Śīlā and Kauṇḍinya
Śīlā Kauṇḍinya · śīlā kauṇḍinya, “Śīlā and Kauṇḍinya”
Punarvasu has other meanings too: see all meanings of Punarvasu. Ananta has other meanings too: see all meanings of Ananta. Kauṇḍinya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kauṇḍinya.
Śīlā and Kauṇḍinya is the account that Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, to show who first kept the Ananta Caturdaśī Vrata and what it gives. Śīlā, the daughter of the brāhmaṇa Sumantu and of Dīkshā, is given in marriage to Kauṇḍinya Muni. Sent from her father’s house with only leftovers for the road by her harsh stepmother Karkaśā, she meets women on a river bank doing pūjā of Janārdana, learns the vrata from them and ties on the cord of fourteen knots. By its power her home fills with wealth. Then Kauṇḍinya in anger breaks the cord, and all their fortune goes.
In sorrow Kauṇḍinya goes into the forest, without food, seeking Bhagavān Ananta. He asks a mango tree, a cow with her calf, a bull, two ponds, a donkey and an elephant, and none knows Ananta. When he falls to the earth in despair, Bhagavān Ananta appears to him as an old brāhmaṇa and then grants darśana of his divine four-armed Viśvarūpa. He tells Kauṇḍinya who each of those beings was in a past birth and sends him home to keep the vrata. In the end Kauṇḍinya and Śīlā are established in svarga as the nakshatra Punarvasu.
Who is Ananta
Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira of a vrata called Ananta Caturdaśī, destroyer of all pāpa, giver of welfare and fulfiller of all desires, kept on the caturdaśī (fourteenth lunar day) of the śukla paksha of Bhādrapada. Yudhishṭhira asks: is this Ananta the nāga Śesha, or another nāga, or Paramātmā, or Brahman? Whose name is Ananta?
Śrī Kṛshṇa answers: “Ananta is my own name. I stand as the divisions of time: kalā, kāshṭhā, muhūrta, day, paksha (fortnight), month, ṛtu (season), ayana (half-year), saṃvatsara (year), yuga and kalpa. I myself was born in the family of Vasudeva, to take away the burden of the world and destroy the dānavas. Pārtha, know me to be Vishṇu, Jishṇu, Hara, Śiva, Brahmā, Bhāskara, Śesha, the all-pervading Īśvara, and Ananta also. I have said this to create your faith.”
Yudhishṭhira then asks for the māhātmya and method of the vrata, who first kept it and what puṇya it gives, and Śrī Kṛshṇa tells this ancient account.
Śīlā in her father’s house
In the Kṛta Yuga there lived a brāhmaṇa named Sumantu, of Vasishṭha‘s gotra. He was married by Vedic rite to Dīkshā, the daughter of Bhṛgu Maharshi. They had a daughter with all good marks, named Śīlā. After some time her mother Dīkshā died of fever, and that pativratā (wife devoted to her husband) reached svarga.
Sumantu then married a maiden named Karkaśā. She was like her name: ill-natured, harsh, always quarrelsome and of a fierce form. Śīlā lived in her father’s house, drawing the auspicious signs of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the svastika, the padma, the śaṅkha and others, on walls, thresholds and pillars, and doing arcana (pūjā) of them.
The marriage and the road
Sumantu grew anxious about Śīlā’s marriage and gave her in marriage to Kauṇḍinya Muni. After the wedding he said to his wife: “Devī, some dowry should be given to our son-in-law as a gift of satisfaction.” Karkaśā became angry. She pulled down the maṇḍapa (pavilion) built at the house, gave a few leftovers of food as pātheya (provisions for the road), said “Go!” and shut the door.
Kauṇḍinya left slowly with Śīlā by bullock cart. It became noon, and they reached the bank of a river.
Śīlā learns the vrata
There Śīlā saw women in fine clothes doing pūjā of Janārdana with bhakti, each separately, on that caturdaśī. She went to them and asked: “Devīs, whom do you worship here, and what is this vrata called?” They said: “This vrata is known as Ananta Caturdaśī.” Śīlā said: “I too will keep this vrata. What is its method, which devatā receives pūjā in it, and what is given in dāna? Tell me.”
The women gave her the method, which is set out as a rite on the Ananta Caturdaśī Vrata page:
- Make naivedya (food offering) of a prastha (a measure) of cooked food and go to the river bank.
- Bathe there, and in a maṇḍala (sacred diagram) do pūjā of Bhagavān Vishṇu in the form of Ananta with gandha (sandal paste), flowers, dhūpa (incense), dīpa (lamp) and the other upacāras (offerings of service). Listen to the kathā (sacred account).
- Offer him the naivedya. Give half of it to a brāhmaṇa and keep half to eat as prasāda.
