Dhanvantarī and Manasā Devī

This narrative from the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells of a fierce clash between Dhanvantarī and Manasā Devī. Dhanvantarī is the divine physician who rose from the Samudra Manthana (the churning of the cosmic ocean). Manasā Devī is the devī of the nāgas (serpents), the sister of the nāga-king Vāsuki.

The clash began when Dhanvantarī’s disciple robbed and shamed the great nāga Takshaka. It ended when Brahmā and Śaṅkara came and told Dhanvantarī to praise Manasā with a stotra (a hymn of praise). She was pleased and gave him vara (boons).

Who tells the narrative

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa tells this episode to Rādhādevī. It belongs to a run of episodes in which pride is broken (garva-bhaṅga). The whole account is set inside the talk of Nārāyaṇa Ṛshi to Nārada Muni.

Dhanvantarī, the physician

Dhanvantarī rose from the Samudra Manthana. He is a direct aṃśa (part) of Nārāyaṇa. He is the foremost of healers and the source of āyurveda, the science of life and healing.

His guru was Garuḍa, the great divine eagle who carries Bhagavān Vishṇu. Garuḍa is also called Vainateya. Garuḍa was himself a disciple (śishya) of Śaṅkara. So Dhanvantarī stands as Śaṅkara’s disciple’s disciple (upa-śishya). Through this line of teachers he learned all the Vedas. He became expert in mantra, tantra and the art of healing.

One day Dhanvantarī was going to Kailāsa with a company of one thousand disciples.

Takshaka is shamed

On the road Dhanvantarī’s party met Takshaka, one of the greatest nāga-kings. A hundred thousand nāgas went with him. Takshaka looks like a porcupine, and his venom is terrible. Suddenly he turned and rushed at Dhanvantarī, as fast as a striking snake, with his mouth open to swallow him.

Dhanvantarī only laughed. One of his disciples, skilled in the deceptive arts of mantra, seized Takshaka. He held him fast with the power of mantra and drained his venom. Then, with one hand, he tore from Takshaka’s head the maṇi-ratna, the jewel that crowns a nāga-king and holds his power. With a careless swing, the disciple threw Takshaka away like a thing of no worth. Takshaka lay in the road as if dead. He had lost his most precious possession and was utterly shamed.

The nāgas who had come with Takshaka ran to Vāsuki and told him everything. Vāsuki, the great serpent-king and elder brother of Manasā Devī, was filled with rage. He at once sent an army of nāgas against Dhanvantarī. Five great commanders led it: Droṇa, Kāliya, Karkoṭaka, Puṇḍarīka and Dhanañjaya, all of them veterans of serpent war. All the nāga-kings of the world joined them and gathered where Dhanvantarī stood.

The nāga army fells the disciples

The nāgas arrived and surrounded Dhanvantarī’s thousand disciples, and fear came upon the disciples. Then the breath (niśvāsa-vāyu) from the mouths of the gathered nāga-kings was enough to fell all one thousand of them. They fell to the ground like the dead, without sense or movement.

Dhanvantarī himself, as an aṃśa of the divine, was not harmed. He thought of his guru Garuḍa. Then he used the power of his mantra together with a rain of amṛta (the drink of immortality) and brought his fallen disciples back to full life. After that he held the whole nāga army still. Not one nāga could move, and none could send word to Vāsuki.

Vāsuki calls Manasā Devī

Vāsuki is sarvajña (all-knowing). He saw by his own inner sight the trouble that had come upon his forces. He called his sister Manasā Devī, the jagaddhāriṇī (she who holds the world), and sent for her in haste. He said: “O Manasā! O great one! Come here now. Protect the nāgas from this great danger. Through this act you will receive worship from all three worlds.”

