Mānasa Tīrtha

Mānasa Tīrtha, “the tīrtha of the mind”

Mānasa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Mānasa.

A tīrtha is a holy place of pilgrimage, usually a sacred river, pool or shrine where pilgrims bathe. A mānasa tīrtha (“tīrtha of the mind”) is a tīrtha found not in any place on the map but in the purity of the mind itself: inner qualities such as satya (truth), dayā (compassion) and indriya-nigraha (restraint of the senses), in which the mind bathes and becomes pure.

The idea of mānasa tīrthas appears in several Purāṇas and comes up again and again in the tīrtha-māhātmya texts (texts praising holy places). It shows the Purāṇa tradition’s insistence that outward pilgrimage must be guided by inner, spiritual understanding.

The Bhavishya Purāṇa tells that Bhagavān Śiva himself gave this tīrtha to Pāṇini at Kedāra: the lake of jñāna with the water of satya, whose bath gives the fruit of all the tīrthas and can bring the direct realisation of Brahman.

Per Mahābhārata

The Anuśāsana Parva gives the teaching in a short, deep form. Yudhishṭhira asks Bhīshma which is the best of all tīrthas, and where the greatest śauca (purity) is to be found.

Bhīshma answers that to the wise, every tīrtha has merit. But the mānasa tīrtha is described as especially deep, clear and pure. Its water is satya (truth) itself, and its pool is dhṛti (steadfastness). One should bathe in it resting on the eternal quality of sattva (purity and clarity).

Bhīshma lists what makes up this mānasa tīrtha:

  • Gaining purity at the outer tīrthas
  • Not begging
  • Freedom from crookedness of mind
  • Satya (truth)
  • Gentleness (mārdava)
  • A nature free of hiṃsā (harm) toward all beings
  • A nature free of cruelty
  • Mastery over both the inner and outer indriyas (senses and faculties)

Those who are free of mamakāra (the sense of “mine”) and ahaṅkāra (ego), who are not shaken by the dvandvas (pairs of opposites such as gain and loss, victory and defeat), who take nothing that belongs to others, and who live purely on bhikshā (alms) following the dharma of saṃnyāsa (renunciation), are themselves tīrthas. One who knows the tattva (the truth of things) and does not give up the sense of “I” (as the witnessing Self) is declared the foremost of all tīrthas.

What a True Bath Is

Bhīshma says plainly that a person who is simply wet with water is not called snāta (bathed). The one who has bathed in dama (self-restraint) is truly snāta, pure both within and without.

  • One who does not long for what is past, has no sense of “mine” toward what has been gained, and is free even of saṃkalpa (the rising of desire) in the mind, has the highest śauca.
  • Directly knowing the paramātman (Supreme Self) is the highest purity of the body. In the same way, owning nothing as one’s own, and prasannatā (serenity) of mind, are true śauca.
  • Beyond purity of conduct, purity of thought and the purity gained at physical tīrthas, the purity born of jñāna (true knowledge) is declared the highest.
  • One who has bathed in the mānasa tīrtha with the water of brahma-jñāna (knowledge of Brahman), arising from a mind of the greatest clarity, is the one who, in the eyes of one who sees the truth, has truly bathed.
  • One who keeps śauca firmly in all three karaṇas (mind, speech and body) at all times, having every good quality in full, becomes a complete human being.

Both Kinds of Purity Together

Bhīshma also affirms that the pure tīrthas on the earth are themselves the tīrthas of the body; the pure regions of the earth and its holy waters are equally pure.

  • Praising a tīrtha, bathing in it and offering tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the pitṛs (ancestors) there shakes off pāpa (wrongdoing and its effects) at that very tīrtha, and such people travel easily to svarga.
  • Through reverence for sādhus (holy people), and through the tejas (radiant power) of earth and water, people gain the greatest puṇya (merit).
  • One who bathes in the tīrthas of both mind and earth quickly gains siddhi (spiritual success).
  • Bala (strength or capacity) without kriyā (right action), and kriyā without bala, both fail to reach the goal. Only their union reaches it.
  • One who joins deha-śauca (purity of the body) with tīrtha-śauca (purity gained at tīrthas) becomes truly śuci (pure) and gains śuddhi (purification), and of the two, tīrtha-śauca is declared the greater.

Per Skanda Purāṇa

Here the mānasa tīrthas are seven inner cleansings of the mind that must go together with tīrtha-snāna, bathing in sacred waters, if that bath is to bear its full spiritual fruit.

