Śravaṇa Dvādaśī Vrata
Śravaṇa Dvādaśī Vrata, “the vow of the twelfth day with Śravaṇa”
The Śravaṇa Dvādaśī Vrata is a vrata (sacred vow) kept on the dvādaśī (twelfth tithi) of the śukla paksha (bright fortnight) of Bhādrapada, when that day is joined with Budha (Wednesday) and the Śravaṇa nakshatra. The Vāmana Purāṇa, in Chapter 53, says that it bears great fruit, greatly increases puṇya (merit) and brings endless happiness. It is taught there within an account that Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada: the preta Somaśarmā tells the merchant Sudharma of the vrata’s fruit, and Sudharma, keeping it birth after birth, rises at last to be born as Purūravas.
When it is kept
The day is the Bhādrapada śukla dvādaśī. When it falls on a Wednesday and the Moon is in the nakshatra Śravaṇa, the vrata is kept. “If you observe this Dvādaśī vrata of Bhādrapada śukla, joined with Budha and Śravaṇa nakshatra,” the preta told Sudharma, “endless happiness will come to you.”
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53
The account told with it
At the beginning of the Tretā yuga, the merchant Sudharma of Śākala in the Madra country was robbed in a desert on his way to Surāshṭra. Wandering, he came to a lone śamī tree and there met a lord of pretas (departed beings), carried by another preta and surrounded by hundreds of pretas, eaters of piṇḍas, their bodies dried up. A pot of curd-rice and a pot of clear water appeared from nowhere, and the preta-leader fed Sudharma, then his retinue, then himself, and the pots vanished.
The preta-leader told him who he was. In Śākala he had been the brāhmaṇa Somaśarmā, a great miser who never gave to brāhmaṇas. Once, in the month of Bhādrapada, the parva of Dvādaśī came. He went with his neighbour, the Vishṇu-bhakta vaiśya Somaśrava, to bathe at the confluence of the Irāvatī and the Naḍvalā, observed the Ekādaśī fast, and gave a pure, learned brāhmaṇa a new water pot covered with a cloth, an umbrella, a pair of sandals and a pot of sweet curd-rice. It was the only dāna (gift) of his seventy years. As a preta he now ate that very food: the two pots came to him every day at midday and stayed inexhaustible until he had eaten; the umbrella had become the śamī tree that gave him shade; the sandals had become the pretas who carried him. “I have told you of my miserliness,” he said, “and of the great fruit of the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata. It greatly increases puṇya.”
He asked Sudharma to offer piṇḍa for him at Gayā, and taught him the vrata. Then the pretas carried Sudharma across the desert to the Śūrasena country. Sudharma prospered again, offered piṇḍa at Gayāśira for the pretas by name and gotra, and at once they left the preta state and went to Brahmaloka.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53
The phala
Sudharma returned to his city, kept the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata, and died. He enjoyed bhogas (enjoyments) in Gandharva loka for a long time; was born a man in Śākala, kept the vrata without fail and gave up his body; enjoyed every bhoga in Yaksha loka; was born a king’s son, fought to free cows and died victorious; was honoured by the devas in Indra loka; and when his puṇya was spent, was born a brāhmaṇa in Śākala, ugly in form, whom his young wife despised. On the bank of the Irāvatī he worshipped Vishṇu Deva and, with the Nakshatra Purusha vrata, gained a beautiful form as a vara. In that birth too, by the vāsanās (impressions) of former births, he kept performing the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vratas, and by the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu the ugly dvija became of a form like Manmatha. After death he was born as Purūravas.
Pulastya Maharshi says of the whole account that it removes pāpa (sin).
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53