Pippala

Pippala was a son of Kaśyapa. He did tapas (austerity) for three thousand years in Daśāraṇya. He lived through the bites of snakes and the austerity of the three seasons, until the devas themselves came and offered him a vara (a boon). He became a vidyādhara (one of the class of divine beings who hold knowledge), with control over the whole world. At once he fell into the pride of thinking that no one was greater than he was.

A sārasa bird by a lake was Brahmā in disguise. The bird humbled him by speaking of Sukarma, a young brāhmaṇa of Kurukshetra. Sukarma’s great power came not from tapas but from pitṛ-bhakti (devotion to his parents) alone. Pippala’s journey to Sukarma and the teaching he received are a central part of the Pitṛtīrtha section of the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa.

The tapas

Pippala, son of Kaśyapa, did great tapas for three thousand years in the Daśāraṇya forest. He lived on air alone. He bore cold, wind and heat without being shaken. His body became an anthill. Snakes coiled around it and bit him. But his tejas (spiritual power) was so strong that no poison could enter him, and the snakes became calm near him.

The devas were amazed at the quality of his tapas. He was completely free from kāma (desire) and krodha (anger), and he was still like a mountain. They came themselves to rain flowers on him (pushpa-vṛshṭi) and offered him any vara.

Pippala’s vara was that the whole world be under his control (viśvavaśya), and that he become a vidyādhara. Both were granted. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 61)

The pride and how it was corrected

Pippala now had the status of a vidyādhara and the siddhi (power) of rule over all. He became sure that nobody in all the worlds was his equal. In this darpa (pride), a sārasa bird sitting by a lake spoke sharply to him. It said: “You are proud of three thousand years of tapas and a vara. But even as a child, Sukarma, the son of Kuṇḍala of Kurukshetra, had more power than you have now. You do not know what pārācīna jñāna is. Go to Sukarma and learn.”

Pippala asked whether the sārasa was Brahmā, Rudra or Vishṇu. The bird answered that it had no tapas of its own. It only gave back to him the truth he needed to hear. It sent him to Sukarma’s āśrama. Later Pippala asked Sukarma who the sārasa was, and Sukarma said that it was Brahmā himself. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 61–62)

The teaching he received

At Sukarma’s āśrama, Pippala saw Sukarma show his power over the world. He called Indra and all the devas with ease. In front of them all, Sukarma asked for only two things: pitṛ-bhakti that would never waver, and that his parents rise to Vishṇuloka. He asked for no other vara.

Sukarma then taught Pippala the two forms of divine reality:

• Pārācīna is the eternal, unmanifest and formless Paramātman. The Śruti cannot fully describe it, and only yogīs see it as the base of all.
• Arvācīna is the manifest: creation through Brahmā and the order of the cosmos.

The words of the sārasa, who was Brahmā, were the first step toward Pippala’s true knowledge. (Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapter 62)

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 61–63