Vishṇudūtas

Vishṇudūta · vishṇu-dūta, “the messengers of Vishṇu”

Pāpa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Pāpa.

The Vishṇudūtas are the attendants of Śrī Hari, his kiṅkaras (servants) and pārshadas (companions), who come at once to protect anyone who calls on his name. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells of them above all in the account of Ajāmila: when the dying brāhmaṇa called out “Nārāyaṇa!”, the Vishṇudūtas came, stopped the messengers of Yama, taught them that the Name of Śrī Hari is the highest prāyaścitta (expiation) for every pāpa, and set Ajāmila free. Shining, four-armed and dressed in yellow silk, they bear the bow, the quiver and the sword, the gadā, the śaṅkha, the cakra and the padma. Yama tells his own messengers that the Vishṇudūtas have the form, qualities and nature of Śrī Hari, that their darśana is very hard to obtain, and that they guard the bhaktas of Śrī Hari everywhere and at all times.

The coming to Ajāmila

Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit an ancient itihāsa told by the elders: the dialogue of the Vishṇudūtas and the Yamakiṅkaras. In Kānyakubja the brāhmaṇa Ajāmila, who had fallen from his dharma, lay dying at the age of eighty-eight, his mind fixed on his youngest son, named Nārāyaṇa. When he saw three terrible men with nooses in their hands, he called aloud in a long-drawn voice for his son: “Nārāyaṇa!”

The attendants of Śrī Hari heard their master’s name and, thinking that Ajāmila was praising Śrī Hari, came rushing there at once. The Yamakiṅkaras were drawing out Ajāmila’s subtle body from within his heart, and the dūtas of Vishṇu forcefully stopped them.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1

Their form

The Yamakiṅkaras asked them: “Who are you, to obstruct the command of Yamadharmarāja? Whose attendants are you? Where have you come from? Are you devatās, or upadevatās such as the gandharvas, or the best of the siddhas?” And they described what they saw:

• eyes like lotus petals;
• crowns and kuṇḍalas (earrings);
• garments of yellow silk, and garlands of lotuses;
• the bloom of youth, and four beautiful arms;
• the bow, the quiver, the sword, the gadā (mace), the śaṅkha (conch), the cakra and the padma (lotus);
• a radiance that drives away the darkness and lights up every direction.

The kiṅkaras of Vāsudeva laughed aloud and answered in a voice as deep as the rumbling of clouds: “If you truly carry out the command of Yamadharmarāja, tell us the nature, the authority and the marks of dharma. How is punishment given? Who is fit to receive it? Are all who do pāpa to be punished, or only some?”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1

Their teaching on the Name

Śuka says the Vishṇudūtas were learned in deciding dharma. They heard the Yamadūtas‘ answer carefully and then spoke:

• “Alas, adharma is entering the assembly of the knowers of dharma, for the innocent are being punished. If those who should rule the people like a father, with an equal mind, go astray, in whom will the people take refuge?”
• “Whatever the best man does, common people do; whatever he sets up as dharma, they follow. The common man, not knowing dharma himself, trusts a great one and sleeps happily with his head in his lap. How can a trustworthy and kind leader betray those who have surrendered to him?”
• “This man has done prāyaścitta even for the pāpas of a crore of births, for he has uttered the name of Śrī Hari, the abode of all that is auspicious, even though not intentionally. When he uttered the name of four syllables, ‘Nārāyaṇa! come’, by that alone the nishkṛti (removal) of his pāpas came about.”
• “For the stealer of gold, the drinker of liquor, the betrayer of a friend, the killer of a knower of the Veda, one who desired his guru’s wife, the killer of a woman, a king, a mother, a father, a cow or a bull, and for all who have done other pāpas, uttering the name of Vishṇu is the excellent prāyaścitta.” By the Name the mind takes the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu, or Bhagavān Vishṇu remembers the one who calls and his grace comes upon him.
• Vratas and other prāyaścittas do not give the purity that the Names of Śrī Hari give; if the mind goes back to the wrong path after a prāyaścitta, it was not purified. Those who seek final freedom from karma should praise the qualities of Śrī Hari.
• The Name destroys all pāpas even when it is uttered in calling someone else, in jest, as a filler word in a song, or in mockery; one who cries “Hari” when he falls, slips, breaks a limb, is bitten, burned by the sun or struck, is not fit for the torments of naraka.
• Tapas, dāna and japa may destroy pāpas, but they do not purify the inner self that gave rise to adharma; serving the feet of Īśvara does. As fire burns a log, the Name of Śrī Hari, uttered knowingly or unknowingly, burns pāpa; as a powerful medicine works even when taken without knowing it, the mantra of the Name of Hari shows its power.
• “This man, while dying, uttered the name of Bhagavān Vishṇu well, and so did prāyaścitta for all his pāpas. Do not take him by the road to naraka.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 2

