Ananta Muni and Vishṇumāyā

This account is from the Kalki Purāṇa. It tells of Ananta Muni, a brāhmaṇa who saw the power of Bhagavān Vishṇu’s māyā (the power that makes the world seem real and holds beings in confusion) with his own eyes. After the marriage of Kalki and Padmāvatī, the kings who had been given their male forms again asked a deep question about being a woman and being a man, and about all the pairs of opposites in the life of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death). Kalki called Ananta Muni to answer. Ananta told his story to the kings and the ṛshis. Then a paramahansa (a sannyāsī of the highest order) who came to the sea shore taught about Vishṇumāyā and about the making of the cosmos.

The question of the kings

Kalki had taught the kings about varṇa-dharma and about pravṛtti-dharma and nivṛtti-dharma (the way of action and the way of turning away from action). The kings had been brought back from the form of women. They bowed to the ground with the sāshṭāṅga-namaskāra (the bow with the whole body) and asked Kalki a deeper question.

They said: “O Bhagavān Kalki! By whose power were womanhood (strītva) and manhood (purushatva) made? For whose sake? By whose power do childhood (bālya), youth (yauvana) and old age (vārdhakya) exist? How do happiness (sukha) and sorrow (duḥkha) arise? Please explain these things, and all the other dharmas we have not thought to ask about.”

Kalki heard the question and smiled. By his thought alone (smaraṇa) he called Ananta Muni. Ananta was a brāhmaṇa who had made many pilgrimages to tīrthas and kept many vratas (vows). He came at once. He had been waiting only for this call, for he knew that Kalki’s thought of him was itself mukti (liberation). He said: “O Bhagavān Kalki, I received mukti the moment you thought of me. Tell me what I am to do.”

Kalki replied with a smile that Ananta knew everything about him and his līlās (divine acts). With that hint Kalki sent the assembly to ask Ananta himself.

Ananta’s birth and Śiva’s vara

Ananta Muni told his story.

In earlier times, in the city of Purī, there lived a muni named Vidrumuḍu. He knew all the Vedas and the dharmaśāstras and he was devoted to the good of others. His wife was Soma, a faithful wife (pativratā). In their old age a son was born to them, but he was born a napuṃsaka, a child with neither a male nor a female nature. The sight of the child threw them into grief.

Vidrumuḍu was afraid and heartbroken. He left his house and went to the śiva-vana (the forest of Śiva). There he made a full pūjā to Parameśvara with incense (dhūpa), lamps (dīpa), sandal paste (gandha) and flowers. Then he made a stotra: “O Maṅgalakara! O Śānta! O Sarvaloka-nātha! O Bhūtāvāsa! You who wear Vāsuki as an ornament on your neck, who hold Gaṅgā in your matted hair (jaṭājūṭa), who give joy to your bhaktas (devotees), hear my prayer.”

Bhagavān Śiva was pleased with this praise. He appeared before Vidrumuḍu with Devī Pārvatī. He smiled and asked what vara (boon) Vidrumuḍu wished for. Vidrumuḍu said: “O Svāmī, my son was born a napuṃsaka, and my heart is pierced with sorrow. Give my son manhood (paurusha).” Bhagavān Śiva glanced at Devī Pārvatī beside him, smiled, and gave the vara. Vidrumuḍu went home and found his son changed into a man (purusha).

The son was named Ananta. When he was twelve years old, Vidrumuḍu arranged his marriage (vivāha). Ananta married Māniṇī, the daughter of Yajñarātu, a woman of great beauty. Ananta entered the gṛhastha-āśrama (the life of the householder) and was wholly devoted to his wife.

The death of his parents and the dream teaching of Vishṇu

After some time Ananta’s old parents died. He did all the śrāddha rites in the right way. He fed brāhmaṇas with what he had, and he kept the mourning rites with friends and other brāhmaṇas.

Ananta was struck by grief at the loss, and he turned wholly to the service of Śrī Vishṇu. Through his japa (repeating the name), his pūjā and his constant remembrance (smaraṇa), he pleased Bhagavān Vishṇu. One night Śrī Hari appeared to him in a dream (svapna) and said: “You feel the bonds of affection (sneha) and attachment (moha): ‘this is my father, this is my mother.’ These bonds are made by my māyāśakti (the power of my māyā). It is only because of these attachments that a living being feels grief (śoka), confusion (moha), fear (bhaya), distress (udvega), old age (vārdhakya) and death (maraṇa). One must care for one’s parents while they live and see that they have no sorrow. But after they have left the world, one should not torment oneself with grief.”

Ananta tried to go on speaking with Bhagavān Vishṇu, but Vishṇu disappeared. Ananta woke up.

