Rahasya-Dharma Cycle of the Anuśāsana Parva

Rahasya-Dharma, simply known as Rahasya Dharma, Sanskrit: रहस्य-धर्म, Telugu: రహస్య ధర్మం, Hindi: रहस्य-धर्म.

Rahasya means a secret, and rahasya-dharma means teachings on dharma that are kept hidden and passed on only to those fit to receive them. Chapters 125 to 134 of the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata form one continuous cycle of such guhya (secret) teachings. They were passed down from Vyāsa to Bhīshma, and from Bhīshma to Yudhishṭhira.

Each teaching is presented as a secret revealed by a particular deva, ṛshi or kind of being: the pitṛs (ancestors), Vishṇu, Balarāma, various devas, Viśvāmitra, the cows, Bṛhaspati, Lomaśa, Arundhatī, Yama (passing on the words of Citragupta), the Pramathas, the Diggajas (through the messenger Reṇuka), Maheśvara and Skanda. They answer questions put by dūtas (messengers), ṛshis or the devas themselves. All these teachings come with a clear limit: they may be given only to the śraddhāvat (those with faith) and the pure-hearted, never to nāstikas (those who reject the Veda), to those who hate their guru, or to the impure. All ten parts of the cycle are gathered below under separate headings, since together they form one unit of teaching in the text.

The Setting: The Principle of Secrecy

Yudhishṭhira asked Bhīshma what a poor man who seeks dharma should do, now that he has gained the rare gift of human birth in the karmabhūmi (the world where actions bear fruit). Which dāna (gift) is best? What is best to give? How should dāna be given? And what is the secret teaching about those who are mānya (worthy of respect) and pūjya (worthy of pūjā)?

Bhīshma replied that he would tell the most secret teachings of dharma exactly as Bhagavān Vyāsa had once taught them to him. Each teaching in this cycle has its own speaker and its own rule about who may hear it. The cycle as a whole is said to be equal in fruit to great dāna and to all yajñas (sacred offerings) put together. It must never be told to:

  • one without śraddhā (faith)
  • the arrogant
  • one who has killed a brāhmaṇa
  • one who has violated his guru’s wife
  • the nāstika
  • one who corrupts dharma
  • the hetu-vādin (one who only argues, cut off from faith)
  • one who hates his guru

1. The Secret of the Pitṛs (Chapter 125)

A dūta (messenger) sent by the Aśvins came to the pitṛs and the gathered ṛshis with a question about śrāddha (the rite of offering to the ancestors). Why are three piṇḍas (offering-balls of rice) offered separately in śrāddha? And why must the dātā (the one who offers) and the bhoktā (the brāhmaṇa who eats the śrāddha food) avoid maithuna (sexual union) on that day?

The pitṛs answered:

  • If either the one who performed the śrāddha or the one who ate the śrāddha food unites with a woman, that person’s pitṛs lie within the retas (seed) for a full month.
  • Of the three piṇḍas: the lowest piṇḍa, placed in water, satisfies Candra (the Moon), who in turn satisfies the pitṛs. The middle piṇḍa is eaten by the performer’s own wife alone, and grants a son to those who wish for one. The piṇḍa offered into the fire satisfies the pitṛs directly and grants whatever is asked of them.
  • On the day of śrāddha, the officiating brāhmaṇa (ṛtvik) is considered to take on the very place of father to the yajamāna (the one for whom the rite is done). So he must avoid maithuna that day. Otherwise the fault of violating a “father’s” sanctity would arise, like the wrong of violating a guru’s wife.
  • One who follows this vidhi (rule) exactly, without change, pleases the pitṛs. They then grant him akshaya-puṇya (merit that never runs out) and the growth of his descendants.

The dūta then asked about another, related secret: how can a man remove the pāpa (wrong) of harming insects and small creatures without meaning to? Viśvāmitra answered that bathing with a focused mind at Kurukshetra, Gayā, the Gaṅgā, Prabhāsa or Pushkara removes such pāpa, just as the moon is freed from Rāhu’s grasp. Or else a three-day fast, together with touching a cow’s hindquarters with reverence, brings the same cleansing.

