Cakravāka Uttama Gati

This narrative closes the Sapta Kirāta Upākhyāna in the Umā Saṃhitā. Seven cakravāka birds, who had been the seven Kirātas in an earlier life, keep to strict brahmacharya and yoga at Mānasarovara. Later they are born again as scholars and a king in Kāmpilya, and all seven reach moksha. Bhīshma asks and Mārkaṇḍeya answers. The account ends with a teaching on the power of Śiva’s name.

From Kirāta to cakravāka

The seven died as Kirātas on the Kālañjara mountain, after lives of yogic discipline and calm. They were then born as cakravāka birds on the holy island of Śaradvīpa. The earlier lives, from the brāhmaṇa birth onward, are told in the Sapta Kirāta Upākhyāna.

As cakravākas at Mānasarovara they lived in full renunciation. They kept away from their mates altogether and kept brahmacharya like wandering monks in bird form, living only on wind and water. Their yoga was unbroken. The saṃskāras (impressions) from their days in the gurukula and from their tapas (austerity) as Kirātas stayed as the base of their inner life. Four of the seven kept jāti-smara, the memory of past births. Three did not.

The last tapas

A righteous Vaibhrāja king had met the Kirātas, now cakravākas, in the forest. Later he gave up his throne to his son Anūha and went to the forest himself, to the very grove where the cakravāka birds lived. There he did tapas, living on air alone, and after some time he died. After he left the world, his birds also gave up their bodies at that same spot, those four who had kept up their yoga with full strength.

The other three, whose yoga had weakened a little, went on for a while longer and then also died there. The king’s forest was afterwards known as the holy Vibrāja forest, famous for the yoga-siddhis (powers of yoga) won there.

Human rebirth in Kāmpilya

After the cakravākas died, the seven were born as humans in Kāmpilya, the rich capital of the Pañcāla country. The wish that the cakravāka Svatantra had once spoken, to be a king in a life of full rule, came true.

• Svatantra was born as Brahmadatta, son of the successor of the great Vaibhrāja king. In time he became king of Kāmpilya and ruled righteously with a virtuous wife named Sanniti.
• Chidradarśaka and Sunētra were born as sons of a śrotriya brāhmaṇa (a brāhmaṇa learned in the Veda). They mastered the Vedas and Vedāṅgas and kept their memory of past births (jāti-smara).
• Pañcāla was born as an ācārya (teacher) who taught the Ṛgveda. Later he set his sons in his āśrama and went to the forest for his final tapas.
• Puṇḍarīka was born as another scholar who mastered both the Sāmaveda and the Yajurveda. He too later went to the forest and won liberation.
• The other two were born as further brāhmaṇa scholars in Kāmpilya.

All seven are freed

After his reign Brahmadatta handed the kingdom to his son and himself reached uttama gati (the highest goal). Pañcāla and Puṇḍarīka gave up their work as teachers, passed their traditions to their sons, and went to the forest, where they were freed.

The four scholars who had kept jāti-smara talked together and bowed at the lotus feet of Śambhu. They stated their purpose:

“Those who seek fearless liberation, from which there is no return, take shelter at Śambhu’s feet alone. May that highest abode of Śambhu destroy all our pāpa (sin) this day. O best of mahārshis, whether through body, speech or mind, whatever pāpa a person has done, let that person read this account with devotion and śraddhā (faith), and be freed.”

They all then reached liberation, uttama gati. This completed the long course that began with a pāpa against the guru’s cow, and passed through five births, from brāhmaṇa to Kirāta to cakravāka to human, to final moksha.

The power of Śiva’s name

Mārkaṇḍeya ends the account with a plain teaching to Bhīshma. The saying of Śiva’s name removes all pāpa at once, “just as a clay pot thrown into water dissolves.” Whoever reads or hears this adhyāya (chapter) with devotion will gain pushṭi (well-being), be freed from all pāpa, and reach moksha.

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Umā Saṃhitā, Chapter 42 (the cakravāka life, the last tapas, rebirth in Kāmpilya, the liberation of all seven, the power of Śiva’s name)
• Sapta Kirāta Upākhyāna (the earlier lives of the seven, from the brāhmaṇa birth onward)