Sanakādi

Sanakādi · sanaka-ādi, “Sanaka and his brothers”

Kāma has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kāma. Yajña has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yajña. Jñāna has other meanings too: see all meanings of Jñāna.

The Sanakādi are the four Kumāras: Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatkumāra and Sanatsujāta. They are the mind-born sons of Brahmā. At the very moment of their birth they chose a life of eternal brahmacarya and renunciation. Since then they have roamed all the worlds. They are digambara (sky-clad, that is, naked). They look like young children, yet they hold the deepest jñāna (knowledge) and vijñāna (realised knowledge) in all creation. In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa they visit Bhagavān Rāma in his garden at Ayodhyā during the Rāma Rājya (the rule of Bhagavān Rāma) and sing a stotra in his praise. The Vāmana Purāṇa tells that they arose from Brahmā’s mind when he first thought of creation, names them in another account as the four sons of Dharma and Ahiṃsā, learned in the yoga-śāstra, and remembers them at every dawn in the suprabhāta stotra of Śaṅkara. The Agni Purāṇa places Sanaka, Sanandana and the other siddhas in Janaloka, gives them tarpaṇa (offerings of water) in the daily rite, asks them with the other maharshis to protect the king, names Sanandana and the others as joined with the contemplation of Brahman, and gives Sanaka’s own teaching in the Yama-gītā: when desire is given up, realised knowledge and the supreme state come.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa names them Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra and counts them first among the avatāras of Śrī Hari: in the Kaumāra-sarga Ādi-Nārāyaṇa himself took their form, taught unbroken brahmacarya, and restored the ātma-jñāna that had vanished in the pralaya (dissolution) of the previous kalpa. Born of Brahmā’s mind before the devas and before Marīci and the Prajāpatis, they would not take up the path of creating offspring, for they were fixed in ātma-jñāna and in undivided bhakti for Vāsudeva. They are digambaras who look like boys of five, travelling the worlds by the path of the sky. The Bhāgavata tells how, stopped at the seventh gate of Vaikuṇṭha, they pronounced the śāpa by which Jaya and Vijaya, the door-keepers of Śrī Hari, were born three times as asuras and rākshasas, and how Śrī Hari himself came on foot with Lakshmīdevī, received their stuti and said that they had given the śāpa by his own prompting. Sanatkumāra, speaking for them, taught Pṛthu the path to the highest good; in Janaloka they held a brahma-satra (an inquiry into Brahman held together) at which Sanandana told the Veda-stuti; and Śrī Hari, in the form of Haṃsa, answered their question on the final limit of yoga.

Who they are

The four Kumāras are:

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa calls them naishṭhika-brahmacārins (lifelong celibates) from the very moment of birth. From the instant they appeared from Brahmā’s mind, they chose eternal celibacy and a life of renunciation, and they never turned back. They roam the three worlds digambara. They keep the look of young children and have not aged since they were created.

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa also calls them holders of divine jñāna and vijñāna beyond all others. Kākabhuśuṇḍi names the Sanakādi together with Śuka and the great Maheśvaras as those who never stop thinking of the divine account of Bhagavān Rāma.

In the Saro Māhātmya of the Vāmana Purāṇa, Sanatkumāra himself tells Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi the origin of Brahmā and of creation. Brahmā arose in the middle of the great egg, and the place where the egg stood became the Sannihita lake. Then Brahmā, of unmanifest birth, thought of the work of creation, and from his mind arose Sanaka and the other ṛshis. When he resolved again for the creation of beings, the seven ṛshis, the Prajāpatis, were born (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22).

Per Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 34, the four Kumāras are the sons of Dharma by his wife Ahiṃsā, all four learned in the yoga-śāstra: the eldest Sanatkumāra, the second Sanātana, the third Sanaka and the fourth Sanandana.

The visit to Bhagavān Rāma in Ayodhyā

In the happy days of the Rāma Rājya, Bhagavān Rāma was walking with his three brothers and Hanumān in an upavana (garden grove) near Ayodhyā. While they walked in this lovely grove, the Sanakādi came, wishing for darśana (the sight) of Bhagavān Rāma.

