Gayā Māhātmya (Vāyu Purāṇa)
Gayā is the most sacred tīrtha (holy place) for Śrāddha, the rite for the ancestors. The Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, in the Uttarārdha, Chapter 7, gives a long account of its origin and glory. Sanatkumāra tells it to Nārada. The account covers Gayāsura, on whose body Brahmā performed a yajña (fire ritual); the Dharmaśilā, the sacred rock that is the body of Dharmavratā; the gadā (mace) of Bhagavān Vishṇu, made from the bones of the asura Gadu; the slaying of the asura Heti; and a day-by-day guide to the tīrthas of Gayā. The Purāṇa names Bhagavān Vishṇu here as Ādigadādhara, the first bearer of the gadā, who lives at Gayā for ever in both a manifest (vyakta) and an unmanifest (avyakta) form.
Why Gayā is the highest tīrtha
Sanatkumāra tells Nārada:
“Among all tīrthas in all directions, none surpasses Gayā. It is the greatest for Śrāddha, the liberator of all beings, the highest among tīrthas.”
The text names these powers of Śrāddha at Gayā:
- The pāpa (sin) gathered over a whole mahākalpa is destroyed.
- One who performs Śrāddha here frees seven generations of ancestors on both sides of the family.
- One who stays here for three fortnights (45 days) makes pure seven generations before and after him.
- Even insects (kīṭa) who die here reach Brahma-jñāna-mukti (liberation through knowledge of Brahman).
- The text says: “Brahma-jñāna, Gayā-śrāddha, death in a cow-shed (go-śālā), and a home at Kurukshetra: these four give moksha to a human being.” If a son goes to Gayā, the other three are not needed.
Gayāsura
His size and his tapas
Gayāsura was a Daitya of great size. He was 125 yojanas tall and 60 yojanas round. He was a devoted Vaishṇava (follower of Bhagavān Vishṇu). On the mountain Kolāhala he performed tapas (austerity) of great force. He stood still for thousands of years without breath, taking only air. The heat of his tapas troubled the devas, and they went to Brahmā in fear. Brahmā took them to Bhagavān Śiva at Kailāsa. From there all the devas went to Bhagavān Vishṇu in the Kshīrasāgara (the ocean of milk).
Brahmā’s yajña on his body
The devas prayed to Bhagavān Vishṇu to free them from the effects of Gayāsura’s tapas. Bhagavān Vishṇu, with Brahmā and the devas, appeared before Gayāsura. Brahmā asked Gayāsura for a vara (a boon): “O great one, let us perform a yajña on your body.” Gayāsura agreed and gave his body as the ground for the yajña.
Brahmā performed the yajña on Gayāsura’s body. But the body kept trembling and shaking, and it threatened to spoil the whole yajña. Then Dharma placed a great śilā (rock) on Gayāsura’s head to hold it still. Brahmā, Vishṇu and all the devas made their home on and around this rock. Gayāsura, now still under the rock of Dharma and the presence of all the devas, became the sacred land of Gayā.
This happened in the Śvetavārāha-kalpa. The tīrtha was named Gayā after Gayāsura.
The Dharmaśilā: Dharmavratā becomes the rock of Gayā
Dharmavratā’s birth
Dharma had a daughter named Dharmavratā. She had every auspicious quality. She was as beautiful as Lakshmī and had every good quality of the three worlds. No fitting husband could be found anywhere in the three worlds. So Dharma told her to perform tapas to win a proper husband.
Dharmavratā went to the forest and performed great tapas. She took only air and stood in the pañcāgni (the vow of five fires). She stayed so for laksha yugas (hundreds of thousands of yugas).
Her marriage to Marīci
Marīci, a mānasa-putra (mind-born son) of Brahmā, was travelling the earth to find a wife of the highest virtue. He met the radiant Dharmavratā in her tapas and was charmed. Marīci went to Dharma and asked for his daughter in marriage. Dharma saw Marīci’s greatness and gave Dharmavratā to him with due rites.
Dharmavratā served her husband in perfect pativratā dharma (the dharma of a devoted wife). She bore him one hundred sons, each as glorious as Vishṇu.
