Uparicara Vasu

Uparicara Vasu was a king of Cedi. He was a close friend of Indra and a devoted Ekāntika (single-minded) devotee of Bhagavān Vāsudeva. The Vāsudeva Māhātmya of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa gives his life as the great example of Śveta-dvīpa and the Ekāntika Dharma. In one moment he favoured the devas and spoke what was not true, and he fell into the earth. Bhagavān Viṣṇu sent Garuḍa to lift him up. Through steady devotion he finally reached Goloka.

Who he was

Uparicara Vasu came from the line of King Āyu. In the human birth told in Chapter 7, his father was Kṛtayajña. Indra was his close friend. Indra gave him a shared seat and bed, the famous Vaijayantī garland of lotuses that never fade, and many jewels. His name Uparicara means “one who moves in the sky”. He travelled through the air in a divine chariot, a gift of his friendship with Indra.

He was devout from birth. He was devoted to his father and respectful to the devas and the pitṛs (the ancestors). He was patient, free from envy and anger, moderate in food and gentle, with the mind of an ascetic. He knew the Self, was free from pride and show, and had fully mastered his senses. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa, Vāsudeva Māhātmya, Chapter 5)

Five daily acts of pūjā

The Vāsudeva Māhātmya names Uparicara Vasu as a model of the daily worship of the Pañcarātra. He did the five-fold pūjā of Bhagavān Vāsudeva, five sessions at the five junctures of the day, as set out in the Sātvata Tantra. After each session, he shared what was left first with brāhmaṇas and with those who depended on him. He lived on the remnants himself.

He gave every faculty to the service of Bhagavān Vāsudeva.

• Mind: held at Vāsudeva’s feet
• Ears: hearing the stories of Mukunda
• Eyes: for the darśana (sight) of Bhagavān Vāsudeva and his devotees
• Speech: praising the qualities of Hari
• Nose: for the scent of Tulasī that has touched the feet of Bhagavān Viṣṇu
• Skin: for the touch of the garments Bhagavān Viṣṇu had worn
• Tongue: for food offered to Nārāyaṇa
• Feet: to walk to the holy grounds of the temple
• Hands: for the service of Hari
• Head: bowed at the feet of Viṣṇu

He made close friends only with great devotees of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. Not one moment of his life passed without devotion to the consort of Ramā. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa, Vāsudeva Māhātmya, Chapter 5)

His kingdom

The kingdom of Cedi under Uparicara Vasu was marked by great dharma.

• No untruth was spoken, no corruption arose, and no pāpa (sin) was done by the body.
• There were no flesh-eaters, the seven kinds of Rākṣasas.
• No adulterers and no mixing of the varṇas against rule were even heard of.
• The eleven kinds of madhya (wine) were unknown. Nobody even smelled them.
• The king himself heard the Pañcarātra Tantra every day from the mouths of devotees of Vāsudeva.

He held everything as belonging to Bhagavān Vāsudeva: his own body, his kingdom, his wealth, his queen and his vehicles. He held all the festivals of the births and forms of Bhagavān Viṣṇu with great preparation. He built temples, gardens and parks. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa, Vāsudeva Māhātmya, Chapter 5)

The fall

In the Svāyaṃbhuva Manvantara, Indra, then called Viśvajit, was performing an aśvamedha yajña with the killing of animals. Great ṛṣis came upon it. They said that the true meaning of the Vedic word aja was seeds three years old, and not a goat. They said that ahiṃsā (non-harm) was the highest eternal dharma. The devas would not accept this.

Both sides agreed to take the judgment of Uparicara Vasu. He was known as one who knew dharma and loved truth. Vasu knew what the devas thought. He favoured them, for he was Indra’s close friend. He declared that the yajña should be done with animals such as goats.

At that very moment he fell from the sky. The fall came from breaking the Veda by an untruth. He went into the depths of the earth. Even there, in great distress, he never forgot Nārāyaṇa. He kept repeating the three-syllable mantra (Oṃ) and kept up the five-fold mental pūjā of Hari. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa, Vāsudeva Māhātmya, Chapters 5 and 6)

Bhīṣma also speaks of this fall in the Anuśāsana Parva, in his teaching to Yudhiṣṭhira on daiva (fate) and puruṣakāra (human effort). He says: “Vasu Mahārāja, who performed a hundred yajñas like a second Indra, fell to Rasātala for the single fault of declaring the paśu-yajña-śruti (the Vedic word for animal yajña) invalid.” This account adds that he had performed a hundred yajñas. Bhīṣma gives it as proof that daiva cannot protect a man whose effort includes even one act of untruth. (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 6)

The Aśvamedhika Parva account

The Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 91, tells of a king in its own account of hiṃsā (harm) and dharma. At Indra’s yajña, the ṛṣis objected to the killing of animals for the yajña. A dispute arose over whether a yajña should be done with animals or with grain. Both sides asked “the king of Cedi” to judge.

Without weighing the matter with care, he ruled that a yajña could be done with whatever was at hand. At the instant he spoke, he fell into Rasātala. This account calls him the king of Cedi and does not use the name Uparicara. It does not tell of his rescue. It gives the fall as an example. (Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 91)

A Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa telling names the fallen king instead as a son of Uttānapāda.

Rescue and liberation

Bhagavān Vāsudeva was pleased with Vasu’s unbroken devotion, even in his misfortune. He ordered Garuḍa: “King Vasu entered the world below because he broke the Veda. He has prayed to me with respect. Go and make him able to move through the sky again.”

Garuḍa entered the opening in the earth with the speed of the wind. He lifted Vasu with his beak and carried him to the sky. At that moment Vasu woke to himself and again moved through the higher regions. He went to svarga (heaven) in his own body and found the highest bliss.

In svarga he enjoyed all pleasures he wished for, and lived there like a second Indra, while the suras sang his praise. Then came the episode of Acchodā, the mind-born daughter of the Agniśvātta Pitṛs. Through the śāpa (a curse) and the blessing of the Pitṛs together, he was told to be born on earth in the 28th Dvāpara Yuga, as the son of Kṛtayajña. In that life too he kept up his devotion and moved through the sky. Indra gave him the divine flag Vijayadhvaja. When his life on earth was done, he went up to svarga in a divine body.

From svarga, on a peak of Meru, he meditated in the lotus of his heart on the consort of Ramā. He gave up his divine body and rose by yoga concentration. His subtle body was purified in the disc of the sun and burned away in the sun’s heat. Only a form of pure being and awareness was left. Divine beings carried him to Śveta-dvīpa. Śveta-dvīpa is a gateway to Goloka and Vaikuṇṭha. From there he received a divine body and reached Goloka, the highest abode. (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa, Vāsudeva Māhātmya, Chapter 7)

The stages of his journey

His path went from the fall to the earth, to svarga, to a new human birth, to svarga again, to Śveta-dvīpa, and then to Goloka. The Vāsudeva Māhātmya holds up his life as the example of an Ekāntika devotee over many births. Even one untrue word born of favour can bring a great devotee down. Unbroken devotion to Bhagavān Vāsudeva, even in the depths of the earth, is enough for Bhagavān Vāsudeva to step in himself, through Garuḍa, and lift the devotee up.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaiṣṇava Khaṇḍa, Vāsudeva Māhātmya, Chapters 5–7
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 6
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 91
• Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa (named for a further telling; no chapter given)