Āruṇi and the Hunter

Bhagavān Varāha tells this account to Bhūdevī in the Varāha Purāṇa. It explains how the Dharaṇī Vrata was first found. A vrata is a vow or discipline. The account is about a hunter who came to kill the brāhmaṇa Āruṇi, and who became Satyatapa, a man of true tapas (austerity).

The three kinds of vrata

Bhagavān Vishṇu first sums up the three kinds of vrata (Chapter 37).

Āruṇi’s tapas

In a certain kalpa, Brahmā’s son Āruṇi was a great practiser of tapas. He went to a forest and began tapas with great devotion, keeping a fast.

He lived on the bank of the Devikā, a sacred river. One day he went to bathe for his ritual, and he saw a large herd of deer. A fierce hunter with sharp eyes, named Nishṭhuraka, came near with his bow drawn. He clearly meant to kill the brāhmaṇa.

The hunter stopped short. He was struck by Āruṇi’s appearance, and he said:

“O brāhmaṇa! I came here to kill you. But now that I look at you, my wish to kill has gone.”

“With these cruel hands I have killed thousands of brāhmaṇas and their families, tens of lakhs of them. Yet when I see you, that cruelty has left me.”

“Please teach me tapas. Have compassion on me.”

Āruṇi knew the man was a brahmaghna (a killer of brāhmaṇas). He said nothing. But the hunter stayed, for he was set on receiving guidance.

The tiger and the rescue

Some time passed. Āruṇi sat silently under a tree, and the hunter waited nearby. One day a large tiger came to the river to kill the meditating Āruṇi.

The hunter shot the tiger with an arrow before it could strike. The tiger died, and a luminous purusha (a divine being) rose from its body.

Āruṇi heard the noise and came out of the water. He said the mantra:

Oṃ namo Nārāyaṇāya.

This means: Oṃ, salutation to Nārāyaṇa.

The dying tiger heard this mantra as well. By hearing it, the tiger gave up its breath, and its freed form came out, changed and pure. It said:

“O Āruṇi, through your grace my pāpa (sin) is gone. I am free of disease. I go now to the place where the eternal Vishṇu lives.”

The tiger’s past life

The freed being told who he was:

“In a former life I was a mighty king named Dīrghābāhu. I knew all the dharmas and I knew good from evil. Yet I looked down on brāhmaṇas. I said, ‘What are these brāhmaṇas worth? What can they do?'”

“When I said this to brāhmaṇas, they gave me a śāpa (a curse): ‘Because you disrespect brāhmaṇas, in your next birth your memory (smṛti) will be destroyed. Only at death, from the mouth of a brāhmaṇa, will you hear the name of Vishṇu. Through that you will reach svarga.'”

“I had disrespected the Vedas and those who know them, so the śāpa was complete. But now I have heard the name of Vishṇu, even from another’s mouth. Even so, it worked.”

Āruṇi’s teaching to the hunter

Āruṇi had heard all this. He said to the hunter:

“You have bathed in the Devikā. You have had my darśana (sight). You have heard the name of Vishṇu. All your pāpa is now destroyed. Your body is purified. There is no doubt.”

“Now take one vara (a boon) from me.”

The hunter asked for one thing only:

“Tell me, how can ordinary people reach that Nārāyaṇa?”

Āruṇi answered:

“A person must keep some vrata for Acyuta (Vishṇu). A person full of bhakti who does so will reach that Paramātman.”

“Knowing this, keep one vrata: ‘I will not eat the flesh of an animal that is already dead. I will never speak an untruth.’ Keep it with care.”

The meeting with Durgāsa (Chapter 38)

The hunter followed this teaching. He went into the forest and began tapas, eating only fallen leaves. Then:

• An unseen voice forbade the fallen leaves: “Do not eat that. It is impure.”
• Several leaves were turned away in the same way.
• The hunter ate nothing and went on with his tapas.

After a long time the ṛshi Durgāsa, a fierce ascetic, came. The hunter wanted to give him śrāddha hospitality, but he had nothing. A golden vessel (bāṇa pātra) fell from the sky. The hunter went out to beg for food. When he came back, divine women had appeared and filled his vessel with food of every kind.

Durgāsa said he could not go to the river, because he was too weak and had no water vessel. The hunter meditated on the river Devikā herself. She came to Durgāsa’s feet and flowed around the āśrama as a stream.

Durgāsa bathed and ate with great pleasure. He was moved, and he said:

“May all the Vedas, the saṃgraha texts, brahmavidyā and the Purāṇas be clear to you!”

The new name

Durgāsa gave the hunter a name, Satyatapa, which means one of true tapas.

The question

Satyatapa asked, “I was born a hunter. How can I recite the Vedas?”

Durgāsa answered:

“Your old body, made by your past karma, is gone. Your tapas destroyed it. Your present body is tapomaya, made of tapas. It is different. So the Vedas and the śāstras will be clear to you without doubt.”

The teaching on three bodies (Chapter 39)

This leads into a talk on three kinds of body:

1. Pāpa-deha (the body of sin): the old habits of violence and killing.
2. Dharma-deha (the body of dharma): the present body made by tapas and the true vrata.
3. Bhoga-deha (the body of experience): the body that enjoys the fruits of karma.

The text says:

“At eight years of age, a human has all three stages. After eight years he passes through these three stages and becomes pure, steady and self-controlled.”

The talk goes on to karma, jñāna and how they are related. It then leads into the detailed rules of the Dharaṇī Vrata in Chapter 39.

Sources

• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 37–38
• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 39 (the teaching on three bodies and the start of the Dharaṇī Vrata)