This teaching is given in the Ayodhyā Māhātmya (Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa) by Agastya Ṛshi, in answer to Vyāsa‘s question about what truly makes a pilgrimage to a tīrtha meritorious. The teaching is this: the word snāna (bath) does not only mean washing the body with water. A truly pure person is one whose mind is pure. Without these inner baths, the outer bath does not work, just as a pot that has held liquor cannot be made pure by washing its outside.

The Seven Mānasa Tīrthas

Agastya lists seven mānasa tīrthas and says that bathing in them makes the mind pure:

  1. Satyatīrtha, truthfulness (satya): the tīrtha of speaking and living by truth
  2. Kshamātīrtha, forbearance (kshamā): the tīrtha of patient endurance without resentment
  3. Indriya-nigraha, restraint of the senses (indriya-saṃyama): the tīrtha of mastering the senses
  4. Sarvabhūtadayā Tīrtha, compassion for all living beings (dayā): “The mind will become pure in the tīrtha of mercifulness to all living beings.” This one is singled out as the most purifying of the seven, in keeping with the Vaishṇava teaching in which bhakti (devotion) and dayā (compassion) are woven together.
  5. Satyavāditā Tīrtha, speaking the truth (satyavāditā): close to, but different from, Satyatīrtha; it is the active practice of truthful speech
  6. Jñānatīrtha, knowledge (jñāna): the tīrtha of discerning knowledge
  7. Tapastīrtha, austerity (tapas): the tīrtha of self-discipline

The Teaching on Snāna

The Māhātmya describes the link between inner and outer purity in sharp, direct words:

Purification of the body alone by means of water is not implied by the word Snāna (holy bath). If the mind of a man is pure he is said to have (really) taken Snāna.

Two examples support this:

  1. Creatures of the water: fish and other water creatures are born in water and die in water, surrounded by it all the time. Yet their minds stay impure and they do not reach svarga (the heavenly realm). Being soaked in water cannot clean what is not physical.
  2. The liquor pot: a pot that has held liquor is considered impure. Washing its outside with water a hundred times does not remove the impurity that has soaked into it. Something more than outer cleaning is needed.

The principle:

Unceasing attachment to the objects of sensuous pleasures is called the dirt or impurity of the mind. If the mind refrains from coming into close contact with them, it is called its freedom from impurities.

Both Are Needed

The Māhātmya does not dismiss the outer tīrthas. It says both are needed for the highest benefit:

Therefore, one should have his stay in the terrestrial tīrthas as well as mental tīrthas. He who takes his bath in both, attains the greatest goal.

It also teaches that a person who has truly mastered the mānasa tīrthas, whose mind is pure and whose senses are under control, turns wherever he lives into a holy tīrtha:

A man who has restrained the group of his sense-organs may stay anywhere. That place is Kurukshetra, Naimisha, and Pushkara for him.

Inner purity makes every place into the holiest of tīrthas.

Use in the Ayodhyā Pilgrimage

In teaching about the pilgrimage to Ayodhyā, Agastya lays down that the journey must go together with the inner bath in the mānasa tīrthas. The pilgrim who comes to the seven tīrthas of Ayodhyā with purity of mind, speech and body, and who has taken his “bath” in the seven inner tīrthas, is the one who truly receives the fruit of visiting these holy places.

Per Narasiṃha Purāṇa

Chapter 67 of the Narasiṃha Purāṇa teaches about these inner tīrthas. After listing the sacred rivers and holy places of India, Sūta, the narrator, teaches that the mānasa tīrthas are even more powerful than the outer ones.

The chapter also gives rules for vratas (sacred vows of observance), with the steps for the Sauranakta-vrata, the Ekādaśī fast and the pūjā of Agastya Ṛshi at the rising of his star. It gives the full text of the Agastya mantra used in this pūjā. It ends with the phalaśruti, the fruits of hearing the Narasiṃha Purāṇa.

The Mānasa Tīrthas

Sūta first describes the sacred rivers (the Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Godāvarī, Tuṅgabhadrā, Kāverī and others) and the holy places (Kurukshetra, Gayā, Pushkara, the Narmadā and others). Then he declares:

These mānasa-tīrthas are far more fruitful than the physical ones. In truth, the purity (svacchatā) of the mind, free of rāga and dvesha, is itself the supreme tīrtha. There is no other tīrtha superior to this.

(Rāga is attachment, and dvesha is aversion.)

