna back to check. Arjuna found the āśrama empty. Soon he saw the rākshasa Bahuroma running fast through the thick forest with Draupadī on his shoulder. Draupadī was crying out, “Bhīma! Bhīma! Dharmaputra!”

Arjuna ran after him, shouting. The rākshasa heard the great noise and saw Arjuna coming close. He dropped Draupadī and kept running. But Arjuna would not let him escape. When the rākshasa at last fell to the ground, something wonderful happened. He suddenly stood with four arms. He held the śaṅkha (conch), the cakra (discus), the gadā (mace) and other divine weapons, and he wore pītāmbara (yellow silk). He had taken a form like Bhagavān Vishṇu’s.

Arjuna was amazed. He bowed and asked why the being had shown this Vaishṇava māyā in that place. He asked to be forgiven if he had given offence. The four-armed being answered, “I am not Kṛshṇa. I am the rākshasa Bahuroma.” Arjuna then asked him to tell about his past life and his karma.

Raivata, the wicked brāhmaṇa

Bahuroma said that in an earlier life he was a brāhmaṇa named Raivata. Raivata was deeply corrupt. He performed yajñas for people who were not fit to have them. He worked as a village priest only for money. He dealt in forbidden trade. His own kinsmen drove him out. He was addicted to other men’s wives and to drink, and he was a thief on the highway.

One night Raivata went into a temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu with a brāhmaṇa woman, for a wrong purpose. While he was there, the trailing end of his cloth happened to sweep some dust from the temple floor. He also lit a lamp. He did not light it for pūjā. He lit it only because he needed light in the dark.

The moment the lamp was lit, the night guards of the city saw it from outside. They thought an enemy spy had entered the temple to rob it. They broke in, overpowered Raivata and cut off his head with a sharp sword, on the temple floor itself.

But the two acts, sweeping dust from Bhagavān Vishṇu’s temple, even by accident, and lighting a lamp there, even for his own use, had given him puṇya that his life of pāpa (sin) could not cancel. As soon as he died, a divine vimāna (sky chariot) came with the attendants of Bhagavān Vishṇu. To the sound of gandharva music, the brāhmaṇa was carried to svarga.

Raivata is born as Jayadhvaja

The puṇya of those two acts kept Raivata in svarga for a long time of divine enjoyment. When part of that puṇya was used up, he was born in the Candravaṃśa as Jayadhvaja. He was a king and a devoted bhakta of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Because he remembered the great puṇya he had earned, Jayadhvaja swept and cleaned the temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself and lit lamps there every day. Now he did it knowingly and with devotion. He finished what had begun by accident.

When Jayadhvaja died, he went again to svarga, and from there to Rudraloka. Once, while he was travelling from Rudraloka to Brahmaloka, he met Nārada. In a moment of pride he laughed at Nārada and did not bow. Nārada gave him a śāpa (a curse): he would become a rākshasa. Jayadhvaja begged for pardon, and Nārada made the śāpa lighter. In his rākshasa birth, when he tried to carry off the wife of Dharmarāja near the river Revā, at a temple, the śāpa would end at that moment.

Liberation

After telling this account, Bahuroma, who was Jayadhvaja in a rākshasa body, said, “I am that Jayadhvaja. Now I take my Vishṇu-form and go to Vaikuṇṭha.” While Dharmarāja watched, the former rākshasa mounted Garuḍa and rose to Vaikuṇṭha. There Bhagavān Vishṇu shines for ever with Lakshmī Devī.

The teaching

Mārkaṇḍeya tells this account to Sahasrānīka to show the great puṇya of sweeping and cleaning the temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The man in the account had no thought of pūjā and was deep in pāpa. Yet his accidental sweeping and a lamp lit for his own use gave enough puṇya to lift him out of the pāpa of that birth and send him to svarga. How much more then does loving, knowing service in the temple every day give? Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, who never decays, gives moksha (liberation) whether he is served knowingly or unknowingly.

Sources

• Narasiṃha Purāṇa, Chapter 33