Kuśadhvaja the Garuḍa

This is the account of Kuśadhvaja, the Garuḍa whom Indradyumna and his companions met on Gandhamādana mountain. He had been a Śiva-gaṇa, a member of Bhagavān Śiva’s own company, who fell by a śāpa (a curse). The Garuḍa tells his own history. He was first a monkey who swung Bhagavān Śiva’s liṅga in a golden swing without any thought of devotion. Then he was a prince of Kāśī, then a devoted follower who became a gaṇa, and last a Garuḍa. It is told in Chapter 9 of the Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, and it belongs to the larger account of the search for someone who remembers king Indradyumna.

The meeting on Gandhamādana

The owl Prākārakarṇa had been asked about king Indradyumna. He answered that even his memory of twenty-eight kalpas (ages of the world) held no trace of that king. He then sent the growing company, Indradyumna, Mārkaṇḍeya and the crane Nāḍījaṅgha, to a still more ancient being. He told them of a Garuḍa named Kuśadhvaja who lived on Gandhamādana mountain. This Garuḍa was his own oldest friend.

The crane then fell into despair. He told the owl that Indradyumna’s kīrti (good name) was still not found. So he, Mārkaṇḍeya and the king were all ready to die, and the owl should give the crane his last water offerings. The owl stepped in with a plan. The Garuḍa on Gandhamādana, he said, was dearer to him than his own life, and that Garuḍa knew everything. He would not fail to remember Indradyumna.

The company went to Gandhamādana: Indradyumna, Mārkaṇḍeya, the crane and the owl. The Garuḍa saw his friend the owl coming from far off. He came out of his home with joy and gave them a full welcome, with food and honour. After this welcome the Garuḍa asked the owl what had brought them. The owl explained why they had come. Indradyumna needed any living being who remembered him. Would the Garuḍa speak for him?

The Garuḍa answered: “I have lived through fifty-six kalpas. But I have neither seen nor heard of any king named Indradyumna.”

Indradyumna was struck with deep grief on hearing this. Yet even in his sorrow he turned to the Garuḍa with curiosity. He asked how he had come to such a long life, and why he had the form of a bird. The Garuḍa then told his history.

Past life: the monkey at the Madanotsava

In an earlier birth, the Garuḍa’s ātmā had been born as a monkey, restless and playful by nature. One year, when the Vasanta ṛtu (spring season) came, the Madanotsava (the festival of Manmatha) was held in a great Śiva temple. The day was Caturdaśī tithi, in Hasta nakshatra, with Harshaṇa yoga, in the bright half of the month of Caitra. The devotees had placed the Śiva-liṅga in a golden dolā (swing) for the festival. Crowds gathered round, and the golden swing with the liṅga moved gently.

In the night the monkey, drawn by its restless nature, came to the golden swing and began to swing it. In its playful way it swung the liṅga for a long time. At dawn the devotees came for the morning pūjā and found the monkey sitting in the swing. They were angry and beat it with sticks. The monkey fell from the swing and died inside the Śiva temple, struck by many heavy blows.

The Śiva-Dolā Māhātmya

This act of swinging Bhagavān Śiva’s swing, done by a monkey in play and not in devotion, brought great puṇya (merit). The teaching in this account is that one who swings the liṅga in its swing at the Madanotsava, as an act of Śiva-sevā (service of Bhagavān Śiva), is rid of what is inauspicious and gains great puṇya. Even touching Bhagavān Śiva’s ritual in this close way, without meaning to, starts a course that lifts the ātmā through one birth after another.

Rebirth as a prince of Kāśī

Because he died inside the Śiva temple after swinging the divine swing, the monkey’s ātmā was born again in a royal family. He was the son of the lord of Kāśī (Kāśīśvara), and he was named Kuśadhvaja. He was born with jātismara, the memory of his past lives. By that memory he understood that his birth in the royal house of Kāśī came from his contact with Bhagavān Śiva’s swing.

With this understanding Kuśadhvaja began the practice of holding the Madanotsava, with the liṅga swung in a golden swing, across his kingdom every Caitra. He made sure the Śiva-dolā rite was kept in all the temples under his rule.