He was filled with wonder. He left the city of Purī with his wife and went to the temple of Purushottama. He built an āśrama to the right of the temple and lived there. He served Bhagavān Vishṇu with his friends and his wife, and he grew in bhakti (devotion). While he lived there, a wish rose in him: he wished to see the māyā of Śrī Hari with his own eyes.

For twelve years he lived there. He chanted the name of Hari, sang of his līlās, and meditated with his mind fixed on Bhagavān Vishṇu.

The sea and the experience of māyā

On a Dvādaśī day (the twelfth day of the lunar fortnight), Ananta wished to break his fast (pāraṇa) and bathe in the ocean. He went to the sea with friends and relatives. As soon as he entered the water, huge waves rose. The waves tossed him about. He sank and could not come out, and he thought his death was certain. Fish, crabs and other creatures of the water bit him. He sank and came up again and again, was thrown about by the waves, and at last lost consciousness.

Strong winds threw him onto the shore of the southern sea. There Vṛddhśarma, a brāhmaṇa of great dharma and wealth, was finishing his evening sandhyāvandana (the evening prayers) and happened to pass by. He felt compassion and carried the unconscious Ananta to his home. Ananta woke up with his body covered in wounds. Vṛddhśarma saw that he was a brāhmaṇa devoted to the Vedic path, and he gave his own daughter Cārumatī to Ananta in marriage.

Cārumatī was beautiful, golden-coloured, and full of good character. Ananta was amazed at this unexpected gift. Through her he had five sons: Jaya, Vijaya, Kamala, Vimala and Budha. He grew very rich. His sons, relatives and friends honoured him as the devas honour Indra.

Waking from the dream: the māyā revealed

After some time Ananta wished to offer tarpaṇa to the devas, the ṛshis and the pitṛs (the ancestors) at the ocean, for the marriage of his eldest son Budha. He went to the sea again, offered the tarpaṇa in the water, came out tired from the waves, and stood on the shore.

There, to his amazement, he saw the very people of Purushottama kshetra, the friends and relatives of his earlier life there. They were keeping their Dvādaśī pāraṇa and saying their evening prayers (sandhyā). They were shocked to see him and asked: “Ananta! Why are you weeping? You are a devotee of Vishṇu. Did you see something wrong in the water or on the land?”

Ananta answered in confusion: “Friends, I saw nothing unusual. It was I who was overcome by desire (kāma) and weakness of heart (kārpaṇya, meanness or attachment), and forgot my true state. I wished to see the māyāśakti of Śrī Hari. I fell under its power and became foolish (mūḍha), a slave of the senses (indriyas). Drunk with desire and attachment (kāma-moha), I forgot my wife Māniṇī here and became attached to a new wife, children and wealth there. I became a man of great sorrow. I forgot that I was Ananta at all. Purushottama kshetra, my wife, my wealth, all of it seemed to me like a dream (svapna).”

He understood. What he had lived as a whole lifetime, the rescue by Vṛddhśarma, the marriage with Cārumatī, the five sons and the wealth, had in truth been a dream of māyā. Śrī Hari’s hidden power had made it in the time of one sea-bath.

His wife Māniṇī came and sat weeping beside him. She saw the strange blank look on his face. Slowly his real children, his wife and his belongings came back to his memory one by one. At that moment a paramahansa came to the shore.

The paramahansa’s teaching on Vishṇumāyā

The paramahansa was a wandering sannyāsī of the highest order. He shone like the sun, his mind was absorbed in Bhagavān Vishṇu, and he knew all dharmas. All who were there offered him pūjā. He took his meal of alms (bhikshā-bhojanam), then sat and looked at Ananta. He called Ananta by name and asked: “Where is your wife Cārumatī? Where are your sons, your wealth, your house, your relatives? There you were seventy years old. Here you look like a youth of thirty. I never met this wife of yours. Our meeting is strange. You are a householder (gṛhastha). I am a sannyāsī who asks about tattva (the truth of things). Our talk is like talk between a child and a madman.”

Then the paramahansa spoke to everyone there:

“O brāhmaṇa! All this is Vishṇumāyā, which deludes the three worlds. Its play can be understood only by knowing the non-dual Bhagavān Vishṇu (Advaita). A veśyā (courtesan) walking on a road deceives all who walk that road. In the same way māyā creates attachment (moha). It makes darkness so that the jīva (the living being) keeps turning on the wheel of birth and death (janana-maraṇa), burning with pain (saṃtāpa).”

