Ayodhyā Yātrā

Ayodhyā Yātrā, simply known as Ayodhya Yatra, Sanskrit: अयोध्या यात्रा, Telugu: అయోధ్య యాత్ర, Hindi: अयोध्या यात्रा.

The Ayodhyā Yātrā is the pilgrimage order laid down for visiting the holy city of Ayodhyā. It comes from the Ayodhyā Māhātmya of the Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Purāṇa, Chapters 8 and 10. The Māhātmya gives a main pilgrimage of two days. It also gives special pilgrimages for Ekādaśī, for Ashṭamī and Caturdaśī, and for Aṅgāraka Caturthī, and a plain order for every day.

The yātrā rests on one teaching. The outer pilgrimage must go with the Mānasa Tīrthas (tīrthas of the mind). Without them the bath outside gives no fruit. The Māhātmya also tells how Vibhīshaṇa, Sugrīva and the other companions of Rāma made the Ayodhyā pilgrimage at the instruction of Vasishṭha Maharshi.

The Mānasa Tīrthas

Before the outer yātrā is given, Agastya states a basic rule in the Māhātmya:

“A pilgrim must be pure in mind, in speech and in body. His conscience must be free of impurity. With his senses under control, he should take the holy baths in the Mānasa (Mental) Tīrthas. He who does the rite perfectly in this way gains the fruit of visiting the tīrtha.”

The seven Mānasa Tīrthas are:

  1. Satyatīrtha (truthfulness)
  2. Kshamatīrtha (forbearance)
  3. Indriya-nigraha (holding the senses in check)
  4. Sarvabhūtadayā Tīrtha (kindness to all living beings)
  5. Satyavāditā Tīrtha (speaking the truth)
  6. Jñānatīrtha (knowledge)
  7. Tapastīrtha (tapas, austerity)

The text says: “The word snāna (holy bath) does not mean only cleaning the body with water. If a man’s mind is pure, he is said to have truly taken snāna.” A pot that held liquor is not made clean even if it is washed a hundred times. In the same way a mind tied to the objects of the senses is not made clean by baths outside. Both the inner and the outer tīrthas are needed. (Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10)

The main two-day pilgrimage

Day one, morning

  1. Upavāsa. Begin with a fast. Upavāsa means staying close to good qualities: keeping away from the enjoyments of the senses, not only from food.
  2. Bath at the confluence. This is Gopratāra, where the Sarayū and the Ghargharā meet. It is the supreme tīrtha.
  3. Visit Vishṇuhari. He is the presiding deva of Ayodhyā, set up by Vishṇuśarmā.
  4. Bath at Svargadvāra. It is the gateway to svarga, where all the tīrthas gather every morning.
  5. Worship Bhagavān Vishṇu with a still mind.
  6. Shave at the holy spot named Dharma, near Dharmahari.
  7. Bath at Pāpamocanā Tīrtha, the destroyer of all pāpa.
  8. Bath at Ruṇamocanā Tīrtha, the one that frees from all debts.
  9. Visit Bhagavān Candrahari.
  10. Visit Bhagavān Dharmahari.
  11. Visit Cakrahari. Give gifts as you are able.
  12. Bath at Brahmakuṇḍa, to gain every wish.

Day one, night

  1. Jāgaraṇa (night vigil) at Mahāvidyā. Keep the vigil near Mahāvidyā. Do pūjā, listen to the stories of Hari, and make a homa.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 8)

Day two, morning

  1. Rise early and bathe at Svargadvāra.
  2. Do the śrāddha (rite for the ancestors) as the rule says.
  3. Give gifts as you are able.
  4. Worship Bhagavān Vishṇu and the brāhmaṇas again and again.
  5. Honour a brāhmaṇa couple with garments and ornaments.
  6. Give generous gifts of money.
  7. After honouring the brāhmaṇas, take your own food.

Day three (the continuation)

  1. Visit Rukmiṇī Tīrtha (Rukmiṇīkuṇḍa) and the other tīrthas in their proper order.
  2. At each tīrtha bathe and give gifts.
  3. Worship Bhagavān Vishṇu with care at each place.
  4. Keep purity of mind, speech and body throughout.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 8)

The Ekādaśī pilgrimage

On the eleventh day (Ekādaśī) of each half of the lunar month, this order is laid down:

  1. Rise very early and plunge into the water at Svargadvāra.
  2. Do the daily duties.
  3. Visit Ayodhyā and look upon the Sarayū.
  4. Visit the Elephant in Rut, a Vīra deva.
  5. See Bandi, the devī who frees from bondage.
  6. See Śītalā, the devī against disease.
  7. See Baṭuka, a form of Bhairava.
  8. Bathe in the lake in front of the deva.
  9. See Mahāvidyā.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10)

The Ashṭamī and Caturdaśī pilgrimage

On the eighth and fourteenth lunar days this order gives puṇya (merit):

  1. Visit the devas named above.
  2. Then visit Piṇḍāraka, the great warrior deva who gives a good mind.
  3. Then see Bhairava, who is guarded by Vāsudeva to protect the holy spot.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10)

The Aṅgāraka Caturthī pilgrimage

On Aṅgāraka Caturthī, the fourth day of the lunar half that falls on a Tuesday:

  1. Visit all the devas named above.
  2. Then visit Vighneśvara, to gain every wish.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10)

The order for every day

  1. Rise early and bathe at Brahmakuṇḍa.
  2. Visit Bhagavān Vishṇu and Vishṇuhari.
  3. With purity of mind, speech and body, see Mantreśvara.
  4. Then see Mahāvidyā.
  5. Then visit Ayodhyā in general, to gain every wish.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10)

The special Kārttika bath

In the month of Kārttika, the bath at Gopratāra (or Svargadvāra) gives very great fruit. On Kārttikī, the full-moon night of Kārttika, all the devas, Indra among them, come to Ayodhyā to bathe at Gopratāra. Even Prayāgarāja, the king of all tīrthas, comes here in Kārttika. One who gives a lamp before Keśava at Gopratāra in Kārttika gains the same fruit as doing all the kratus (yajñas) and bathing in all the tīrthas.

The jāgaraṇa at the confluence on the thirteenth day of the bright half of Pausha gives the fruit of living in svarga. In it one keeps awake all night with worship of Bhagavān Vishṇu, listening to the stories of Hari, music, dance and homa.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 6)

The bath with clothes on

One special rule of the Ayodhyā Yātrā is that the pilgrim takes his holy bath with his clothes on (sa-vastra snāna). The text gives the reason:

“By the holy bath together with the clothes one wears, the many kinds of pāpa done in many births perish. So one should take the holy bath with the clothes on.”

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10)

The fruit of the pilgrimage

The Ayodhyā Māhātmya ends with this statement:

“Even in hundreds and crores of kalpas one does not return to the earth, if one does regularly the pilgrimage that gives auspicious fruit.”

If a person dies during the pilgrimage, at any tīrtha on the way, he reaches the great moksha. Vyāsa himself heard this teaching from Agastya and went straight to Ayodhyā to make the pilgrimage. Sūta Romaharshaṇa, who tells the Purāṇa to the assembled ṛshis, also made it after he learned it from Vyāsa.

(Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10)

Sources

  • Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 6 (the Kārttika bath and the Pausha jāgaraṇa)
  • Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 8 (the main pilgrimage)
  • Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, Chapter 10 (the Mānasa Tīrthas, the special days, the daily order, the bath with clothes on, and the fruit)