Rochana and Vālmīki

Rochana was a brāhmaṇa of Prayāga who broke up a talk on the Vaiśākha month with gossip and loud laughter. He suffered for it through naraka and countless births, and at last lived as a cruel serpent inside a banyan tree. He was freed by hearing the Vaiśākha Māhātmya. The same account tells how a hunter was given the Rāma mantra and told that he would be born again as Vālmīki, who composed the Rāmāyaṇa. It is from Chapter 21 of the Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, in the Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa.

The serpent comes out

Śrutadeva was teaching the Vaiśākha Dharma to Śaṅkha and the group around them. Before their eyes a huge banyan tree, a hundred yojanas high and ten yojanas round, fell down. In its hollow lived a terrible serpent. It came out, but it did not threaten anyone. It at once left its serpent body. In its place stood a being of divine look, with palms joined and head bowed, who knew itself and its own state.

Śaṅkha and Śrutadeva were amazed. Śaṅkha asked, “Who are you? How did you come to this state? By what holy act has your mind turned towards the good? How were you freed so suddenly?”

Rochana tells of his past

The freed being said that he was Rochana, the son of the ṛshi Kusīda. In his earlier human life he had been born in Prayāga. He spoke of himself with full honesty. He was proud of his learning, rich, and the father of many sons. His one great fault was pride and false show. Outwardly he did religious acts to win praise, but inwardly he had no faith in them. What he really spent his time on was sleeping, idling, gambling, gossip and lending money for high interest.

One Vaiśākha a brāhmaṇa named Jayanta held a talk on the Vaiśākha rites in Prayāga. All the people of the holy place came: brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras. They took their morning bath, honoured Madhusūdana, and listened with respect and in silence.

Rochana came into the gathering, not from devotion but out of curiosity and a wish to mix with people. He came wearing a turban, which showed his wish to be seen as important and was not fitting for a holy gathering. He still had betel leaves in his mouth, which showed his careless disrespect for the sacred place. He did not take off his upper cloth, which was another sign of disrespect.

Once inside, Rochana began to gossip and pass on rumours to those near him. He spread out his clothes, made rude remarks and laughed loudly during the recital. He disturbed the whole gathering. The minds of those around him became unsteady because of his noise. He kept this up through the whole session and left only when it ended.

Death and the chain of suffering

The very next day Rochana died. The text says that “all the humours became deranged simultaneously” as the direct result of his offence against the Vaiśākha talk. He went to the Halāhala naraka (hell), which is filled with molten lead, and suffered there for fourteen Manvantaras.

After that he was born one after another in all 8.4 million kinds of living beings. His latest birth was as a cruel serpent in the hollow of the huge banyan tree. Ten thousand years passed in that hollow alone, with no company and no food. He was shut in the hollow and was too big to get out. He suffered in the tāmasa nature of the serpent’s body.

Then, as he says, “fortunately, I heard through my pair of ears the nectar-like story that issued from your lotus-like mouth.” The Vaiśākha Māhātmya, told in his presence, was what set him free. The very account whose disturbance had brought him down now freed him, though he heard it as a serpent and made no effort of devotion.

Śaṅkha’s blessing and words about the future

Śaṅkha lifted Rochana with both hands, stroked his limbs kindly, and said, “All your bondage has been destroyed immediately upon hearing the greatness of the month and of Hari. After wiping out the stigma, you will go back to the earth once again and be born as an excellent brāhmaṇa in the meritorious land of Daśārṇa. You will be famous by the name Vedaśarmā. You will be an expert in all the Vedas. You will have the memory of all your previous births. You will perform all the holy rites laid down for Vaiśākha. You will be free from the dvandvas (pairs of opposites like pleasure and pain), devoid of desire, devoted to your teachers, unattached to sense pleasures, with all your senses under control. You will attain siddhi with all bonds cut and go to the highest abode.”

Rochana bowed, walked around Śaṅkha in respect, took leave, and went to svarga.

The hunter becomes Vālmīki

After Rochana had gone, Śrutadeva gave the hunter the two-syllable Rāma mantra and spoke of its supreme power. He said, “Every name of Vishṇu is superior to all the Vedas. Of all innumerable names, the Vishṇu Sahasranāma is very superior. And the name Rāma is on par with all those thousand names.”

Śaṅkha then said clearly what the hunter’s next birth would be: “You will be reborn in the family of the ṛshi Valmīka. You will attain fame on the earth by the name Vālmīki.”

The hunter kept all the Vaiśākha Dharma until his death. He planted trees, built a free water-booth, gave footwear, gave umbrellas and fans, and chanted the Rāma mantra day and night. He was born again as the son of Kruṇu (Valmīka), the ṛshi who was covered by an anthill, and he became the great Vālmīki who composed the Rāmāyaṇa.

The text closes: “See, O king, the greatness of Vaiśākha that yields prosperity even today. Even a hunter attained the rare status of a ṛshi by making the gift of footwear.” This is the Skanda Purāṇa’s account of the birth of Vālmīki. The Bhavishya Purāṇa gives another account.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapter 21