Gautama of Tryambaka

Gautama

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

Gautama of Tryambaka was a devotee of Bhagavān Śiva. He made his āśrama (hermitage) at the sacred place of Tryambaka, on the bank of the Gaṅgā near the source of the Godāvarī. He honoured Bhagavān Śiva with singing and dancing, and at the end of his life he was seen travelling in a divine aeroplane (vimāna).

Two Purāṇas tell of him. The Padma Purāṇa speaks of his āśrama, his worship and the great events that took place there. The Śiva Purāṇa tells how he brought the Godāvarī to the Deccan.

The āśrama at Tryambaka

Gautama set up his āśrama at Tryambaka, a sacred Śiva-tīrtha (holy place). It stands on the Gaṅgā bank near the source of the Godāvarī. Gautama chose it for his worship and his tapas (austerity).

The āśrama was not known only to nearby ṛshis. Great ṛshis came to it. Divine beings came to it. Even kings of the asura world came to it. Bāṇa, the asura king, was one of those who came to visit Gautama’s āśrama.

Worship with singing and dancing

Gautama worshipped Bhagavān Śiva by singing and dancing. Ordinary pūjā uses offerings, incense, flowers and lamps. Gautama offered his voice and his body instead.

His disciple Śaṅkarātman

One of Gautama’s disciples was Śaṅkarātman. He is described as eccentric. His behaviour did not follow the usual ways, but his bhakti (devotion) for Bhagavān Śiva was real.

Great events at the āśrama

The Padma Purāṇa tells of these events at Gautama’s āśrama:

• Bhagavān Śiva and Bhagavān Vishṇu came to the Gaṅgā bank at Tryambaka. They played together in the water. Because the two were present together at one place, the āśrama became a place of great holiness.
• Hanūmān came to the āśrama and sang. His singing filled Bhagavān Śiva with such joy that Bhagavān Śiva mounted Hanūmān as His vehicle.
• Bhagavān Vishṇu praised the feet of Bhagavān Śiva as they rested on Hanūmān.
• Hanūmān then worshipped the Śiva liṅga with arcana (ritual offering).
• During these events the seat of Bhagavān Śiva was displaced. Vīrabhadra then burned all twelve worlds. Bhagavān Śiva restored them by His grace.

Hanūmān’s song was so fine and so full of bhakti that Bhagavān Śiva was moved past all restraint. He mounted Hanūmān as one rides an elephant or a horse. Bhagavān Śiva, who rides the bull Nandi, here chose Hanūmān, the son of Vāyu, as His vehicle, moved by devotion alone. Hanūmān’s worship of the liṅga was an act of liṅga-arcana (worship of the liṅga).

The seat of Bhagavān Śiva was displaced or lost. At this Vīrabhadra, the great warrior who came forth from Bhagavān Śiva, acted with full force. Bhagavān Śiva Himself then restored everything that Vīrabhadra had destroyed.

Gautama in a divine aeroplane

At the Aśvamedha yajña (horse sacrifice) of Bhagavān Rāma, Gautama was seen passing through the sky in a divine aeroplane. Bhagavān Rāma asked Śambhu (Bhagavān Śiva) who this fortunate person was. Śambhu said that he was Gautama of Tryambaka, raised to this state by his devotion to Bhagavān Śiva through singing and dancing.

Chapter 114 of the Pātāla Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa begins with this scene, at the end of the Aśvamedha. The man in the vimāna was seen during or just after the yajña. Bhagavān Rāma also asked what this being had done to earn such grace, to travel in a divine vehicle.

In the same chapter Śambhu also taught Bhagavān Rāma the dharma of each yuga (age), and told of a fallen brāhmaṇa, also named Gautama, who was raised up by hearing eight Purāṇas and the Rāmāyaṇa.

The dharma of each yuga

Bhagavān Rāma asked Śambhu which kind of dharma works best in each of the four yugas. Śambhu answered as follows.

• In the Kṛta Yuga (Satya Yuga), meditation is the highest dharma. Beings of that age have such strength of mind and purity that long meditation on Bhagavān Vishṇu gives liberation directly. All other practices come second to this.
• In the Tretā Yuga, yajña is the chief dharma. The age of Bhagavān Rāma is the Tretā Yuga, and the great Aśvamedha and other royal yajñas belong to it. The outer fire ritual is the main way to reach the divine and to gain puṇya (merit).
• In the Dvāpara Yuga, pūjā is the highest practice. This means direct worship of the mūrti or the liṅga. Power to meditate for long grows weaker, and the fire yajña becomes harder to perform, so the worship of the mūrti or liṅga of Bhagavān Vishṇu becomes the central path.
• In the Kali Yuga, dāna (giving) and the name of Vishṇu (Vishṇu-nāma) together are the highest dharma. In the Kali age the inner powers decline. What stays open to everyone, giving and saying the name of Bhagavān Vishṇu, becomes the highest practice.

The fallen brāhmaṇa Gautama

Śambhu also told Bhagavān Rāma the account of another Gautama. He was a brāhmaṇa who had fallen from his way and given up all the practices expected of his birth. He did not perform the rites and did not study the texts. He lived so as to gather much pāpa (sin).

Yet through a wonderful chain of events he heard one verse, a śloka, from someone near him. This one verse awakened something in him and drew him, step by step, to hear more and more of the sacred texts.

From that one verse Gautama came to hear eight Purāṇas and the whole Rāmāyaṇa. The power of this hearing, śravaṇa, the first and easiest limb of bhakti, changed him completely. A single śloka heard in passing drew him back, and patient hearing of the full texts finished his rise.

The drought, the false cow-killing and the Godāvarī

The Koti Rudra Saṃhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa (Chapters 24–27) tells the origin of Tryambakeśvara Jyotirliṅga. In this account Gautama lived at Brahmagiri. It tells of his care for the ṛshis and of his tapas to bring the Godāvarī to the Deccan.

A drought of twelve years struck the Brahmagiri region. Only Gautama received the grace of Bhagavān Śiva. He kept thousands of ṛshis and their families alive through those years.

When the drought ended, the other ṛshis were jealous. They were ashamed that Gautama’s grace had fed them. They used māyā (illusion) to stage a false go-hatyā, the killing of a cow, to drive Gautama away.

Gautama knew the cow was not real. Still, he took on the blame for the apparent go-hatyā and decided to perform full prāyaścitta (expiation). He climbed Brahmagiri and performed hard tapas to Bhagavān Śiva. Bhagavān Śiva appeared and offered him a vara (boon). Gautama asked only for the Gaṅgā to come down. He wished to be made pure, and he wished the Deccan to be made holy by the water of a sacred river.

Bhagavān Śiva made the Godāvarī flow from His own jaṭā (matted hair) at Brahmagiri. The river is also called Gautamī, in honour of Gautama. It became the great river of the Deccan.

Bhagavān Śiva then made His home at Brahmagiri for ever as Tryambakeśvara, the three-eyed Bhagavān Śiva.

Sources

• Padma Purāṇa, Pātāla Khaṇḍa, Chapter 114
• Śiva Purāṇa, Koṭi Rudra Saṃhitā, Chapters 24–27