Pailūsha
Pailūsha
Khaḍga has other meanings too: see all meanings of Khaḍga.
Pailūsha was a well-known brāhmaṇa, the son of Kavasha, who lived by the Gautamī. Burdened with a large family and unable to gain wealth, he turned away from the world, asked his father how to cross saṃsāra (the round of birth and death) with the sword of jñāna (true knowledge), and worshipped Īśvara. Bhagavān Śiva, as Īśāna, gave him perfect jñāna; Pailūsha taught how anger, greed, attachment, doubt and hope are each cut down by that sword, and on the banks of the Gaṅgā he cast off delusion and attained moksha. The tīrtha where this happened, on the northern bank of the Gautamī, is called Khaḍgatīrtha, and also Jñānatīrtha, Kavasha and Pailūsha.
Poverty and detachment
Brahmā tells Nārada this account as the glory of Khaḍgatīrtha, “the tīrtha of the sword”. Pailūsha had a large family to keep. He ran here and there seeking wealth but gained nothing, and then he grew detached and lost interest in worldly things. Brahmā says that when fate (daiva) is wholly against a man and his own effort (paurusha) fails, nothing but vairāgya (detachment) supports a learned man.
Pailūsha sighed again and again and thought: “I have no wealth from my fathers. I have many to keep. Yet the self is proud and cannot bear strain. Fie upon the doings of evil fate!” Once he took service (sevā) but got too little from it, and he said in dejection: “Service is forbidden to a brāhmaṇa. What is not forbidden is out of my reach. Tapas is very hard to do. Greed drags me by force towards wrong deeds. O Tṛshṇā (craving), it is out of ignorance that you have acted against me. Obeisance to you.”
The question to his father
Having thought this through, and considering how to cut every bond, the wise Pailūsha went to his father. “Revered father,” he said, “tell me the means by which I can calm anger (krodha) and greed (lobha), and cross the ocean of saṃsāra, which cannot be crossed, by the sword of jñāna.” Kavasha answered: “One should seek jñāna from Īśvara: so says the śruti. Therefore worship him, and you will gain jñāna from Īśvara.”
The gift of jñāna
Saying “So be it”, Pailūsha worshipped Īśvara for the sake of jñāna. Bhagavān Īśāna, delighted, granted him perfect jñāna, and the brāhmaṇa spoke these words, which give moksha to the seeker. He named five enemies, each to be cut down by the sword of jñāna:
- Krodha (anger) is the first enemy. Even if it harms no one else, it burns one’s own body. Calming it through jñāna, one gains paramānanda, the supreme bliss.
- Lobha (greed) is of many kinds. It deceives, it binds and it brings pāpa. Killing it with the sword of jñāna, a man becomes happy.
- Saṅga (attachment to the objects of the senses) is a great evil even for the devas, so says the śruti. It is a great enemy of the ātmā, though the ātmā by nature is free of all contact. Destroying it with the sword of jñāna, one attains oneness with Śiva.
- Saṃśaya (doubt) is most destructive: it destroys dharma and artha. Destroying it, one gains the highest of one’s wishes.
- Āśā (hope, longing) seizes a person like a possessing spirit and burns away all happiness. Destroying it, one attains the state of the mukta, the freed one.
Moksha on the Gautamī
Having gained jñāna, Pailūsha went to the banks of the Gaṅgā. By jñāna he cast off moha (delusion), and then he attained moksha. From then on the tīrtha is remembered as Khaḍgatīrtha, and also as Jñānatīrtha, Kavasha and Pailūsha, after the father and the son. It fulfils every cherished desire, and by snāna and dāna there a man attains moksha. The great ṛshis speak of it and of six thousand other tīrthas there, which dispel every pāpa and every grief and grant what is desired.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 69
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 69