Bhagavān Rāma received them with deep respect. He offered arghya and pādya, the water of honour given to distinguished guests, and gave them seats (āsana). Bharata, Lakshmaṇa, Śatrughna and Hanumān all bowed at the lotus feet of the Kumāras with true bhakti (devotion).

Then Bhagavān Rāma stood before them in humility and said: “O Ṛshi-puṅgavas (best of ṛshis)! The wise always say that the puṇya (merit) of meeting sādhus (holy people) like you comes only from puṇya gathered earlier. Today I am blessed with the darśana of your divine forms. This humble one has been truly lifted up, and his life has become worthwhile.”

The stotra of the Kumāras

The four Kumāras looked at the beautiful and auspicious divine form of Bhagavān Rāma without blinking. They were wholly charmed. Tears of ānanda (joy) ran from their eyes, and their bodies were covered with goosebumps of devotion. They stood with folded hands, in a state of deep absorption (tanmayatva), and praised him:

“O Rāma! You are advitīya (without a second), ananta (without end), anamaya (without affliction), sarvavyāpaka (all-pervading) and sakala-guṇa-saṃpanna (rich in all qualities). We hail you with victory.

“O trikāla-svarūpa (you who are the form of past, present and future), O Daśaratha-nandana (son of Daśaratha), the Vedas and Purāṇas sing your glories. O dayānidhi (ocean of grace), merely remembering you destroys all pāpa (sin). The moment your name is heard, all desires are fulfilled. The fortunate ones who are given your darśana reach mukti (liberation).

“You support the poor like the Kāmadhenu. You grant every wish like the Kalpa-vṛksha. You dry up the ocean of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) as Agastya drank the ocean. To your devotees you are very easy to approach. Take away their sorrows. Fulfil their wishes. Give them jñāna, vairāgya (non-attachment) and the wealth of your unbroken bhakti. You are the protector of your devotees.

“O Rājādhirāja (king of kings), O Lokarakshaka (protector of the worlds), O Devādi-deva (first among the devas)! In your mercy, sit always on the throne of our hearts. O Kāruṇya-mūrti (form of compassion), bless us. Give us your akhaṇḍa bhakti (unbroken devotion). Fill us with joy. O Bhagavān Rāma, accept our prayers and receive our namaskāra (bow).”

After praising Bhagavān Rāma in many ways, the Sanakādi Kumāras felt joy beyond measure and went back to the abode of Brahmā.

The Kumāras in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

Their birth and nature

Sūta tells Śaunaka that the first of the avatāras of the Purusha was in the Kaumāra-sarga, the creation of the youths: Ādi-Nārāyaṇa took the form of the maharshis Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra and taught brahmacarya, unbroken and hard to keep. Brahmā tells Nārada the same: before creation he performed tapas, wishing to create the lokas, and offered it to Śrī Hari, and from that offering Śrī Hari appeared in the form of the four Kumāras, Sanatkumāra, Sanaka, Sanandana and Sanātana. In that avatāra he taught well the ātma-jñāna that had vanished in the pralaya at the end of the previous kalpa, and the maharshis, simply by hearing his teaching, realised the ātma-svarūpa in their own buddhi.

Maitreya tells Vidura how they were born. When Brahmā saw that his first creation was full of ajñāna (ignorance), he purified his mind by dhyāna on Bhagavān Vishṇu and created the maharshis Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra. All of them were brahmacārīs, established in the ātma-jñāna that comes with the renunciation of all karma. Brahmā told his sons, “Beget offspring.” But they, fixed in the dharma of moksha and in bhakti for Vāsudeva with no other object, did not take to the path of pravṛtti (worldly action). When his sons set his word aside, there came forth from between Brahmā’s brows a boy of black and red: Rudra, born before all the devatās. So the Purāṇa calls the Sanaka brothers the elder brothers even of Rudra, and Brahmā calls them the elder brothers of Nārada.

