Sāṇḍīpani Gurukula

After the death of Kaṃsa, Vasudeva arranged the upanayana (the sacred thread ceremony) for his sons Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Balarāma. The two brothers then went to live in the gurukula (the teacher’s home) of Sāṇḍīpani at Avantī, which is Ujjayinī. They learned all the Vedas and the other branches of knowledge in only sixty-four days. As guru-dakshiṇā (the gift of thanks to a teacher), Sāṇḍīpani asked for his son who had drowned in the sea. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa went to the realm of Yama and brought the boy back.

The sacred thread and the Gāyatrī

Kaṃsa was dead and Vasudeva was now a free householder in Mathurā. He arranged the upanayana of both his sons. The ceremony was done with Vedic rites and many brāhmaṇas present. Vasudeva gave the brāhmaṇas who conducted it adorned cows, gold, silk garments and flower garlands.

He also remembered in his mind the cows that Kaṃsa had unjustly taken from him. Their birth stars fell on the same days as the birth stars of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Balarāma. He gave those cows again in his heart as a mānasa-dāna (a gift in the mind), to be given in fact later.

The ceremony was the brothers’ formal “second birth”. Their family teacher Gargācārya gave both of them the gāyatrī mantra and the brahmacarya vow.

The gurukula of Sāṇḍīpani

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Balarāma decided to live at a teacher’s home as disciples, which is called gurukula-vāsa. They chose Sāṇḍīpani Muni. He was a brāhmaṇa of the Kāśyapa gotra, born in Kāśī, who had studied in Kāśī and now lived at Avantī, the city of Ujjayinī. He was counted among the foremost Vedic scholars of his time.

The brothers came to his āśrama and followed every rule for entering a guru’s presence: a respectful greeting, surrender of the self and complete service. They served Sāṇḍīpani as one would serve a deva. They did every task he gave them, looked after the āśrama, tended the sacred fire, and gathered fuel and water.

The Bhāgavata says their behaviour in the gurukula was perfect. By their own conduct they showed how a student should come to a teacher.

Mastery in sixty-four days

Sāṇḍīpani saw at once that his students were extraordinary. He taught them the whole course:

• The four Vedas with their six Vedāṅgas: śikshā (phonetics), kalpa (ritual procedure), vyākaraṇa (grammar), chandas (metre), jyotisha (astronomy) and nirukta (the origin of words)
• The Upanishads
• Dhanurveda (the science of weapons), with the use of the mantras and their devatās
• The Dharmaśāstras
• Mīmāṃsā, Nyāya and the other darśana systems
• Tarka-vidyā (logic)
• Rājanīti (the science of government) in its six forms: sandhi, vigraha, yāna, āsana, dvaidhībhāva and samāśraya

Besides these śāstric subjects he taught them the sixty-four kalās (arts), including music, dance and all the fine arts of culture.

The Bhāgavata records that the brothers learned everything in sixty-four days. They understood each subject the first time it was taught. The ācārya himself was amazed.

He understood what the Bhāgavata makes clear. These two were not students who needed teaching. They were the lords of all knowledge, and they only took the manner of students to set an ideal for the world. They hid their own all-knowing nature behind the form of humble learners, as a gift to the world.

The guru-dakshiṇā: the return of the drowned son

When their study was finished, the brothers came to Sāṇḍīpani and asked him to name his guru-dakshiṇā, the gift of gratitude that a student offers a teacher at the end of study. The ācārya asked his wife. For years they had grieved for a son who had drowned in the sea at the tīrtha of Prabhāsa, on the western ocean. They had long ago given up hope of seeing him again. Nothing in this world could match the loss of a child. The guru and his wife asked for this: the return of their son.

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Balarāma agreed at once. They left Avantī in their chariot and drove to Prabhāsa tīrtha, on the shore of the great ocean.

The ocean’s answer

The deva of the ocean came out to receive the brothers with offerings and respect. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa asked him directly: “You carried off our teacher’s son in a great wave. Give him back to us.”

The ocean answered that he had not taken the boy. An asura named Pañcajana, who lived in the form of a great śaṅkha (conch) in the deep, had seized the boy and was keeping him.

The death of Pañcajana and the Pāñcajanya

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa dived into the ocean, found Pañcajana and killed him. He searched the body of the asura for the boy, but found no one inside. From the body of Pañcajana, who had lived as a conch, he took the shell. This became the famous Pāñcajanya, the conch of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa himself, which later sounded in the Mahābhārata war.

Down to the city of Yama

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Balarāma drove the chariot to Saṃyamanī, the city of Yama, the deva of death, where the departed are brought. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa blew the Pāñcajanya. The sound filled the realm of Yama.

Yama himself came out, bowing with joined palms. He said: “What command do you have for me, O Vishṇu, who have come to us in human form?”

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa answered: “Our teacher’s son was brought here by the force of his own *karma. Give him back to us by our command.”*

Yama understood that no karma can bind one who has the direct order of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, and he released the boy. The son of Sāṇḍīpani, alive and of the same age as at his death, was placed before Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Balarāma.

Return to Avantī

They brought the boy back to Avantī and gave him to Sāṇḍīpani. The guru was overwhelmed. He said: “You have paid the guru-dakshiṇā in full. Nothing more is owed. You are the lords of all learning. Go, and may your fame purify the worlds.”

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 45