The mānasa tīrthas he lists are:

  1. Satya: truthfulness
  2. Dayā: compassion
  3. Indriya-nigraha: restraint of the senses
  4. Guru-sevā: service to the guru
  5. Mātā-pitṛ-sevā: service to one’s parents
  6. Svadharma-anucaraṇa: following one’s own dharma (one’s own rightful duty)
  7. Agni-sevā: tending the sacred fire

These seven inner qualities are declared to be “supremely excellent tīrthas” (atīva śreshṭha-tīrthas).

Rules for Vratas

General Rules

  • Eating only one meal a day, or eating only at night (nakta-bhojana), counts as a vrata.
  • On Pūrṇimā (full moon) and Amāvāsyā (new moon), one should eat only once; this path leads to a pure goal.
  • On Caturthī, Caturdaśī, Saptamī, Ashṭamī and Trayodaśī (the fourth, fourteenth, seventh, eighth and thirteenth days of the lunar fortnight), not eating at night grants the devotee whatever he wishes.

Ekādaśī

Ekādaśī, the eleventh day of the lunar fortnight, is the highest vrata in this text’s calendar:

  • A complete fast for the whole day is prescribed.
  • Whoever honours Bhagavān Vishṇu on Ekādaśī is freed from all pāpa (wrongdoing and its effects).

Sauranakta-Vrata (The Solar Fast)

On a Sunday (Āditya-vāra) that falls on the Hasta nakshatra (lunar mansion), one should:

  • Fast for the whole day and night (no food)
  • Bathe and meditate on Bhagavān Vishṇu within the disc of the sun (sūrya-maṇḍala)
  • Keep the set time: when the sun’s shadow is twice one’s own height (that is, in the middle to late afternoon), the nakta (night-fast) period begins, and one may not eat from then until after the rite the next morning

Such a devotee is freed from illness (roga-vimukta).

Guruvāra-Trayodaśī Vrata

On a Thursday (Guruvāra) that falls on the Trayodaśī tithi (thirteenth lunar day):

  • Bathe in the afternoon (aparāhṇa)
  • Offer tarpaṇa (offerings of water) to the devas, ṛshis and pitṛs (ancestors), with sesame and rice
  • Perform pūjā to Bhagavān Narasiṃha
  • Keep a full fast (upavāsa)

Its merit: all pāpas are destroyed and the devotee gains mukti (liberation).

Agastya-Pūjā at the Rising of the Agastya Star

When the Agastya nakshatra (the star Canopus) rises above the horizon, one should honour Agastya Ṛshi for seven nights in a row. The pūjā uses a śaṅkha (conch) filled with white flowers, akshata (unbroken rice) and water. Arghya (water offered in welcome) is offered facing south.

The Agastya Mantra

Kāśa-pushpa-pratīkāśa agni-māruta-saṃbhava Mitrā-varuṇayoḥ putra kuṃbha-yone namo’stu te Ātāpī bhakshito yena vātāpī ca mahāsuraḥ samudraḥ śoshito yena so’gastyaḥ prīyatāṃ mama

Meaning: “O you who shine like the kāśa flower! Born of Agni and Vāyu! Son of Mitra and Varuṇa! Born from the kumbha (pot)! I bow to you. May Agastya, by whose power the asura Ātāpi was consumed and the great asura Vātāpi was slain, and by whom the ocean was dried up, be pleased with me.”

One who performs this pūjā becomes free of pāpa and gains mukti.

The Phalaśruti of the Narasiṃha Purāṇa

The chapter closes with the line of teachers through which the Narasiṃha Purāṇa was handed down. Sūta explains the paramparā (lineage):

The Purāṇa was first taught by Brahmā to Marīci and the other ṛshis. The munis taught it to Bhṛgu. Bhṛgu taught it to Mārkaṇḍeya. Mārkaṇḍeya taught it to Sahasrānīka, who was born in the nāga lineage. By the grace of Narasiṃha, the wise Vyāsa received this Purāṇa. By their grace I obtained this knowledge and have now shared it with you.

The merit of hearing the Narasiṃha Purāṇa:

  • One who hears it in a state of purity gains the merit of bathing at the tīrtha of Prayāga in the month of Māgha.
  • One who recites even twenty ślokas (verses) of this Purāṇa each day at sunrise gains the fruit of the Jyotishṭoma yajña (a great Vedic fire ritual) and is established in Vishṇuloka.
  • Even hearing a single śloka or a single pāda (quarter-verse) frees one from the bonds of pāpa.
  • One should listen even if one’s attention wanders, for this Purāṇa at once destroys the pāpas of both speaker and listener.

