Brahmarākshasa
Brahmarākshasa · brahma-rākshasa, “a brāhmaṇa become a rākshasa”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of brahma (a brāhmaṇa, one bound to the Veda) and rākshasa: “a brāhmaṇa who has become a rākshasa”.
Meaning: a rākshasa-birth that comes as the fruit of grave pāpa (wrongdoing): the fall of a sannyāsin from his vow, or the taking of others’ wives or of a brāhmaṇa’s wealth.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa names two roads to this birth.
The fallen sannyāsin. Agni Deva teaches that for a brāhmaṇa who has taken up the naishṭhika dharma, the vow of lifelong discipline, and fallen from it, there is no prāyaścitta (expiation) that brings purity: he is an ātmaghātaka, a destroyer of his own self. Such a sannyāsin is born as a vulture with a life of a hundred years; then as a dog for twelve years; then as a bhāsa bird for twelve years; then as a boar for ten years; then as a thorny tree without flowers or fruit. Burned by a forest fire, he perishes with his companions, and for a thousand years he lies without consciousness. When the thousand years are full, he becomes a brahmarākshasa. He attains moksha by tāraka yoga, the yoga that carries across; “therefore yoga alone should be practised” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 165).
The taker of others’ wives. In the account of the narakas and the births that follow each pāpa, Agni Deva says that one who takes the wives of others or steals the wealth of a brāhmaṇa is born as a brahmarākshasa in an empty forest (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 371).
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. In the Nārāyaṇa Kavaca, the great śaṅkha of Śrī Hari, whose sound blown by Śrī Kṛshṇa makes the hearts of enemies tremble, is asked to drive away the beings of cruel gaze: the rākshasas, the pramatha-gaṇas, the pretas, the mātṛkās, the piśācas, the brahma-rākshasas and others (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 8). At the city of Bāṇa, the brahma-rākshasas were among the followers of Bhagavān Śiva whom Śrī Kṛshṇa drove away with sharp arrows from his divine bow Śārṅga, with the bhūtas, pramathas, yakshas, ḍākinīs, rākshasas, vetālas, vināyakas, pretas, mātṛs, piśācas and kūshmāṇḍas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 63). Among the narakas, misers proud of their wealth, who look at everyone with suspicion, know no happiness and guard their wealth like brahmarākshasas, heaping up pāpas to gather and keep it, fall into the naraka called Sūcīmukha, where they are sewn in every limb with needle and thread (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 26).
Related terms: Rākshasa · Sannyāsa · Pāpa · Prāyaścitta · Naraka · Tāraka yoga
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 165, 371
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 26; Skandha 6, Chapter 8; Skandha 10, Chapter 63