Dīpa-Dāna Vrata

Dīpa-Dāna Vrata · dīpa-dāna vrata, “the vow of giving lamps”

Dīpa-dāna is the vrata of offering lamps. The Agni Purāṇa gives it in Chapter 200, where Agni declares it the greatest of all vratas. The chapter lists the fruits of offering a lamp, tells how a princess named Lalitā gained great honour from a lamp she lit without meaning to, and describes the fate of those who steal lamps from a temple.

Agni Deva teaches this vrata to Vasishṭha Maharshi and opens it with the words: “Now I will tell of the dīpa-dāna vrata, which gives bhukti (enjoyment in this world) and mukti (moksha).” A lamp given for a year, in Cāturmāsya, in Kārtika or on Ekādaśī brings all desires, Vishṇuloka or svarga. Lalitā, once a little mouse who by chance made a dying lamp blaze up in a temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu, was reborn a princess of Vidarbha and the chief queen of a great king, remembered her past birth, and gave lamps all her life; hearing her, her co-wives too reached svarga. The one who steals a lamp from a temple of Vishṇu falls into a naraka of darkness, where the servant of Yama reproaches him. Agni closes the chapter by declaring that dīpa-dāna gives a greater fruit than all vratas.

Dīpa-dāna above all vratas

Agni Deva says that dīpa-dāna gives both bhukti and mukti. Agni says:

“No vrata existed before this, nor does one exist now, nor shall one exist in the future, that surpasses dīpa-dāna.”

So in its phala (fruit), the offering of a lamp is higher than every other vrata. At the end of the chapter, after the account of Lalitā, Agni says it again: therefore dīpa-dāna gives a greater fruit than all vratas.

The phala of dīpa-dāna

Agni names these fruits of offering lamps:

  • One who offers a dīpa (lamp) for a full year in a devālaya (temple) or in a brāhmaṇa’s house obtains sarva-kāmas (all desires).
  • One who offers a dīpa during Cāturmāsya (the four sacred months) reaches Vishṇuloka.
  • One who offers a dīpa in the month of Kārtika goes to svarga.
  • Through dīpa-dāna one obtains āyurdāya (long life), netra-jyoti (the light of the eyes, clear sight), and dhana-putrādi (wealth, sons and all auspicious things).
  • One who gives a dīpa becomes saubhāgyavān (one with good fortune) and is honoured by the devas in svarga.

Lalitā, the mouse and the lamp

Agni tells the account of Lalitā to show the power of dīpa-dāna even when it is done without intending it.

Lalitā was a princess of Vidarbha. She became the wife of King Cirudharma and the first among his hundred queens. It was by the puṇya of dīpa-dāna alone that she gained this place. Once that pativratā (a wife devoted to her husband) gave a thousand lamps (sahasra-dīpa) in a temple of Vishṇu, and her co-wives asked her about the māhātmya (greatness) of dīpa-dāna. Her co-wives asked how she had gained such high honour. She answered with the account of her earlier birth.

In that earlier birth, a purohita (household priest) named Maitreya served the king of Sauvīra. Maitreya built a temple of Vishṇu on the bank of the Devikā river and offered lamps there in the month of Kārtika.

One evening a female mouse was running from a cat. In her flight she struck the wick of the lamp with the tip of her mouth and pushed it upward just as the flame was about to die. The lamp that was almost out blazed brightly again.

After death that mouse was reborn as a princess. She is Lalitā herself. She entered the house of King Cirudharma as the chief of his hundred queens. Because of this one act of lamp-service, done without knowing, she also kept the memory of her earlier birth (pūrva-janma-smṛti).

Lalitā said:

“Thus, because I unknowingly caused the lamp in the Vishṇu temple to blaze by pushing the wick upward, I have reaped these fruits. This is why I always perform dīpa-dāna.”

When her co-wives heard this, the power of dīpa-dāna moved them, and they too reached svarga. Agni Deva says that all of Lalitā’s co-wives heard the upākhyāna (sacred account) she told, and by the power of dīpa-dāna they reached svarga.

The fate of those who steal lamps

Agni then describes the opposite fate. Those who steal lamps from temples, or put them out, fall into a terrible naraka filled with darkness, from which they cannot escape. The one who steals a lamp becomes mute and without understanding (buddhi-vihīna). There a servant of Yama (yamakiṅkara) speaks to them:

“What is the use of weeping here now? You were careless and neglected your dharma. In thousands of births a living being gets a human form, and even then you ran after pleasures with a foolish mind. The result of the worldly pleasures you enjoyed is this very naraka that you now suffer. Why did you not think beforehand about the fruits of your pāpa? Pressing the bosoms of other men’s wives seemed pleasing to you. That very thing is now the cause of your suffering. I have already told you about what you did by carrying off other men’s wives. Now why do you cry ‘Ayyo! Amma!’? Is the name of Śrī Mahāvishṇu a burden to the tongue? Sesame oil (tila) and a wick cost very little. Fire is everywhere. Even so, you did not give dīpa-dāna, and you stole the lamp from the temple of Vishṇu. That very act brings you suffering now. What is the use of weeping? Bear the torment that has come.”

Dīpa-dāna on Ekādaśī

Agni ends with these words:

“One who offers dīpa-dāna on Ekādaśī ascends to svarga riding a divine vimāna (a heavenly chariot) and rejoices there.”

So Ekādaśī is a day when lamp-offering is especially powerful.

Sources

  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 200