Gītā Māhātmya

Chapters 175 to 192 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa praise the Bhagavadgītā. Bhagavān Śiva speaks to Pārvatī, and part of the account is Bhagavān Vishṇu’s teaching to Lakshmī. For each of the eighteen chapters of the Gītā there is one account. Each shows how even a part of that chapter, recited or heard by chance, frees the one who hears it.

The eighteen accounts come in eighteen successive chapters of the Purāṇa. Together they present the Gītā as the most powerful scripture of the Kali age.

Overview

The Gītā Māhātmya begins when Pārvatī asks Bhagavān Śiva to tell her the greatness of the Bhagavadgītā. Bhagavān Śiva begins with a talk between Bhagavān Vishṇu and Lakshmī. In it Bhagavān Vishṇu shows that the Gītā is one with his own cosmic body. The five faces are the first five chapters. The ten arms are the next ten chapters. The belly is one chapter. The feet are the last two chapters.

Even hearing a single half-verse of any chapter is enough for liberation, as the accounts show.

Chapter 1: Suśarman

Suśarman was the worst of those full of pāpa, born in a brāhmaṇa family. He ate flesh, drank liquor and neglected all dharma. A serpent bit him, and he passed through many animal births, as a bull, a dog and a bird. He gathered puṇya (merit) from gifts given by people passing by.

He was then born among noble brāhmaṇas. He learned from a parrot that had recited the first chapter of the Gītā without meaning to. Through the parrot’s recitation Suśarman was purified and reached liberation. The parrot was also freed by the same merit. So liberation through the first chapter worked across three lives.

Chapter 2: Devaśarman

Devaśarman was a rich and devout brāhmaṇa of the city of Purandara. He performed yajñas and served ṛshis, but he could not find peace within. He went to a cowherd ṛshi named Mitravat in the city of Saupura.

Mitravat told him the account of Durdama, a brāhmaṇa who fell into naraka (hell). After many births Durdama was at last freed. His daughter had been born from an impure union with a cāṇḍāla. She heard the second chapter of the Gītā by chance and was freed. This freed a whole chain of family members from their own states of naraka.

Devaśarman recited the second chapter and reached the highest state.

Chapter 3: Jaḍa

Jaḍa was a brāhmaṇa of the family of Kauśika in Janasthāna. He gave up the duties of his varṇa and became addicted to gambling, liquor, hunting and adultery. Robbers killed him, and he became a fearsome piśāca (goblin).

His righteous son was travelling to Vārāṇasī to perform the last rites. At night, at the root of a tree, he did his sandhyā and recited the third chapter of the Gītā. Jaḍa heard it and was freed from the form of a piśāca. He appeared in a divine realm.

The son’s recitation of the third chapter was so strong that it finally freed all of Jaḍa’s relatives from naraka. It even forced Yama to release the beings of naraka. Because of this Yama himself went to the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu to receive instructions.

Chapter 4: The two badarī trees

Bharata was a ṛshi at Vārāṇasī who recited the fourth chapter of the Gītā all the time. Once he rested under two badarī trees. He used one as a pillow and put his foot on the other. The trees dried up and died.

They were born again as two girls in brāhmaṇa houses. After seven years they met the same ṛshi. They told him that the touch of his body, filled with the power of the fourth chapter, had freed them from their birth as trees. That birth had come from the śāpa (curse) of a ṛshi named Satyatapas. So the freeing power of the fourth chapter passes through the very body of the one who recites it.

Chapter 5: Piṅgalā

Piṅgalā was a brāhmaṇa who had given up the duties of his varṇa. His own adulterous wife Aruṇā killed him. He became a vulture. She died later and became a female parrot. Their enmity went on in these bird forms.

Both at last fell into a human skull that held water. A ṛshi named Batu had placed in that water the merit of constantly reciting the fifth chapter of the Gītā. Both died in this skull-water, which the fifth chapter had made pure. They were freed from pāpa (sin) and rose to the state of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Chapter 6: Raikya

Raikya was a wandering ṛshi of great radiance. He was found sitting under a cart, scratching his limbs, at the door of the holy place Māṇikyeśvara in Kashmir.

King Jñānaśruti of Pratishṭhāna had heard divine swans comparing Raikya’s radiance with his own. He sent his charioteer Mahā to find Raikya. The charioteer went on a long pilgrimage to holy places across India and at last found Raikya in Kashmir.

Raikya’s great power came wholly from his daily recitation of the sixth chapter of the Gītā. King Jñānaśruti learned the sixth chapter from Raikya and reached liberation.

Chapter 7: Śaṅkukārṇa

Śaṅkukārṇa Dayārṇava was a brāhmaṇa of Pāṭaliputra who had taken up the work of a vaiśya. A serpent bit him and he died, and he became a serpent himself.

