Mālini Moksha

Mālini was a brāhmaṇa woman of Kāśmīra, the daughter of Devavrata. She married Satyaśīla of the Yavana land. Her husband was cold to her, and she used a drug from a Yoginī to win his love. The drug made him waste away, and she then lived in adultery. After her death she suffered long in naraka (hell) and was born a hundred times as a female dog. In her last birth as a dog she was freed by the water that washed the feet of a boy who had bathed on Vaiśākha Dvādaśī, and by the gift of his father’s puṇya (merit).

This account is told in the Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa. It shows the power of Dvādaśī (the twelfth day of the lunar fortnight) in the month of Vaiśākha.

Mālini’s wrong act

Mālini had married Satyaśīla, a wise brāhmaṇa. Satyaśīla was cold and distant toward her. It was not because of any fault of hers. He was simply indifferent. Mālini was young and beautiful, and she badly wanted her husband’s love. On the advice of other abandoned women, she went to a Yoginī (a woman who practises tantra) and asked for help.

Mālini gave the Yoginī a gold ring set with diamonds and rubies. The Yoginī was pleased and gave her a magic powder and an amulet. The powder was to be given to the husband in milk. The amulet was to be worn round Mālini’s neck. The Yoginī promised: “Your husband can be won over. He will not go near any other woman. He will not say anything that displeases you, even if you misbehave.”

That evening Mālini put the powder in Satyaśīla’s milk. But the powder did not bring love, whatever it was made of. It caused a terrible disease. He wasted and grew weak. His wounds rotted and filled with worms. All the functions of his body broke down step by step. Satyaśīla grew worse every day.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 24)

Mālini’s fall and death

As her husband wasted away, Mālini no longer kept the limits of a wife. She took many lovers from all the varṇas (classes) and kept them in the house. Her husband was weak from the disease and could not stop her. The Yoginī gave a second drug that eased Satyaśīla’s illness for a while. But Mālini went on with her adulterous life.

In time the results of her own pāpa (sin) showed in her body. Worms grew inside her and pierced her bones. They made holes in her nose, tongue and ears. Her fingers split and she became lame. She died in this wretched state.

After death she spent 150,000 years in copper cauldrons, in the Tāmrabhājana naraka, where she was cooked and boiled. Then she was born a hundred times in a row as a female dog. In each birth she had particular wounds: her nose was cut, her ears were split, her eyes were damaged, her tail was cut off, her head was full of worms, and her private parts were infected. Between these births as a dog she suffered more tortures of naraka.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 24)

The last birth as a dog and the Dvādaśī water

In her last birth as a dog, Mālini lived in the house of the brāhmaṇa Padmabandhu in the land of Sauvīra. Even in this birth she suffered for thirty years. Her nose was cut, her ears split, her eyes damaged, her tail cut off and her head full of worms.

It was Dvādaśī in the bright fortnight of Vaiśākha, when the Sun was in Mesha (Aries). Padmabandhu’s son came back from his morning Vaiśākha bath. His clothes were wet with river water, and his body and mind were pure. He went to the raised platform of the Tulasī plant and washed his feet. The dog was asleep under the Tulasī platform.

The water from his feet carried the puṇya of the Vaiśākha Dvādaśī bath and the nearness of the Tulasī. It fell on the sleeping dog at sunrise. At once all her ill fortune was destroyed. The dog woke with full memory of all her earlier births: all one hundred lives as a dog, the 150,000 years in the copper cauldrons, and her first life as Mālini in Kāśmīra.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 24)

The dog’s plea and Padmabandhu’s gift

Fully aware, the dog howled with pain and cried out: “Save me.” She told her past honestly: her pāpa, her husband’s suffering, her lovers, her disease and her tortures in naraka. She also said: “A husband is the leader and the support. A husband is the teacher. A husband is the highest deva. If a faithful wife acts against her husband, how can she find happiness?”

She turned to Padmabandhu’s son and begged: “On this Dvādaśī of Vaiśākha you have done many acts of puṇya: holy baths, gifts, and feeding learned men. Give me that puṇya. I will be freed by it.”

The son held to a strict rule of karma and refused. He said: “All beings feel joy and sorrow as the fruit of their own deeds. What can I do for you? Your suffering is of your own making.”

The dog then appealed to Padmabandhu, the father. She said that those who depend on a householder, who eat at his door, are his duty: “Cāṇḍālas, crows and dogs always receive the offerings. A householder who does not lift up a weak and suffering dependant will himself fall.” She compared Bhagavān Vishṇu, who protects all creation, to the householder, who must likewise protect all who are under his roof.

Padmabandhu was deeply moved. He rejected his son’s words: “Son, these are not the words of good people. See, the moon, the sun, the wind, fire, water, sandalwood trees and good people all help others, not themselves. Dadhīci gave his bones. Śibi gave his flesh. Jīmūtavāhana gave his life for Garuḍa. A brāhmaṇa must be merciful.”

Then he gave all his stored puṇya of Dvādaśī to the dog: “The great puṇya that comes from the day of Dvādaśī is given, is given. O dog, free of all your pāpas, go to the abode of Hari.”

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 24)

Liberation and the birth of Urvaśī

At Padmabandhu’s words, the dog at once dropped her worn-out body. A divine form of shining beauty appeared in its place. She was like Sāvitrī, with the radiance of a hundred suns, and she lit up the ten directions. She went to the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

After she had enjoyed the pleasures of svarga (heaven), Mālini was born again on earth, from Nara and Nārāyaṇa, the two ṛshis (seers) of Badarīkāśrama. Her name was Urvaśī. By the power of Vaiśākha Dvādaśī she became an apsarā (heavenly dancer), loved by the devas and living in the pleasure-realms of svarga.

Padmabandhu then made this tithi (lunar day), the Dvādaśī of Vaiśākha, famous throughout the world.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 24)

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 24