Vimala of Dvārakā

Vimala was a brāhmaṇa whose story is told in the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa. His son Haridatta saw, or heard, how a group of rākshasīs were freed near the holy city of Dvārakā. This moved Haridatta to give up worldly life and give himself wholly to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

Background

Vimala was a brāhmaṇa householder who lived in or near the holy city of Dvāravatī, also called Dvārakā. This is the city of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa on the western coast. He had a son named Haridatta, who was good and turned his mind to spiritual life. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 207)

The rākshasīs who were freed

Near Dvāravatī lived a group of rākshasīs (female rākshasas). They had gathered great pāpa (sin) through lives of harm and violence. They were freed: their pāpa was destroyed and their forms were changed. This happened simply because they died, or passed, within the holy limits of the city, where the presence of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa filled everything.

The very air of Dvāravatī was full of the śakti (power) of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. Beings who died there reached liberation, whatever their past lives had been. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 207–208)

Haridatta gives up worldly life

Haridatta, the son of Vimala, saw or heard of the freeing of these rākshasīs. They were beings deep in pāpa whom no tapas (austerity) or ritual could easily have saved. He was overcome by one thought: if Dvāravatī could free such beings, then attachment to worldly life had no meaning.

He understood the great power of the holy presence at Dvāravatī to free beings. He gave up all worldly life, with its household duties, desires, possessions and cares, and gave himself wholly to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 208)

What the account teaches

The account of Vimala and Haridatta teaches that a place where Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself lived has a power to free beings that goes beyond the usual measures of puṇya (merit) and pāpa. Seeing the rākshasīs reach liberation led Haridatta to give up the world at once and completely. His vairāgya (dispassion) came from viveka (clear knowledge of what truly frees beings). (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 208)

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 207–208