His greedy son came at night to dig up the family’s hidden wealth. The serpent, his father, spoke from the anthill and asked to be freed. He told his son that only the seventh chapter of the Gītā could free him. The way was to feed, at a śrāddha, a brāhmaṇa who studies the seventh chapter.

The sons did this, and the father was freed from the form of a serpent. All the sons, reciting the seventh chapter, finally reached liberation themselves.

Chapter 8: Bhavaśarman

Bhavaśarman was a brāhmaṇa of Amardaka in the southern country. He was married to a courtesan. He ate flesh, drank liquor, stole and hunted. He died from drinking too much tāla (palm) fruit juice and became a great palm tree.

Two brahma-pretas (brāhmaṇa ghosts), Kuśivala and his greedy wife Kumati, rested in its shade. Kumati asked, almost by chance, the question that is the first half of a verse of the eighth chapter of the Gītā: “What is Brahman? What is adhyātma (the self)? What is karma (action)?” The palm tree, who had been Bhavaśarman, heard it and was freed at once from the form of a tree. The two ghosts were freed too.

Bhavaśarman then wrote down that half-verse and practised tapas (penance) at Vārāṇasī. Bhagavān Vishṇu was moved by his devotion and gave him endless happiness.

Chapter 9: The goat

Mādhava was a brāhmaṇa of Māhishmatī on the Narmadā. He brought a goat for sacrifice (yajña). The goat burst out laughing and spoke. In a former birth he had been a brāhmaṇa. He had been cursed to be a goat because he had had a goat killed at the pavilion of Caṇḍikā.

The goat told of many earlier lives. He had been a monkey beaten to death by a juggler. He had been a dog beaten by his own family. He had been a horse that sank in mud, and he had gone through many more animal births.

Then a brāhmaṇa at Kurukshetra who recited the ninth chapter every day drove away the pāpa (sin) that came, as persons, to attack him. The goat had taken in the protection of the ninth chapter by being near, and this at last purified him.

Chapter 10: The swan

Dhīrādhi was a brāhmaṇa ṛshi of Kāśī. He was so lost in meditation on the Paramātmā that Bhagavān Śiva himself walked beside him and held his hand at every step. He had once been a human who was cursed to be born among the swans of Bhagavān Brahmā, because he had touched his sleeping teacher with his foot by mistake.

As Brahmā’s swan, he flew from Lake Mānasa to the earth. He turned black after flying over a lotus pond. A lotus plant explained why he had turned black. The lotus plant was a woman named Padmavatī, once a divine nymph, who had been cursed by Durvāsa for bathing without clothes. She also told how 60,000 bees that smelled her fragrance had once been brothers. They were brāhmaṇa ṛshis who fought to the death over a beautiful woman, passed through many animal births, and at last reached liberation as bees.

The lotus told the tenth chapter of the Gītā to the swan. He was freed and born again as the brāhmaṇa Dhīrādhi. Now he walks through Kāśī with the hand of Bhagavān Śiva holding him at every step.

Chapter 11: Sunanda

Sunanda was a brāhmaṇa of the city of Meghankara on the Pragitā river. He recited the eleventh chapter, the Viśvarūpa-darśana (the vision of the universal form), every day, and reached jīvanmukti (liberation while living).

On a pilgrimage he came to a village where a rākshasa regularly ate travellers who were lodged in a certain temple. Sunanda was safe, because the rākshasa could not touch him.

The rākshasa had once been a brāhmaṇa farmer. An ascetic had cursed him to become a rākshasa because he failed to protect a man being eaten by a vulture. He told the head of the village that his own liberation depended on the eleventh chapter.

Sunanda made water holy with the eleventh chapter and sprinkled it on the rākshasa. The rākshasa was freed and took a divine four-armed form. All the travellers he had eaten were also brought back to life and given four-armed bodies.

Chapter 12: Siddhasamādhi

Siddhasamādhi was a brāhmaṇa at the door of the temple of Mahālakshmī at Kolhāpura. Mahālakshmī sent him to help a prince. The prince’s father, the king, had died during an aśvamedha yajña, and the sacrificial horse had been stolen.

Siddhasamādhi used his power to call the devas and to bring back the stolen horse. He then sprinkled holy water on the king’s dried body and brought him back from death. When he was asked where his power came from, Siddhasamādhi said it came from the twelfth chapter of the Gītā, which he recited every day.

Chapter 13: Durācārā

Durācārā (“of bad conduct”) was the wife of the pious brāhmaṇa Hari Dīkshita of the city of Harihara on the Tungabhadrā. She was wanton and loose. She drank liquor, kept lovers and never stayed at home.

