Devaśarman and Subhadra

At the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, where the river Mahī meets the ocean, the Purāṇa tells of two men: Devaśarman, a brahmin who gave up household life for tapas (austerity), and Subhadra, a faithful householder. Nārada saw both of them there. He tells the account to Arjuna to show how holy the Mahīsāgara tīrtha (sacred crossing place) is. The account teaches that the householder’s life and the ascetic’s life, kept with full sincerity, bring equal fruit.

The setting

Nārada was travelling through the holy lands near the river Revā (the Narmadā). He came to the āśrama (hermitage) of Bhṛgu on its bank. There he describes what he saw at the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, the meeting place of the Mahī river and the ocean, and what took place between the two men.

The two men

Devaśarman was a brahmin who had given up household life. He gave himself wholly to tapas. His austerities had won him much puṇya (merit), and he was known as a man of great spiritual standing.

Subhadra was a pious householder, a gṛhastha. He did his duties faithfully. He kept the sacred fires and performed yajñas (fire rituals). He welcomed guests with respect (atithi-pūjā) and honoured his ancestors with śrāddha. He lived by the gṛhastha-dharma (the duty of the householder) in all its fullness. He was not a renunciant, yet his householder’s puṇya had also grown very large.

The exchange at the tīrtha

The two men met at the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama. The power of the tīrtha is to show the true account of puṇya of those who bathe in it. Through that power it became clear that Subhadra the householder had gathered puṇya equal to that of Devaśarman, or even greater, although Devaśarman had given up household life and lived in tapas.

The Purāṇa teaches from this that gṛhastha-dharma, kept with complete faith, is not lower than formal asceticism. The householder keeps the sacred fires, honours guests, performs śrāddhas and yajñas, and cares for his family with a righteous livelihood. The ascetic’s path and the householder’s path, each followed with full sincerity, lead to equal results.

Teaching at Mahīsāgara

This episode is part of Nārada’s longer teaching on the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, the meeting place of the Mahī river and the sea. The tīrtha is praised because a bath there on the proper tithi (lunar day), above all on a Śanivāra amāvāsya (a new-moon day that falls on a Saturday), brings the puṇya of all tīrthas together. The account of Devaśarman and Subhadra shows that at this holy meeting place every kind of puṇya is made plain and honoured alike: the tapas of the one who has given up the world, and the dharma of the householder.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3