Uparicara Vasu Falls and Rises

Uparicara Vasu was a king of Cedi in the Svāyaṃbhuva Manvantara. He was a close friend of Indra and, from his youth, a devotee of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa. The Vāsudeva Māhātmya of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa tells how he fell into the earth when he gave a false judgment out of love for the devas, how Bhagavān Vishṇu had him rescued, and how he was born again and finally reached Goloka.

His name means “he who moves above”: upari is “above” and cara is “moving”, because he travelled through the sky.

Uparicara Vasu, the ideal devotee

Vasu was of Āyu’s line. He did the five-fold pūjā of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa every day, at five times of the day, as the Sātvata Tantra teaches. He gave what was left over first to brāhmaṇas and to those who depended on him, and he lived on the last remnants himself.

He used every part of himself in the service of Bhagavān Vāsudeva:

• his mind stayed at Vāsudeva’s feet
• his ears heard the stories of Bhagavān Vāsudeva
• his eyes looked for his darśana (sight of the mūrti)
• his speech sang his praises
• his nose took in the scent of tulasī touched by Bhagavān Vāsudeva’s feet
• his skin touched the clothes Bhagavān Vāsudeva had worn
• his tongue tasted Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa’s prasāda (food offered to him)
• his feet walked to the temple
• his hands did his service
• his head bowed at his feet

Not one moment of his life passed without devotion to the consort of Ramā (Lakshmī).

Bhagavān Vāsudeva was pleased and offered the king an empire. Vasu did not want it. He wanted only to please Bhagavān Vāsudeva. Indra, out of deep friendship, gave Vasu the Vaijayantī garland of unfading lotuses, and jewels in plenty.

Cedi was a remarkable kingdom under Vasu. There was no untruth, no eating of the flesh of the seven rākshasa kinds, no wine, no adultery and no mixing of varṇas against the rule. Vasu taught that eating the flesh of animals is a great pāpa (sin), and he told his people so. In his palaces, masters of the Pañcarātra teaching regularly took the prasāda of Bhagavān Vāsudeva. (Vāsudeva Māhātmya, chapter 5)

The aśvamedha dispute and the false judgment

In the Svāyaṃbhuva Manvantara, Indra, here called Viśvajit, was performing an aśvamedha yajña with animal offerings. Great ṛshis, bright as the sun, came to the yajña. They saw the animals crying in distress and were amazed at the violence. They spoke with authority:

“The Veda has glorified ahiṃsā alone as the highest Dharma. The devas were created by Brahmā from Sattva-guṇa and they uphold all four feet of Dharma. The word ‘Aja’ in the Vedic rule ‘the yajña should be done with Aja’ means seeds that are three years old and no longer sprout. It does not mean a goat. To kill animals in a yajña is against the Dharma of sāttvika beings.”

The devas would not agree. They said that “Aja” meant a goat. The argument had no end. Then Uparicara Vasu arrived, travelling through the sky in his shining chariot. Both sides agreed to accept his judgment. They praised him as one who knows Dharma, who speaks the truth, and who is a perfect devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu. They said, “How could this great Vasu, so full of dharma, say anything but the truth?”

Vasu asked both sides and heard them. Then he took the side of the devas and said that the yajña should be done with animals such as goats. He knew the truth of the Veda. But out of love for his close friend Indra and for the devas, he said what he knew was against the Veda.

At that very moment Vasu fell from the sky and went into the depths of the earth. (Vāsudeva Māhātmya, chapters 5 and 6)

In the earth: devotion that did not break

In the chasm in the earth Vasu suffered greatly, but he did not lose his memory or his devotion. He blamed himself for the false act. He repeated the three-syllable mantra of Bhagavān Vishṇu (Oṃ). In his mind he did the five-fold pūjā of Bhagavān Hari five times a day, with respect and full devotion, even while under the ground. (Vāsudeva Māhātmya, chapter 7)

Bhagavān Vishṇu sends Garuḍa

Bhagavān Vāsudeva was pleased with Vasu. Even in this hard place he worshipped him at the right time and by the rules of the śāstras. Bhagavān Vāsudeva spoke to Garuḍa:

“O fortunate bird, go at my order. King Vasu, the first among kings, a good soul who has come to me for refuge, has gone into the lower worlds because he broke a rule of the Veda. He has prayed to me with respect. So go to him today. By my order make the king able to move in the sky again. Do not delay.”

