Garuḍa, the Nāgas and the River Vañjarā
Vañjarā-saṅgama · vañjarā-saṅgama, “the confluence of the Vañjarā”
Garuḍa, the nāgas and the river Vañjarā is the account, in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, of how the river Vañjarā came to meet the Gautamī on its southern bank. Brahmā tells it to Nārada. Garuḍa had become a slave of the nāgas through his mother Vinatā‘s lost wager with Kadrū, the mother of serpents. At Kadrū’s request he carried her sons toward Sūrya; scorched by the sun’s heat they fell burned on the island Vīraṇa. To revive them Garuḍa brought the water of the Gaṅgā from Pātāla and sprinkled them, and at his word Indra‘s clouds rained. That water became the river Vañjarā, and its meeting with the Gautamī, Vañjarā-saṅgama, frees from old age, poverty and every pāpa.
Garuḍa’s lament
Brahmā said: the tīrtha named Vañjarā-saṅgama is well known in the three worlds, always visited by ṛshis, siddhas and rājarshis. Long ago the bird Garuḍa had become a slave of the nāgas. Because of his mother’s slavery his mind was deeply troubled, and once, alone in a quiet place, he thought, sighing: “Only they are blessed in this world, only they have puṇya, who are free from servitude and misery. They are happy; they sing, sleep and laugh; they are masters of their own bodies. Fie, fie on those who live under another’s control!”
Vinatā tells of her slavery
Garuḍa, Vainateya, the son of Vinatā, went to his mother and asked: “O mother, by whose fault have you become a slave? My father’s, mine, or another’s? Tell me.” Vinatā answered her beloved son, the younger brother of Aruṇa: “It is no one else’s fault; it is my own. I myself said: ‘She whose word proves false shall become the slave of the other.’ Kadrū and I disputed, and she defeated me by deceit. Daiva (fate) is all-powerful, dear child. So I became Kadrū’s slave, and when I became a slave, you too became one, O son of a brāhmaṇa.” Garuḍa said nothing more to his mother, and stayed silent, thinking on how events cannot be escaped.
Kadrū’s request
Once Kadrū, wishing the welfare of her own sons, said to Vinatā, the mother of birds: “Your son goes to bow to Sūrya without hindrance. Though a slave, you are greatly blessed in the three worlds.” Vinatā, hiding her sorrow, asked: “Why do your sons not go to see Sūrya?” Kadrū said: “Take my sons to the land of the nāgas; that cool lake is near the sea.” Then Suparṇa (Garuḍa) carried the serpents and Vinatā carried Kadrū, and Kadrū, delighted, asked that Garuḍa take her sons to the abode of the devas: “My sons wish to see Sūrya, the preceptor of the three worlds. After bowing to him they will come back to my abode. Take them to the sphere of the sun every day.”
Vinatā, trembling, said that she could not do it herself, but her son would carry them. She told Garuḍa that the mother of serpents had insisted, and Garuḍa said: “So be it. Let the serpents mount me.”
The serpents scorched by Sūrya
The host of serpents rode on Garuḍa and slowly drew near the place of Sūrya. Scorched by the fierce heat, they cried: “Turn back, O wise one! Namaskāra to Sūrya! Enough of our wish to go to his abode. We are burned by his splendour, O Garuḍa.” But Garuḍa said, “I shall show Sūrya to you all,” and sped on through the sky toward the sun. Hundreds and thousands of the serpents fell to the earth on the island Vīraṇa, their bodies burned and scorched.
Hearing her sons’ cry, Kadrū came there in great agitation and said to Vinatā: “Your son has done a grave wrong. There is no means to calm it. If Kaśyapa of great tejas were here, we would be free of this affliction; as it is, how can my sons find peace?” Vinatā, afraid, rebuked her son: “This does not befit you, son. The elders say it is right to act humbly. Good men never commit treachery, even toward enemies. The moon shines alike on the learned brāhmaṇa and the lowest-born. Only base men, who cannot act openly and by strength, harm others by fraud.”
The water of Pātāla
Vinatā asked Kadrū: “How can your sons find peace again? They are seized by old age. Tell me the means, and I will do it.” Kadrū said: “There is water of the Gaṅgā in Pātāla. If my sons are sprinkled with it, they will have peace.” In a moment Garuḍa brought water from Pātāla and sprinkled it on the serpents, and he said to Indra, Śatakratu: “Let the clouds, the helpers of the three worlds, rain here.” The clouds rained, and the serpents were revived and became happy, for that water was the water of the Gaṅgā and it took away their sorrow of old age. The place where the serpents were showered became the land of the nāgas. That water of the Gaṅgā destroys all the pāpas of people.
To destroy the grief of old age, it became the river Vañjarā, with amṛta flowing along with it, on the southern bank of the Gautamī.
The phala of Vañjarā-saṅgama
Vañjarā-saṅgama dispels old age, poverty and distress of mind, and keeps away pain of the body. “Where the Gaṅgā of Pātāla meets the Gaṅgā of the mortal world, how can it be described?” Merely by remembering it all pāpas vanish, and no one can tell the fruit of bathing and giving dāna there. The learned say there are one hundred and twenty-five thousand tīrthas there, which give all riches and dispel all pāpas. There is no tīrtha anywhere equal to Vañjarā-saṅgama; merely by remembering it all adversities are destroyed.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 89
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 89