Bṛhaspati, speaking in Śiva’s own home, then taught Indra the further secret of the tapas (austerity) of gazing at the sun. Standing on a mountain top on one leg, without food, hands raised in añjali (joined palms), gazing at Sūrya in summer or in winter, removes every pāpa and gives a tejas (radiance) that never runs out, like the sun’s own. Bṛhaspati also listed particular faults:

  • Urinating while facing the sun brings eighty-six years of a ruined life and a fallen family line.
  • Hating Vāyu causes a garbha (unborn child) to be lost.
  • Not feeding a blazing agni (sacred fire) with samidhs (kindling sticks) means that agni will not accept one’s havya (offerings) in future fire rites.
  • Drinking the milk of a cow with a suckling calf, before the calf has had its share, prevents the birth of worthy sons who carry on the family line.

2–4. The Secrets of the Devas (Chapters 126–128)

Chapter 126: Vishṇu, Balarāma, the Devas, Dharma, Agni, Viśvāmitra, the Cows, Vasishṭha and Brahmā

Vishṇu: Indra asked Vishṇu what pleases him most. Vishṇu answered that nindā (speaking ill) of brāhmaṇas is what he most dislikes, and that when brāhmaṇas are honoured with pūjā, he himself is honoured. He is pleased directly by pūjā offered to:

  • the cakra (discus) drawn on a maṇḍala smeared with gomaya (cow dung), standing for his cakra used against the asuras
  • a vāmana (dwarf) brāhmaṇa seen with reverence, standing for his Vāmana form that humbled King Bali and his three strides that covered all the worlds
  • the varāha (boar) rising from water, standing for his Varāha form that killed Hiraṇyāksha
  • taking earth (mṛttikā) in one’s hand and carrying it on the head

He also accepts as pūjā to himself the daily honouring of the aśvattha (peepal) tree and the kapilā (tawny) cow, because all three worlds rest within these forms. Other, empty forms of pūjā he does not accept and takes no pleasure in.

Balarāma then taught that on rising at dawn a man should touch a cow, ghee, curd, mustard and kollu (a millet) to be freed from pāpa.

The devas taught the rite with a water-pot of audumbara (fig wood), facing north, when beginning an upavāsa (fast) or making a vrata-saṅkalpa (vow). They said that bali (food offering), bhikshā (alms), arghya (water offering) and tila-udaka (sesame water) must be offered to the pitṛs in a copper (tāmra) vessel to bring full fruit.

Dharma, in person, then listed those to whom food meant for the devas and pitṛs must never be given: a brāhmaṇa in the service of a king, one who wakes kings for a living, a paricāraka (servant), a cowherd by trade, a merchant, a carpenter, a naṭa (actor), one who betrays friends, one who has not studied the Veda, and the servant of an evil śūdra king. Those who give to such people lose all satisfaction of the pitṛs and are abandoned by those who give to the pitṛs.

Dharma also taught about the āśā-pūrṇa atithi, a guest sent away with hopes unmet. When this happens, the pitṛs, devas and sacred fires of that house also leave unfulfilled and disappointed. Failing to honour a guest properly brings a fault equal to killing a woman, killing a cow, kṛtaghnatā (ingratitude), killing a brāhmaṇa, or violating the guru’s wife.

Agni then taught the fault of touching a cow, a pure brāhmaṇa or a blazing fire with one’s foot. Such a person’s apakīrti (disgrace) reaches the sky, the pitṛs become afraid, the devas turn deeply against him, agni itself refuses his offerings, and he suffers in naraka (the realm of suffering) for a hundred births, with no deva ever allowing his release.

Viśvāmitra then gave a rite for the day of the Maghā nakshatra (lunar mansion) in the dark fortnight of the month of Bhādrapada. Offering pāyasa (sweet milk-rice) as bali to the pitṛs at dawn, in the shadow of an elephant and facing south, brings the fruit of thirteen years of great śrāddha.

The cows (gāvaḥ), speaking together, taught the mantra of the divine cow named Sarvasahā. Reciting it in a gośālā (cow-shed) on parva days (sacred days of the lunar month) removes pāpa, bhaya (fear) and śoka (grief), and leads to the world of Indra.

Vasishṭha and Brahmā: Finally, Vasishṭha, speaking for the seven ṛshis who had walked around Brahmā with joined palms, asked how the poor, who have no wealth, can still gain the fruit of yajña. Brahmā answered that one should lie in the open, wearing a single garment, pure, full of faith and undistracted, and drink in the moon’s kiraṇas (rays) directly when the moon stands with the Rohiṇī nakshatra, in the bright fortnight of the month of Pausha. This alone brings the fruit of a great yajña.

