Sanatkumāra

Sanatkumāra · sanat-kumāra, “the eternal youth”

Sanatkumāra is one of the four Kumāras, the mind-born sons of Brahmā. Brahmā asked his sons to take part in creation and increase living beings. The Kumāras refused and chose lifelong brahmacarya (celibacy) from birth. They stay for ever as child-like ṛshis of the highest wisdom. The Vaishṇava tradition honours Sanatkumāra as one of the first to receive the teaching of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Several Purāṇas speak of him.

In the Vāmana Purāṇa, Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada that Sanatkumāra is the eldest of the four sons of Dharma and his wife Ahiṃsā, all learned in the yoga-śāstra. Sanatkumāra went to Brahmā to learn yoga, and at Brahmā’s word his parents gave him to Brahmā as his son. Adorned with humility, he received from Brahmā the most secret Vāsudeva tattva and the yoga of the twelve leaves, and from Sanatkumāra Pulastya himself heard it. In the Saro Māhātmya of the same Purāṇa, Sanatkumāra, the mind-born son of Brahmā, sits near the Sthāṇuvaṭa at Kurukshetra with the Vālakhilyas and other munis. There, at Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi‘s request, he tells all that he heard from Brahmā: the ātmā as the true tīrtha, the origin of the sacred lake and the Sthāṇuvaṭa, and the glory of the Sthāṇu tīrtha. With his closing words the whole Vāmana Purāṇa comes to its end.

Birth and nature

Sanatkumāra was born from the mind of Brahmā in the first age of this creation. The Kumāras are Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra. They were born with perfect wisdom and were absorbed in Brahman from birth. Worldly creation did not attract them. They took naishṭhika brahmacarya (celibacy kept for life). Ever since they have appeared as boys of five years, fair in colour, radiant and absorbed in the knowledge of Brahman. The Varāha Mahā Purāṇa tells this.

Per Vāmana Purāṇa, the four are the sons of Dharma by his wife Ahiṃsā, born learned in the yoga-śāstra, and the Purāṇa names them in this order: Sanatkumāra the eldest, then Sanātana, Sanaka and Sanandana (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 34). Sanatkumāra became Brahmā’s son when Dharma and Ahiṃsā Devī gave him to Brahmā (Chapter 35). In its Saro Māhātmya the same Purāṇa calls Sanatkumāra the mind-born son of Brahmā, and tells that when Brahmā thought of the work of creation, Sanaka and the other ṛshis arose from his mind (Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22).

The Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa speaks of the creation of the Kumāras early in its account of creation:

Brahmā created Sanandana, Sanaka, then Ṛbhu, Sanatkumāra, and the eternal Sanātana-pūrvapurusha. All of them accepted the highest vairāgya, saw the greatness of the jñāna-mārga, and fixed their minds wholly upon it.

(Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 7.) The Kūrma Purāṇa also tells how Sanatkumāra taught Virochana, the righteous asura king. He taught him the most secret ātmajñāna (knowledge of the ātmā).

In the Varāha Purāṇa

The main frame of the Varāha Purāṇa is Bhagavān Varāha teaching Bhūdevī. In the later part of the Purāṇa, from about Chapter 134, the frame changes. Bhūdevī herself tells Sanatkumāra the teachings of Bhagavān Varāha, because he has come to receive this wisdom. So Sanatkumāra is the last one to receive the teaching and keep it. Through him the knowledge of the Varāha Purāṇa passes from Bhūdevī into the tradition.

In this part Sanatkumāra asks Bhūdevī questions, and her answers tell of:

• The Vishṇu pūjā-vidhi (the way of worship) and the thirty-two aparādhas (faults in worship)
• The dīkshā (initiation) rules for all four varṇas, and the Pañcarātra dīkshā
• The māhātmya (greatness) of Kubja-āmraka and its tīrthas
• The māhātmya of Saukaraka and its tīrthas
• The secrets of Vishṇu-māyā

His questions are those of a student. Though he has wisdom from the beginning of time, he honours the passing on of sacred teaching through the proper form of dialogue.

