Jābāli Tīrtha is a sacred tīrtha (pilgrimage place) on the mountain Veṅkaṭādri. It lies on the bank of the Svarṇamukhī river and is named after the ṛshi Jābāli, who lives beside it. It is known for removing even those pāpas (sins) for which the smṛtis (the dharma texts) give no prāyaścitta (atonement).

Durācāra

In the twenty-fifth chapter of the Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Sūta tells the ṛshis of Naimishāraṇya the account of Durācāra, a brahmin whose name means “one of bad conduct”. He lived on the bank of the Kāverī. He spent his days with five kinds of mahāpātakins (those who have done the great pāpas):

those guilty of brahmahatyā (killing a brahmin)
those guilty of surāpāna (drinking wine)
thieves
those guilty of guru-talpa-gamana (going to the teacher’s wife)
those who keep company with such people

He ate with them, lived with them, slept beside them, touched them and looked at them for a long time. In this way Durācāra lost his brahmaṇatva (brahmin nature) completely. The text names the steps of the loss. One day of such company destroys one part, two days destroy two parts, and beyond a certain point a man becomes equal to the mahāpātakin himself.

So Durācāra was stripped of his brahmin nature, and his gathered pāpas held him like the coils of a serpent. A vetāla (a spirit that possesses a body) seized him. Possessed, he wandered from one country to another and from one forest to another. He did not know where he was going.

By the puṇya (merit) that remained from his earlier lives, fate carried him to Veṅkaṭādri, which purifies all pāpas. There, still possessed by the vetāla, he fell into the holy waters of Jābāli Tīrtha and sank. When he came up, the vetāla had let him go. He came to himself. He was amazed to find that he was far from the Kāverī, at a river near Veṅkaṭādri that he did not know. (Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 25)

The ṛshi Jābāli’s teaching

As Durācāra came out of the tīrtha, he met the great yogī Jābāli, who lives beside it. He bowed to Jābāli and asked in wonder how he had come there from the Kāverī.

Jābāli explained. Durācāra had kept company with the five kinds of mahāpātakins, and all his brahmin nature had been destroyed. A vetāla had therefore possessed him. The vetāla had driven him across great distances, without his knowing, to Jābāli Tīrtha. This place is so powerful that brahmahatyā and all the other mahāpātakas are destroyed by bathing in it. When Durācāra fell into the tīrtha, his pāpas were destroyed, and the hold of the vetāla was broken with them.

Jābāli went on to tell who the vetāla was. In a former life he had been a brahmin. He had failed to do the pārvaṇa śrāddha on the day his father died. His pitṛdevatās (the devas of the fathers) gave him a śāpa (a curse) to become a vetāla. Now he had bathed in the tīrtha and was freed from the state of a vetāla. He reached Vishṇuloka. (Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 25)

Its special power

The phalaśruti (the verses on the fruit of the rite) of Jābāli Tīrtha says that it removes pāpas for which the smṛtis give no prāyaścitta:

Nindā (scorn) of a brahmin, for which there is no prāyaścitta
Viśvāsaghāta (betrayal of trust), for which there is no prāyaścitta
Kṛtaghnatā (ingratitude), for which there is no prāyaścitta
Sodara-bhārya-saṃsarga (union with one’s brother’s wife), for which there is no prāyaścitta

Bathing in Jābāli Tīrtha destroys all of these.

It also removes the pāpa of a brahmin who bows to a Śiva-liṅga or a Vishṇu-vigraha (image) set up by a śūdra. The great ṛshis have said that the smṛtis give no prāyaścitta for this.

After he bathed here, Durācāra was freed of all his pāpas and got back his own nature. He reached Vishṇuloka and did not return. (Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 25)

Sources

Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 25