Chapter 127: Vibhāvasu (Agni), Śrī, Aṅgirasa, Gārgya, Dhaumya and Jamadagni

Vibhāvasu (Agni) taught that on pūrṇimā (the full moon), offering a double handful of water with ghee-soaked akshata (unbroken rice) to the rising full moon, while facing it, is equal to performing agni-kārya (the fire rite); by it all three sacred fires are honoured. On the other hand, on amāvāsyā (the new moon):

  • plucking even a single leaf, out of ignorance, brings the fault of brahma-hatyā (killing a brāhmaṇa)
  • chewing a tooth-cleaning twig (danta-dhāvana), out of ignorance, is like wounding the moon itself, and shakes even the hearts of the pitṛs
  • on parva days the devas refuse the offerings of one who does such things, the pitṛs grow angry, and his family line dwindles

Śrī (Lakshmī) taught that wherever these are found, especially on festival days and on full-moon and new-moon days, the devas and pitṛs leave that house disappointed: a broken vessel, a broken kuṇḍa (fire-pit), a damaged āsana (seat), the harming of women, and a dusty house.

Aṅgirasa taught that offering a lamp for a full year beneath a karañja or suvarcalā tree (or vine) makes one’s children flourish.

Gārgya taught the full discipline of the householder: constant atithi-sevā (service to guests), keeping a lamp lit in the house, giving up sleep in the daytime, avoiding meat, never harming cows or brāhmaṇas, and always honouring (or keeping up) the Pushkara tīrthas. He declared this the finest dharma of all, whose puṇya (merit) never runs out, unlike that of a hundred yajñas. He also taught that if a rajasvalā (menstruating), śvitrā (leprous) or aputrikā (childless) woman looks at the havis (offering) during śrāddha, a vow to a deva or a tīrtha, or pūjā on a parva day, the devas will not eat that offering and the pitṛs stay displeased for thirteen years. Wearing white, being śuci (pure), and having brāhmaṇas recite svasti-vācana (blessings) while reading the Bhārata with devotion keeps the havis akshaya (never-ending).

Dhaumya taught that a broken pot, a broken bed, a cock, a dog and a tree grown inside the house are all inauspicious:

  • a broken pot is home to kali (strife)
  • a broken bed causes loss of wealth (dhana-kshaya)
  • a cock or dog in the house makes the devas refuse the offerings
  • scorpions, snakes and similar creatures nest at the root of a tree grown in the house, so trees should not be planted inside a home

Jamadagni taught that an Aśvamedha, a hundred Vājapeya yajñas, hanging head-down in tapas, or a lavish satra-yajña (a long sacrificial session) are all worthless without a śuddha-hṛdaya (pure heart). One who lacks it goes to naraka anyway. Yajña, satya (truth) and purity of heart are declared equal in weight. He gave the example of a great soul who once gave only a little roasted grain flour (pela-piṇḍi) to a brāhmaṇa with a pure heart, and by that reached Brahmaloka.

Chapter 128: Vāyu

Vāyu taught that agni-kārya (the fire rite), eating pāyasa, giving dīpa-dāna (the gift of lamps) and offering sesame water to the pitṛs are the small but central dharma that brings sukha (happiness) to people. Practising this rule with faith through the four months of the monsoon, giving sesame water without break, and feeding a brāhmaṇa who has completed the full study of the Veda brings the fruit of a hundred paśu-bandha yajñas.

Vāyu then revealed a further, more delicate secret. Some wrongly hold it to be dharma when a śūdra kindles or tends the sacred fire (agni-netā), or when women stay unaware of the proper handling of havir-mūḍha (the sacred offerings such as soma, ghee and milk). These are in fact adharma (against dharma). One who mistakes them for dharma draws the anger of the sacred fires, is reborn in a śūdra womb, and is refused the company of both devas and pitṛs. The atonement is to take only cow’s urine, dung, milk and ghee for three days with no other food, and to perform agni-kārya with faith for three days. After a full year has passed, the devas accept that person’s offerings once more.

5. The Secret of Lomaśa (Chapter 129)

Lomaśa taught that men who stay unmarried while attached to the wives of others leave their pitṛs deeply disappointed at the time of śrāddha. Attachment to another’s wife, clinging to a barren woman, and stealing a brāhmaṇa’s wealth are declared equally serious faults. Those guilty of any of these become unfit even to be spoken to by the pitṛs, and both devas and pitṛs refuse their offerings. So a man who seeks his own good must give up desire for another’s wife, give up attachment to a barren woman, and never take a brāhmaṇa’s property.

