Pṛśnigarbha
Pṛśnigarbha · pṛśni-garbha, “born of the womb of Pṛśni”
Pṛśnigarbha, “born of the womb of Pṛśni”, is the name Śrī Hari bore when he was born as the son of Pṛśni and the Prajāpati Sutapas in the Svāyambhuva manvantara. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells that the two performed tapas for twelve thousand divine years and asked him for a son like himself; since none is equal to him, he himself was born to them. The same two were born again as Aditi and Kaśyapa, when he became their son Upendra, and again as Devakī and Vasudeva, when he became their son Śrī Kṛshṇa. In the Tretā yuga people praise Śrī Hari as Pṛśnigarbha, and the gopīs called on Śrī Hari, the son of Pṛśni, to protect the buddhi of the child Kṛshṇa.
The tapas of Pṛśni and Sutapas
Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that when Śrī Kṛshṇa appeared in the prison of Kaṃsa in his four-armed form, holding the śaṅkha, the gadā and the cakra, Devakī praised him and prayed that he hide that divine form from Kaṃsa. Then Śrī Bhagavān told her of her earlier births.
“While the Svāyambhuva manvantara was running,” he said, “you were Pṛśni, and this Vasudeva was the spotless Prajāpati named Sutapas. Brahmā firmly commanded you both to beget offspring. Then you both, restraining all your senses, performed severe tapas.” They bore the marks of every season, rain and wind, sun and frost and the heat of summer; with prāṇāyāma they scattered the impurities of the mind; wishing for their desires to be fulfilled by him, they lived on fallen dry leaves and on air alone; with a peaceful mind they worshipped him. Fixing the mind on him, in tapas that others could not do, they passed twelve thousand divine years.
“Among the givers of varas I am the foremost,” Śrī Bhagavān said. “While you did tapas, you meditated on me constantly in your hearts with śraddhā and bhakti. Then, greatly pleased and wishing to fulfil your desires, I appeared before you in this very form. When I said, ‘Ask for a vara’, you asked for a son like me.” They were a childless couple, and deluded by his māyā-śakti they did not ask him for moksha. Having granted the vara, he withdrew, and their wish was fulfilled.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 3
His birth as Pṛśnigarbha
“In the world no other is found equal to me in good conduct, fullness, compassion and the other virtues,” Śrī Bhagavān told Devakī. “Therefore I myself was born as the son of you both and gained the name Pṛśnigarbha.”
He gave her the three births in order:
- To Pṛśni and Sutapas, in the Svāyambhuva manvantara, he was born as Pṛśnigarbha.
- When the two became Aditi and Kaśyapa, he himself was born again as their son and gained the name Upendra, and he was short in form.
- Now they had become Devakī and Vasudeva, and he, the same one in the same form, had become their son for the third time. “O pativratā, my word is true.”
He showed her the four-armed form, he said, so that she would remember that he had been born as her son in past births. “Thinking of me both as a son and many times as Parabrahma, keep love for me. You will attain my supreme nature,” that is, moksha.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 3
In the gopīs’ rakshā
When the child Kṛshṇa had ended Pūtanā, the gopīs, with Yaśodā and Rohiṇī, protected him with every rite: they waved a cow’s tail around him, sprinkled him with cow’s urine and cow-dust, made rakshā with cow-dung on the twelve tilaka-places with the names of Īśvara, and did nyāsa of the bīja-aksharas on his limbs. Then they called on Śrī Hari in his many forms to guard each part of him. In the fourth part of the rakshā they prayed that Śrī Hari who took avatāra as the son of Pṛśni protect his buddhi, the sense of being the doer.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 6
His name in the Tretā yuga
The Yogīndra Karabhājana told King Nimi how Śrī Hari is worshipped in each yuga. In the Tretā yuga he shines red, with four arms, a girdle of three strands and golden hair, and the sruk, the sruva and the other instruments of homa are his marks; the Ṛg, Yajur and Sāma Vedas set forth his form as Yajña. The people of that yuga, steadfast in dharma and learned in the Veda, worship him by Vedic study and yajña, and praise him with eight names: Vishṇu, the all-pervading; Yajña, the form of yajña; Pṛśnigarbha, the son of Pṛśni; Sarvadeva, the form of all the devatās; Urukrama, of great strides; Vṛshākapi, who fulfils desires and removes troubles; Jayanta, supreme over all; and Urugāya, the greatly praised.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 5
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 3, 6; Skandha 11, Chapter 5