Saubhari Upākhyāna
The Saubhari Upākhyāna is told in the sixth chapter of the ninth Skanda of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa. It shows how kāma (desire) can undo years of tapas (austerity). It also shows how viveka (clear discrimination), born from experience, can set a person free. The Ṛgveda scholar and ṛshi Saubhari, after years of tapas in the Yamunā, saw fish mating and was overcome by desire. He married fifty daughters of King Māndhātā and lived in great luxury for years. In the end he found that no amount of enjoyment satisfied him. He gave up everything, went to the forest, and attained moksha (liberation) together with his fifty wives.
The fall from tapas
Saubhari was a great scholar of the Ṛgveda and a renunciant. For many years he kept up his tapas while sitting immersed in the waters of the Yamunā. One day, while he was in meditation, his eyes fell on the king of the fishes, who was playing in pleasure with his mate. In that single moment of unguarded sight, kāma was born in his heart. Years of tapas had not made him free of it. The Bhāgavata teaches that the senses have great force and can pull down even a paṇḍita (learned person).
He came out of the water and went to the court of the great cakravartī (emperor) Māndhātā to ask for a daughter in marriage. Māndhātā saw before him an old ascetic with white hair and a trembling head. He answered with polite care: “O maharshi, enter the svayaṃvara (the bride’s own choice of husband) and let the princess herself choose.”
Saubhari understood the king’s meaning. He saw that, in his old body, no young woman would choose him. So he used the strength of his remaining tapas and changed himself into a form of the highest beauty, one that even the women of the devaloka would desire. He entered the royal apartments, and all fifty of Māndhātā’s daughters chose him at the same moment.
Life in the household
By the power of his tapas, Saubhari built a palace of great splendour, richer even than the imperial wealth of Māndhātā. He gave each of his fifty wives her own apartments, with the finest beds and seats, clothes, jewels, scented waters, rich food and garlands. Saubhari played in lakes full of lotuses. Birds sang around him in the gardens, and bards and minstrels attended him. Even the emperor Māndhātā saw this household and was amazed. He lost his pride in his own rule.
Saubhari enjoyed the full wealth of household pleasure through every sense: eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin. Yet satisfaction never came, not even once. Desire is like a fire fed with ghee. It does not grow smaller. It grows.
Reflection and renunciation
One day, in a moment of inner stillness, Saubhari traced the chain of events back to its start. He saw it clearly: one moment of unguarded sight, the mating of the fish in the Yamunā, had brought him to this. He cried out:
“Look at the ruin that has come upon me, who practised tapas so carefully! I saw the mating of fish in the water, and in one moment I fell from years of gathered tapas.”
He thought further about what this teaches. A person who seeks liberation must leave the company of those who are lost in household life. He must not let the senses wander out toward their objects. He must stay alone and fix the mind on the infinite Īśvara. He must keep company only with sants (holy persons) and with no one else.
He gave up the household completely and went to the forest. His fifty wives, for whom he was their only bhartṛdeva (husband as deva), followed him without hesitation or regret.
Liberation
In the forest Saubhari did hard tapas, and his body became thin. He drew all his sacred fires into himself. He dissolved his jīva-bhāva (sense of being a separate soul) into Paramātmā, and so attained moksha.
His fifty wives saw the moment of his liberation and were drawn along with him, as flames return to a fire that has gone cold. Because they had kept constant satsaṅga (holy company) with a mahātmā (great soul), they too attained liberation.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 6
- Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Chaturdhāmsa, Chapter 2