Lomaśa then taught further secrets:

  • Giving ghee and akshata to brāhmaṇas on every dvādaśī (twelfth lunar day) and every full moon brings a fruit equal to a quarter of an Aśvamedha. Through this puṇya the moon itself waxes, and even the ocean, the great store of waters, swells further. Through this gift a man gains tejas (radiance) and vīrya (vigour), and the moon, pleased, grants his wishes.
  • Rising before dawn, bathing, wearing white, and giving a tila-pātra (vessel of sesame) to brāhmaṇas with faith: Indra himself declared this equal to the gift of a cow, the gift of land, and an Agnishṭoma yajña performed with plentiful dakshiṇā (offerings to the officiants).
  • The pitṛs regard sesame water given in śrāddha as never-ending, and lamps and pulaga (a rice dish) also please the pitāmahas (forefathers). Such pūjā shines in both svarga (the heavenly realm) and pitṛ-loka (the world of the ancestors).

6. The Secrets of Arundhatī and Citragupta (Chapter 130)

The ṛshis, pitṛs and devas together went to Arundhatī, the wife of the great Vasishṭha. She had grown venerable through tapas, and her śīla (character) matched his power of tapas. They asked her for the secret of dharma most worth guarding in the heart.

Arundhatī’s teaching: These secret dharmas may be taught only to one with a pure mind and faith. They must never be spoken to one without faith, the arrogant, one who has killed a brāhmaṇa, or one who has violated his guru’s wife.

  • Giving one kapilā cow every day for twelve years, performing a satra-yajña every month, or giving a hundred thousand cows at Jyeshṭha-Pushkara: none of these equals the puṇya (merit) of one whose atithi (guest) leaves truly satisfied.
  • Rising at dawn, taking darbha grass with water among the cows, and sprinkling that water on the cows’ horns and heads while keeping a fast: this rite is equal in fruit to bathing in every tīrtha of all three worlds, the very tīrthas visited by siddhas, cāraṇas and great ṛshis.

The devas, pitṛs and the pañcabhūtas (the five elements) together rejoiced and honoured Arundhatī for this teaching, and Brahmā himself blessed her that her tapas would grow without end.

Yama’s account of Citragupta’s teaching: Yama then told a dear and wonderful kathā (account) that he had heard from Citragupta (Yama’s keeper of records).

  • No puṇya or pāpa, however tiny, is ever truly lost. Whatever pūjā, however small, is offered to Sūrya on a parva day is remembered by Sūrya himself, and it helps that person even after death, on reaching preta-loka (the world of the departed).
  • Citragupta’s own most loved and most auspicious teaching: a man should keep giving drinking water and lamps. In preta-loka there is a river named Puṇyodakā, kept especially for those who gave water in life. Its waters never run out and are like amṛta (nectar).
  • Giving pādukās (sandals) and a chattra (umbrella) to a worthy brāhmaṇa also brings fruit that never lessens, even in this world.
  • Giving a kapilā cow to a brāhmaṇa who has studied the Veda from beginning to end, especially at Pushkara in the month of Kārtika, is equal to giving a hundred ordinary cows, and even cleanses brahma-hatyā. Giving a bull together with a hundred cows secures lasting puṇya, and one kapilā cow cleanses as much fault as a hundred cows would.

When Sūrya heard Citragupta’s teaching passed on, he named five dharma-drohīs (betrayers of dharma) for whom there is no atonement and who must never be spoken to:

  1. the killer of a brāhmaṇa
  2. the killer of a cow
  3. the violator of another’s wife
  4. one without faith
  5. one who lives off a woman like a parasite

After death, these five go to preta-loka and naraka, where they are cooked like fish that feed only on filth and blood. They stay unfit to be spoken to even by the pitṛs, the devas, snātaka brāhmaṇas (those who have completed Vedic study) or tapo-dhanas (those rich in tapas).

7. The Secret of the Pramathas (Chapter 131)

The devas, pitṛs and ṛshis asked the Pramathas, Śiva’s attendant spirits who wander by night, seen directly by no one but present everywhere, how they harm human beings and what keeps them away.

The Pramathas answered. These people are counted as ucchishṭa (unclean) and are the Pramathas’ rightful prey, whom they do harm and, in a sense, “eat”:

  • those who keep indulging in maithuna in an unclean state
  • those who raise the base above the worthy
  • those who eat meat out of delusion
  • one who sleeps with his head at the foot of a tree
  • one who keeps meat on his own head
  • one who sleeps with his feet where his head should properly be
  • those who pass mala-mūtra (excrement or urine) into water

But these are wholly beyond the Pramathas’ power to harm:

  • one anointed with gorocana (a yellow substance from the cow)
  • one who, with faith, regularly keeps vasā (fat) or oil on the head
  • one who does not eat meat
  • a household where fire burns day and night

A household that keeps a hyena skin (tarakshu-carma), a horn, a giri-kacchapa (mountain or land tortoise), the smoke of ghee from homa (fire offering), a cat, or a black or pale-brown (piṅgala) goat cannot be harmed even by the most dreadful rākshasas. Such things are called rakshoghna (destroyers of rākshasas). Where they are kept, both the Pramathas and the terrors of other worlds leave people to go about in peace.

