Jayaśarman

Jayaśarman was the youngest of the five sons of the brāhmaṇa Śivaśarman of Avantī (modern Ujjain). His conduct was hurtful, and his father cast him out. His relatives and kinsmen left him too. He wandered into a far-off forest and came to the Triveṇī, the meeting place of three rivers. There he heard of the Kāmalā Ekādaśī, the Ekādaśī of the bright fortnight of the Purushottama month (the extra month that comes now and then in the lunisolar calendar). He kept the fast. Lakshmī herself came to him and gave him a vara (boon), and he went home wealthy. The Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 62, tells this.

Family and being cast out

Jayaśarman was the youngest of five sons born to the brāhmaṇa Śivaśarman, who lived at Avantī. His conduct was troublesome and hurtful. The text does not say exactly what he did, but it was bad enough for his father to drive him out. His relatives and kinsmen also left him. He had no support and no means. The power of his bad deeds drove him into a very distant forest.

The journey and the āśrama

By what Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, who tells the account, calls the result of some puṇya (merit) that still remained, Jayaśarman came to a famous holy place. He was thin from hunger, and his face was sad. He bathed at the Triveṇī, the meeting of three rivers. Then, weak with hunger, he walked about the area looking for the āśramas of ṛshis.

He came to the āśrama of the ṛshi Harimitra in the Purushottama month. The name Purushottama is an epithet of Bhagavān Vishṇu and means the supreme person. In that month Jayaśarman found brāhmaṇas telling an account from the Purāṇas that destroys pāpa (sin). He listened with devotion to the account of the Kāmalā Ekādaśī, the most auspicious Ekādaśī of the Purushottama month.

The vow and Lakshmī’s appearance

Jayaśarman joined the gathering and kept the Kāmalā Ekādaśī fast in the lonely temple. When night came, Lakshmī herself came down and stood before him. She said:

“O brāhmaṇa, due to the power of the Kāmalā Ekādaśī, I shall grant you a boon.”

Jayaśarman was bewildered by her appearance. He had never seen or heard of anyone like her, and he asked who she was. He wondered whether she was Indrāṇī, Bhavānī, a gandharva woman, a kinnarī, or the wife of the Moon or the Sun.

Lakshmī told him that she had come from Vaikuṇṭha, sent by Bhagavān Vishṇu Himself, because of the power of the Kāmalā vow that Jayaśarman had just kept near the ṛshis at Prayāga. She promised that through her favour men of his family line would be born in the future and would gain good position. Then she disappeared.

Return and wealth

After the blessing of Lakshmī, Jayaśarman became rich by her direct grace. He went back to his father’s house.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 62