Kālipriyā and the Kārtika Worship
Chapter 20 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells of Kālipriyā, the wife of a Śūdra named Śaṅkara in the Saurāshṭra country in the Tretā Yuga. She lived a life of wrong deeds, and she murdered her husband. Then she met women who were worshipping Rādhā and Kṛshṇa in the month of Kārtika. She took up that worship, gave up eating meat, and died on the full-moon day. The messengers of Bhagavān Vishṇu took her to Goloka.
Kālipriyā’s character and deeds
In the Tretā Yuga, in the Saurāshṭra country, there lived a Śūdra named Śaṅkara. His wife was Kālipriyā. She always longed for a lover, and she treated her husband with contempt, as if he were a blade of grass. She thought: “This husband is not right for me. My real master is some other man.”
She always gave Śaṅkara the leftover food. Through the company of wicked people she drank liquor and ate meat. She often scolded her husband as she pleased. She wished for his death, so that she could enjoy her lover freely.
The murder and what followed
Kālipriyā agreed with her lover that they would flee together to another country. At night she cut her husband Śaṅkara’s throat with a sword and went to the meeting place. But the lover who had come there was eaten by a tiger.
Seeing this, Kālipriyā fainted in shock. Then she wept bitterly and cried: “I killed my own husband and then went to a stranger. Because of my bad luck, that tiger has eaten my lord also. What shall I do? Where shall I go? The Creator has deceived me.”
She returned to her own house. She put her face against the face of her dead husband and wept for a long time. She mourned the terrible deed she had done.
Kālipriyā meets the women of Kārtika
Kālipriyā bowed at the feet of her dead husband and travelled to another city. There she saw many devotees of Bhagavān Vishṇu, full of puṇya (merit), bathing in the river Narmadā at dawn in the month of Kārtika.
She also saw women worshipping Rādhā and Kṛshṇa with devotion and great festivity. There were the sounds of conches. They offered sandal paste, flowers, incense, lamps, pieces of cloth, many kinds of fruit and perfumes.
Kālipriyā asked them with modesty: “O ladies, what is this that you are doing?”
They answered: “In the morning in Kārtika, the best of all months, we offer the auspicious worship of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa. It removes all pāpa (sin). The pāpa gathered in a crore of births is destroyed, and the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu is reached.”
The worship and the liberation
Hearing this, Kālipriyā gave up eating meat. She performed the Kārtika worship of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa on the day sacred to Bhagavān Vishṇu. Free from that fault, she died on the full-moon day.
The servants of Yama came in great anger. They quickly came to take her to Yamaloka, and they bound her with leather straps.
But the messengers of Bhagavān Vishṇu arrived in a golden vimāna (flying chariot). They carried conches, discs, maces and lotuses. They struck the messengers of Yama with sharp discs, and the servants of Yama ran away.
Kālipriyā got into the golden vimāna, which was drawn by royal swans. Surrounded by the servants of Bhagavān Vishṇu, she went to his abode. She lived there for a long time, enjoying its pleasures.
The Brahma Khaṇḍa says that she went “to the charming world called Goloka”, the highest abode of Rādhā and Kṛshṇa.
The teaching of the chapter
The chapter begins by teaching the greatness of the Kārtika worship of Rādhā and Dāmodara.
- A woman who bathes every morning in Kārtika, who is dear to Rādhā and Kṛshṇa, who worships them with devotion, who gives up meat and who serves her husband, goes to Goloka. It is very hard to reach.
- A woman who offers incense and a lamp, garments, flowers and garlands, sandal paste and sugar offerings to Rādhā and Kṛshṇa in Kārtika goes to the abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu.
- Even a woman who was a widow in a former birth, or who was not dear to her husband, does not stay long in naraka (hell) if she worships Rādhā and Kṛshṇa with devotion in Kārtika.
The account of Kālipriyā shows that real repentance, joined with a single sincere keeping of this worship, was enough for her final liberation.
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 20