Vṛndā Pativrata Bhaṅga

Jalandhara was an asura born from the anger of Bhagavān Śiva. While his wife Vṛndā kept her pativrata (her vow of faithfulness to her husband) perfectly, no one in the three worlds could kill him. The Śiva Purāṇa tells how Bhagavān Vishṇu, at the word of Devī Pārvatī, broke her vow so that Jalandhara could be killed. It also tells of the two śāpas (curses) Vṛndā gave Bhagavān Vishṇu, and the three sacred plants that arose afterward.

Why her vow had to be broken

Jalandhara could not be destroyed as long as Vṛndā stayed a perfect pativratā. Her faithfulness was of the highest kind. It was not only a social virtue but a tapas so strong that it protected her husband across the worlds. The devas who fought Jalandhara and died could not win. Even Bhagavān Vishṇu had been beaten in battle and made to live in Jalandhara’s city in the ocean.

Jalandhara tried to win Pārvatī. He took the form of Bhagavān Śiva and came to the cave of Pārvatī. She knew the fraud at once and fled to Lake Mānasa. From there she called Bhagavān Vishṇu, and she herself told him that the only way to defeat Jalandhara was to break the pativrata of Vṛndā. Bhagavān Vishṇu holds the upkeep of dharma as his main work. He agreed to do this painful task for the sake of cosmic order.

The Śiva Purāṇa gives this in Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 22 and 23.

The deception

Bhagavān Vishṇu went to Vṛndā. First he made a vivid and terrible dream. Vṛndā saw the severed head and the cut-up limbs of Jalandhara. She woke in terror, sure that her husband had died in battle.

In this deep distress, Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared before her as a tapasvin, a peaceful ṛshi of great power. The disguised Vishṇu offered to bring Jalandhara back to life. Before the eyes of Vṛndā, a figure like Jalandhara appeared, but it was Bhagavān Vishṇu himself in that form. The deception was complete. Vṛndā was overcome with relief and grief together, and she touched the one she believed was her husband brought back to life. At the moment of that touch, her perfect pativrata was broken.

The Śiva Purāṇa gives this in Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23.

Vṛndā’s two śāpas

When Vṛndā understood what had happened, she knew Bhagavān Vishṇu for who he was. Her grief was beyond words. She had been the most faithful of wives and a great devotee, and Vishṇu, the very one she honoured, had brought about her ruin. From this grief came a rage born of complete righteousness.

She gave two great śāpas to Bhagavān Vishṇu.

1. The first śāpa: Vishṇu will become stone. He will take a stone form, the Śālagrāma, still and without motion.
2. The second śāpa: Vishṇu will be parted from his own wife, just as he had made Vṛndā suffer the unbearable pain of being parted from Jalandhara.

The first śāpa was fulfilled in the Śālagrāma stones of the Gaṇḍakī river, where Bhagavān Vishṇu is always present. The second was fulfilled in the Rāma avatāra, in which Bhagavān Rāma suffered the long pain of being parted from Sītā.

After her śāpas, Vṛndā gave herself to the fire and died.

The Śiva Purāṇa gives this in Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 23.

The three sacred plants

When Vṛndā entered the fire and her tejas (radiance) spread, three sacred plants arose from the earth.

1. Dhātrī (āmalakī, the Indian gooseberry) carried the aṃśa (portion) of Devī Sarasvatī, the devī of wisdom.
2. Mallī (mallikā, jasmine) carried the aṃśa of Devī Lakshmī, the devī of beauty and wealth.
3. Tulasī (holy basil) carried the aṃśa of Devī Gaurī herself, the supreme Devī.

Vṛndā was the greatest devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu, even as she was the one he wronged. So Bhagavān Vishṇu declared that Tulasī would be his most loved plant, dearer to him than all others. Whoever offers Tulasī to Bhagavān Vishṇu pleases him more than with all other offerings together. For this reason Tulasī is joined to the pūjā of Vishṇu, and the Tulasī plant is honoured as a devī in every Vaishṇava home.

The moha (confusion) and sorrow of Bhagavān Vishṇu that went with the whole episode was removed only afterward, when he joined Pārvatī and Tulasī was set up as the first of plants. Bhagavān Śiva gave the tejas of Vṛndā the honour of being the devī Tulasī, and she took a divine form in Vaikuṇṭha.

The Śiva Purāṇa gives this in Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 23 and 26.

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 22 and 23
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 26