His place among the Kumāras

Sanatkumāra is at once the son of Brahmā and so among the first created beings. He is an eternal child, who has never entered the cycle of birth and death through action. And he is a supreme jñānī (knower), who knew Brahman from his first awareness. In taking the teaching of Bhūdevī, the Kumāras, who know Brahman through pure jñāna, receive the Vaishṇava path of bhakti (devotion) in its fullest form.

At Vaikuṇṭha: the Jaya-Vijaya episode

The 3rd Skandha of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa (Chapters 15–16) tells of a visit of the Kumāras to Vaikuṇṭha to see Bhagavān Vishṇu. The four Kumāras Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatkumāra set out for Vaikuṇṭha. The scent of the tulasī garlands that had been offered at the feet of Bhagavān Vishṇu was carried on the winds and moved them. That scent had the power to draw even the greatest jñānins towards devotion.

The Kumāras passed six of the seven gates of Vaikuṇṭha without trouble. At the seventh gate the gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya stopped them and asked them to wait. The Kumāras looked like five-year-old children, and the gatekeepers did not know them as the senior ṛshis they were.

The Kumāras answered with a śāpa (curse): “You are gatekeepers in Vaikuṇṭha, the realm of dharma, yet you keep tamas: discrimination, shutting out others, pride. You are not fit for Vaikuṇṭha. Go down to the mortal world and be born there.” The śāpa did not come from personal anger. It was the will of Bhagavān Vishṇu working through the Kumāras, and it made the avatāra cycle necessary.

Bhagavān Vishṇu himself then came and was told all. He did not set the śāpa aside. He honoured the words of the Kumāras and took the blame on himself. He said that the fault of Jaya and Vijaya came from his own māyā and not from any vice of their own. He gave Jaya and Vijaya a choice: three births as bitter enemies of Bhagavān Vishṇu, in which they would reach moksha (liberation) at his hand in enmity, or seven births as devoted bhaktas, after which they would return to Vaikuṇṭha more slowly. They chose the three births of enmity. So the stage was set for the great avatāras.

The Kumāras were overwhelmed by the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu and by the beauty of the darśana of Vaikuṇṭha: his four arms, his gentle smile, the scent of his lotus feet. They offered a stotra (hymn of praise) of deep devotion. Though they were the foremost jñānins, at that moment they became bhaktas. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa thus teaches that even pure jñāna finds its fulfilment in devotion.

In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

The Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa (Chapter 22) lists the mind-born sons of Brahmā. It names the four Kumāras, each with a quality of his own:

• Sanaka: the form of ānanda (bliss)
• Sananda: the form of ānanda in a different aspect
• Sanātana: one who has eternal and steady Kṛshṇa–bhakti (sanātana means eternal)
• Sanatkumāra: eternally a kumāra (youth), the nitya-kumāra

The Brahma Khaṇḍa also tells how Sanatkumāra stepped in at a key moment in the story of the son of Kālavatī. This child was the ātmā of Nārada in his last mortal birth. In Chapter 21, Sanatkumāra came to Kālavatī’s house and gave the child the twenty-two-akshara Kṛshṇa mantra:

Oṃ śrīṃ namaḥ bhagavate rāsamaṇḍaleśvarāya śrīkṛshṇāya svāhā

This means: “Oṃ śrīṃ. Salutation to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa, the ruler of the rāsa circle. Svāhā.”

The mantra became the child’s lifeline. It guided him through a thousand divine years of tapas, a darśana of child Kṛshṇa, and finally his arrival in Goloka.

In the Śiva Purāṇa line of teaching

The Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā of the Śiva Purāṇa places Sanatkumāra in the line by which that Purāṇa was handed down. The line runs: Bhagavān Śiva, then Nandīśvara, then Sanatkumāra, then Vyāsa, then Sūta Romaharshaṇa, then the ṛshis at Naimishāraṇya.