Manasā Devī heard her brother and smiled a little. She bowed calmly and said:

“O Nāga-king! Hear me. I go to the battlefield. Whatever is good or otherwise, what is meant to happen will happen. I will make whatever effort I am able to make. Who can protect the one I have decided to slay? I can easily send your enemy from the field. Even if Brahmā and all the devas came to that field, I could still overcome your enemy. There is no doubt of it. My guru, Bhagavān Śesha, gave me a siddha-mantra. It is the most wonderful kavaca (armour-prayer) of Jagannātha Nārāyaṇa himself. I always wear this kavaca at my throat. By the power of that kavaca I can burn the whole world to ash and make it again. I also studied under Bhagavān Śaṅkara himself for a full kalpa, an immeasurably long age. Garuḍa is also Śaṅkara’s disciple. But the one called Dhanvantarī is only one of Garuḍa’s disciples. Why should I worry about him?”

Having spoken, Manasā Devī went alone. She bowed to Śrī Hari, to Śaṅkara and to Śesha. With a glad heart, and with red eyes blazing with set anger, she came to Dhanvantarī, who stood there proud of his wins. With one look from her visha-dṛshṭi (her venom-filled glance), she brought all the nāgas back to life. At the same moment she struck all of Dhanvantarī’s disciples senseless. This time no power of mantra from Dhanvantarī could wake them. Dhanvantarī, the great master of the whole mantra-śāstra, could not raise even one disciple. He looked up at Manasā. She smiled, calm and sure of herself, and began to speak to him with proud and pointed words.

The battle of divine weapons

Manasā Devī mocked Dhanvantarī: “O Dhanvantarī! You are Garuḍa’s disciple. Do you truly know the meaning of mantras, the craft of mantras, and the differences between mantras? Do you know the great herbs? Tell me. Garuḍa and I are both known as Śaṅkara’s disciples. I studied with Bhagavān Śaṅkara for a full kalpa. Do you think you are my equal?”

Then she took a lotus from a sacred lake and charged it with mantra. She set around it a ring of mantra power and hurled it at Dhanvantarī with great force, like a blazing brand. Dhanvantarī saw the lotus fly at him like a flame. He smiled in scorn and burned it to ash with one breath. Then he took a fistful of earth charged with mantra and put out even the ash.

Manasā did not give up. She took a śaktyāyudha, a weapon blazing with the tejas (fire) of the sun. She charged it with mantras and hurled it. Dhanvantarī took up the Vishṇu-śūla (trident) given to him and cut the śaktyāyudha in two with ease, so that it was useless.

Angry at two failures in a row, Manasā took up a terrible nāgapāśa, a noose made of a hundred thousand snakes. It was charged with fully ripened mantras and had the force of the Destroyer. She hurled it at Dhanvantarī. Garuḍa, the great divine eagle, was Dhanvantarī’s vāhana (carrier). Dhanvantarī smiled and called his guru to mind. Garuḍa came at once. He has been the sworn enemy of all snakes since long ago, and he had gone a very long time without food. He swooped eagerly on the nāgapāśa, took the snakes in his beak and ate them. The weapon became an empty husk with no power.

Now Manasā, red-eyed with fury, took a fistful of Śaṅkara’s bhasma (sacred ash), the ash that Bhagavān Śiva himself had charged with power. She charged it again with mantra and threw it at Dhanvantarī. Garuḍa did not flinch. He spread his great wings and, with one strong beat, scattered the bhasma in every direction, so that not one grain reached Dhanvantarī.

Then Manasā took up her last and greatest weapon, the śūla (trident) that Bhagavān Śiva himself had given her. It blazes with the tejas of a hundred suns. Its glow equals the fire at the end of a kalpa. It is called unbeatable in all the worlds, and no one can answer it. She held that śūla in her hand, fully ready to use it on Dhanvantarī.

Brahmā and Śaṅkara step in

At that moment, with Manasā holding Śiva’s unbeatable śūla and about to loose it, Brahmā and Śaṅkara themselves came to the battlefield. They came to save Dhanvantarī from certain ruin and to bring peace.

Manasā Devī saw the two chief devas come down. Though the śūla was in her hand, she did not hesitate. She at once put the weapon aside and bowed to Brahmā and Śaṅkara with deep devotion. Dhanvantarī and Garuḍa also bowed to them and praised them with full bhakti. Brahmā and Śaṅkara blessed everyone there.

