Hemanga Moksha
Hemanga was a king of the Ikshvāku line. He had every virtue but one. In the month of Vaiśākha he would never give water as a gift. He thought water too common to count as a gift. For this fault he was born eleven times in bitter forms after his death. At last a drop of the foot-wash water of the ṛshi Śrutadeva fell on him as a house-lizard. He remembered his past births, and Śrutadeva gave him a share of his own puṇya (merit) and freed him.
This account is told in the Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa. It shows how great the gift of water (pāna-dāna) is in Vaiśākha.
Hemanga’s virtues and his one fault
Hemanga was a king of good character. He was generous, true to dharma, and devoted to Bhagavān Vishṇu. He was known for his gifts of land, gold, cows and food, and gave them in plenty.
In Vaiśākha the ṛshis and the tradition urge the gift of water. This means free water-booths (prapās) and pots of drinking water for thirsty travellers. Hemanga drew back from it. He said: “Water? Everyone has water. It flows everywhere. What is the point of giving something so common? My gifts are worthy: gold, land, cattle.”
This was his one fault. He judged pāna-dāna to be unworthy. Though he had every other merit, this one neglect of the highest gift of Vaiśākha brought a chain of bad births after his death.
The eleven rebirths
After Hemanga died, the fruit of his neglect of Vaiśākha came to him.
- Three births as a Caṭaka bird. The Caṭaka (called the sārika sparrow) will not drink still or stored water. It lives only on fresh rainwater that falls straight into its open beak. Hemanga had mocked the gift of water. He was reborn as the creature that is always thirsty and cannot ease its thirst with the water around it.
- Seven births as a dog. Each life as a dog was one of beating, hunger, wounds and misery. He was driven from house to house, given no water or food, and flogged. The dog that wanders thirsty among houses is the match of the king who gave no water to thirsty travellers.
- One birth as a house-lizard, for eighty-seven years. In his last birth of punishment Hemanga lived as a lizard in the palace of King Śrutakīrti of Mithilā. He lived in a crack in the wall, dried up and suffering, for eighty-seven years.
Śrutadeva’s foot-wash water
The ṛshi Śrutadeva was a respected brāhmaṇa of Mithilā. He was known for keeping the Vaiśākha rites faithfully, and the royal household treated the water that washed his feet like the water of a tīrtha (holy place).
One day Śrutadeva came back from his Vaiśākha bath and washed his feet near the platform where the lizard Hemanga lay hidden. The water that washed the ṛshi’s feet was full of the puṇya of Vaiśākha observance. It fell by chance on the lizard.
At once, at the touch of this water, the lizard’s mind filled with the memory of all eleven births. Hemanga in the lizard’s body cried out in pain and recognition, calling to the ṛshi: “Save me! I know what I have done. I know who I was.”
Śrutadeva was surprised. He asked the lizard: “Who are you? What is this distress?” The lizard told its whole history. It told of the eleven births, the first fault, the scorn for pāna-dāna, and the Caṭaka, dog and lizard births that followed. By his yogic sight Śrutadeva saw that every word was true.
Freed by the gift of puṇya
Śrutadeva was moved by pity. He gave a part of his own Vaiśākha puṇya to Hemanga. He said: “Whatever merit I have earned by holy bath, water-gift and charitable giving in the month of Vaiśākha, I give to you, O king. May you be freed.”
The moment the puṇya was given, Hemanga cast off the lizard’s body. A divine form took its place. It shone, it was fully adorned, and it was free of all suffering. An aerial chariot (vimāna) arrived. In his divine form Hemanga bowed to Śrutadeva and praised the greatness of the ṛshi and of the month. Then he left for the divine world.
In his next birth Hemanga was born as Kakutstha, a famed king of the Ikshvāku solar line. Maryādā Purushottama Rāma would later be born in that same line.
The Māhātmya declares that water-gift in Vaiśākha is a gift that all other gifts together cannot equal.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vaiśākha Māsa Māhātmya, Chapters 6–7