Brahmā says they were born of his saṅkalpa (resolve) before the devas, and Nārada says they were born before Marīci and the other Prajāpatis, the first of all. They are four, digambaras (sky-clad); though old, they look like boys of five (or of five or six years, as Nārada tells it). They know the truth of the ātmā, have no desires in any world, and travel the worlds by the path of the sky. They have equal vision everywhere, know no suspicion, are stopped by no one, and move everywhere alike. Maitreya names Sanaka, Sanandana and Sanātana among the sons of Brahmā who never took up the gṛhastha āśrama (the householder’s life) and remained naishṭhika brahmacārīs (lifelong celibates). In Janaloka they are equal in study, tapas and conduct, and see their own people, enemies and the indifferent alike. When the sky darkened with the tejas in Diti‘s womb and portents filled the worlds, only the Sanaka brothers, knowing all, were not afraid. When Śrī Hari’s avatāras who taught adhyātma-yoga are counted, the four Kumāras are among them, and they taught it to Nārada.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 3; Skandha 2, Chapters 6–7; Skandha 3, Chapters 12, 15, 17; Skandha 4, Chapters 8, 22; Skandha 7, Chapter 1; Skandha 10, Chapter 87; Skandha 11, Chapter 4

The śāpa on Jaya and Vijaya at Vaikuṇṭha

Maitreya tells Vidura that Brahmā himself told this to the devas when they came to him in fear of the darkness spreading from Diti‘s womb. One day Sanaka and the others went to Vaikuṇṭha. They had never seen it before; they reached it by the power of their yoga and were filled with great bliss. In their eagerness for darśana of Śrī Hari they did not stop to look at the beauty of Vaikuṇṭha, and the door-keepers of the first six gates did not stop them. At the seventh gate, of gold set with diamonds, stood two devas of the same age, holding gadās, four-armed and dark blue, wearing armlets, kuṇḍalas, crowns and the vanamālā. The Kumāras, paying no heed to them and not waiting for leave, went on in as they had through the six gates. But the two, of a nature contrary to Śrī Hari’s, took the tejas of the maharshis for arrogance, mocked them and barred their way with a cane.

So, while the other devas of Vaikuṇṭha watched, the maharshis’ longing for the darśana of Bhagavān Vishṇu, dearest to them, was broken, and a little anger entered them and spread in their eyes. They said: “You have come to live here by worshipping Bhagavān Vishṇu, so his qualities should be in you. He has equal vision, but your nature is crooked. That full Bhagavān Śrī Hari is supreme peace; there is no quarrel in him, and no one here to be suspected. The whole universe is in his belly, and the jñānīs merge their sense of separateness in him as the space in a pot merges in the great space. If one sees even a little difference, fear arises. Where did this fear for Bhagavān Śrī Hari come from in you, dull-minded ones? We shall do you a great good. Because you hold the vision of difference, leave this Vaikuṇṭha and go to births full of pāpa, where jīvas have three enemies, kāma, krodha and lobha.” That brahmadaṇḍa, a brāhmaṇa’s śāpa in the form of words, cannot be turned away by any number of astras, and even Śrī Hari honours it and does not set it aside. The two attendants fell to the ground in great humility and held the Kumāras’ feet. “You have punished the offenders; let it be so,” they said. “Only let no delusion block our remembrance of Bhagavān Vishṇu in that low birth.”

In that very moment Śrī Hari Padmanābha knew that his servants had offended the great Sanaka and the others, and he came there on foot with Lakshmīdevī, attendants carrying the materials of pūjā behind him, cāmaras waving on either side and a moon-bright umbrella over his head. It was as if the samādhi-yoga of the maharshis had itself taken form and stood before them. He cast his glance of love on the maharshis and on the door-keepers alike. The Kumāras saw him dark blue, Lakshmīdevī shining on his chest, in yellow silk with a golden girdle, the vanamālā humming with bees, one hand resting on the divine Garuḍa and another twirling a lotus, the makara kuṇḍalas outshining lightning, the gem-set crown and the Kaustubha on his chest. However long they looked they were not satisfied, and they bowed their heads in bliss. The breeze carrying the fragrance of the tulasī from his lotus-feet entered their nostrils, and though they were firm in Brahman it thrilled them. Lifting their heads they gazed on his lip and his smile like jasmine, his face like a bud of the dark lily; lowering them, on his nails like rubies and his two feet; and then they meditated on him.