- Before Bhagavān Ananta place a doraka (cord) with fourteen knots and anoint it with kuṅkuma and the like.
- Offer that doraka to him. Then a man ties it on the right hand and a woman on the left.
- Tie it with this mantra:
अनन्तसंसारमहासमुद्रे भग्नान् समभ्युद्धर वासुदेव ।
अनन्तरूपे विनियोजितात्मा ह्यनन्तरूपाय नमो नमस्ते।
anantasaṃsāramahāsamudre bhagnān samabhyuddhara vāsudeva |
anantarūpe viniyojitātmā hyanantarūpāya namo namaste|
O Vāsudeva, I am sinking in the great ocean of endless saṃsāra. Lift me out. Join me also to your Ananta form. O you of endless form, my salutations to you again and again.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 94
After tying the doraka, one eats the naivedya. At the end one meditates on Anantadeva, Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa of universal form, and goes home.
Śīlā kept the vrata by this method. She offered her pātheya, the leftovers given for the road, gave half to a brāhmaṇa, ate half herself and tied the doraka.
The fortune of the vrata
Just then her husband Kauṇḍinya came there, and the two went on by bullock cart to their home. As soon as they reached it, by the power of the vrata, their home became full of wealth, grain and cattle. Śīlā shone with necklaces of gems, pearls and gold and with fine clothes, and looked like Sāvitrī herself.
The broken doraka
Some time later, one day, Kauṇḍinya in anger broke the Ananta doraka tied on Śīlā’s hand. By that reversal of karma all their Lakshmī was lost. Thieves stole the cattle and the rest. Everything was destroyed. Quarrels broke out among them, friends cut off ties and poverty ruled their home, because Bhagavān Ananta had been dishonoured.
The search in the forest
In sorrow Kauṇḍinya went into a dense forest and thought: when will I have the good fortune of the darśana of Bhagavān Ananta? Again he kept the vrata of Bhagavān Ananta, without food and in brahmacarya, and did japa (repetition) of his names. Overcome with longing for darśana, he went on to another empty forest.
There he saw a mango tree full of fruit and flowers and asked it: “Have you seen Bhagavān Ananta?” It said: “Brāhmaṇa Devatā, I do not know Ananta.” Asking the trees and others in this way, he saw a cow with her calf, grazing. “Have you seen Ananta?” he asked. The cow said: “Vibhu, I do not know Ananta.” He went on and saw a bull sitting on the grass, and the bull too said he had not seen Ananta. Going further he saw two lovely ponds and asked them, and they too showed that they did not know. In the same way he asked a donkey and an elephant, and they answered no. Then Kauṇḍinya, in utter despair, fell on the earth.
The darśana of Bhagavān Ananta
At that moment, in grace, Bhagavān Ananta appeared before Kauṇḍinya Muni in the form of an old brāhmaṇa, and then granted him darśana of his divine four-armed Viśvarūpa. Full of joy, Kauṇḍinya prayed and asked forgiveness for his offences: “I am pāpa, my acts are pāpa, my self is pāpa, I am born of pāpa. Protect me, O lotus-eyed Puṇḍarīkāksha, and be the remover of all pāpa. Today my birth has borne fruit, and my life is well lived.”
The past births of the beings in the forest
Kauṇḍinya asked: “Bhagavān Ananta, who were the mango tree, the bull, the cow, the pushkariṇīs (ponds), the donkey and the elephant I met in the terrible forest? Tell me truly.” Bhagavān Ananta explained:
- The mango tree was in a past birth a learned brāhmaṇa who knew the Veda, but was very proud of his learning and gave no vidyā (knowledge) to disciples. So he reached birth as a tree.
- The cow was vasundharā (earth) without fertile power. That land was wholly barren, so it became a cow.
- The bull had taken refuge in truth and dharma, and was Dharma himself in form.
- The two pushkariṇīs were two brāhmaṇa women, sisters, who laid down dharma and adharma and kept up an improper dispute over them. They gave no dāna to any brāhmaṇa, guest or hungry person. So the two sisters became ponds, and here too they keep clashing in the form of waves.
- The donkey was in a past birth a person of great anger.
- The elephant was in a past birth a corrupter of dharma.
“Vipra,” said Bhagavān Ananta, “I have told you everything. Now go home and keep the Ananta Vrata, and I will give you the place of an excellent nakshatra. You yourself will obtain sons, grandsons and happiness in the world, and at the end moksha.” Having given this vara (boon), Bhagavān Ananta withdrew.
Punarvasu
Kauṇḍinya came home and kept the Ananta Vrata with bhakti. With his wife Śīlā, that dhārmika pair obtained the highest happiness, and at the end they were established in svarga as the nakshatra named Punarvasu.
The phalaśruti
One who keeps this vrata or hears this kathā also merges in the form of Bhagavān Ananta.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 94
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 94