Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda: Śiva and Umā on Himavat

The Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda is the great talk between Bhagavān Śiva and Devī Umā on the mountain Himavat. It is part of the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata. Nārada tells it to the gathered ṛshis, and Bhīshma tells it to Yudhishṭhira. It continues directly from the episode of Kṛshṇa’s tejas (radiance) in Chapter 139.

It begins with Pārvatī covering Śiva’s eyes in play, which fills the world with darkness. Śiva opens his third eye to give light again, and the eye burns Himavat to ashes. Pārvatī then asks about Śiva’s form, and her questions bring out the whole teaching of dharma in Chapters 141 to 145. Śiva then teaches Umā strī-dharma (the dharma of women) at the request of the sacred rivers, Śiva speaks the Purusha-māhātmya to the watching ṛshis, and the vision ends. The ṛshis visit Kṛshṇa at Dvārakā. Bhīshma uses the whole account to comfort Yudhishṭhira after the war. This leads to the teaching of the Vishṇu Sahasranāma in Chapter 149.

The nested frame

The account is told in layers, and each layer vouches for the one inside it:

Vaiśampāyana tells Janamejaya. This is the outermost frame of the whole Mahābhārata recitation.
Bhīshma tells Yudhishṭhira. Bhīshma goes on with his talk on dāna-dharma (the dharma of giving). The ṛshis gathered at the scene of Kṛshṇa’s tejas (Chapter 139) asked to hear the most wondrous thing ever seen. Nārada was chosen to answer, because Nārada himself had seen and told the dialogue of Śiva and Umā.
Nārada tells the ṛshis. He speaks again and again to “Mādhava” (Kṛshṇa). He describes the scene on Himavat and gives the talk between Umā and Maheśvara word for word.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 140)

Chapter 140: the third eye and the burning of Himavat

Nārada describes the holy mountain Himavat. It is crowded with siddhas, cāraṇas, bhūta-gaṇas (the host of spirits who serve Śiva) of a hundred fearful and wonderful forms, and many with the faces of jackals, bears, lions, tigers, owls, wolves and hawks. There are also kinnaras, yakshas, gandharvas and rākshasas. All have gathered where Śiva, called “Vṛshabhāṅka” (he whose sign is the bull), sat doing tapas (austerity).

Divine incense, music, mṛdaṅgas, paṇavas, conches, and the dance of the bhūta-gaṇas and peacocks filled the mountain. The Vedic chanting of the ūrdhvaretas munis (munis who keep strict celibacy) reached svarga.

Śiva sits on the mountain slope as if on a fine couch. His clothes are a tiger-skin and, as an upper cloth, a lion-hide. Serpents are his sacred thread. He wears red armlets, a golden beard and matted jaṭās. His form struck terror into the rākshasas and gave abhaya (freedom from fear) to all other beings and to his devotees. The munis who saw him bowed their heads to the ground and were freed of all pāpa (sin).

Pārvatī came up from behind. She carried a golden vessel filled with the waters of every sacred tīrtha. She scattered flowers and sweet scents as she came to Śiva’s side. Smiling in play, she covered Śiva’s eyes with both hands.

Śiva’s two eyes are the sun and the moon. At once the whole world was plunged into darkness and lost all cetana (awareness). Homas (fire offerings) and the call vashaṭ stopped at once, and every being was struck with fear, as if the sun itself had vanished.

A great flame blazed from Śiva’s forehead. This was his third eye, bright as the sun at pralaya (the end of the world). By its light the world was restored. But the fire of that eye burned the mountain itself to ashes. Himavat is Pārvatī’s own father, in person. When she saw her father burning, her wide eyes filled with distress, and she bowed her head to Bhagavān Śiva and begged him. Śiva could not bear the grief of his beloved for her father, and he looked on the mountain with love. In a moment Himavat had his own form again. The birds rejoiced and the trees bloomed once more.

Pārvatī was restored to joy. She asked Maheśvara two things: why the third eye had appeared on his forehead, and why he had first burned her father and then restored him. Śiva answered gently: “I do not blame you for covering my eyes in your innocence. But in that moment the world lost all light, and so I made the third eye to protect all creatures. Its great tejas burned the mountain. For your sake I have made him as before.”

Pārvatī then asked the questions that begin the whole teaching that follows:

Why are Śiva’s eastern, northern and western faces gentle as the moon, while his southern face is fierce (raudra) and terrible?
Why is his upward face crowned with tawny jaṭās?
Why is his throat blue like a peacock’s feather?
Why does he always hold the Pināka bow?
Why is he always jaṭādhara (wearer of matted locks) and brahmacārī (one who keeps celibacy)?

