Mohinī and Hemāṅgī

This is the account of Mohinī and her rebirth as Hemāṅgī, from the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa. Mohinī was a veśyā (a woman who lived by selling her company) in the city of Māhishmatī and lived most of her life in pāpa (sin). As she lay dying in a forest, a wandering ascetic gave her water from the Prayāga tīrtha in Indraprastha. Through that water she was reborn as the good and beautiful Queen Hemāṅgī. She remembered her past life, and she led her husband King Vīravarman to Prayāga, where both reached Vaikuṇṭha.

Mohinī of Māhishmatī

In the city of Māhishmatī lived a woman named Mohinī, who spent her life as a veśyā. Through many years of a wrong way of living and wrong conduct she gathered great pāpa. As she grew old, her clients left her and her wealth was gone. She was poor.

In the end she was robbed and left behind by her companions in a forest. She lay dying, alone and abandoned.

The ascetic’s gift of Prayāga water

A wandering ascetic who had been to the Prayāga tīrtha in Indraprastha came upon the dying Mohinī. He felt pity for her and gave her water that he had carried from Prayāga in Indraprastha.

Mohinī was barely awake. She drank the holy water at the moment of her death. That touch of Prayāga water on her lips at the moment of death was enough to change where she was to go. She had earned naraka (hell) by her pāpa, but she was sent instead to a higher birth.

Rebirth as Hemāṅgī

In her next birth Mohinī was born as Hemāṅgī, a woman of rare beauty, grace and dharmic nature, from a noble family. She became the queen of King Vīravarman, a just ruler.

In this birth Hemāṅgī had jātismaraṇa, the memory of her past life. She remembered Mohinī’s pāpa, her wretched end, and how the holy water had saved her. She also remembered that at her death she had wished to be reborn as a queen, and that this wish had now come true.

Hemāṅgī leads her husband to Prayāga

Because she remembered her past life, Hemāṅgī understood the power of the Prayāga tīrtha in Indraprastha. With respect she told King Vīravarman about her past life and the water that had saved her. She urged him to come with her to Prayāga in Indraprastha.

Vīravarman was moved by her account and by his own devotion, and he agreed. Husband and wife travelled to Indraprastha together and bathed at the Prayāga tīrtha.

Vaikuṇṭha

Hemāṅgī bathed at Prayāga in Indraprastha with devotion and a pure heart. Brahmā sent a divine vehicle, and she was taken to Vaikuṇṭha. King Vīravarman, too, through his devotion and his bath at the tīrtha, reached the world of Bhagavān Vishṇu together with his queen.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 220–221