Vasordhārā Prayer

Vasordhārā Prārthanā, “the prayer of the stream of wealth”

The Vasordhārā prayer is the one verse that the yajamāna says to Bhagavān Janārdana while the vasordhārā, a stream of water, milk or ghee from a pierced pot, falls on his head in the Bhīma Dvādaśī. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira how Pulastya Muni taught it to King Bhīma of Vidarbha, in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa.

The setting

King Bhīma of Vidarbha, father of Damayantī, asked Pulastya Muni, who had come to him on pilgrimage, for a vrata or gift by which beings might be freed with little effort from the sorrows of saṃsāra. Pulastya taught him the fast of the bright dvādaśī of Māgha, a secret vrata to be told only to a Vishṇu-bhakta of controlled senses. A maṇḍapa ten hastas square is built with a vedī of five hastas and a five-coloured maṇḍala, and in its centre an image of four-armed Bhagavān Janārdana is set facing west. Before him two posts carry a crossbeam with a sling, and on it a pot of gold, silver, copper or clay, with a thousand holes, a hundred or one, filled with water, milk or ghee. The yajamāna, in white cloth and sandal, kuśa in hand, sits before Bhagavān Janārdana and, with a one-pointed mind, receives the falling stream on his head, bowing and reciting this mantra.

The prayer

नमस्ते देवदेवेश नमस्ते भुवनेश्वर।
व्रतेनानेन मां पाहि परमात्मन् नमोऽस्तु ते॥

namaste devadeveśa namaste bhuvaneśvara |
vratenānena māṃ pāhi paramātman namo’stu te ||

Namaskāra to you, lord of the lords of the devas; namaskāra to you, lord of the worlds. By this vrata protect me, Paramātmā. Namaskāra to you.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 74

The phala

While the brāhmaṇas offer homa and recite the Vishṇu Sūkta amid conches and music, the yajamāna keeps vigil, hearing the Harivaṃśa and the Mahābhārata. The vasordhārā falling upon Bhagavān Janārdana gives every siddhi. Pulastya says that by this vrata even the worst doers of pāpa are freed from pāpa; it gives more than hundreds of Vājapeya and Atirātra yajñas; those who keep it gain saubhāgya, long life and health for seven births, reach Vishṇupura, Rudraloka and Brahmaloka, and return as righteous cakravartī kings. Because Bhīma asked for it, it is known by his name as the Bhīma Dvādaśī.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 73–74

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 73–74