She said: “I am your sahadharmacāriṇī (partner in dharma) and your devotee, so you must clear my doubt.” Śiva was pleased again by her steadiness and understanding, and promised to answer. This began the talk of Chapter 141.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 140)

Chapter 141: Śiva’s own account and the first teaching of dharma

The chapter begins by naming its speaker with a title of honour. The speaker is Śiva, and through this title the text shows that Śiva and Kṛshṇa are not different (abheda).

The four faces and Tilottamā

Long ago Brahmā gathered the finest particle (tila) of every precious and beautiful thing in creation and made the apsarā (celestial dancer) Tilottamā from them. As she walked round Śiva in devotion, a face appeared on the side toward which she went. In this way Śiva gained four faces through his yogic power, one for each direction:

The eastern face holds the place of Indra.
The northern face rejoices with Umā.
The western face is gentle and brings sukha (happiness) to all beings.
The southern face is raudra, terrible, and brings death to beings. Even as the protector of the world, Śiva must also hold the power of destruction.

Jaṭā, brahmacarya and the Pināka

For the good of the worlds Śiva became jaṭādhara and brahmacārī. The Pināka bow came to rest in his hand, so that the work of the devas could be done.

Śrīkaṇṭha

Once Indra wanted Śiva’s power (aiśvarya) and hurled his vajra (thunderbolt) at him. It scorched Śiva’s throat and went away. From this Śiva got the name Śrīkaṇṭha, “he in whom Śrī dwells at the throat”.

The bull as vāhana

Umā then asks why Śiva’s vāhana (mount) is the humble bull, when every other vāhana in the three worlds is glorious. Śiva answers with the account of Surabhī, the divine cow made by Brahmā. As her calf drank, its foam was flung upward and fell on Śiva’s body. In his anger he “burned” the cows, and from this came the spotted and many colours of cattle ever since. Brahmā then calmed Śiva and gave him the bull as his vāhana and his dhvaja (banner).

The cremation ground

Umā asks why Śiva leaves the mansions of svarga for the śmaśāna (cremation ground). Śiva answers that no place on earth is more sacred to him than the cremation ground. Here it is identified with Vārāṇasī or Kāśī. It is where his bhūta-gaṇas play, and no home without them would please him. The śmaśāna is medhya (fit for the sacred, linked to brahman), and it is visited by those who seek brahman (medhyakāmas).

The householder’s five-fold dharma

Umā then asks what dharma itself is. Śiva teaches the five-fold dharma of the householder: ahiṃsā (not harming), satya (truth), dayā (kindness) to all beings, śama (calm of mind), and dāna (giving) as one’s means allow. With these go keeping away from adultery, theft, madya (strong drink) and māṃsa (meat). These are declared the yoni (source) of puṇya (merit).

The rest of the chapter goes on to teach varṇa-dharma, the universal sanātana dharma, and the difference between pravṛtti (the path of action) and nivṛtti (the path of turning away), and ends with the dharma of the sannyāsa and the munis.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 141)

Chapter 142: vānaprastha and the munis

Umā asks about the dharma of the vānaprasthas (those who live in the forest), who depend on no one and live by their own bodies alone. She then asks about the many tapasvins seen wandering the forests, and about their great austerities and rewards. Śiva’s answer is a complete teaching on vānaprastha-dharma, with a list of particular tapas-vratas (vows of austerity) matched to particular fruits after death.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 142)

Chapter 143: how varṇa is won and lost

Umā asks how a brāhmaṇa falls to the status of kshatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, and how in turn a śūdra may rise through vaiśya and kshatriya to become dvija (twice-born). Śiva’s answer ends with the declaration that birth, saṃskāra (rites), vidyā (learning) and children are not the true cause of being a brāhmaṇa. Ācāra (conduct) alone is.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 143)

Chapter 144: the three pāśas and the teaching on life span

Śiva teaches the three-fold dharma of karma (action), vāk (speech) and manas (mind). These are the three pāśas (bonds). They bind a person to saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and death, or, if rightly practised, set him free. Śiva then teaches that ahiṃsā leads to a long life and hiṃsā (harm) to a short one.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 144)

Chapter 145: dāna, śīla and the causes of rebirth

Śiva teaches exactly how dāna (giving) and śīla (good conduct) lead to birth among the devas or as a human being. He teaches how miserliness and pride lead to birth in naraka and to a low birth. He gives the particular causes of blindness, disease and birth as a napuṃsaka (a person who is neither man nor woman). He ends by separating true keepers of vows from the deluded “brahma-rākshasas“, who call adharma by the name of dharma.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 145)

Chapter 146: strī-dharma before the sacred rivers

Śiva has taught Umā the whole of dharma. Now he reverses the roles. He tells Umā that she takes counsel every day with the great pativratās (wives devoted to their husbands):

Sāvitrī, wife of Brahmā
Śacī, wife of Indra
Dhūmorṇā, wife of Mārkaṇḍeya
Buddhi, wife of Kubera
Gaurī, wife of Varuṇa
Suvarcalā, wife of Sūrya
Rohiṇī, wife of Candra
Svāhā, wife of Agni
Aditi, wife of Kaśyapa

He asks her to teach him the dharma of women, since she is his equal in tapas and śakti (power) and is his sahadharmacāriṇī.

