Yājñavalkya and the Nakula

Yājñavalkya, the great ṛshi of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Śukla Yajurveda, once called a mongoose a nakula in a careless and scornful way. The mongoose answered with a long speech on the harm done by harsh words, and then cursed him to be born in a low family. In that birth he was called Bhartṛyajña. He was freed from the curse by worshipping the Mahākāla liṅga at Mahīsāgara Saṃgama. The place where the mongoose spoke became known as Babbru-tīrtha (babbru is a mongoose). The Kaumārika Khaṇḍa gives this account through the words of the yogī Saṃvarta.

Saṃvarta’s account at Vārāṇasī

A group led by Indradyumna came to the yogī Saṃvarta at Vārāṇasī. With Indradyumna were Mārkaṇḍeya, the crane Nāḍījaṅgha, the owl Prākārakarṇa, the Garuḍa Kuśadhvaja, and the turtle Jayadata. They asked him to show them a tīrtha (holy place) that gives liberation.

Saṃvarta sent them to Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, and he also told them the full history of what had happened there. One of the people at Mahīsāgara was a brāhmaṇa named Bhartṛyajña, and Saṃvarta explained who Bhartṛyajña really was. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

At Mithilā: Yājñavalkya’s careless words

The great ṛshi Yājñavalkya was in his āśrama (hermitage) at Mithilā with his wife Gārgī. A nakula (mongoose) came wandering towards the āśrama. Yājñavalkya saw it coming and said carelessly to Gārgī: “Gārgī! This nakula is coming. Be careful of the milk. Drive this nakula away.”

The mongoose stopped. In its past lives it had been cursed by the ancestors of Jamadagni. Through those lives of suffering it had the awareness of dharma that comes with jātismara (memory of past births). The word nakula, said in that scornful tone, treated it as a mere pest. It felt this as a deep wrong. The mongoose turned to Yājñavalkya and gave him a great speech. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

The mongoose’s speech on harsh words

The mongoose said:

“How shameless these wicked humans are! Do they not know that they will face terrible torment in naraka (hell) after death? Yet how easily they do pāpa (sin). A man cannot be sure of even one more minute of life. How can he do wrong so easily?

“O muni! You think that because you are of good birth and are learned, you may call me ‘nakula’ in this scornful way. What have you really studied? Where is your yoga power? You are insulting an innocent being! Is this your learning? In which Veda, in which Smṛti, is it written that one may call another creature by the name of its kind in contempt? Surely you know this. Or do you not?

“Know this: harsh words (parusha-vākya) said to others become like arrow-shafts. They go into the heart. The servants of Yama take one who speaks like this and drive iron stakes (loha-mūlaka) into his ears while he cries in pain. You who call yourselves dharmadhvajas (those who carry the flag of dharma), who know the śāstra: with a thousand hands you rob ordinary people, even in the name of dharma.

“A harsh word is equal to the Vajra, to a blade smeared with poison, to the Kālakūṭa poison, to death itself. This my own experience has taught me. An arrow or a thorn stuck in the ear or the nose can be taken out of the body. But the shaft of a harsh word cannot be taken out. It sleeps in the heart for ever. It is better to kill a man with a machine of torture than to destroy him with cruel words.

“Yājñavalkya! Every day you think of yourself as a paṇḍita. Why did you wound me with such cutting words? Why did you say ‘nakula’ of me in that harsh tone?”

The mongoose ended: “I do not say you are worse than all others. I say that a great person should not behave as the worst do, even when others do. Whatever example a great person sets, the world follows. So mahātmās must never give up the dharma of sat-purushas (good people), whether for themselves or for others. Take this to heart, O muni.” (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Yājñavalkya’s apology

Yājñavalkya heard this speech from a mongoose, a speech so exact and so heavy in its judgement. He felt true remorse. He folded his hands and said:

“O formless one! I bow before the great dharma, whose subtlety cannot be described, even by the paramāṇu (the atom). How can jñāna-mada (pride of knowledge) rise in one who truly knows dharma? Even Brahmā, Vishṇu, Candra and Indra have all been deluded. What of us? One who thinks ‘I know dharma’ and grasps it with pride is a fool trying to catch the wind in a closed fist.

“Some fall through ajñāna (ignorance). Others fall through the pride of knowledge itself. Others fall through ālasya (laziness) even after gaining knowledge. One who does not practise the fourfold dharma, as found in the Veda, the Smṛti, the Itihāsa and the Purāṇa, will surely reach the home of Yama in grief.

“And the Gṛhyakāra himself said: ‘One who is nakula, without kula (family), should still not be called nakula in the scornful sense. One should not wound the hearts of others with sharp words.’ I was reading this very text and I did not live by it. I read that a paṇḍita’s words should be gentle, and I used them carelessly. I am the mūḍha (fool) here.

“I admit the wrong. Please forgive me.” (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

The mongoose’s śāpa

The mongoose was not satisfied with the apology. It said:

“You say ‘others do it too, I only followed them.’ This is empty. When others do wrong, a great man is not excused for doing wrong. A horse, an elephant, metal, wood, stone and cloth all differ in their quality. Just as you would not treat these as the same, you should not treat the conduct of all persons as the same. A great person must hold himself to a higher standard.

“You called me ‘nakula’, one without kula, without family. Now I give you a śāpa (a curse): because you spoke like this, you yourself will be born into a low kula, a lowly birth, as the fruit of these harsh words that you spoke without thought.”

Yājñavalkya heard the curse and said nothing in his defence. In the next moment, seeing that the course of karma cannot be turned back, he was born again in a brāhmaṇa family of low standing. The text calls such a family kulādhama (one without a proper line of descent). This person was named Bhartṛyajña. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Bhartṛyajña at Mahīsāgara

Bhartṛyajña was born with jātismara, the memory of his past life as Yājñavalkya, and he understood exactly what had happened. He did not mourn his birth. He used his wisdom. He made his way to the hidden sacred tīrtha of Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, where a Mahākāla liṅga had appeared by itself. There he became a devoted worshipper of Bhagavān Śiva, and in particular of this svayambhū (self-manifest) Mahākāla liṅga.

Saṃvarta gave the rule: “One who worships the Mahākāla liṅga with śraddhā (faith) casts off all the doshas (faults) of a lowly birth, however many births they have gathered, just as a snake sheds its old skin and comes out new. Even after a hundred births of fault, the worship of this liṅga takes everything away. This is the Śivaliṅga-mahimā (the greatness of the Śivaliṅga).

“Yājñavalkya called the mongoose one without kula (nakula). Bhartṛyajña was freed from the fault of kula by the power of this liṅga. So this tīrtha received the name Babbru-tīrtha (babbru is a mongoose). The name keeps the teaching for ever: careless speech harms, and the liṅga of Bhagavān Śiva heals what words have damaged.” (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13