Sudarśana and Pādodaka
In the Tretā Yuga there lived a brāhmaṇa named Sudarśana who ate on Ekādaśī, the day sacred to Vishṇu, and spoke against the holy texts and against vows. For this he suffered naraka (hell), was born as a pig and then as a crow. In the end the crow drank by chance the water that had flowed from Vishṇu’s feet. That one drink took him to Vaikuṇṭha.
The account is in Chapter 17 of the Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa.
The teaching on pādodaka
The chapter begins by teaching the great power of pādodaka, the water that has flowed over the feet of Bhagavān Vishṇu. This water destroys all pāpa and is most auspicious. A person who carries even one drop of it gets the fruit of visiting all holy places. A man who devoutly carries Vishṇu’s pādodaka on his head with a Tulasī leaf finally goes to the abode of Vishṇu.
The puṇya of touching pādodaka is greater than giving gold as large as Meru, giving thousands of crores of cows, performing thousands of crores of yajñas, giving a crore of maidens in marriage, or giving the earth with all its islands. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17)
Sudarśana’s wrongdoing
In the Tretā Yuga there lived a brāhmaṇa named Sudarśana, full of pāpa. He always ate on Ekādaśī, the holy day of Vishṇu, and never kept the fast. He spoke against the sacred texts and always condemned vows. He cared only for his belly and knew nothing beyond it.
When his time of death came, Yama’s messengers bound him and brought him to Yamaloka. Yama asked Citragupta about his puṇya and his pāpa. Citragupta answered: “He has no puṇya even the size of an atom. O lord, even on the day sacred to Vishṇu he always ate food. Give him a place in naraka for a hundred Manu-periods. Then let him be born in a śūdra family.” (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17)
Births as a pig and a crow
At Yama’s order his fearsome messengers threw Sudarśana into filth for over a hundred ages of Manu. When he was freed from there, he was born on earth as a village pig. He went on suffering the results of breaking the Ekādaśī fast.
When the time of death came for the pig, he was born as a crow, and he ate filth as crows do. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17)
The accidental pādodaka
One day this crow, which belonged to a śabara (a forest-dweller and hunter), drank water after the śabara had died. It was water that had flowed from the feet of Vishṇu and had gathered at the door of a Vishṇu temple. The same day a hunter killed the crow. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17)
Liberation
The crow, called “the eater of offerings”, then got into a divine, auspicious chariot drawn by royal swans. It was taken to the abode of Vishṇu.
One accidental drink of Vishṇu’s pādodaka wiped out all that had piled up: the karma of a brāhmaṇa’s deliberate breaking of the Ekādaśī fast, a long stay in naraka, and many animal births. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17)
The teaching of the account
Two teachings stand together here. First, eating on Ekādaśī has severe results: not only naraka but a series of lowered births through which the fault must be worked out. Second, pādodaka has a power to purify that nothing can stop. One drop, drunk by chance and with no devotion, was enough to override all earlier karma and free the jīva at once.
The account shows this by the widest contrast: the most fallen jīva, from brāhmaṇa to crow, was freed by the humblest act, one accidental drink of water from a temple doorstep. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17)
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17