Mahānanda and the Rudrāksha
Mahānanda was a rich and famous courtesan (gaṇikā) of the city of Nandīgrāma, and a sincere devotee of Bhagavān Śiva. One day a Vaiśya devotee of Śiva came to her house, and Bhagavān Śiva himself was that Vaiśya, come to test her. The account is told in the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa. It also tells what became of her monkey and her rooster, who wore Rudrāksha beads.
Mahānanda of Nandīgrāma
In Nandīgrāma, Mahānanda was a famous gaṇikā, a woman of great wealth, beauty and artistic gifts. She had hundreds of cattle, many servants (dāsajana), fine clothes, silver palanquins, golden furnishings, costly perfumes and ointments, and a grand home. With all this outer wealth, she was inwardly free from the kāma (desire) that her work was expected to carry. She was satya-dharma-parāyaṇā, devoted to truth and dharma. Her heart was full of Śiva kathā (stories of Śiva) and Śiva nāma (the name of Śiva).
She was fond of a monkey and a rooster that she kept at home. For her own amusement she had decorated them with Rudrāksha beads (keyūra, karakāraṇa, bhūshaṇa) and trained them in nāṭya (dance). The monkey, wearing its Rudrāksha ornaments, danced in perfect time to her clapping and songs.
The Vaiśya devotee of Śiva
One day a Vaiśya of great devotion to Bhagavān Śiva came to Mahānanda’s house. He wore vibhūti (sacred ash) and a shining Rudrāksha bracelet (kaṅkaṇa) on his wrist. It was made of fine stones, set in gold, and very beautiful. Mahānanda was struck by the bracelet. She told him plainly that it had taken her mind.
The Vaiśya said he would give it to her if she spent three days with him as his wife. Mahānanda agreed. She called the Sun and the Moon as witnesses and placed her hand on his heart to seal the promise. The Vaiśya gave her the bracelet. He also handed her a Ratna Śivaliṅga, a liṅga made of precious stones, and said:
“This liṅga is equal to my very prāṇa. Guard it carefully. If harm comes to it, my life is over.”
Here prāṇa is the life breath.
The fire and the broken liṅga
That night the two were together in the inner room. At midnight, a fire suddenly broke out in the nāṭya-maṇṭapa (dance hall). Mahānanda jumped up and freed the monkey from its ties. The monkey, in fright, ran off with the rooster, scattering sparks everywhere, and fled into the dark.
The pillar of the nāṭya-maṇṭapa on which the ratna liṅga had been placed fell. The liṅga broke into pieces.
The Vaiśya saw the broken liṅga and was overcome with grief:
“The liṅga that was equal to my prāṇa is shattered. I cannot live. Let me construct a citā (funeral pyre). I will enter it with my mind fixed on Śiva.”
He said that even if Brahmā, Indra and Vishṇu together asked him not to, he would enter the fire that very moment.
Mahānanda then said:
“I have already committed adharma by being the cause of this loss. And I called myself his wife for three days. I am his saha-dharma-cāriṇī (partner in dharma). I will enter fire with him.”
She gave all her wealth to devotees of Bhagavān Śiva and meditated on Sadāśiva. She walked three times around the funeral fire, in pradakshiṇa, and prayed:
“I desire no sarvādhipatya, no svarga-bhūmi-pada, no Brahmā’s eternal realm. Let me be, birth after birth, a bee drinking the madhu of your lotus feet. Let my citta never move from your caraṇa-āravindas even for half a moment, O Deva.”
She asked for no rule over all (sarvādhipatya), no place in svarga (heaven) and no eternal realm of Brahmā. She asked only to be a bee at the lotus feet of Bhagavān Śiva, her mind (citta) never leaving them. As she was about to enter the fire, Bhagavān Śiva appeared.
Śiva shows himself
Bhagavān Śiva stood before them in full glory. He is the three-eyed one (Trilocana), with the crescent moon on his head, shining like crores of suns and fires together. The Vaiśya and Mahānanda were struck still.
Bhagavān Śiva said:
“I came to you as the Vaiśya to test your satya, your dharma, and your niścala bhakti toward me. I created the fire through māyā. I burned the nāṭya-maṇṭapa with my māyā. The ratna liṅga I burned and then rained fire. You, Mahānanda — vāravānitā, by profession a deceiver, a svairī — and yet you held to satya and were willing to follow this man into fire. For that I am pleased. Ask what you desire.”
In these words, satya is truth, niścala bhakti is unshaken devotion, māyā is the power of illusion, and vāravānitā and svairī are words for a courtesan.
Mahānanda asked for nothing except the pada (abode) of Bhagavān Śiva himself. She asked it for herself and for all her servants (bhṛtya), her house helpers (dāsa) and her kin (bāndhava) who were devotees of Śiva. Bhagavān Śiva agreed.
Śiva’s attendants placed Mahānanda and the Vaiśya in divine vimānas (flying chariots). At the touch of Śiva’s messengers, their ordinary bodies became bodies in the form of Śiva’s own attendants (sārūpya). They went to the realm of Bhagavān Śiva, together with all of Mahānanda’s household.
The monkey and the rooster, born again as two princes
The ṛshi Parāśara later told King Bhadrasena of Kāśmīra the reason for something about his son Sudharmā and Sudharmā’s friend Tāraka, the son of the king’s minister. Both boys refused all gold and jewels and chose to wear only Rudrāksha beads.
The monkey of Mahānanda’s nāṭya-maṇṭapa had worn Rudrāksha beads as ornaments. The fire threw it far away, and it died some time later. The rooster died as well. By the puṇya of the Rudrāksha beads on their bodies, even though they were animals and wore them without knowledge or intent, both were born again in high human births. The monkey was born as Sudharmā, son of the king of Kāśmīra. The rooster was born as Tāraka, son of the king’s minister.
In this new human birth they kept the fruit of the Rudrāksha they had worn, and so they wore Rudrāksha again and refused every other ornament. Parāśara said:
“They were cleansed by the previous Rudrāksha-wearing; as pure humans they again wear the Rudrāksha and worship Śiva. They will attain Śiva’s loka in this birth.”
Here loka is a realm.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Dharmāraṇya Khaṇḍa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 20