Śamyāprāsa
Śamyāprāsa · śamyā-prāsa, “the cast of the śamyā (a wooden pin)”
Śamyāprāsa is an āśrama on the western bank of the river Sarasvatī. In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 7, Sūta tells the ṛshis that it was here, in his own āśrama beautiful with clusters of badarī trees, that Vyāsa Maharshi sat in samādhi after Nārada‘s visit, saw the Ādi-purusha and his māyā, and composed the Śrīmad Bhāgavata Saṃhitā. There the ṛshis ceaselessly perform the karmas taught in the Veda.
The āśrama on the Sarasvatī
When Nārada had gone, Śaunaka asked Sūta what Vyāsa did next. Sūta answered: “On the western bank of the river Sarasvatī, whose presiding devatā is Brahmā, there is an āśrama called Śamyāprāsa. There the ṛshis ceaselessly perform the karmas taught in the Veda.” Vyāsa sat there in his own āśrama, beautiful with clusters of badarī (jujube) trees, did ācamana, and made his mind one-pointed.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 7
Vyāsa’s samādhi and the Bhāgavata
In a mind made pure and one-pointed by bhakti-yoga, Vyāsa saw the Ādi-purusha, Parameśvara, and the māyā-śakti that rests on him. He saw how the jīva, though by its own nature Parabrahma, is wholly deluded by that māyā, thinks itself made of the guṇas sattva, rajas and tamas, and through that false identification suffers the misfortune called saṃsāra.
Knowing that the direct means to remove that misfortune is bhakti-yoga directed to Śrī Hari, Vyāsa composed the Śrīmad Bhāgavata Saṃhitā for people who do not know it. Sūta gives its phala: even while one is hearing the Bhāgavata, bhakti rises for Śrī Kṛshṇa, Purushottama, and shatters grief over the past, delusion about the present and fear of the future. Vyāsa composed the Saṃhitā, examined it once more, and had his son Śuka Maharshi, who was established in ātma-jñāna, study it.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 7
The bank of the Sarasvatī before Nārada came
Three chapters earlier, Sūta tells how Vyāsa, after dividing the Veda and composing the Mahābhārata, still found no contentment in his heart. One day at sunrise he bathed in the waters of the Sarasvatī and sat alone; on another day, with a somewhat dejected mind, he sat in a solitary place on the holy bank of the Sarasvatī and reflected that he had not yet fully described the dharmas that bring one to Bhagavān Śrī Hari. It was there that Nārada came to him.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 4
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 4, 7