Śivaśarma Upākhyāna

Śivaśarma was a brāhmaṇa of Dvārakā. He had five sons, and he tested each one for pitṛ-bhakti (devotion to the father). The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa tells how the first four sons passed their tests and went to Vishṇuloka. The youngest, Somaśarma, served his parents for years when they appeared as sick, repulsive lepers. After his tapas, fear took his life, and he was reborn in the house of Hiraṇyakaśipu as Prahlāda.

Śivaśarma’s household

The story opens with the brāhmaṇa Śivaśarma, who lived in Dvārakā, the holy city of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. He was a householder who followed dharma, learned and devoted. He had five sons: Yajñaśarma, Vedaśarma, Dharmaśarma, Vishṇuśarma and Somaśarma. Each name fitted an ideal of the Vedic household.

Śivaśarma decided to test each son to learn how deep his pitṛ-bhakti was, before the time came for him to withdraw from the world.

The test of Yajñaśarma

The eldest, Yajñaśarma, was tested first. By his yogic power, Śivaśarma made his own wife appear dead before Yajñaśarma. He then ordered Yajñaśarma to get rid of the body. Yajñaśarma understood that his father’s command was final. When no other way was given, he carried out even this shocking order. At his father’s word, he cut up the body of his mother. It was only an appearance.

The act showed that for a true pitṛ-bhakta, his father’s ājñā (command) stood above every other duty. Even the body of his own mother came second to his father’s word. Śivaśarma then showed the trick. The mother was unharmed, and Yajñaśarma’s test was complete.

The test of Vedaśarma

The second son, Vedaśarma, had a different test. By Śivaśarma’s will, a woman appeared before him. She made an impossible request: that he cut off his own head, to do what would honour his father.

Vedaśarma did not hesitate. He did not stop to count the cost to himself. He cut off his own head. The act showed that when his father’s will stands on one side and his own life on the other, a true pitṛ-bhakta does not count his own life as the heavier.

The test of Dharmaśarma: calling Yama

Vedaśarma now lay dead. It fell to the third son, Dharmaśarma, to bring him back. By the power of long tapas (austerity) he called Yamadharmarāja himself. In the talk that followed (Chapter 2), Yamadharmarāja appeared and offered Dharmaśarma a vara (a boon).

Dharmaśarma asked for no wealth, no long life and no gain for himself. He asked only for the power to stay firm in pitṛ-bhakti, and for the life of his brother Vedaśarma to be given back. Yama granted both. Vedaśarma was restored to life.

The test of Vishṇuśarma: Indra’s obstacles

The fourth son, Vishṇuśarma, faced the most elaborate test from outside. He was doing tapas and spiritual work for a task given by his father. Indra sensed the great spiritual power gathering in this pitṛ-bhakta. He sent the apsarā Menakā to tempt Vishṇuśarma and break his focus.

Vishṇuśarma was not moved. His pitṛ-bhakti ran deeper than the māyā (illusion) of Menakā. He knew it for a test, stayed steady and finished his tapas. As the fruit of his unbroken focus, he received amṛta from Indra himself.

By this time four sons had shown their great pitṛ-bhakti, and all four went up together to Vishṇuloka. Only Somaśarma, the youngest, was left in the world.

The test of Somaśarma: years of service

Somaśarma was the youngest and the last son. His test was not dramatic on the outside. But it went on the longest and was the closest.

Śivaśarma and his wife disguised themselves as lepers. Their bodies were covered with horrible sores, foul-smelling and repulsive in every way. They came to Somaśarma as sick people who needed care.

Somaśarma did not know them as his parents. He cared for them anyway. He did it day after day, without disgust and without complaint, through every unpleasant task that the care of a leper needs. He served them as if they were holy. He did not waver even when they tested him with ingratitude and abuse.

At last Śivaśarma showed the truth: these were his parents in disguise. Somaśarma’s inner heart was proved. He had not served them because he knew who they were. He had served out of pure care that asked for nothing. This was pitṛ-bhakti at its deepest. It did not depend on knowing the one served. It came from the natural heart of a son.

The ascent to Vishṇuloka and Somaśarma’s tapas

When the tests of all five sons were finished, Śivaśarma and his wife went up to Vishṇuloka. Their work in the human world was done.

Somaśarma was now alone. He did tapas at the holy Śālagrāma-kshetra, the tīrtha of the śālagrāma-śilā, where Bhagavān Vishṇu is always present. His tapas carried on the same inner turn that he had shown in his service. He turned his whole being toward Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Somaśarma’s death and rebirth as Prahlāda

While Somaśarma was in the middle of his tapas, a band of rākshasas came near the kshetra. Deep fear rose in him. His mortal body shook in a way he could not master at that moment. In this fear his prāṇas (life breaths) left him, and he died.

His death did not undo the puṇya (merit) of his great pitṛ-bhakti. The great sattva he had built through years of selfless service carried him into a new birth, where the same devotion could shine in its highest form. Somaśarma was reborn in the house of Hiraṇyakaśipu as Prahlāda.

The sattva that had served his parents so purely now found its aim in Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. Prahlāda became the greatest example of devotion to Vishṇu. He stood unmoved against the hardest opposition from his father, who was also the king, just as Somaśarma had stood unmoved by every unpleasant thing in serving his parents. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa thus tells where Prahlāda’s great bhakti came from: it was the fruit of Somaśarma’s pitṛ-bhakti in his earlier life.

From Somaśarma to Vasudatta and Indra

The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa does not end the chain with Prahlāda. After the great events of Narasiṃha’s appearance and the freeing of Hiraṇyakaśipu, Prahlāda’s ātmā (soul) went on. He was born again through Aditi and Kaśyapa as Vasudatta, who became the new Indra of the present cycle.

The chain Somaśarma, Prahlāda, Vasudatta and Indra is the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa’s teaching on how the highest pitṛ-bhakti, by the sattva it builds up, carries an ātmā at last to the top of the work of the worlds. The same one who served lepers with selfless care came in time to rule svarga (heaven).

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 1 (Śivaśarma’s household, the tests of Yajñaśarma and Vedaśarma)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 2 (Dharmaśarma and Yamadharmarāja)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3 (Vishṇuśarma and Menakā)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 4 (Somaśarma’s service)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 5 (Śālagrāma-kshetra, Somaśarma’s death, rebirth as Prahlāda, the chain to Vasudatta and Indra)