Pavamāna
Pavamāna, “the purifier”
Pavamāna was a king of the eastern land, prosperous, devoted to the dharma of a kshatriya and a protector of devas and brāhmaṇas. On the bank of the Gautamī he met Ciñcika, a bird with two beaks who had been a wicked brāhmaṇa in a former life, and at the bird’s plea he took him to the tīrtha of Bhagavān Vishṇu as Gadādhara, where Ciñcika bathed in the Gaṅgā and went to svarga. Ever since, the tīrtha bears the king’s name with three others. Brahmā tells this account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa.
The bird with two beaks
On the white mountain on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā, where Gadādhara (Bhagavān Vishṇu, bearer of the gadā) dwells, there lived a lord of birds of the Bheruṇḍa kind named Ciñcika. The mountain was full of trees that blossomed and bore fruit in every season, visited by brāhmaṇas, siddhas, cāraṇas, gandharvas, kinnaras and devas.
King Pavamāna came there with a great army and his purohita, and in the forest he sported with enchanting women amid dance and music. Bow in hand, among his hunters, he grew weary and rested under a tree on the bank of the Gautamī, full of birds, a tree like a householder who knows dharma and is sought by people of every āśrama. Looking up, he saw a stout, splendid bird with two beaks, tired and worried. “Who are you?” asked the king. “Here no one is distressed. From where has sorrow come to you?”
Ciñcika sighed and answered that he feared no one and no one feared him, yet the mountain full of flowers and fruits was a void to him: he found no satisfaction, no sleep, no rest and no peace. Astonished, the king asked what pāpa he had done, in this birth or another, that he was not satisfied even with two beaks where every creature there was satisfied with one mouth, and promised to save him from his fear.
Ciñcika’s former life
Ciñcika said: “I was an excellent brāhmaṇa, master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, of noble birth and known for my intelligence. But I loved quarrels and worked against others; I said one thing to a man’s face and another behind him; I grieved at others’ prosperity, cheated the world, was ungrateful and untruthful, and expert at speaking ill of others. I betrayed friends, masters and gurus, and gave pain to many by thought, word and deed. I separated couples, broke up communities and crossed the bounds of good conduct. In the three worlds there was no doer of pāpa like me. So I was born with two beaks, and because I made others suffer, I suffer now.”
He went on to teach the king that pāpas equal to brahmahatyā are incurred even without killing. A kshatriya who kills a fleeing foe, one who has laid down his weapons, one who has turned his face away, one seated unaware, or one who says “I am afraid” is counted a slayer of a brāhmaṇa. So is one who forgets the Veda he has learnt, who addresses his superiors with “thou”, or who insults elders and gurus; one who speaks sweetly to a man’s face and harshly behind him, who thinks one thing, says another and does another, who swears by his gurus or hates them, who censures brāhmaṇas, who feigns humility, or who is evil-minded; and one who out of hatred censures the devas, the Vedas, the knowledge of the ātmā and the assembly of good brāhmaṇas. “Though I was such,” said Ciñcika, “I put on the conduct of a good man for pride and prestige, and so I became a bird. Yet I must have done some good deed somewhere, for I remember my former life.”
To Gadādhara and the Gaṅgā
Pavamāna asked by what holy rite he could be freed. Ciñcika said: “On this same mountain, on the northern bank of the Gautamī, is a tīrtha named Gadādhara that destroys all pāpas and grants every desire, as I have heard from great ṛshis. Nothing but the Gautamī and Bhagavān Vishṇu takes away sorrow. O king of holy rites, take me there. By my own effort I could not see that deity; by your grace I shall see Gadādhara, the ocean of mercy, who knows my misery untold, and after seeing him I shall go to svarga.”
So the king showed him Bhagavān Gadādhara and the holy Gaṅgā. Ciñcika praised the river: “O Gaṅgā, O Gautamī, a man is called a doer of pāpa only until he sees you, the purifier of the three worlds. Lift me up, though I have done every pāpa; apart from you, river born of the lotus feet of Vishṇu, embodied beings have no other refuge.” Purified by his steadfast faith, the bird bathed in her, praying “O Gaṅgā, save me”, bowed to Gadādhara, and with Pavamāna’s leave went to svarga at once while the dwellers on the mountain watched. Pavamāna returned to his city with his followers.
The tīrtha
The tīrtha destroys every disease, dispels every worry and brings peace to all. Those who know the Vedas call it Pavamāna, Ciñcika, Gadādhara and Koṭitīrtha. A holy rite performed there gives crores upon crores of times its fruit.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 94
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 94