Sāṇḍipani

Sāṇḍipani, also spelled Sāṇḍīpani, is the guru of Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma. He is a brahmarshi (a ṛshi of the highest order). Kṛshṇa and Balarāma received their formal education at his āśrama in Āvantī (Ujjayinī, modern Ujjain), after their upanayana (the sacred thread ceremony).

As guru-dakshiṇā (the teacher’s gift at the end of study), Sāṇḍipani asked for his dead son. Kṛshṇa brought the boy back from Yama’s realm. Through the grace of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, Sāṇḍipani and his wife reached Goloka at the end of their lives.

Identity and āśrama

Sāṇḍipani’s āśrama was in Āvantī, the ancient sacred city on the banks of the river Kshiprā. Today it is Ujjain, one of the twelve jyotirliṅga (light-pillar of Bhagavān Śiva) sites. Āvantī was already known as a great centre of Vedic learning when Kṛshṇa and Balarāma came there. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls it the city of Ujjayinī, sacred to Mahākāleśvara.

Sāṇḍipani served as the royal purohita (family priest) of the Yādava line. He had a central part in the upanayana of Kṛshṇa and Balarāma in Mathurā. He gave them the Gāyatrī upadeśa (teaching of the Gāyatrī mantra), which marks the formal start of brahmacarya (the student life). The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells this in Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapters 99 to 101.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, in the same account, says Sāṇḍipani belonged to the Kāśyapa gotra (family line). It says he was born in Kāśī (Vārāṇasī), was educated there, and then settled at Avantī, where he set up his āśrama and taught students.

Kṛshṇa and Balarāma become his students

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa (10th Skandha, chapter 45) says that after their upanayana at Mathurā, Kṛshṇa and Balarāma decided to live as brahmacārins (students) in a gurukula under a proper teacher. They chose Sāṇḍipani and went to his āśrama at Avantī.

They served him with complete respect and obedience, as if he were a deva. They did all the work of the āśrama, gathered fuel and water, tended the sacred fires and did every service he gave them. The Bhāgavata says that Kṛshṇa and Balarāma, the masters of all creation, set for all time the ideal of how a student should behave towards a teacher. Even though they knew everything, they learned humbly from another.

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 102) says Sāṇḍipani was overjoyed when they arrived. He understood in his heart that the Parabrahman had come to honour the guru–śishya (teacher and student) tradition by taking part in it. By becoming a student, Kṛshṇa was teaching the world the highest value of learning and of honouring one’s teacher. Sāṇḍipani praised Kṛshṇa with a heartfelt stotra (hymn of praise).

Sāṇḍipani’s wife cared for both boys with a mother’s love. She fed them, looked after their needs and treated them as her own sons.

What Sāṇḍipani taught

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa lists the full course that Sāṇḍipani taught:

• The four Vedas with all six Vedāṅgas
• The Upanishads
• Dhanurveda (the science of the bow and weapons), with all its mantra uses
• The Dharmaśāstras
• Mīmāṃsā and the other philosophical darśanas (schools)
• Tarka (logic)
• Rājanīti, the six strategies of statecraft
• The sixty-four kalās (arts and applied sciences)

The brothers learned every subject at the first hearing. Sāṇḍipani had never before met minds like theirs. The Bhāgavata says they were masters of all knowledge. They came to him not to gain learning but to honour the guru and to show people the form of the ideal student.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa says the whole course was finished in sixty-four days, one subject each day, and was kept perfectly in mind.

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa says Kṛshṇa learned all four Vedas (Ṛg, Sāma, Yajus and Atharva) in a single month. It shows in the human world what was done in an instant in the divine world.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa (Pañcama Aṃśa, chapter 21) also says the whole education at Sāṇḍipani’s āśrama took sixty-four days. In that time Kṛshṇa mastered all branches of knowledge, the sixty-four arts and military science. This would normally need twelve years of brahmacarya study.

