Agni Moksha at Badarī
This narrative is from the Badari Kshetra Māhātmya of the Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 2. It tells how Agni, the deva of fire, carried a flaw called sarva-bhakshakatva-dosha, the flaw of consuming all things without choosing. It tells how Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa freed him from it at Badarīkāśrama, and how the sacred Agni Tīrtha came to be there.
Agni’s flaw
Agni is the divine fire. He is the mouth of the devas and the carrier of offerings in the yajña (fire ritual). Agni carried a flaw that belongs to his own nature. It is called sarva-bhakshakatva-dosha, the dosha (fault) that comes from eating everything with no choice. Fire by its nature consumes all things: the pure and the impure, the holy and the common, the righteous and the unrighteous. This quality is needed for his work of carrying offerings. But over a vast span of time it gathered as a dosha.
Agni felt this dosha as a burden he could not throw off by himself. He wanted to be freed. He went to the saṃgama (meeting place) of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā, which is itself one of the most powerful tīrthas. There he set his trouble before the ṛshis gathered at that place.
The ṛshis fall silent and Vyāsa gives direction
Agni told the great ṛshis at the meeting of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā about his sarva-bhakshakatva-dosha, and he asked them to guide him toward liberation. The ṛshis fell silent. His dosha belongs to the very nature of fire. It did not come from one wrong act. So it was beyond any ordinary prāyaścitta (act of atonement). No atonement set down in the śāstras could meet what was part of the nature of fire itself.
Then Vyāsa spoke. The great ṛshi knew what none of the others dared to prescribe. Only Badarīkāśrama, the eternal abode of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, had the power to dissolve a dosha of this size. Vyāsa told Agni to go at once to Badarī, to find Nārāyaṇa there, and to offer a stotra (hymn of praise).
Agni’s stotra and his freedom at Badarī
Agni followed Vyāsa’s guidance and went to Badarīkāśrama. He came near the abode of the eternal tapas of Nara and Nārāyaṇa. There he offered an earnest stotra of praise to Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. He sang of his supremacy, of his presence in every form of fire and light, and of his power as the Paramātmā who is beyond all the guṇas (the three qualities of nature).
Nārāyaṇa appeared before Agni. He was pleased with the stotra and freed Agni completely from all dosha. The sarva-bhakshakatva-dosha was dissolved. It was not only made smaller or held back. It was fully removed by the direct grace of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa at this supreme kshetra (holy ground).
Agni makes his home at Badarī and the Agni Tīrtha begins
After he was freed, Agni made his home at Badarīkāśrama for good, living there as a purified presence. The tīrtha where he was freed became known as the Agni Tīrtha. It is one of the most sacred of all the tīrthas of Badarī.
The Badari Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapter 3, describes the glory of the Agni Tīrtha:
- Bathing here purifies all mahāpātakas (the great pāpas).
- The tīrtha is greater than all other tīrthas in its power to free the bather.
- Ten days of bathing (snāna) at the Agni Tīrtha make the keeping of all yajñas unnecessary, because the fruit (phala) of them is already included.
- Even the darśana (sight) of this tīrtha, without bathing, destroys the pāpa a person has gathered.
- Bathing here brings moksha.
The five sacred śilās (stones) of Badarī lie near the Agni Tīrtha. They are the Nāradī, Mārkaṇḍeya, Gāruḍī, Vārāhī and Nārasiṃhī śilās. This makes the Agni Tīrtha the sacred centre of the pilgrim places of Badarī.
Chapter 2 also tells that Agni set up the Kedaraliṅga at Badarī.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Badari Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapter 2
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Badari Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapter 3