The stuti of the Kumāras. In order, they said:

  1. “O Ananta! You shine hidden in the very hearts of the wicked; today you are seen by our eyes. On the day our father, born from you, told us the secret of your svarūpa, you entered through our ears into the cave of our hearts.”
  2. “Now you have shown your bhaktas your form of pure sattva. We know it as the highest truth of the ātmā praised in the śāstras, which bhaktas free of ahaṅkāra and attachment realise in their hearts through bhakti-yoga by your grace.”
  3. “Your bhaktas, who have taken refuge in your feet alone and know the sweetness of your accounts, do not care even for the moksha your grace gives; still less for the posts of Indra and the rest, which tremble at the bending of your brows.”
  4. “If our minds rest like bees on your lotus-feet, if our words shine like tulasī by describing your feet, and if our ears are filled with your virtues, then let us be born in naraka for our pāpas: we do not mind such a birth.”
  5. “O Parameśvara of vast fame! You have made your form appear before us, and our eyes have gained surpassing bliss. Those without mastery of the mind cannot know you. With raised hands we bow to you.”

Śrī Hari welcomed the stuti and said: “These two, Jaya and Vijaya, are my attendants. By mocking you, who are of the form of devas, they have mocked me, and I approve the punishment you have given them. Be gracious, I pray you, for the knower of Brahman is my highest deity. My purifying fame came to me through mahātmās like you; I would cut off even my own hand if it acted against you. By serving you I gained the character for which Lakshmīdevī does not leave me. I am more satisfied eating through the mouth of a knower of Brahman than eating the havis in a yajña. I wear on my crown the dust of the feet of brahmavettās. Bless these two that their separation from me ends soon.” The maharshis, though their minds had been bitten by the snake of anger, tasted his words like amṛta and were not satisfied; they could not grasp what he meant to do. Then he showed them the height of his aiśvarya by yogamāyā, and with joined hands they answered: “You call us your benefactors, you who are the overseer of the world. Sanātana dharma comes from you, and you yourself take avatāra to protect it. Tapas, dayā (compassion) and dāna (giving) are your feet; drive out rajas and tamas and grant us varas with your form of sattva. Whatever punishment or reward you give these two we approve, and give us too a fitting punishment, for we have brought a śāpa on those without fault.”

Śrī Hari said: “These two will be born as rākshasas, and their fury against me will make their minds one-pointed on me, and they will soon come back to me. Know that you gave this śāpa by my own prompting.” The maharshis had darśana of the self-luminous Śrī Hari and of Vaikuṇṭha, shining by itself; they walked around him in pradakshiṇa, bowed, took leave, and went back in great bliss, telling of his splendour.

Then Śrī Hari said to his two attendants: “Go. Do not fear. May good come to you. Though I have the power to set aside a brāhmaṇa’s śāpa, I do not wish to, for this śāpa too is my will. Once before, when I was in yoganidrā, you stopped Lakshmīdevī at the door as she was coming in, and she ordained this very śāpa for you then. By holding your anger toward me without pause you will be freed from the pāpa of having refused the brahmavettās, and in a short time you will return to my presence.” Having said this, he entered his own place, shining with rows of vimānas. Jaya and Vijaya lost their splendour while still in Vaikuṇṭha and fell from it, and the dwellers in the best vimānas cried out “hā hā”. Brahmā ends his account to the devas: it is those two, the best of Śrī Hari’s followers, who have gained the tejas of Kaśyapa in the garbha of Diti, and Śrī Hari himself wishes it so.

Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira the same account in brief: the Sanaka brothers, wandering the three worlds, came by Īśvara’s will to Vishṇuloka; the two door-keepers, taking them for children, stopped them; and they pronounced the śāpa: “At the feet of Śrī Hari, enemy of Madhu, there is no room for rajas and tamas. Fall from here and take birth as asuras.” As the two fell, the Sanaka brothers said: “After three births the śāpa will end and you will reach Vaikuṇṭha again.” By that śāpa they were born as Hiraṇyāksha and Hiraṇyakaśipu, sons of Diti, and again as Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa. Hiraṇyakaśipu is called the one who had received the śāpa of the brahmarshis Sanaka and the others, and when he was slain the attendants of Vishṇu said to Bhagavān Narasiṃha that he was his own servant, made a rākshasa by the Sanakādis’ śāpa, and that his death was grace to him.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 15–16, 19; Skandha 7, Chapters 1, 4, 8, 10; Skandha 10, Chapter 74

The teaching to Pṛthu

When Pṛthu performed his great yajña, Kapilācārya, Nārada Maharshi, Dattātreya, master of yogīs, and Sanaka, Sanandana and the others, bhaktas eager to serve Śrī Hari, went to it. Later, while the people were praising Pṛthu, four maharshis shining like the sun came down from the sky, purifying the people of pāpa by their radiance. Pṛthu knew them by their radiance alone. He rose with his whole sabhā, offered them arghya and seats with bowed neck, worshipped them according to rule, washed their feet and sprinkled the water on his own head. They sat on golden seats like fires on their altars. “What good fortune,” Pṛthu said. “I have gained your darśana, hard even for yogīs to gain. Wise from childhood and longing for moksha, you keep great vratas with śraddhā. It is not fitting to ask you whether you are well, for your minds have no thought of well and unwell. Tell me the means by which a man in saṃsāra may easily reach his good.”

Sanatkumāra, as if smiling with love, answered for them. His teaching, in order: the meeting of the good brings happiness to all; love for the qualities of Madhusūdana’s feet purifies the heart; vairāgya toward the world and firm nishṭhā in the nirguṇa Parabrahman as one’s own Self is the one means of welfare, as the Veda has settled. The seeker should do the dharmas that please Bhagavān Vishṇu, worship Śrī Hari and hear his accounts every day; keep away from those who chase wealth and pleasure; keep the five yamas (ahiṃsā, satya, asteya, brahmacarya, aparigraha) and the five niyamas (śauca, santosha, tapas, svādhyāya, Īśvara-praṇidhāna) without desire for fruit; and sing Śrī Hari’s qualities with growing bhakti. Then the subtle body, with its five marks, avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dvesha and abhiniveśa, is burned by jñāna and vairāgya as a stick by the fire born in it, and the knower sees the world as the dreamer sees his dream on waking. One who keeps thinking of sense-objects loses discernment, as a grass on a lake’s bank draws out its water, and to fall away from ātma-jñāna is self-destruction. Dharma, artha and kāma live in fear of Kāla; moksha alone is eternal. Know the Paramātmā, the witness and antaryāmī in every heart, as “I am He”; the world appears in him as a snake in a rope. Good men untie the knot of ahaṅkāra easily by bhakti for the radiance of Vāsudeva’s toes, as yogīs cannot by their practice alone. “So make the foot of Śrī Hari your boat, and cross the ocean of saṃsāra, with its six crocodiles, the five senses and the mind.”

Pṛthu said that they had come to make complete the grace Śrī Hari had already shown him, and offered them his life, wife, sons, palace, kingdom, army, land and treasury: “Who can repay you except by folding his hands?” Ādirāja Pṛthu honoured the maharshis, and they, praising his character, left by the path of the sky while the people watched.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 19, 22