Umā answers with her usual humility and passes the question to the gathered sacred rivers, who stand there in person. They are Gaṅgā (first among all rivers, and first to reach the ocean), Sarasvatī, Vipāśā, Vitastā, Candrabhāgā, Irāvatī, Śatadru, Devikā, Sindhu, Kauśikī and Gautamī. She asks them to help her answer. The rivers, led by Gaṅgā, send the question back to Umā. They say that no one in the three worlds is as fit as she to speak on strī-dharma, and that even one who is most able gains honour by asking others before speaking.

Umā then gives the whole teaching:

Marriage is made before the sacred fire. A wife of good conduct, sweet speech and undivided mind becomes her husband’s sahadharmacāriṇī.
The true dharmacāriṇī is the wife who always sees her husband as a devatā (pati-devatā-bhāva). She serves him as one serves the devas, without any vaśīkaraṇa-tantra (charms to bend a husband to one’s will). She keeps a pleasant face even when her husband speaks harshly or looks at her in anger. She never sees any other male being as a purusha, not even the sun, the moon or a tree.
She takes in a husband who is poor, sick or worn out as a mother takes in a son. She rises before dawn and keeps the house swept and plastered with cow-dung. She performs the agnihotra together with her husband. She feeds the devas, the guests (atithis) and the servants before eating what is left herself. She honours her husband’s parents by washing their feet.
The declaration at the heart of the teaching is: “for women, the husband alone is devatā, kin and refuge. There is none equal to him.” A husband’s pleasure is a wife’s svarga (heaven). Nothing equals it.
Even a command that is akārya (wrong to do) or adharma, even one that puts her life in danger, must be obeyed by the wife when it comes from her husband. The one exception noted is āpad-dharma, the extraordinary rules of times of distress, when ordinary rules may be set aside.

Śiva was delighted with Umā’s teaching and praised her. He sent the whole assembly away, the bhūta-gaṇas, the rivers, the gandharvas and the apsarasas, each to their own home.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 146)

Chapter 147: Purusha-māhātmya

The ṛshis who had watched and heard the whole dharma-saṃvāda ask Īśvara (Śiva) to declare the māhātmya (greatness) of Vāsudeva. Śiva’s answer is a full declaration that Kṛshṇa, who is Hari, is above Brahmā. It also gives a line of descent down to Vasudeva and Kṛshṇa, and says that Balarāma, who is Saṃkarshaṇa, is the cosmic serpent Śesha or Ananta.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 147)

Chapter 148: Mahāpurusha-prastāva, the closing frame

Nārada now closes his telling of the vision itself. The sky filled with thunder and lightning, dark clouds covered the sky and rain fell. In a single moment Śiva and the whole bhūta-gaṇa vanished from Himavat. The ṛshis had seen all this and had heard the whole Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda. They left, some for tīrtha-yātrā and others for their own āśramas, full of wonder at what they had seen and heard.

The ṛshis visit Kṛshṇa

Nārada then tells how the gathered ṛshis took Śiva’s own declaration of Purusha-māhātmya to Kṛshṇa at Dvārakā, in the land of Śūrasena, to tell him all that Śiva had shown. Kṛshṇa received them with honour. They told him the whole account and blessed him. They declared that a son “equal to you, or greater” would be born to him. Ten months later Rukmiṇī gave birth to a son, who is understood to be Kāma reborn as Pradyumna.

Bhīshma comforts Yudhishṭhira

The frame now returns fully to Bhīshma. He has been telling this whole Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda to Yudhishṭhira as part of his comfort after the war.

Bhīshma names Kṛshṇa as Kāla (Time, or Death) itself. He urges Yudhishṭhira not to grieve for his kin, who were “slain by Kāla” and not by Yudhishṭhira’s own hand. He tells of the tapas of Nara-Nārāyaṇa at Badarikāśrama, ten thousand years of austerity, and of Kṛshṇa’s victory over Kaṃsa in his childhood. He puts the blame for the ruin of the war on Duryodhana, Karṇa, Śakuni and Duḥśāsana.

Bhīshma ends by saying that whoever hears, remembers and teaches this whole account, the Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda and the Purusha-māhātmya within it, gains śreyas (the highest good) and svarga. This promise leads to Yudhishṭhira’s next question, which begins the teaching of the Vishṇu Sahasranāma in Chapter 149.

(Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 148)

Sources

Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 140–148