Dhundhukāri Moksha

Chapters 196 and 197 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tell of the brāhmaṇa Ātmadeva and his wife Dhundhulī, who lived at Kohala on the bank of the Tungabhadrā. They had no child. Dhundhulī used a trick, and two sons came into the house: the wicked Dhundhukāri and the divine Gokarṇa, who was born of a cow.

After his death Dhundhukāri became a preta (evil spirit). Even a śrāddha at Gayā did not free him. Gokarṇa held a Bhāgavata Saptāha, a seven-day recitation of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, and by its power Dhundhukāri was freed.

Ātmadeva and Dhundhulī have no child

In the city of Kohala, on the Tungabhadrā river, lived the brāhmaṇa Ātmadeva. He knew the Vedas well and was devoted to his daily duties. His wife Dhundhulī was beautiful, talkative and good at household work. She was also strong-willed and calculating.

The couple had no child, even after the age of fifty. Ātmadeva was deeply grieved. He went into a forest to end his life. There he met a wandering siddha (perfected being). The siddha read the lines on Ātmadeva’s forehead and told him that no son was fated for him for seven more existences.

Ātmadeva still pleaded with him. The siddha was moved and gave him a wonderful fruit. He told Ātmadeva to give it to his wife. A son would be born by its power, if she kept a year of purity and truthfulness and ate only once a day.

Dhundhulī’s trick

Dhundhulī was afraid of the pains of pregnancy and birth, and she refused to eat the fruit. She hid this from her husband and told him she had eaten it. She gave the fruit to her sister’s cow instead.

Her sister was expecting a child and agreed to give the child to Dhundhulī at birth. When the sister’s son was born, she gave him to Dhundhulī. Dhundhulī showed him to Ātmadeva as his own son. The boy was named Dhundhukāri. His mother gave him this name to match her own nature.

Gokarṇa, the divine son of the cow

Three months later the cow, which had eaten the siddha’s fruit, gave birth to a shining, divine child. His ears were shaped like a cow’s ears (go-karṇa), and so he was called Gokarṇa. He glowed and had a divine form, spotless like gold. He was born of the siddha’s fruit through the cow’s womb, a child of dharma and divine power. Ātmadeva performed his sacraments with joy.

Dhundhukāri’s wickedness

The two boys grew up, and they were completely unlike each other. Gokarṇa became learned, wise and devoted to truth.

Dhundhukāri was wicked in every way. He did not bathe, kept no purity and did no rites. He ate forbidden food and stole. He threw children into wells. He wasted his father’s wealth on prostitutes. He treated his parents with contempt.

Ātmadeva was made utterly miserable by his son. Gokarṇa advised his father to give up worldly attachment and go to the forest. Ātmadeva took this advice, left his house and reached the world of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Dhundhulī’s death and Dhundhukāri’s end

After Ātmadeva left for the forest, Dhundhukāri terrorised Dhundhulī. He threatened to kill her unless she showed him where the family wealth was hidden. In terror she fell into a well at night and died.

Gokarṇa went on pilgrimage. Dhundhukāri stayed at home. He kept prostitutes around him and fed them with what he stole. The women feared he would be arrested. They strangled him at night and threw burning charcoal on his face to finish him. Then they ran away with all the wealth.

Dhundhukāri became a terrible preta (evil spirit). He wandered in all directions, tormented by hunger and thirst.

Gokarṇa returns and meets the apparition

Gokarṇa came back from his pilgrimage. When he heard of Dhundhukāri’s death, he performed a śrāddha for him at Gayā.

One night Dhundhukāri appeared to him in his yard. He changed quickly between the forms of an elephant, a camel, a buffalo, a fire, a serpent and a man. Gokarṇa knew him as his brother, now a preta. He gave Dhundhukāri water, and this brought him back to his senses.

Dhundhukāri told Gokarṇa that even the śrāddha at Gayā had not freed him, because his deeds were too grave.

The Bhāgavata Saptāha

Gokarṇa did not know what to do. He prayed to Bhagavān Sūrya. Bhagavān Sūrya told him that Dhundhukāri’s pāpa (sins) were so heavy that only a seven-day recitation of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam could free him.

Gokarṇa arranged a Bhāgavata Saptāha on the holy bank of the Tungabhadrā. He sat on a high seat before an assembly of brāhmaṇas. Dhundhukāri, as a preta, could not sit in the assembly. He took the form of air and entered a bamboo pole that stood near the recitation pavilion. The bamboo had seven knots.

On each of the seven days, as the Bhāgavatam was completed for that day, one knot of the bamboo burst open. At the end of the seventh day the seventh knot burst. Dhundhukāri then gave up his preta form completely. He came out wearing yellow garments and Tulasī garlands. He was dark like a cloud and fully divine.

He bowed to his brother Gokarṇa. He said that the Bhāgavata Saptāha had burned to ash even his huge store of deliberate pāpa, as fire turns fuel to ash. A divine vimāna (aeroplane) came from Vaikuṇṭha and took him to the world of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

The second Saptāha and liberation for all

The brāhmaṇas in the assembly asked why only Dhundhukāri went to the realm of Bhagavān Vishṇu, when all of them had also heard the Bhāgavatam. Gokarṇa answered that they had listened without full concentration and without fasting.

He told them to hold a second seven-day recitation, with minds fixed on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and with fasting. They did so. At the end, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself appeared. His eyes were like lotuses. He held the conch, the disc, the mace and the lotus. He wore yellow clothes, was dark like a cloud, and wore a garland of wild flowers.

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa embraced Gokarṇa and gave him his own divine form. Then, before the whole assembly, vimānas came down from Vaikuṇṭha. Even the cāṇḍālas who had listened were given divine forms and taken to svarga (heaven). Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself took Gokarṇa to Goloka.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 196–197