Ajāmila set free

Having established the dharma of bhakti to Bhagavān Vishṇu, the Vishṇudūtas freed Ajāmila not only from the noose of the Yamadūtas but from death itself, and the Yamadūtas went to tell Yama all that had happened. Ajāmila was filled with joy at the sight of Vishṇu’s attendants; his fear left him, he grew calm and bowed his head to them. Seeing that he was about to speak, the attendants of Purushottama vanished before his eyes.

Ajāmila wondered whether he had seen a dream, and asked where the kiṅkaras with the nooses had gone, and where the four siddha-purushas of beautiful form who had freed him as he was being bound and dragged to Pātāla. “Yet to me, ill-fated as I am, came the darśana of the best of the devatās, which makes the mind serene. There must be some puṇya from before in me.” Bhakti arose in him; he went to Haridvāra and fixed his mind on Bhagavān Vishṇu. Then he saw before him the same attendants of Śrī Hari, recognised them and bowed. He gave up his body on the bank of the Gaṅgā, took the form of an attendant of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and with the pārshadas of Śrī Hari rode a golden vimāna through the sky to Vaikuṇṭha, where Lakshmīpati dwells.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 2

Yama’s words about them

The Yamadūtas told Yama: “Four wondrous siddha-purushas have transgressed your command. As we were taking a pāpī (one who did wrong) to the place of torments, they forcibly cut your pāśas (nooses) and set him free. As soon as he said ‘O Nārāyaṇa!’, they came at once, saying ‘Do not fear!'”

Yama remembered the lotus feet of Śrī Hari and answered that there is one above him, Śrī Hari, the ātmā of all. “His dūtas too have form, qualities and nature like his, and are beautiful; they often move about in this world. The darśana of the Vishṇudūtas, who are worshipped by the devatās, is very hard to obtain. Those wondrous dūtas protect the bhaktas of Śrī Hari from enemies, from me and from everything, in all places and at all times.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 3

Other attendants of Śrī Hari

• Jaya and Vijaya. At the death of Hiraṇyāksha, Brahmā and the others who had come there say that Hiraṇyāksha and Hiraṇyakaśipu were formerly the Vishṇu-pārshadas Jaya and Vijaya, born as rākshasas by the śāpa of Sanaka and the other maharshis, who would return to their own place after some such births.
• At Pṛthu‘s yajña. When Śrī Hari came to Pṛthu’s yajña, Sunanda, Nanda and the other chief attendants of Śrī Hari came with him. As Śrī Hari made ready to leave, Pṛthu honoured the devatās, maharshis, gandharvas, siddhas, cāraṇas, nāgas, kinnaras, apsarases, human bhaktas, birds and the attendants of Śrī Hari, each as Śrī Hari the Yajñeśvara himself; he bowed, offered them wealth with devotion, and they returned to their places.
• Before Bhagavān Narasiṃha. After the slaying of Hiraṇyakaśipu, the attendants of Vishṇu praised Bhagavān Narasiṃha: “O Īśvara who gives refuge, today we have seen this wondrous Narasiṃha form of yours, which brings happiness to all the lokas. This rākshasa is your own kiṅkara, made a rākshasa by the śāpa of the Sanakādis. We know that this death of his is anugraha (grace) to him.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 19; Skandha 4, Chapters 19–20; Skandha 7, Chapter 8

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 19; Skandha 4, Chapters 19–20; Skandha 6, Chapters 1–3; Skandha 7, Chapter 8