Kalyāṇa-Bhīma Dvādaśī
Kalyāṇa-Bhīma Dvādaśī, simply known as Kalyana Bhima Dvadashi, Sanskrit: कल्याण-भीम द्वादशी, Telugu: కళ్యాణ భీమ ద్వాదశి, Hindi: कल्याण भीम द्वादशी.
The Kalyāṇa-Bhīma Dvādaśī Vrata, also called the Kalyāṇinī Dvādaśī, is a three-day vrata kept on Māgha Śukla Daśamī, Ekādaśī and Dvādaśī. It is offered to Bhagavān Vishṇu, with Lakshmī and Garuḍa. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa taught it to Bhīmasena at Dvārakā. The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa gives it in Chapter 69.
Brahmā first made this vrata known as the Kalyāṇinī Vrata in earlier kalpas. In this Vārāha Kalpa, Bhīmasena became its ādikartā (first keeper), at the word of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The Dvādaśī vidhi has a maṇḍapa (pavilion) with a water-kalaśa hung above it, whose dripping stream falls on the head of the yajamāna (the keeper) through the night. It also has a Vishṇu homa by twelve brāhmaṇas and the gift of thirteen cows with gold horns and silver hooves. The phala is full moksha (liberation).
Who taught it, and when
In the Rāthantara Kalpa, Parameśvara taught this vrata to Brahmā on Mandara Mountain. Brahmā said that in the twenty-seventh Dvāpara Yuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa would teach it to Bhīmasena in Dvārakā, and that Bhīmasena would be its ādikartā in this Vārāha Kalpa.
In that later age Bhīmasena, the son of Pāṇḍu, would ask Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in his court at Dvārakā how to win moksha with the least tapas (austerity). Bhīmasena had the stomach-fire called Vṛka, which Parameśvara himself gave him. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa would then teach him this highest vrata. He would call it the greatest of all vratas and the secret that equals all yajñas. It overcomes heaps of pāpa (sin) and calms all sorrows.
The three days
Daśamī, the first day
The yajamāna:
- anoints himself with ghee (abhyañjana) and bathes with sesame;
- worships Bhagavān Vishṇu with nine names, one for each limb:
- Sarvātmane for the head (śiraḥ)
- Vaikuṇṭhāya for the neck (kaṇṭha)
- Śrīvatsa-dhāriṇe for the chest (uraḥ)
- Dāmodarāya for the belly (udara)
- Pañca-śarāya for the loins (medhra)
- Saubhāgya-nāthāya for the thighs (ūru)
- Bhūta-dhāriṇe for the knees (jānunī)
- Atulāya for the shanks (jaṅghe)
- Viśva-sṛje for the feet (pādau);
- also worships Lakshmī with the names Śrī, Śānti, Lavā, Śrī, Pushī, Tushī and Dhṛti;
- and worships Garuḍa with the names Vihaṅga-nātha, Vāyu-vega, Pakshī and Visha-pramathana;
- eats only rice cooked in cow’s milk, in silence, after walking a hundred steps;
- at dusk cleans his teeth (danta-dhāvana) and does ācamana (sipping water), facing east or north;
- sleeps on the ground after praying Namo Nārāyaṇāya and saying “I take refuge”.
Ekādaśī, the second day
He takes no food at all (nirāhāra). The yajamāna:
- worships Keśava at length;
- prays: “Tomorrow I will bathe, make a homa with milk or ghee, and eat with brāhmaṇas. Let me finish this vrata without any obstacle.”;
- sleeps on the ground after hearing itihāsa.
Dvādaśī, the third day
This is the main day. The yajamāna:
- bathes in a river with sacred mṛttikā (earth);
- does not see, touch or speak with veda-bāhyas (people outside the Veda);
- does sandhyāvandana and pitṛ-tarpaṇa (water for the ancestors);
- worships Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa and Bhagavān Sūrya.
The maṇḍapa and the dripping kalaśa. Build a maṇḍapa eight or ten cubits square. In its centre raise a vedi (altar) four cubits square. Put up a toraṇa (festooned arch). Hang above it a drip-kalaśa, a vessel of water with a hole the size of a black-gram seed, so that the dripping stream falls on the yajamāna’s head as he sits through the night on a kṛshṇājina (black antelope skin). The kalaśa also drips cow’s milk (go-kshīra) on the head of Bhagavān Vishṇu, as his abhisheka (bath).
The homa. Make a kuṇḍa (fire-pit) half a cubit square with three mekhalās (raised rings). Set thirteen water-kalaśas at the homa place, decorated with the five gems (pañcaratna), shoots of the fig tree (mēḍi) and new white cloth. Then:
- four Ṛgvedīya brāhmaṇas, facing north, perform the homa;
- four Yajurvedīya brāhmaṇas recite the Rudra mantras;
- four Sāmavedīya brāhmaṇas chant the sāma-mantras that have Bhagavān Vishṇu as their devatā;
- the havis (offering) is barley (yava), ghee, sesame and a charu of cow’s milk, each in the measure of a black-gram seed.
Honouring the brāhmaṇas. Twelve brāhmaṇas are honoured with clothes (vastra), garlands (mālya) and sandal paste (gandha), with gold rings, bracelets and gold ornaments, and with beds and bedding. The ācārya gets double the dakshiṇā of each ṛtvik (priest).
Trayodaśī, the next morning
Cows (pāḍī cows) are given to thirteen brāhmaṇas, or to a second set of thirteen. Each cow comes with:
- gold horns;
- silver hooves;
- a bronze milking vessel;
- a calf;
- a fine white cloth over it;
- an anointing with sandal (candana).
The yajamāna, with his wife and children, walks eight steps with the brāhmaṇas as they leave.
Those who kept it before, and the phala
Bhagavān Kṛshṇa told Bhīmasena that many great beings had kept this vrata in earlier lives:
- Sūrya bathed on this auspicious Dvādaśī under the stream of a kalaśa with a thousand holes, and so gained his shining form.
- Urvaśī, an Ābhīra cowherd girl in an earlier life, kept this vrata and became the first among the divine apsarasas.
- Śacī (Indrāṇī, the wife of Indra) was a vaiśya maiden in an earlier life. She kept this vrata and was born again as the daughter of Puloma.
- Satyabhāmā, the wife of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, was once a servant girl who took part in this vrata.
- Even the present Mahendra, the devas, the gaṇa-devatās and the remaining dānavas all kept this vrata once.
The one who keeps this vrata frees his pitṛs (ancestors) and aṅgaras from naraka (hell). One who reads or hears this account reaches brahmatva. The merit of only hearing this vrata-kalpa destroys all the mahā-pātakas (great sins).
Sources
- Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 69