Garuḍa went into the chasm with the speed of the wind. He found Vasu inside, holding his speech in check. He lifted him with his beak, flew up into the sky at once and left him there. Vasu woke to himself at once and again became one who moves in the high regions. With his own body he went to svarga and found great happiness. (Vāsudeva Māhātmya, chapter 7)

Acchodā and Satyavatī

While Vasu was in svarga, the apsarā Acchodā saw him. She was the mind-born daughter of the Agniśvātta Pitṛs, who live in the realm of Soma. Vasu was riding in a sky-chariot bright as the sun, with a divine young woman named Adrikā. Acchodā did not know her own forefathers, because they have no form. She took Vasu for her father, and Vasu also took her for his daughter.

The Agniśvātta Pitṛs saw this feeling of father and daughter rise between them, and they cursed both. Acchodā would be born on earth as the true daughter of Vasu. Vasu himself would be born on earth as a human king, and he would have her as his daughter by Adrikā.

The Pitṛs also gave a blessing. In the twenty-eighth Dvāpara Yuga, Vasu would be the son of the high-souled King Kṛtayajña. He would have all his old virtues. He would be able to move in the sky and would lead the devotees of Bhagavān Vishṇu. He would do the Pañcarātra pūjā, and he would worship the devas and Pitṛs with the remnants. Acchodā would be born as a part of herself from Adrikā, in the form of a fish. She would be known on earth as Kālī, also called Satyavatī. In her girlhood, through Parāśara, a great son would be born to her. By his grace she would have enjoyment in life and moksha (liberation) after death.

The Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa gives a different account. There Acchodā is an apsarā of the Barhishad Pitṛs. She falls in love with Amāvasu and is born as Satyavatī. (Vāsudeva Māhātmya, chapter 7)

Human birth and final liberation

Vasu was born on earth as the son of Kṛtayajña. He lived again with all his old virtues, a devotee of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and able to move in the sky. Indra gave him even the Vijayadhvaja, the Flag of Victory, which Indra himself had once received from Bhagavān Vāsudeva at Śveta-dvīpa. Vasu enjoyed the pleasures of the earth and then went to svarga in a divine body.

In svarga he used up all the puṇya (merit) that was left from his deeds. Strong vairāgya (detachment) rose in him. He sat in a lonely place on a peak of Meru and meditated, in the lotus of his heart, on the consort of Ramā. This was the same Bhagavān Vishṇu he had worshipped through his yajñas. He gave up his body of svarga. By yoga he rose through the disc of the sun. His subtle body entered the sun and was burned by its heat and light. Only a body of pure being and awareness (sat-cit) was left, with every trace of old karma wiped away.

Divine beings in the sun’s disc took him to Śveta-dvīpa, the White Island. It is on the earth, yet its nature is not of this world, and it can be reached only by single-minded devotion (ekāntika bhakti). Śveta-dvīpa is a gateway:

“After having reached this home of the devotees of Hari by exclusive devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu, it serves as a gateway to Goloka, Brahma-pura and Vaikuṇṭha.”

From Śveta-dvīpa, souls that are freed can go to whichever divine realm they love. Vasu wanted Goloka. He received a divine body there and reached Goloka, the highest home of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, where he found the greatest joy. (Vāsudeva Māhātmya, chapter 7)

Skanda’s words

Skanda sums up:

“Those who please Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Brahman, by the Ekāntika Dharma, which is undivided devotion to Vishṇu alone, become the liberated ones of Śveta.”

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Vāsudeva Māhātmya, chapters 5–7
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa (the different account of Acchodā and Satyavatī)