Bhīma and Piṅgāksha
Bhīma and Piṅgāksha is told in Chapters 26 to 28 of the Krīḍā Khaṇḍa of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa. A hunter named Bhīma and a brāhmaṇa named Piṅgāksha placed one śamī leaf on the Gaṇanātha mūrti at Kāśī. By that one act both reached Gaṇeśa-loka, the world of Bhagavān Gaṇeśa. Indra then told who they had been in past lives: Bhīma had been the king Sāmba, and Piṅgāksha had been the minister Dushṭabuddhi. The account shows that even a single act of devotion to Gaṇeśa (bhakti) can overcome a heavy load of karma.
The śamī leaf and quick liberation
Chapter 26 tells that Mahotkaṭa, the avatāra of the Kṛta-yuga, was then living in Kāśī, and the holy city was full of his divine presence. In this place two men came to the Gaṇanātha mūrti, the Gaṇeśa who presides over Kāśī. They set a single śamī leaf at his feet. One was the hunter Bhīma. The other was the brāhmaṇa Piṅgāksha.
The act was small: one leaf, set down with whatever sincerity these two men had. Yet the result was at once and complete. Both Bhīma and Piṅgāksha reached Gaṇeśa-loka with no further preparation, initiation or long practice. A divine vimāna (a flying chariot of the devas) came down and carried them to the world of Gaṇeśa.
The past lives of Sāmba and Dushṭabuddhi
Chapter 27 tells that Indra saw this and was amazed. Who were these two ordinary men that they earned such direct liberation? The answer was shown through divine sight.
Bhīma the hunter had been, in an earlier birth, a king named Sāmba. He was a king of some virtue and fine character, though his life had not been free of fault.
Piṅgāksha the brāhmaṇa had been, in an earlier birth, a minister named Dushṭabuddhi, which means “the one of wicked mind”. His name itself showed what his past had been. In that life he had misused the learning of a brāhmaṇa and given corrupt advice.
So Bhīma had some good in his past as a king, and Piṅgāksha had a past stained by a wicked mind. Yet both reached liberation by the same act.
The twenty-one narakas
Chapter 28 describes the twenty-one narakas (hells), the realms of suffering for those with a heavy debt of karma. The description includes the dreadful Kumbhīpāka. These are the realms that the past karma of Bhīma and Piṅgāksha might otherwise have earned for them. Yet one śamī leaf on the Gaṇanātha mūrti overcame those results completely.
King Daśaratha sets up Varada Vinayaka
Chapter 28 also records another event. King Daśaratha, the king of the Rāmāyaṇa, set up the Varada Vinayaka mūrti at Kāśī.
The śamī leaf in Gaṇeśa’s worship
The śamī leaf holds a special holiness in the worship of Gaṇeśa. In this account, two men, one a hunter and one a brāhmaṇa, were freed by placing it on a Gaṇeśa mūrti. It happened in Kāśī, in the presence of Mahotkaṭa.
Sources
- Gaṇeśa Purāṇa, Krīḍā Khaṇḍa, Chapters 26–28