Cañcalāpāṅgī
Cañcalāpāṅgī was a very beautiful woman of the Dvāpara Yuga who lived as a prostitute. She was full of pāpa (sin), and men who met her fell into pāpa too. The Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells how she once threw betel powder on the wall of a temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu without thinking. Because of that one act she was freed from Yama’s rule and went to Vaikuṇṭha, in spite of a life full of pāpa.
Her life
Cañcalāpāṅgī had great beauty. She had fine hair, eyes like a deer’s, a lovely waist and a charming smile. She lived as a prostitute in the Dvāpara Yuga. She was full of every kind of pāpa and led men into wrong company. Her whole life went to winning rich men.
The betel powder
She once travelled to another city to find a lover. On the way she went into a temple to rest. There she ate a tāmbūla (a betel preparation). Out of idle curiosity she threw the leftover powder on the lower part of the temple wall. She had no thought of worship.
She then went to a place in the forest to meet a merchant lover, who never came. She could not go back to the city in the dark, because she feared the guard of the fort. A tiger sent by the deva of death ate her.
Reaching Vaikuṇṭha
Yama’s messengers came to take her to Yamaloka (the world of Yama). On the road the messengers of Bhagavān Vishṇu stood against them. They challenged Yama’s servants, struck them with blazing cakras (discs) and drove them away.
Yama asked Citragupta what puṇya (merit) she had. Citragupta named the one act: she had thrown tāmbūla powder on the temple wall. By that puṇya alone she was declared free from Yama’s rule. She went to Vaikuṇṭha in a chariot drawn by royal swans. By the order of Bhagavān Vishṇu she lived there in a grand golden palace with a crore (ten million) of her family members.
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, chapter 6