The brahma-satra in Janaloka

Śuka tells Parīkshit that the Upanishad that teaches Brahman was held by the Sanaka ṛshis, born before the forefathers of all. Nārāyaṇa Maharshi told Nārada at Nārāyaṇāśrama how, long ago, in Janaloka, the Sanaka ṛshis, mind-born sons of Brahmā and naishṭhika brahmacārīs, held a brahma-satra while Nārada had gone to Śvetadvīpa to see Aniruddha. The very question Nārada now asked, how the śrutis can speak of Brahman, came up there. Though all were equal, they made one of them, Sanandana, the speaker, and the rest listened. Sanandana told how, at the end of the pralaya, the presiding devatās of the Vedas woke the Paramātmā from his yoga-nidrā with words that set him forth, as panegyrists wake an emperor at dawn; that praise is the Veda-stuti. In it the śrutis say that from Brahmā appeared two groups: the Sanaka ṛshis, given to nivṛtti (turning back from the world), and Marīci and the others, given to pravṛtti. Having heard the teaching and known the ātma-tattva, the Sanaka ṛshis were fulfilled and worshipped Sanandana. Thus the sky-moving Sanaka mahātmās drew out the essence of all the Vedas, Purāṇas and Upanishads and gave this stuti.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 87

Haṃsa teaches the Sanakādis

Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the restraint of the mind, drawing it back from every side and fixing it on him, is what his disciples Sanaka, Sanandana and the others taught. Uddhava asked when and in what form he had taught them yoga. Śrī Kṛshṇa said: Sanaka, Sanandana and the others, the mind-born sons of Brahmā, asked their father about the subtle final limit of yoga: “The mind clings to the objects, products of the guṇas, and the objects cling to the mind. For the seeker of moksha who wishes to cross saṃsāra, how can they let go of each other?” Brahmā could not reach to the root of the question, and he thought of Śrī Kṛshṇa, who came to him in the form of a haṃsa (swan). The Sanakādis saw him, came near, bowed at his feet, and with Brahmā before them asked, “Who are you?”

Haṃsa answered them, calling them “sons”: when the Ātmā is not many, the question “Who are you?” does not fit, for with which body should he answer? All that mind, speech and the senses grasp is he alone. The mind and its objects are only an upādhi (limiting adjunct) of the jīva; the jīva‘s own nature is he, and the seeker established in him gives up both. Waking, dream and deep sleep arise in the buddhi through the guṇas; the Ātmā is their witness, the fourth, beyond them. As long as the manifoldness of the world seems real, one dreams even awake. With the sword of discrimination sharpened by the teaching of the good, cut every doubt and worship him who dwells in the heart. The one established in the Ātmā no more cares for the body than a drunkard for his cloth; it moves by prārabdha until it falls. “Know me as Śrī Hari, the form of yajña, come to teach you the dharma of moksha. I am the support and the fruit of karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, truth, dharma, tejas, fame and restraint of the senses.”

So the doubts of Sanaka, Sanandana and the other maharshis were scattered. With great bhakti they worshipped Haṃsa and praised him well, and he returned to his dhāma while Brahmā looked on. In the list of the avatāras who taught adhyātma-yoga, Haṃsa taught the Sanakas. King Nimi of Videha, too, once asked the Sanakas, sons of Brahmā, about karma-yoga while his father Ikshvāku was beside him, and they did not answer.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 3–4, 13

