Sāvitrī’s Śāpas and Gāyatrī’s Varas
At Brahmā’s great yajña (fire ritual) at Pushkara, Sāvitrī Devī arrived late. She found the gopikā (cowherd girl) Gāyatrī sitting beside Brahmā as the yajamanī (the wife who sits at the yajña). In her anger Sāvitrī gave five great śāpas (curses) to Brahmā, Indra, Vishṇu, Agni and the brāhmaṇas, and more to Lakshmī and Śacī. Gāyatrī Devī answered each one with a vara (a boon). She then spoke of herself as the mother of the Vedas and told of the power of the Gāyatrī mantra.
The meeting
The yajña had gone on for one thousand divine years. Gāyatrī Devī, the gopikā whom Indra had brought, sat as the yajamanī. Sāvitrī came with all the devīs, carrying offerings.
She saw Gāyatrī seated in her own place beside Brahmā, and anger seized her. Brahmā, Indra, Vishṇu, Rudra and the brāhmaṇas all fell silent when she came. They knew that her anger was right. She was a pativratā (a devoted wife), and she had been passed over for another.
Sāvitrī spoke straight to Brahmā: “What is this, O Deva? You have done what must not be done. You have left me and done this wrong. The dust of my feet is needed for your yajña to bear fruit. Yet in this yajña hall I have been pushed aside. You are the grandfather of the devas and the ṛshis. Have you no shame?”
Then, in front of everyone, she made up her mind to give her śāpas.
The five śāpas
Śāpa to Brahmā
“O Brahmā, in all the many groups and gatherings, people will never offer you pūjā. Only one pūjā in the year, in Kārtika, will they do for you, and nothing more.”
Śāpa to Indra
“O Indra, you brought that girl here. You will taste the fruit of it. When you are in the middle of the ocean, your enemies will seize you, bind you and carry you off as a prisoner. You will suffer the worst shame in the enemy’s city, poor and weak, and be held there until you are suddenly set free.”
Śāpa to Vishṇu
“By the word of Bhṛgu Maharshi you are already partly cursed. When you come down into the world of mortals in that birth, you will suffer bhārya-viyoga-duḥkha (the grief of being parted from your wife) at that very time. Your enemy will seize your wife, and she will be held far away across the ocean, on the other shore. You will wander with your brother, weeping with a grief that numbs the mind, and you will not be able to find her. You will be born in the Yadu family as Kṛshṇa, and you will spend a long time as a servant among cowherd people.”
Śāpa to Agni
“O Agni, you already eat everything (sarvabhakshaka). O Jātaveda, the Vedas arose from you. Rudra will pour his retas over you in a flood. In the middle of that unclean matter, your tongue alone will burn bright.”
Śāpa to the brāhmaṇas
“You who stretched out your hands, from now on you will live only by stretching out your hands to beg. You will wander to forests and lakes. You will be addicted to the pleasures of the senses. You will fall from your vratas (vows). You will chase other men’s wives, gamble, leave your parents and eat other people’s food. What is not fit for yajña, you will make into yajña. You will accept dāna (gifts) from people who do not deserve to give. You will spend for nothing. All you will do is preta-karma (funeral rites) for others. You will have no property of your own, no home and no dignity.”
Earlier in the same chapter, Śiva had given a similar śāpa to the brāhmaṇas who had treated him badly. They would be far from the Vedas, fall from their vratas and live off others.
More śāpas
Sāvitrī then turned on the devīs who had come with her.
To Lakshmī: “You are fickle. You will never stay in one place. You will live among the immoral, the proud and the low-minded. Among the mlecchas and the adharmic you will be at home.”
To Śacī (Indrāṇī): “When Indra is held prisoner and Nahusha takes the throne, that proud man will see you and demand you as his own. He will say, ‘I am Indra. Why will this low woman not come to me?’ You will have to hide your face in shame in the house of Bṛhaspati.”
To the devīs in general: “You will all be struck with santāna-hīnatā (having no children). The griefs of having no child will haunt you night and day.”
After giving these śāpas, Sāvitrī left and went to live at Jyeshṭha Pushkara.
Gāyatrī’s varas
Gāyatrī Devī rose and spoke to the whole gathering. She answered each śāpa with a vara.
For Brahmā’s śāpa: “Those who worship Brahmā with the proper vidhāna (rule) will enjoy every good thing in this life and in the end reach moksha.”
For Indra: “O Indra, when you are in prison and your enemy holds you, Brahmā himself will come to the enemy’s house and win your release. After that you will enjoy unbroken mahārājya (great rule) over the three worlds.”
For Vishṇu: “Even though you will suffer the loss of your wife in that birth among mortals, as Rāma you will kill your enemy. You will be joined again with your wife in front of all the devas. You will rule for eleven thousand years, and then go up to Vaikuṇṭha in glory. The people of the world will reach liberation through you.”
For Rudra: “Even if your liṅga falls because of a ṛshi’s śāpa in Dāruvana, whoever worships the liṅga with devotion will reach svarga. Worship of the liṅga on the banks of the Gaṅgā gives Rudraloka. Liṅga pūjā is better than the fruit of agnihotra and of all yajñas.”
For the brāhmaṇas: “Those who satisfy you at tīrthas (holy places) reach the status of vairāja. Those who satisfy you at śrāddha become equal to the highest devas. The devas take the offering (havis) through your mouths. The pitṛs take kavya. You hold up the three worlds. A single prāṇāyāma done by you purifies. At Pushkara, those who feed one brāhmaṇa receive a result a crore times as great. Wealth placed in your hands removes brahmahatyā (the sin of killing a brāhmaṇa).”
For Lakshmī: “You will live with those whose earnings are honest and right. Your glance (kaṭāksha) shows the nobility, character and dharma of those it falls on.”
For Śacī: “Nahusha will be cursed by Agastya and become a serpent. One of his descendants will set him free. Indra will return and perform the aśvamedha with you.”
For the devīs in general: “Even those who have no children because of Sāvitrī’s śāpa will not grieve.”
Gāyatrī speaks of herself
After giving all the varas, Gāyatrī Devī made her great declaration:
“I am ashṭākshara-sthitā, established in the eight-syllable mantra. I fill the whole universe. I am the mother of all the Vedas. I am adorned with all sacred words. O ṛshis, those who recite me with devotion reach siddhi. Among all mantras I am the highest. One who recites a single Gāyatrī every day becomes the best of all brāhmaṇas. Even one who has eaten forbidden food or done wrong becomes blessed by Gāyatrī japa. Wherever Sāvitrī’s śāpa works, my mantra japa undoes it.”
She named the power of Gāyatrī japa:
- Three recitations remove brahmahatyā.
- One hundred recitations remove the pāpas of ten lifetimes.
- Six thousand recitations remove all pāpa (sarva-kilbisha-nāśa).
- Japa at the three sandhyā times of the day, with homa (fire offering), brings svarga to the one who does it and to twenty-one generations of his family.
Rudra’s stuti
Rudra was moved by Gāyatrī’s kindness and by her own account of herself. At the close of the yajña he composed and recited the Rudra-kṛta Gāyatrī Stuti. In it he honoured her as the mother of the Vedas and the highest purifying śakti.
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Sṛshṭi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17