The guru-dakshiṇā in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

When their studies were done, Kṛshṇa and Balarāma asked Sāṇḍipani to name his guru-dakshiṇā. The ācārya (teacher) spoke with his wife. They had a son who had drowned in the ocean at Prabhāsa tīrtha some years before. They had mourned him and accepted that he was gone. Nothing in the world could match that loss. So Sāṇḍipani asked for what seemed impossible: bring back our son.

Kṛshṇa and Balarāma agreed without hesitation. They drove to Prabhāsa and spoke to the deva of the ocean. They learned that the boy had been taken by the asura Pañcajana, who lived in the depths in the form of a conch shell. Kṛshṇa dived into the ocean and killed Pañcajana, but the boy was not inside. Pañcajana’s shell became the Pāñcajanya conch, which Kṛshṇa took as his own.

Then the brothers went to Saṃyamanī, the realm of Yama. They blew the Pāñcajanya, and at Kṛshṇa’s direct command Yama gave the boy back. The son was returned to his parents alive and unchanged.

Sāṇḍipani received his son with deep gratitude. He blessed both brothers with these words: “You have repaid the debt completely. Nothing remains owed. Go, and may the world be made auspicious by your fame.”

The guru-dakshiṇā in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa (Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapter 102) says that when the time came for guru-dakshiṇā, Sāṇḍipani knew what his student could do. He asked for the return of his dead son.

Kṛshṇa went to Yama’s realm and brought the son back to life. The joy of the guru and the guru-patnī (the guru’s wife) at the return of their child was beyond words.

Kṛshṇa also gave a great gift of wealth: 3 lakh ratnas (jewels), 5 lakh maṇis (gems), 4 lakh vajras (diamonds), 5 lakh muktas (pearls), 2 lakh māṇikyas (rubies) and 10 crore gold coins.

The guru-dakshiṇā in the Vishṇu Purāṇa

The Vishṇu Purāṇa (Pañcama Aṃśa, chapter 21) gives the same episode with more detail. When Sāṇḍipani asked for guru-dakshiṇā, he asked for his dead son. Kṛshṇa went to the shore of the ocean and dived into the water to look for the boy.

There he met Pañcajana, a powerful asura who lived in the depths of the sea in the form of a great conch shell. Kṛshṇa killed Pañcajana and took from his shell body the famous conch Pāñcajanya. It stayed Kṛshṇa’s sacred conch from that day. The son was not found inside the asura, because his prāṇas (life breaths) had gone to Yama’s realm.

Kṛshṇa then went straight down to Yamapura, the city of the deva of death. He came with his Sudarśana cakra and his full divine power. Yama received him with respect and, recognizing Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, gave back Sāṇḍipani’s son without delay. Kṛshṇa brought the living boy to Āvantī and gave him to his guru. Sāṇḍipani’s joy at receiving his son from Kṛshṇa’s hands confirmed what the brahmarshi had always known. His student was no ordinary prince but the Parabrahman, who had come into his āśrama to honour the guru’s place.

Sāṇḍipani’s teaching on dakshiṇā

At Vasudeva’s Rājasūya yajña (fire ritual), Sāṇḍipani served as the officiating purohita. He also taught the rule of when guru-dakshiṇā must be paid. The dakshiṇā (priest’s fee) must be paid within one muhūrta of the end of the ceremony. Each day of delay makes the debt four times as large. Fifteen days without payment make it a hundred times. One month makes it four hundred times, six months a thousand times, and one year makes the debt one lakh times the original. If the fee is not paid, both the yajamāna (the one who sponsors the rite) and the purohita fall into naraka (hell). This teaching shows how serious the bond with the guru is.

Reaching Goloka

By Kṛshṇa’s grace, and because they had served the Parabrahman himself as their student, Sāṇḍipani and his wife both reached Goloka, the highest divine realm, at the end of their lives.

Sources

• Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, chapters 99–101 (upanayana and Gāyatrī upadeśa), chapter 102 (arrival, education and guru-dakshiṇā) and chapter 125 (rule of dakshiṇā)
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcama Aṃśa, chapter 21
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skandha, chapter 45