He then told how the cosmos is made. “At mahāpralaya (the great dissolution), the three worlds merge into Parabrahma, who is Nārāyaṇa. Time (kāla) and space (dikshu) become unmanifest. When Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa wishes to make the world (jagat) again, so that the jīvas may receive the fruits of their karmas, all the elements appear again. Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa divides his tejas (splendour) into Purusha and Prakṛti. From Purusha, working through Prakṛti, mahat-tattva is born. From mahat-tattva, ahaṃkāra (the sense of ‘I’) arises. From ahaṃkāra arise the three guṇas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Their lords are Vishṇu, Brahmā and Śaṃkara. These three do creation (srishṭi), preservation (sthiti) and dissolution (laya), in that order.

“From ahaṃkāra come the five tanmātrās: sound (śabda), touch (sparśa), form (rūpa), taste (rasa) and smell (gandha). From these come the five bhūtas (elements): ākāśa (space), vāyu (air), tejas (fire), jala (water) and bhūmi (earth). The moment the glance (drishṭi) of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa touches Prakṛti, the brahmāṇḍa (the egg of the cosmos) is born. It is filled with devas, rākshasas, human beings (manushyas), animals and birds (paśu-pakshis), and all moving and unmoving beings.

“All of these are under the māyāśakti of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. They stay in the error (bhrama): ‘This body is I. Whatever is joined to this body is mine.’ Under the power of māyā they make no effort to free themselves from these bonds. How strong māyā is! Even Brahmā and the devas stay bound in this wheel of saṃsāra, like oxen tied by the nose. Only those who wish to cross the waves of this wheel of saṃsāra, which cannot be crossed because of its three guṇas, are truly great ones (mahānubhāvas) who know the tattva.”

The teaching of the indriya-devatās

The paramahansa’s words moved Ananta. He then told what had happened to him when he tried tapas (austerity) to master the senses. The ten indriya-devatās (the devas of the senses) had come before him in their own forms and spoken. They gave their names: “We are Dik, Vāyu, Sūrya, Varuṇa, Aśvinī, Agni, Indra, Upendra, Mitra and Prajāpati. We are the adhidevatās, the ruling devas, of the indriyas. We live in a subtle form (sūkshma-rūpa) in your body. Do not harm us through tapas. If you master the mind (manas) by tapas alone, you gain nothing. If you harm us, you suffer greatly.”

Then they taught him the inner meaning of the householder’s dharma as a spiritual truth: “The householder’s body is the house. The ātman (self) is the householder. The buddhi (the discerning mind) is the householder’s wife. The manas and the indriyas are the servants. We always follow the buddhi. For a person bound by karma (a manushya), it is the manas, acting according to karma, that gives both the bond of saṃsāra (saṃsāra-bandha) and mukti. Whoever falls under the māyā of Bhagavān Vishṇu enters saṃsāra. So if you wish to control the manas, serve Śrī Hari with bhakti and firm resolve (niścaya). The service of Śrī Hari removes all bonds of the fruits of karma (karma-phala-bandhana), destroys pāpas (sins), and frees you from the bond of worldly life (bhava-bandha-vimukti). By the darśana (sight) of Kalki alone you will be freed from that bond.”

Taught in this way by the indriya-devatās, Ananta served Śrī Hari with bhakti. Then he came to see Kalki, “the destroyer of the darkness of Kali, whom I came here to find”. At that very darśana of Kalki he felt he had become blessed (dhanya). He touched Kalki’s divine feet and heard his divine words. He said: “Parameśvara has no material feet and no material speech. What I touched were divine feet (divya-pādāni). What I heard was divine speech (divya-vāk).” Then he bowed to Kalki, the husband of Padmā (Padmāpati), with the sāshṭāṅga-namaskāra and went away full of joy (ānanda).

What came after

The kings heard Ananta’s story and understood the truth of seeing māyā (māyā-darśana). They honoured Kalki and Padmāvatī with pūjā and bowed to them. They took up the vow of a muni (muni-vrata). They reached the path of moksha and gained everlasting joy (śāśvatānanda).

Śuka then summed it up: “Those who hear Ananta’s story are freed from māyā and reach mukti, and give up the desire for the pleasures of saṃsāra. With the sword of knowledge (jñāna-khaḍga) inside the fort of bhakti, they defeat their enemies, desire (kāma), anger (krodha) and the others, and reach the shelter of the feet of Vishṇu (Vishṇu-pādāśraya).”

Sources

• Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapter 4 (the question of the kings, Ananta’s birth, the dream teaching, the sea, the waking from the dream)
• Kalki Purāṇa, Dvithīyāmśa, Chapter 5 (the paramahansa’s teaching, the indriya-devatās, Ananta’s darśana of Kalki, what came after)