Sumitra and the Gokarṇa Caturdaśī

Gokarṇa is a supreme kshetra (sacred place) of Bhagavān Śiva. The Gokarṇa Caturdaśī Māhātmya, the greatness of Śiva Caturdaśī at Gokarṇa, is told in the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa. Within it is the account of Sumitra, who reached the realm of Bhagavān Śiva after one casual offering.

Mitranahu and Vasishṭha’s curse

The Māhātmya is told in the setting of Gokarṇa. The Ikshvāku king Mitranahu was given a śāpa (a curse) by the ṛshi Vasishṭha. By it he took the form of a rākshasa. His curse, and his later freedom through the power of Gokarṇa, form the frame for the teaching on Caturdaśī.

Sumitra, a brahmin girl born as a cāṇḍālī

In an earlier birth, Sumitra was a brahmin girl of good character. Through the force of past karma (action), she was born again as a cāṇḍālī, a woman of the lowest jāti (birth group), in the land near Gokarṇa. In that body she had no access to Vedic rites or to Purāṇic teaching. She had no formal way of being purified.

One day, by daiva-yoga (the working of fate), Sumitra wandered near the Gokarṇa kshetra of Bhagavān Śiva on the holy day of Śiva Caturdaśī. She gathered some bilva leaves, the most loved offering to Śiva, and placed them at the liṅga. It was a casual act, not deliberate devotion. She had no mantra, no purification and no knowledge of the ritual.

Yet the act was complete. The Caturdaśī, the bilva and the kshetra of Gokarṇa together joined her to Parameśvara.

Her death and the arrival of Śiva’s messengers

When Sumitra died, Yama’s messengers came to take her to the realm of the dead, as dharma allows. Before they could seize her, the messengers of Bhagavān Śiva arrived. They were bright, bore divine marks and rode divine vehicles. They stood against Yama’s men.

The messengers of Śiva named the offering made at Gokarṇa on Caturdaśī as the sure cause of Sumitra’s liberation. The bilva she had offered by chance on Śiva Caturdaśī at Gokarṇa had entered her in Parameśvara’s record. Yama’s messengers could not prevail and withdrew.

Sumitra was then placed in a divine vimāna (flying chariot) and carried to Parameśvara Loka, the bright realm of Bhagavān Śiva. The realm is described as full of boundless light and divine music, where the liberated and the devas worship Mahādeva without pause.

What the account shows

Sumitra’s offering was a single act at Gokarṇa on Śiva Caturdaśī. She was born as a cāṇḍālī in that life, in what is held to be the lowest birth and the most inauspicious state. Yet the tithi (lunar day) and the nearness to Gokarṇa overcame it entirely.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Dharmāraṇya Khaṇḍa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 2 and 3