The śāpa
One day Marīci came back from the forest tired. He asked Dharmavratā to press his feet while he rested. While she was doing this, Brahmā arrived at their āśrama (hermitage). Dharmavratā did not know what to do. Should she go on pressing her husband’s feet, or rise to receive Brahmā, who was her husband’s father and guru (teacher)? She chose to honour Brahmā, for he was Marīci’s father and so her own pati-guru. She stood up and received him and honoured him with arghya (water of welcome) and āsana (a seat).
While Brahmā rested, Marīci woke up and did not find Dharmavratā at his feet. He misunderstood, and in his anger he gave her a śāpa (a curse): “You left my service for another. By the pāpa of this, burn and become a rock (śilā) through my śāpa!”
Dharmavratā knew that her own dharma was pure. She gave a śāpa in return: “You gave me your śāpa unjustly, while I was doing the dharma of serving your own father. You, my husband, shall receive the śāpa of Mahādeva.”
Her tapas and her vara
Dharmavratā then performed hard tapas in the middle of the sacrificial fire (agni-madhya), standing in the flames. The heat of it troubled Indra and all the devas. They went to Bhagavān Vishṇu and begged him to protect the three worlds. Bhagavān Vishṇu came to Dharmavratā in the fire, together with Brahmā, now awake, and all the devas.
They offered her a vara. She asked first that Marīci’s śāpa be undone. The devas answered that the śāpa of a maharshi cannot be undone, even by devas and Brāhmaṇas. Then she asked:
“Then let me become a rock, but let that rock be the most sacred thing in all creation. Let all rivers, tīrthas, nakshatras, devas, ṛshis and devīs live in my body for ever. Let Brahmā, Vishṇu and Rudra set their pādas (footprints) on me. Let Śrāddha done on me give akshaya (endless) puṇya (merit). Let all who see me, touch me, or offer Śrāddha on me be set free, together with their families.”
Bhagavān Vishṇu and all the devas agreed to every request. So the Dharmaśilā became the sacred rock of Gayā. It is wholly pure and all the devas live in it. It is the place of Vishṇupāda, Rudrapāda and Brahmapāda, and the highest place for Śrāddha.
How Bhagavān Vishṇu got his gadā
The asura Gadu
There was an asura named Gadu (also given as Gadā). He was harder than the vajra and very strong. He performed tapas and received a vara from Brahmā that no deva, daitya or human could kill him. He also gave Brahmā a vara. At Brahmā’s request Gadu gave his own bones. Brahmā and Viśvakarmā made these bones into a fine gadā (mace), set with jewelled studs like jasmine buds. This gadā was placed in svarga.
The slaying of Heti
In the Svāyambhuva Manvantara a great asura named Heti performed tapas for a laksha of divine years. He stood on one toe, took only air and kept his arms raised. From Brahmā he received a vara that he could not be defeated by any deva, daitya, weapon or human, including Kṛshṇa and Īśāna. With this vara Heti conquered the devas and took the place of Indra. Brahmā, Bhagavān Śiva and the devas ran to Bhagavān Vishṇu in the Kshīrasāgara.
Bhagavān Vishṇu said to the devas: “Heti has won a vara that stops even me from killing him by ordinary means. Give me a mahāstra (great weapon) and I will kill him.” The devas gave Bhagavān Vishṇu the gadā that had been made from the bones of Gadu.
Bhagavān Vishṇu, now Gadādhara (bearer of the gadā), killed Heti with it. After this victory he placed the gadā on the Dharmaśilā at Gayā, and so held Gayāsura still for ever. Since then Bhagavān Vishṇu at Gayā has been known as Ādigadādhara, the first Gadādhara.
The tīrthas of Gayā
The Gayā-kshetra (sacred field) is five krośas in all, and the Gayā-śiras (the head) is one krośa. All the tīrthas of the three worlds are always present in it. The Vāyu Purāṇa describes these main tīrthas.
Falgu Tīrtha
The Falgu is the most sacred river of Gayā. It is Bhagavān Vishṇu himself in the form of water. It is called Vishṇupādodaka, the water from the feet of Vishṇu. To bathe in the Falgu is the same as bathing in all tīrthas together. The text says: “The merit of bathing in the Falgu cannot be gained even by performing ten lakh aśvamedha yajñas.” The Falgu flows unseen underground, and this is why it does not always show water.
Vishṇupāda
This is the footprint of Bhagavān Vishṇu on the Dharmaśilā. To see it destroys all pāpa. To touch it and offer Śrāddha here frees ten generations before and after. Śrāddha at Vishṇupāda sends the Pitṛs to Vishṇuloka for ever.