Grace of Śiva: dīkshā and gaṇahood

Kuśadhvaja went beyond the keeping of rituals. He received Śiva-dīkshā, the formal initiation into the pūjā of Bhagavān Śiva. He was then shaped by all the saṃskāras of the Śivāgama way, from the first dīkshā to the last, the nirvāha-dīkshā. He gave himself to deep meditation on Parameśvara and to pūjā. He held back the movements of his mind by vairāgya (detachment). He repeated the Oṃkāra in japa with constant thought on its meaning, and he rested in peace.

Bhagavān Śiva saw that all the obstacles to his mind had been dissolved by his devotion and practice. He was very pleased and said to Kuśadhvaja: “Today I am pleased with you. Ask for any vara you wish. On earth no one else does this pūjā as you do.”

Kuśadhvaja asked: “Let me stay in the divine company of Bhagavān Śiva. Let me be a gaṇa.” Bhagavān Śiva granted this at once and took him to Kailāsa. He gave him a wonderful divine vimāna (flying chariot) set with divine jewels. After that Kuśadhvaja travelled freely through all the worlds in that vimāna.

The fall: desire for Agnivedya’s daughter

After some time in this high state, Kuśadhvaja one day in the Vasanta ṛtu sat at the window lattice of his divine vimāna as it hovered over a mountain. Below he saw a young woman, the daughter of the ṛshi Agnivedya, bathing freely with her friends. She was in full youth, slender-waisted and large-eyed, and she was bathing without clothes in the open air. Her face was like a lotus, and her form seemed the best work of a sculptor. As the Malaya breeze blew, strong desire (kāma) rose in Kuśadhvaja.

He lost control. He came down from the vimāna, seized the young woman and carried her up into the sky in his vimāna. She cried out for her father, “Father!” Her friends ran to tell the muni Agnivedya: “Someone has come in a vimāna and is carrying off your daughter, who is crying. Come quickly, O great ṛshi!”

The curse of Agnivedya

Agnivedya ran in the direction his daughter had been taken. By the power of his tapas (austerity) he stopped Kuśadhvaja in the sky. He fixed him in place as if painted there, so that he could not move. Then, in his anger, the ṛshi cursed him:

“Like a vulture (gṛdha) that seizes meat and flies into the sky, you have seized my helpless daughter, who did not want you. Become a Garuḍa (a king of vultures) at once. Suffer the result of taking my unwilling daughter, you evil-minded one.”

Kuśadhvaja was filled with fear and shame. He bowed his head and fell at the ṛshi’s feet, weeping and crying out: “O tapasvin! I did not take this girl knowing what I did, nor meaning to frighten her. Show me grace and take back the curse. You are rich in tapas and forgive those who come to you for shelter. Please do not let me become a Garuḍa.”

After this plea Agnivedya was somewhat calmed. He took his good daughter back and returned home. He changed the curse. Kuśadhvaja would indeed become a Garuḍa. But he would be released when he helped to establish the lost kīrti of king Indradyumna. At that moment the Garuḍa form would fall away.

In this way the Śiva-gaṇa who had swung the dolā as a monkey, been born a prince of Kāśī, received gaṇahood and fallen through kāma, came to live as the Garuḍa Kuśadhvaja on Gandhamādana. He waited for the moment when Indradyumna’s kīrti would be restored.

The way to Mānasasarovara

After hearing this history, the owl told Kuśadhvaja of a creature still older. This was a turtle (kūrma) named Mandara, or Manthara, who lived in the depths of Mānasasarovara. He had sunk so deep into the mud that his place in the lake was not known.

The company was now five: Indradyumna, Mārkaṇḍeya, the crane, the owl and the Garuḍa. They travelled to Mānasasarovara to find this turtle.

Liberation

The turtle finally testified to the existence and kīrti of king Indradyumna. The divine vimāna then came down from the sky. At the same moment all four animal witnesses were freed from their curses. The Garuḍa’s form fell away and his own divine form was restored. Together with the crane, the owl and the turtle, all four reached moksha (liberation) at the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama.

The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa tells this in the Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 9
• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 10