One spring night she went to a meeting place but found no lover. A tiger heard her wandering about, killed her and ate her. She suffered terrible naraka and was born again as a cāṇḍālinī. Even in that birth she kept her wanton ways.

One day she passed the doorway where a brāhmaṇa named Vāsudeva was reciting the thirteenth chapter. She only heard it as she passed. She was freed from her cāṇḍāla body, and she received a divine form and svarga (heaven).

Chapter 14: The bitch and the hare

King Vikramavetāla of Siṃhaladvīpa received a pair of beautiful hunting bitches from his friend King Śauryavarman of Kaśmīra. On a hunt the king’s bitch chased a hare to an āśrama in the forest. There the ṛshi Vatsa recited the fourteenth chapter of the Gītā every day.

The bitch and the hare both fell into the muddy water used to wash Vatsa’s feet. Both received divine forms and went to svarga.

The ṛshi’s disciple Svakandharā explained. The bitch had been a brāhmaṇa’s wife, and her husband had killed her for being unfaithful. He had been born again as the hare, and she as the bitch. Their old enmity ended in the pure mud, by the power of the fourteenth chapter.

Chapter 15: King Narasiṃha

King Narasiṃha of the Gauḍa country bought an extraordinary horse from a vaiśya. While hunting alone he climbed a rock and found half a verse of the fifteenth chapter of the Gītā written on it. He read it aloud.

The horse heard it. The horse was the rebirth of his wicked minister Śarabhabheruṇḍa, who had plotted to kill the king. The horse reached liberation and fell dead at once.

The king asked a hermit of the forest, who said that the horse had been freed by hearing the fifteenth chapter. The king then recited the inscription himself, and he and his ministers reached liberation.

Chapter 16: Khadgabāhu

King Khadgabāhu of Saurāshṭrika in the Gurjara country had an elephant named Arimardana. One night it broke its chains and ran wild through the city.

A brāhmaṇa was murmuring verses of the sixteenth chapter of the Gītā. He walked calmly along the path of the wild elephant, unhurt and unafraid. He even touched the elephant’s mada (rutting fluid) and was not harmed.

The king was amazed and learned the sixteenth chapter from the brāhmaṇa. He then put himself on purpose in the path of the same elephant and escaped unhurt by the power of the chapter. He crowned his son and reached the highest state.

Chapter 17: Duḥśāsana

Duḥśāsana was a servant of Khadgabāhu’s son. He made a rash bet and climbed onto the same wild elephant Arimardana, which killed him. His last wish was fixed on this elephant, and so in his next birth he was born as the elephant.

The king Jayadeva of Siṃhaladvīpa at last sent this elephant to Khadgabāhu’s son. In old age the elephant fell ill with fever. He spoke to the Mālava king and begged him to bring a brāhmaṇa who could recite the seventeenth chapter. This was done, and holy water was sprinkled on him. Duḥśāsana gave up the form of an elephant and reached liberation.

Chapter 18: A brāhmaṇa becomes Indra

A brāhmaṇa murmured five verses of the eighteenth chapter of the Gītā every day. He gathered so much merit that he displaced Indra from his throne. A new Indra was crowned in svarga by merit that came only from these five verses.

The former Indra went to Bhagavān Vishṇu, bewildered. Bhagavān Vishṇu told him that no yajña or tapas could equal the merit of reciting the eighteenth chapter. The former Indra went to the Godāvarī and learned the eighteenth chapter from a brāhmaṇa of great merit.

By this merit he reached union with Bhagavān Vishṇu. He saw that even the place of Indra is small beside the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu. He gave it up and went to Vaikuṇṭha.

What the Gītā Māhātmya says in all

The Gītā Māhātmya says that the Bhagavadgītā is the body of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself in the form of eighteen chapters. Even a person full of pāpa is purified and freed by hearing it by chance, by a passing touch of its recitation, or by reading even a half-verse. The power of the Gītā goes beyond deliberate worship, pilgrimage, tapas, yajña and every other religious act. In the Kali age the Gītā and the Bhāgavata are shown as the highest remedies for the cycle of saṃsāra (birth and death).

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 175 (Overview and Chapter 1 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 176 (Chapter 2 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 177 (Chapter 3 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 178 (Chapter 4 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 179 (Chapter 5 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 180 (Chapter 6 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 181 (Chapter 7 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 182 (Chapter 8 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 183 (Chapter 9 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 184 (Chapter 10 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 185 (Chapter 11 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 186 (Chapter 12 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 187 (Chapter 13 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 188 (Chapter 14 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 189 (Chapter 15 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 190 (Chapter 16 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 191 (Chapter 17 of the Gītā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 192 (Chapter 18 of the Gītā)