Akshayavaṭa, the undying banyan
The Akshayavaṭa is the eternal pipal or banyan tree at Gayā. One who goes to it and does pūjā to it is freed from the three debts (tri-ṛṇa). One should pray: “O Tree! By your sight and touch, may my ancestors who are in a bad state, in my father’s line and my mother’s line, reach svarga for ever.”
Vaitaraṇī River
The fearful river that the dead must cross also flows at Gayā, and it purifies the Pitṛs at this tīrtha. To bathe in the Vaitaraṇī and give a cow (go-dāna) here frees twenty-one generations.
The five tīrthas (Pañca-tīrtha)
The text lays down a circuit of five tīrthas.
- Uttara-Mānasa, the northern lake. Śrāddha here sends the Pitṛs to Sūryaloka.
- Dakshiṇa-Mānasa, the southern lake. Śrāddha here gives liberation through Uttara-dik energy.
- Kanakaḷa, the central lake. Bathing here makes one shine like gold.
- Falgu Tīrtha, the sacred river.
- Gayā-Śiras, the head of the kshetra. Śrāddha here purifies a hundred family lines.
Mataṅgavāpī
This is a sacred well in Dharmāraṇya, the forest where Dharma performed a yajña. To bathe here and offer tarpaṇa (water offering) shows that the Pitṛs are fully freed from their debt.
Brahma-kūpa and Yūpa
These are the well of Brahmā and the sacrificial post of Brahmā’s yajña. Śrāddha done between the kūpa (well) and the yūpa (post) frees all one’s ancestors.
Bodhivṛksha (Aśvattha or Bodhi tree)
This is the pipal tree at Gayā. It is known as the form of Brahmā, Vishṇu and Śiva together, and as the very tree under which the Buddha reached enlightenment. To water this tree frees all those in a bad state in one’s family line.
The four-day pilgrimage at Gayā
The Vāyu Purāṇa lays down a pilgrimage of four days.
Day 1. Arrive. Perform Śrāddha with offerings of pāyasa (sweet milk rice), saktu (barley meal), barley, rice, sesame, fruits and roots, or honey and ghee. Sesame paste (kalka) and sugar mixed with ghee are akshaya for the Pitṛs. Make the proper saṅkalpa (statement of purpose). Keep brahmacarya (self-control), eat once, sleep on the ground and speak only the truth.
Day 2. Go to Dharmāraṇya. Bathe in the Mataṅgavāpī. Offer Śrāddha between the Brahma-kūpa and the Yūpa. Walk round the Yūpa. Honour the Bodhivṛksha. Offer Śrāddha at the Brahma-sarovara.
Day 3. Make the yama-bali (an offering to Yama). Make a bali (offering) to the two dogs of Yama, one black and one spotted, born in the line of Vaivasvata, to be safe on the road. Make a bali to the crows of the four directions, asking them to take the piṇḍas (rice balls) from the earth as messengers of the Pitṛs.
Day 4. Bathe in the Falgu. Perform pādārcana (worship of the feet) at the śilā of Gadādhara Vishṇu. Offer pañcāmṛta-snāna (a bath in the five sweet foods) and flowers and cloth to Bhagavān Gadādhara. Perform sapiṇḍaka Śrāddha at the Gayā-śiras.
Brahmā’s stuti to Gadādhara
After Gayāsura was held still and Heti was slain, Brahmā offered a stuti (praise) to Ādigadādhara:
“To the bearer of the gadā, free from the pāpa of time, dwelling in Gayā, having all known qualities, present in the qualities, present in the intellect, dwelling in the palace of the white mountain, worshipped by all gaṇas, the giver of vara: to Vishṇu I bow. To the splendour of the day, the first light of the deva-gaṇas, the brilliance of Bhava, the light that tears the rākshasas, the prosperity of Kali, the crusher of the filth of Kali, the embodiment of prosperity for those who take refuge: to Gadādhara I bow…”
Bhagavān Śiva also offered his own stuti. He spoke to Ādigadādhara in his unmanifest (avyakta) form as the Muṇḍapṛshṭha mountain and the Falgu tīrtha, and in his manifest (vyakta) form as Gadādhara with his footprints on the Dharmaśilā.
Sources
- Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 7