Vāc
Vāc, “speech”
Jyeshṭhā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Jyeshṭhā.
Vāc is the divine speech, the voice that dwells in the mouths of Brahmā. When she spoke an untrue word, Hari and Hara pronounced a śāpa (curse) that she would become a river, and she was freed and regained her own body by joining the Gaṅgā. Where she joins the Gautamī she is called Vāṇī; in the Bhāgīrathī the same devī is called Sarasvatī.
The column of light
In the Gautamī Māhātmya, Brahmā tells Nārada, in his own words, the account of the tīrtha Vāṇīsaṅgama. Long ago Brahmā and Vishṇu disputed who was the greater, each saying, “I am great.” Between them Mahādeva appeared as a column of fiery light, and a divine voice said: “He who sees the limit of this column is the greater. It does not befit you to quarrel.” Vishṇu went downward, came back quickly and sat by the column. Brahmā went upward, farther and farther, and could not reach its end, and he returned to Īśa.
Then the thought came to Brahmā that he would declare he had seen the limit. But he would not speak an untruth through his truthful faces, for among all pāpas there is none greater than a lie. So he made a fifth face, terrible to look at, like the face of a donkey, and through it he said to Vishṇu: “The end of this column has been seen by me, O Janārdana. So the greatness is mine.” As he spoke, Hari and Śaṅkara took a single form, joined like the sun and the moon, and Brahmā praised them both.
The śāpa and the release
Hari and Hara pronounced a śāpa on Vāc, the speech that had uttered the untruth: “O evil lady, you shall become a river. There is no greater pāpa than falsehood.” Vāc took the form of a river. Then these words too were spoken to her: “Since you uttered a lie, though you dwell in the voice of Brahmā, you shall become invisible.”
Knowing the śāpa, Vāc bowed to Hari and Hara and praised them again and again, asking to be freed. Honoured by the devas and entreated by her, Hari and Hara were pleased and spoke to her with affection: “O gentle one, sanctifier of the worlds, O splendid one, when you merge in the Gaṅgā your body shall be pure once more.” Saying “So be it,” the divine Vāc joined the Gaṅgā, and she regained her own body after joining the Bhāgīrathī and the Gautamī, a thing hard even for the devas.
Vāṇī and Sarasvatī
Where she joins the Gautamī, the giver of puṇya is known as Vāṇī; in the Bhāgīrathī the same devī is called Sarasvatī. Both confluences are honoured by the whole world: the Sarasvatīsaṅgama on the Bhāgīrathī and the Vāṇīsaṅgama on the Gautamī. The place where Vāc worshipped Bhagavān Śiva, the ruler of the devas, and was freed of her śāpa is a tīrtha honoured everywhere; there Śiva dwells as Vāgīśvara, the Īśvara of speech. Brahmā too shook off the pāpa of the untrue word and went back to his own abode.
The phala
The Brahma Purāṇa says that the Vāṇīsaṅgama rids one of all pāpa and grants all cherished desires; snāna (the holy bath) and dāna (gifts) there dispel even the pāpa of brahmahatyā. One who stays pure, bathes at the confluence and has darśana of Vāgīśvara attains moksha by that alone, and one who performs dāna, homa or upavāsa (fasting) there is not born again. There are one thousand nine hundred tīrthas on either side of the river there, which dispel the pāpas of many births.
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 65