With Brahmā, Śiva and Śrī Kṛshṇa

  • When Varāha rose from the waters, Brahmā with Marīci and the maharshis, Sanaka and the other knowers of Brahman, and Manu saw that form and reflected on it (Skandha 3, Chapter 13).
  • After counselling Kardama and Devahūti, Brahmā went on his divine haṃsa vāhana to Brahmaloka with Sanaka and the others and Nārada following (Skandha 3, Chapter 24).
  • At Kailāsa, the great vaṭa tree under which Bhagavān Śiva sits is the abode of the siddhis, and the great yogīs Sanaka and the others are often seen at it. The great siddhas Sanaka, Sanandana and the others, free from attachment and aversion, were doing upāsanā of Śiva, whose form is supreme peace, and listening to his teaching to Nārada on the Parabrahman beyond time. Bhagavān Śiva is called the one worshipped by Sanaka and the other mahātmās (Skandha 4, Chapters 4, 6).
  • When the foot of Bhagavān Trivikrama rose to Satyaloka, the yogīs led by Sanandana went forward with Brahmā, Marīci and Nārada to meet it (Skandha 8, Chapter 21).
  • In Akrūra‘s darśana in the Yamunā, yogīs such as Sanaka and Sanandana were praising Bhagavān Vishṇu as the Parabrahman (Skandha 10, Chapter 39).
  • At Samantapañcaka, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra, the sons of Brahmā, were among the maharshis who came to see Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa. The two worshipped the maharshis with welcome, seats, water for the feet and to drink, garlands, incense and unguents, and Śrī Kṛshṇa said that their own birth was blessed by the sight of the foremost of yogīs. The maharshis understood that Śrī Kṛshṇa, hidden in human form, was serving them as an example to the world, prayed to be made his devotees, and at Vasudeva‘s request became the ṛtviks of his yajña (Skandha 10, Chapter 84).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 13, 24; Skandha 4, Chapters 4, 6; Skandha 8, Chapter 21; Skandha 10, Chapters 39, 84

How the Bhāgavata remembers them

  • Brahmā names Sanaka and the others among those who have known the māyā of Śrī Hari: Brahmā himself, Nārada, Sanaka and the others, Bhagavān Śiva, Prahlāda, Svāyambhuva Manu and Śatarūpā. Yet he also says that neither he, nor Nārada and the Sanakas, nor Rudra know the true form of Parameśvara, and he names the devarshis Nārada and Sanaka among the rulers who are forms of Parabrahman (Skandha 2, Chapters 6–7).
  • Brahmā, Sanaka and the others, and Indra bow to Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s lotus feet, say the people of Dvārakā (Skandha 1, Chapter 11).
  • Dhruva says that Sanaka, Sanandana and the other naishṭhika brahmacārīs reached Śrī Hari by one-pointed dhyāna through many births, while he reached his feet in six months of tapas (Skandha 4, Chapter 9). Nārada tells Prācīnabarhis that even Brahmā, Bhagavān Śiva, Manu, the Prajāpatis, Sanaka and the naishṭhika brahmacārīs and the great ṛshis do not see Parameśvara by their own effort (Skandha 4, Chapter 29).
  • Akrūra says that Śrī Kṛshṇa’s svarūpa is hard to know even for Sanaka and the kings of yogīs (Skandha 10, Chapter 48). Śrī Kṛshṇa is called the master of Sanaka and the other masters of yoga (Skandha 10, Chapters 69, 74, 89), and Devakī and Uddhava call him the Īśvara even of the masters of yoga, Sanaka and the others (Skandha 10, Chapter 85; Skandha 11, Chapter 12).
  • The gopīs pray that his foot, on which Sanaka and the masters of yoga meditate and which lifts beings out of the well of saṃsāra, may shine in their minds (Skandha 10, Chapter 82).
  • The nine Yogīśvaras who came to King Nimi, shining with their own radiance, looked like Sanaka and the others, the sons of Brahmā (Skandha 11, Chapter 2).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 11; Skandha 2, Chapters 6–7; Skandha 4, Chapters 9, 29; Skandha 10, Chapters 48, 69, 74, 82, 85, 89; Skandha 11, Chapters 2, 12

The Kumāras in the Vāmana Purāṇa

Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada Maharshi how Sanatkumāra came to receive the most secret teaching on Vāsudeva, which Brahmā (Parameshṭhī Prajāpati) first gave to him and which Pulastya heard from Sanatkumāra. Besides the four sons of Dharma there were the knowers of Sāṅkhya: Kapila, Voḍhu, Āsuri and Pañcaśikha, best of yogīs. Though they were elders, they did not teach jñāna-yoga to the younger ones; they taught only the measure of mahāyoga. Then Sanatkumāra went to Brahmā, the lotus-born, and asked him for the knowledge of yoga.

