Candra Tapas at Badarī
Candra, also called Soma, is the deva of the moon and the son of Maharshi Atri. This account tells how he went to Badarīkāśrama on his father’s advice and did tapas (austerity) for a total of one hundred and fifty-eight thousand years. In the end Bhagavān Vishṇu gave him a vara (boon): lordship over all the planets, stars, nakshatras, herbs, brāhmaṇas and the night. The tīrtha at Badarī where he did this tapas became the Somakuṇḍa.
Candra’s wish and his question to Atri
When he was young, Candra heard the gandharvas describe the grand life of the devas in svarga (heaven): their divine pleasures, their cosmic power and their glory. This moved him. He went to his father, Maharshi Atri, and asked: “O father, how can I become the lord of the planets, the stars, the nakshatras, the herbs and the night? Tell me the way.”
Atri’s advice and Nārada’s direction
Atri’s answer was simple and deep: do pūjā to Govinda (Bhagavān Vishṇu) through yama and niyama (the rules of right conduct and inner discipline). He gave no long rituals and named no place. He pointed straight to ārādhanā (worship) of Bhagavān Vishṇu through disciplined practice.
Following his father’s word, Candra first went to Nārada Maharshi. Nārada sent him to Badarīkāśrama and told him of its great power to bring success in tapas. With this advice, Candra went to Badarī.
The three rounds of tapas
Candra’s tapas at Badarī came in three rounds. Each was harder than the one before.
First round, 88,000 years. Candra did pūjā to Bhagavān Vishṇu with sacred fruits (pavitra phalārcana). He kept up unbroken japa of the eight-syllable (ashṭāksharī) mantra. At the end of this time Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared and offered Candra a vara. Candra asked for what his heart wanted: lordship over the planets, the stars, the herbs, the brāhmaṇas and the night. Bhagavān Vishṇu said this was durgama (hard to reach, needing more tapas). He offered a different vara instead. Candra refused any other vara and held to his wish.
Second round, 30,000 divine years. Bhagavān Vishṇu had appeared and gone away without giving the vara that Candra asked for. Candra was deeply sad. He did not take a smaller vara. Instead he did thirty thousand more years of hard tapas at Badarī. Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared again, and again Candra asked for the same vara. Again Bhagavān Vishṇu said no and went away.
Third round, 40,000 years. Two appearances had ended without the vara, but Candra did not give up. He did forty thousand more years of tapas. Only at the end of this third round, after one hundred and fifty-eight thousand years in all, did Bhagavān Vishṇu appear once more. He held the śaṅkha (conch), the cakra (discus) and the gadā (mace). He saw the tired but unshaken tapasvī and said that he was fully pleased.
The vara and Candra’s coronation
Bhagavān Vishṇu gave Candra exactly what he had always asked for: lordship over all the planets, stars, nakshatras, herbs, brāhmaṇas and the night. Bhagavān Vishṇu said: “Though what you asked for is durgama, I give it by my anugraha (grace).”
At that moment all the devas came to Badarīkāśrama. They did the abhisheka (the anointing for kingship) of Candra as king of all the shining bodies and of the night. Candra put on divine clothes and climbed into a divine vimāna (flying chariot). The devas sang his glory, and he went to his own realm.
The Somakuṇḍa
From then on, the tīrtha at Badarīkāśrama where Candra had done his tapas was called the Somakuṇḍa, the pool of Soma, the moon. These are the fruits of the Somakuṇḍa:
- Only seeing it (darśana): the devotee is freed from all pāpa (sin).
- Touching it: the devotee reaches Somaloka, the realm of the moon.
- Bathing with tarpaṇa for the pitṛs (offering water to the ancestors): the devotee goes beyond Somaloka and reaches Vishṇuloka.
- Three days of fasting (upavāsa) with pūjā: no rebirth even for a koṭi of kalpas.
- Three nights standing in pūjā with special japa: even pāpa of thought, speech and deed is destroyed.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Badarī Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapter 7