Kāmadamana
Kāmadamana · kāma-damana, “tamer of desire”
Kāmadamana, called Agnīdhra, was a king who lived long ago in a certain city. His son refused to marry and instead told his father of his many past births and of the glory of the Kokāmukha tīrtha. In the end the son attained siddhi there, and Kāmadamana with his sons and grandsons went from that tīrtha to svarga.
The king and his son
When the munis ask Vyāsa about the great māyā of Bhagavān Vishṇu, he tells them this account. Kāmadamana’s son was pure, delighting only in dharma, forgiving by nature, devoted to serving his father, able to please the people, and learned in the Vedas and śāstras. The king tried to have him married, but the son did not wish it.
“My child, why do you not wish to marry?” the king asked. “Men marry with the thought that happiness comes through a wife. So you too should marry.” Out of respect for his father the son gave no answer and stayed silent. Asked again, he said that he had taken refuge in a niyama (vow of discipline) belonging to Vishṇu: to act in a way that fits one’s name. The king answered: “Son, this is not dharma. A man of discernment should not think against his father’s command. I have authority over you. Keep my word. Do not let my vaṃśa sink into naraka because the line of offspring does not go on.”
The son’s answer
Then the son, master of his senses, spoke of the beginningless saṃsāra. He told his father of the countless forms he had taken, of the deception that had come to him through union with wives, and of his third birth before this one, as the ṛshi Sutapas, when Bhagavān Vishṇu showed him his māyā and he came to the Kokāmukha tīrtha. By the power of that tīrtha he remembered his former births, gave up all desires, and by the grace of Vishṇu was born in Kāmadamana’s house.
At the Kokāmukha tīrtha
Having said this, the prince bowed to his father, went to the Kokāmukha tīrtha, worshipped Śrī Mahāvishṇu in the form of Varāha and attained siddhi. Kāmadamana too, with his sons and grandsons, gave up the human body at the most holy Kokāmukha tīrtha and went to svarga in vimānas that shone like the sun.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 229
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 229