8. The Secret of the Diggajas (Chapter 132)

Brahmā spoke to the devas and Indra about a mighty and powerful nāga or gaja (serpent or elephant) named Reṇuka, who moves through Rasātala (a world below the earth). He directed that Reṇuka, with the devas’ approval, be sent to ask the Diggajas about the secrets of dharma that they alone hold. The Diggajas are the great elephants of the directions, of surpassing tejas (radiance) and bala (strength), who hold up the whole earth with its mountains and forests.

Reṇuka’s mission and the Diggajas’ teaching: Reṇuka went to the Diggajas with the approval of the devas and pitṛs, and received this rite:

  • On the ashṭamī (eighth lunar day) of the dark fortnight of the month of Kārtika, under the Āśleshā nakshatra, while fasting and free of anger, one should offer guḍa-anna (rice with jaggery) into an anthill after sunset.
  • First one scatters gaja-pushpa (elephant flowers) there, and uses black cloth and fragrant pastes.
  • Meanwhile one recites a mantra calling on the mighty, undying, unfading nāga kings and their offspring for strength, radiance and growth. For it is exactly this strength, the very strength of Nārāyaṇa who once held up the earth, that the serpent kings grant.

When this rite is performed with fasting for a full year, whether by a brāhmaṇa, kshatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, it brings great fruit. It eases the Diggajas’ own endless burden, for though the weight of the earth presses on them without pause, they bear it without complaint. And it gives the one who performs it puṇya equal to a hundred years of ātithya (hospitality) offered to the elephants of all three worlds. Hearing this, the devas, pitṛs and great ṛshis honoured Reṇuka greatly.

9. The Secret of Mahādeva (Chapter 133)

Maheśvara said that everyone present had already explained the heart of sādhu-dharma (the dharma of the good) well, and that he too would now give a secret of great fruit.

  • Giving gavāhnika, one cow’s full daily feed, for one month, while eating only once a day oneself with a calm mind, brings great fruit.
  • Cows have the highest māhātmya (greatness), are held to be most pavitra (pure), and support the three worlds of devas, asuras and humans together. So service to cows is itself great puṇya and brings great reward, and one who gives gavāhnika every day becomes joined to dharma every single day.
  • Maheśvara declared that he himself approved this in the Kṛta Yuga, after first gaining Brahmā’s own agreement. So a well-cared-for cow kept in a gośālā is, in a real sense, Maheśvara’s own resting place. He takes his ease among cows and finds ānanda (joy) there.
  • Cows are therefore always worthy of pūjā. Having great prabhāva (power) when rightly served, they grant varas (boons) at will. Such a cow gives a full quarter of the fruit of all good deeds to the one who gives her gavāhnika.

10. The Secret of Skanda (Chapter 134) and Vishṇu’s Closing Word

Skanda (Kumārasvāmī) taught the dharma he himself prefers:

  • Taking mud from the horns of a black bull and performing abhisheka (ritual bathing) with it for three days washes away everything inauspicious, grants ādhipatya (rulership) in the next world, and makes sure the person is born śūra (brave) in whatever birth follows.
  • On pūrṇimā, offering rice cooked with honey in an audumbara vessel as bali to the rising moon makes the moon wax and the great ocean itself swell. This offering is accepted together by the Sādhyas, Rudras, Ādityas, Viśvedevas, Aśvins, Maruts and Vasus.

Vishṇu then closed the whole cycle of secrets. These secrets of dharma are, in effect, a form of namaskāra (respectful salutation) offered to every deva. Whoever reads or recites them all as a daily practice, free of vighna (obstacles) and fear, without envy, with faith and a pure mind, is freed from pāpa. Only the mahāpātakas (the greatest wrongs) stay outside this general release; every lesser pāpa is removed by hearing this secret dharma. But it must never be revealed to one without faith, the nāstika, one who corrupts dharma, the hetu-vādin who argues without any real ground, or one who hates his guru.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 125–134
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 125
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 126
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 127
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 128
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 129
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 130
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 131
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 132
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 133
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 134