Paśupāla
Paśupāla is a king whose name means “keeper of cattle”. The Varāha Purāṇa tells of him in Chapters 51 to 53. Ṛshi Agastya tells it to a king who asks how the bondage of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) can be cut. In the account Paśupāla meets a radiant woman, a three-coloured man and many others in a forest by the eastern ocean. Through these meetings the text shows how Brahmā is born, how saṃsāra arises, and how the knowledge of the ātman is gained. The text calls it the first itihāsa (account of what happened) of the whole world.
The question
Agastya returns to the palace of King Bhadrāśva. The king honours him with full ceremony and then asks: “By what karma (action) does the bondage of saṃsāra break? How do men stop grieving over things that have form and things that have none?”
Agastya says he will tell a divine kathā (account) that is near and far, seen and unseen. He says it applies equally to his own body, to the king’s body and to the bodies of all creatures.
The forest by the eastern ocean
In a time that was neither day nor night, with no directions and no absence of directions, with no sky, no sun and no devas, there lived a king named Paśupāla who kept many cattle. He wished to see the eastern ocean and went quickly to its shore.
On the shore was a great forest full of serpents. Eight trees stood in it, and a river named Kāmavahā flowed across and beyond them.
In that forest he saw a radiant woman of great brilliance, held by five chief men. On her chest she wore a great jewel as bright as a thousand suns. Her lower lip had three forms and three colours.
The five who hold her
The five chief men who held the woman are the five jñānendriyas, the five senses, which hold the mind in their grip. The woman herself, shining with the great jewel, is the manas (mind), which carries within it the reflection of supreme consciousness. All the others in the forest stood still as if dead. They are the lifeless parts of the world, which are moved only when the jīva (the living being) enters.
The three-coloured man: Mahat and Ahaṃkāra
As Paśupāla entered the forest, all the beings gathered into one out of fear, and cruel serpents surrounded him. Then a man of three colours appeared, white, red and black, the colours of sattva, rajas and tamas. He gave his name as Mahat (the great principle) and challenged Paśupāla: “Who else is there apart from me? Where are you going?”
The three-coloured man then became Paśupāla’s son, and from this the whole sṛshṭi (creation) was set in motion. His three colours are the three guṇas of Prakṛti.
The birth of Ahaṃkāra and the five senses
From Mahat was born Ahaṃ, the ahaṃkāra, the principle of “I”, with three colours of its own. From ahaṃkāra came a daughter of the nature of knowing, called the avabodha-kanyā (the maiden of awakened knowledge). She in turn bore a son named Vijñānada, “giver of discriminating knowledge”.
From Vijñānada were born five sons whose names end in aksha (sense-organ, eye): Ekāksha, Dvyaksha, Tryaksha, Caturaksha and Pañcāksha. They stand for the five organs of knowledge or the five tanmātras (subtle elements) that join the body to the world.
These nine are Mahat, Ahaṃ, the maiden of knowledge, Vijñānada and the five Aksha sons. They entered the city with nine gates, the body with its nine openings, and together became the one form of King Paśupāla.
The nine entering the city of nine gates
The text names those who entered the pura (city). It has nine dvāras (gates), one pillar (the central prāṇa, the life-breath), four paths (the four purushārthas, the aims of life) and thousands of rivers and bathing steps. Those who entered are the three-coloured principle, Ahaṃ, the maiden of knowledge, Vijñānada and the five Aksha sons. In their union they took one form and became the great king Paśupāla.
This is the picture of the jīva entering the body made of the five bhūtas (elements). The qualities of earth, water, fire, wind and ākāśa (space) are present in it, each slightly less than the one before.
The king remembers the Vedas
Once he was settled in his city of nine gates, Paśupāla remembered the Vedas, the sacred sounds that match his own nature. From those Vedas he performed vratas (vows), niyamas (rules of discipline) and yajñas. In this way he made the whole framework of dharma.
The four-faced son born of yoga-nidrā
One day Paśupāla was troubled by the weight of karma-kāṇḍa (the ritual part of the Veda). He entered yoga-nidrā, the yogic sleep of inward withdrawal, and from that state he brought forth a son. The son had four faces, four arms, four Vedas and four paths. He is Brahmā, the four-faced creator.
From that time all creatures came under King Paśupāla’s rule. He himself rose above the limits of karma and became the same toward all: toward the ocean, the forest, the grass and the elephant.
The ātman hidden within
In the third chapter of the account, the king presses Agastya to explain the inner meaning. Agastya tells him that the son born of Paśupāla’s yoga-nidrā, the four-faced one, is the guru of this whole kathā. His son is called Svara, “sacred sound”, who has another name, Saptamūrti, “the one of seven forms”. What Svara proclaims becomes the means to the four purushārthas.
The first form of Svara’s teaching has four horns, and it is the Ṛgveda. The second has the form of a bull, and it is the Yajurveda. The third and fourth follow them. Together this is the Vedic revelation born from the ātman.
The discovery of the imperishable Self
Brahmā, the four-faced son, thinks about the mystery of his own origin. He searches for his father Paśupāla by destroying every covering. Each time he cuts a form to pieces with the sword of asaṅga (non-attachment), a subtler form appears within.
At last he finds his father as a being the size of a trasareṇu, which is thirty atoms. This being lives unseen and the same in all creatures. This is the ātman, subtler than the subtlest, the true Paśupāla. In its active aspect its mūrti (form) is called Pravṛtta, and its head, the highest aspect, is called Nivṛtta.
The text ends by saying that this is the first itihāsa of the whole world. One who understands it by its tattva (truth) becomes a true karmapara, a person of real action.
Sources
- Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 51–53