Brahmā said: “O Sādhya! If you agree to become my son, I can teach you that śāstra. The truth must not be told to just anyone.” Sanatkumāra answered: “Prabhu Brahmā, since I am your disciple, am I not your son? What difference is there between a son and a disciple?” Brahmā explained: “There is something more in a son than in a disciple, in the carrying out of dharma-karma. He who saves from the naraka called Put is a putra (son); he who takes away the remaining pāpa is called a śishya (disciple). This is the word of the śruti.” Sanatkumāra asked him to explain the Punnāma naraka and the removal of the remaining pāpa, and Brahmā began to teach him the very ancient knowledge joined with the limbs of yoga, which drives away fear (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 34).

In the suprabhāta stotra that Śaṅkara gave, which the ṛshis taught to the rākshasa Sukeśī, the Kumāras are remembered at dawn: “May Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatkumāra and Sanātana, Āsuri and Piṅgaḷa, the seven svaras and the seven rasātalas make this morning of mine auspicious” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 14).

When Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared as Vāmana, Brahmā praised him and said: “Neither I, nor Īśa, nor Indra and the devatās, nor the munis beginning with Sanaka, nor the yogīs can know you. You stay behind the curtain of your own māyā” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 9).

The Kumāras in the Agni Purāṇa

In Janaloka

Agni Deva, describing the worlds to Vasishṭha Maharshi, says that Janaloka lies two crore yojanas beyond Maharloka, and that the siddha-purushas Sanaka, Sanandana and others live there. Beyond it lies Tapoloka, and beyond that Satyaloka, which is also called Brahmaloka.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 120

Tarpaṇa to the Kumāras

In the daily rite of snāna (bath) and tarpaṇa (offering of water) that Parameśvara teaches Skanda, the devas and then the ṛshis are first offered water. After them come the munis beginning with Sanaka, and each receives two añjalis (handfuls) of water, given from the roots of the little fingers of the hands held close together, with the word vashaṭ: Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra, and with them Kapila, Pañcaśikha and Ṛbhu.

oṃ hāṃ sanakāya vashaṭ; oṃ hāṃ sanandanāya vashaṭ; oṃ hāṃ sanātanāya vashaṭ; oṃ hāṃ sanatkumārāya vashaṭ

Meaning: Oṃ hāṃ, vashaṭ to Sanaka; to Sanandana; to Sanātana; to Sanatkumāra.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 72

Protectors of the king

Among the mantras of a king’s abhisheka (consecration bath) that Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma is this blessing: “May the maharshis Bhṛgu, Atri, Vasishṭha, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatkumāra, Aṅgiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Marīci, Kaśyapa and the rest protect the king who rules the people.”

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219

Joined with brahma-bhāvanā

Agni Deva teaches that bhāvanā (contemplation) is of three kinds. Sanandana and the others are joined with brahma-bhāvanā, the contemplation of Brahman, which is to hold that “all this universe is Brahman”. All beings from the devas down to the unmoving beings are joined with karma-bhāvanā, contemplation centred on action, and Hiraṇyagarbha and the others have both.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 379

Sanaka’s teaching in the Yama-gītā

In the Yama-gītā, Yama tells Naciketas what the great teachers have taught as the highest śreyas (the highest good). Kapila, Pañcaśikha, Gaṅgāvishṇu, Janaka, Brahmā, Jaigīshavya and Devala each give their word, and the last is Sanaka: “If kāma (desire) is given up, vijñāna (realised knowledge), sukha (happiness) and the attainment of the supreme state come. Those who have kāma do not gain vijñāna.”

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 382

Sources

  • Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, the visit of the Sanakādi to Bhagavān Rāma of Sāketa
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 14, 34; Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 9, 21–22
  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 72, 120, 219, 379, 382
  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 3, 11; Skandha 2, Chapters 6–7; Skandha 3, Chapters 12–13, 15–17, 19, 24; Skandha 4, Chapters 4, 6, 8–9, 19, 22, 29; Skandha 7, Chapters 1, 4, 8, 10; Skandha 8, Chapter 21; Skandha 10, Chapters 39, 48, 69, 74, 82, 84–85, 87, 89; Skandha 11, Chapters 2–4, 12–13