Then Brahmā spoke to Dhanvantarī, in words both gentle and weighty, for the good of all:

“O Dhanvantarī! O fortunate one, master of all the śāstras! In my judgment this war with Manasā Devī is not an equal fight. This Sureśvarī (queen of the devas) has the śūla that Śiva himself gave her. It cannot be beaten from any side, and no being can answer it. With it she can burn all three worlds. The one right and good course now is to worship her with devotion. Perform the shoḍaśopacāra pūjā (worship with sixteen offerings) for this devī, as taught in the Kauthuma śākhā of the Sāma Veda, with full śraddhā (faith). Praise her with the stotra made by the great ṛshi Āstīka. Pleased by your worship and praise, Manasā Devī will give you vara (boons).”

Śaṅkara agreed with Brahmā’s words. Garuḍa, with great joy, added his own urging to Dhanvantarī.

Dhanvantarī’s pūjā and dhyāna of Manasā

Dhanvantarī heard the advice of Brahmā, Śaṅkara and his own guru Garuḍa. He bathed and made himself pure, put on fresh clothes and a proper tilaka, and made Brahmā himself the priest for the worship. Then he took a white flower in his hand, turned his mind inward, and entered deep dhyāna (meditation) on Manasā Devī. His dhyāna describes her like this:

She whose body is as beautiful in colour as a campaka flower; whose every limb is lovely; whose face is gently smiling and calm; who wears fine, delicate clothes; who wears her beautiful hair in a neat braid; who is decked all over with jewelled ornaments; who holds out her hand in abhaya (the gesture of fearlessness) to all who come near; who is quick to give her grace to her devotees; who is the master and giver of all vidyās (kinds of knowledge); whose mount is the gaja-rāja, the royal elephant; who is Nāgeśvarī, the ruler of all nāgas. I worship that best of devīs.

He laid the flower at her feet in that state of dhyāna. Then he did the whole shoḍaśopacāra pūjā with every prescribed offering. With full effort, his body thrilled with bhakti, his hands joined and his head bowed, he sang the stotra:

Salutations many times to the Devī who is siddhi-svarūpā (the form of attainment) and the giver of all siddhis. Salutations many times to the Devī who is the daughter of Kaśyapa Prajāpati and the giver of the highest attainments. Salutations to the Devī who is like a daughter to Śaṅkara through her study of vidyā, and who gives happiness to all who take refuge in her. Salutations many times to the Devī who rides the elephant and is Nāgeśvarī. O Mother of Āstīka Muni! O Jagannāmāta, mother of all the worlds! O Devī who is the very root of the universe! O wife of the great ṛshi Jagatkaruḥ! Salutations to you. Salutations again and again to the Devī who is the sister of the nāga-kings, a great yoginī, who has practised tapas for an immeasurable time, and who gives happiness to those who depend on her. Salutations to the Devī who is the form of tapas itself and gives the fruits of tapas. Salutations to the Devī who is suśīlā (of good conduct), sādhvī (virtuous) and śānta-rūpiṇī (of a peaceful form), the calm and virtuous mother of all the worlds.

The ending and the fruit of the Manasā stotra

Manasā Devī was fully pleased by Dhanvantarī’s worship and stotra. She gave him her vara and went back to her own realm. Brahmā and Śaṅkara also went to their own homes. Dhanvantarī, the great aṃśa of Vishṇu, returned to his own divine dwelling. The nāga-kings, their cobra hoods shining, went away content to their own lands.

Then, as a further sign of her grace, Manasā Devī went to the home of the great ṛshi Āstīka Muni, whose stotra Dhanvantarī had recited. Āstīka was a perfect son of dharma. He welcomed his mother with all the honours the śāstras lay down, and he honoured her with true bhakti. Manasā Devī was glad at her son’s service. Āstīka is the one who would later save the nāgas from destruction at Janamejaya’s sarpayajña (snake sacrifice).

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa told Rādhā the result of this Manasā stotra. Whoever recites this supreme stotra with bhakti will never know fear of snakes, and neither will any descendant born in his line. This is certain; there is no doubt in it.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 51