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

In the Saro Māhātmya of the Vāmana Purāṇa, near the Sthāṇuvaṭa at Kurukshetra, Mārkaṇḍeya Muni bowed to Sanatkumāra, the mind-born son of Brahmā, and asked him the glory of the lake that washes away every pāpa, its tīrthas, its liṅgas and the fruit of bathing in it. Sanatkumāra rose from his seat, bowed to Paramaśiva, and began to tell the origin of the tīrthas as he had heard it from Brahmā. Before speaking of the tīrthas of the lake, he taught the tīrtha within.

The Parama Purusha who pervades all beings is beyond all the guṇas. He is the eternal one who is called Brahmā, Īśvara and Govinda. One who has recognised that supreme reality (paratattva) knows everything. For the great ones who know the ātma-tattva, the tīrthas and āśramas are not needed at all; they are free.

“The ātmā, which shines with the holy tīrtha called saṃyama (restraint) and with the holy waters called satya (truth), śīla (good conduct) and samādhi, is itself holy. The one of puṇya who bathes in it becomes pure. Purity of the inner self cannot come from water.”

To stay immersed in the bliss of ātma-jñāna is the chief duty of a human being. The elder sādhus say that this is the one thing to be known, and that one who gains it gives up all desires. For a brāhmaṇa the true wealth is an equal bhāva towards all, oneness, never abandoning śīla, giving up hiṃsā, freedom from anger, and uparati (non-attachment); there is no wealth like it. “I have told you in brief the nature of Brahman,” Sanatkumāra said. “One who knows this will without doubt attain the Parabrahman.” Then he went on to the origin of Brahmā, the lake and the Sthāṇuvaṭa.

Per Bhavishya Purāṇa

The ṛshis asked Sūta: “Among all tīrthas, dānas and other means of dharma, what is the best means, relying on which a person may cross the ocean of affliction and obtain mukti?” Sūta answered with the account of Maharshi Pāṇini.

In ancient times Sāma had an excellent son named Pāṇini. Defeated and shamed by the learned disciples of Kaṇāda, he left on tīrtha-yātrā. He bathed in nearly all the tīrthas and offered tarpaṇa to devatās and pitṛs, drank the water of the Kedāra-kshetra, and became intent on the dhyāna of Bhagavān Śiva. Living on leaves, he took water at the end of the week; then for ten days he took water alone; then for ten days he lived on air alone, meditating on Bhagavān Śiva.

When twenty-eight days had passed in this way, Bhagavān Śiva appeared and told him to ask for a vara. In a voice choked with feeling Pāṇini praised Hara as Sarveśa, Sarvaliṅgeśa and Girijāvallabha: namaskāra to the great Rudra; to Bhagavān Śiva, Sarveśvara, the benefactor of all; to the giver of abhaya (fearlessness) and vidyā, whose vāhana is Nandī; to Bhagavān Śaṅkara, destroyer of pāpa, master of all the lokas, remover of all the sorrows of māyā, of the form of tejas, of endless forms. He asked for the supreme knowledge of śāstra. Mahādeva, pleased, gave him the auspicious sūtras made of all the varṇas, beginning a i u ṇ.

Then Bhagavān Śiva taught him the Mānasa-tīrtha. The one who bathes in that Mānasa-tīrtha, the lake of jñāna with the water of satya, which destroys the filth of rāga and dvesha, gains the fruit of all the tīrthas. This great Mānasa Jñāna-tīrtha can bring the direct realisation of Brahman.

“Pāṇini, I have given you this best of tīrthas,” he said. “By it you will have done all that is to be done.” Saying this, Bhagavān Rudra withdrew from sight, and Pāṇini came home. He composed the Vyākaraṇa-śāstra in the form of Sūtrapāṭha, Dhātupāṭha, Gaṇapāṭha and Liṅgasūtra, and attained the supreme nirvāṇa.

Sūta closed with these words: “So, best of the Bhārgavas, take support of the Manomaya Jñāna-tīrtha. From that very tīrtha the auspicious Gaṅgā, made of all the best tīrthas, has appeared. There has been no tīrtha higher than Gaṅgā, and there will be none.”

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapter 31

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 108
  • Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10
  • Narasiṃha Purāṇa, Chapter 67
  • Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22
  • Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapter 31