Asimardhana and the Tulasī Root-Water
This episode is told in Chapter 22 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa. A glutton of the Dvāpara Yuga, tormented by thirst, drank the water at the root of a Tulasī plant in a brāhmaṇa’s garden. That one act destroyed all his pāpa (sin). A hunter named Asimardhana then killed him. When Yama’s messengers came to take him, Vishṇu’s messengers stopped them and took him to Vaikuṇṭha.
The greatness of Tulasī
The chapter first teaches the greatness of Tulasī.
- Yama’s servants do not come to a house that has a Tulasī grove near it. Such a house has the nature of a tīrtha (holy place).
- All the pāpa of a person who plants Tulasī, feeds it, tends it, looks at it or touches it is destroyed.
- The Gaṅgā, Bhagavān Vishṇu, Brahmā, Bhagavān Śiva, all the devas and holy places such as Pushkara live in a single Tulasī leaf.
- A person who has done pāpa and dies with Tulasī leaves on the body goes to Vishṇu’s abode.
- A person marked at death with clay from the roots of Tulasī goes to Vishṇu’s abode even with hundreds of pāpa.
- Wearing a rosary made of Tulasī wood destroys all pāpa. When Yama’s messengers see such a rosary, they run away like a leaf shaken by the wind.
- When a person offers pūjā to Vishṇu with a Tulasī garland, each flower earns the gift of a myriad of cows.
The chapter also teaches the greatness of the Dhātrī tree (āmalaka, the gooseberry) in the month of Kārtika.
- All yajñas, devas, ṛshis and holy places live in the Dhātrī tree in Kārtika.
- Eating in the shade of the Dhātrī in Kārtika destroys pāpa for a year.
- Picking a leaf of the Dhātrī or of Tulasī on the twelfth day (dvādaśī) of Kārtika keeps a person from entering naraka (hell).
The brāhmaṇa and the glutton
In the Dvāpara Yuga there was an excellent brāhmaṇa. He bathed, did pūjā to Tulasī, and went home, shining like the sun with puṇya (merit).
A glutton, a great doer of pāpa, came there. He was tormented by thirst and drank the water at the root of Tulasī. By this one act his pāpa were destroyed.
Asimardhana’s intervention
The hunter Asimardhana came quickly to the place. He said, “The food is eaten.” He killed the glutton.
Yama’s servants then came with nooses and hammers. Yama had ordered them to take the glutton to Yamaloka, and they were about to bind him. But Vishṇu’s servants arrived. They cut the leather straps and placed the glutton in a beautiful chariot.
The glutton’s past
Yama’s messengers asked Vishṇu’s servants why they were taking a man who had no visible puṇya. Vishṇu’s messengers told them his whole history:
“Formerly he was a king. He had done many acts of puṇya. He kidnapped a beautiful woman. Because of this pāpa the king went to Yama’s abode, where he was tortured. There, lying with a woman of coppery-red colour, he did further wrong. He was born again and again in low kinds of life, and he suffered unhappiness from his own deeds through many births. Now, after drinking the water at the root of Tulasī, he goes to Vishṇu’s abode.”
When they heard this, Yama’s messengers went away. Vishṇu’s messengers took the glutton to Vishṇu’s abode.
What the account shows
A pāpī (one who has done pāpa), by drinking Tulasī root-water even by chance to quench his thirst, was made fully pure. He had been a king, then lived in naraka, then had many low births. The Brahma Khaṇḍa tells this to show the greatness of Tulasī.
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 22