In this line Sanatkumāra received the whole Śiva Purāṇa from Nandīśvara. Nandīśvara is the foremost devotee and gatekeeper of Bhagavān Śiva, and he received it directly from Bhagavān Śiva. Sanatkumāra then gave it to Vyāsa, who put it together in the written form of seven saṃhitās. So Sanatkumāra stands between the divine spoken teaching, which came from Nandī who had it from Bhagavān Śiva, and the human written tradition, which is Vyāsa’s work.

In the Vāmana Purāṇa

Who Sanatkumāra is

Pulastya Maharshi, telling Nārada why Bhagavān Vishṇu, who is one, is said to have four forms, speaks of the supreme principle called Vāsudeva: beyond reasoning, not to be pointed out as “this”, unmanifest, white in colour, with peace as its very form, and with twelve petals. When Nārada asks him to explain it, Pulastya says: “This most secret tattva was first told by Parameshṭhī Prajāpati (Brahmā) to Sanatkumāra; I heard it from him.” Nārada asks: “Who is that Sanatkumāra, to whom Brahmā himself told it? Tell me in detail.” And Pulastya tells him.

To Dharma, by his wife Ahiṃsā, four sons were born, learned in the yoga-śāstra: the eldest Sanatkumāra, the second Sanātana, the third Sanaka and the fourth Sanandana. Ahiṃsā Devī is at Dharma’s side in the Purāṇa’s other accounts too: when Daksha began his yajña, he called Dharma together with Ahiṃsā Devī and placed him as door-keeper of the yajña enclosure (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 2).

Son and disciple

Sanatkumāra went to the lotus-born Brahmā and asked for the knowledge of yoga. Brahmā said: “O Sādhya, if you agree to become my son, I can teach you that śāstra. The truth must not be told to just anyone. There is no exception to that.”

Sanatkumāra asked: “Since I am your disciple, am I not your son? What difference is there between a son and a disciple?”

“Not so, son of Dharma,” Brahmā answered. “A son has something more than a disciple, in the carrying out of dharma-karma. He who saves from the naraka called Put is a putra (son); he who removes the remaining pāpa is called a śishya (disciple). This is the word of the śruti.”

Sanatkumāra asked him to tell in full what the Punnāma naraka, the naraka named Put, is, and what the removal of the remaining pāpa means. Brahmā said: “O Sādhya, the knowledge joined with the limbs of yoga is very ancient and fierce, and it dispels fears. I am telling it to you; listen.” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 34.)

Then Brahmā named sixteen narakas, each a group of pāpa-deeds. Among them are uniting with the wives of others and keeping company with those who do pāpa; stealing fruits, idle wandering and cutting down trees; killing and binding those who must not be killed; falling away from one’s own dharma; false oaths and eating sweet food alone; blocking another’s way and stealing carts; taking what is the king’s and treason to the kingdom; greed; driving out and reviling brāhmaṇas and enmity to one’s own kin; killing infants, stealing śāstras and leaving the good path; constant enmity to good people and casting away the prescribed saṃskāras; obstructing others in dharma, artha, kāma and moksha; stinginess and lack of dharma; envy, impurity and lies; and laziness, raging at others and every deed of the ātatāyī: setting fire, giving poison, striking with a weapon, stealing wealth, and seizing another’s land and wife. “This whole group of pāpas is called the Put naraka.” To be freed of it, one should beget a son and gain protection through him; a good son, given by grace, frees the pitṛs from naraka. “That is why, O Sādhya, a son is called putra.”

Then he gave the marks of the remaining pāpas (śesha-pāpa): being in debt to the devas, the ṛshis, the pitṛs and above all to men; the mixing of all varṇas; giving up the praṇava, Oṃ; eating fish; forbidden union with others; selling ghee; taking from caṇḍālas; hiding one’s own faults and exposing those of others; jealousy; praising the wicked; cruelty; faults of speech; unrighteousness and savagery. If one sunk in these pāpas pleases Śaṅkara, the embodiment of all knowledge, then, O Dharmaputra, the pāpas of body, speech and mind, and all those done in that birth by mother, father, brothers, kin and dependents, can be removed through sons and disciples. “So, O Sādhya, a wise man should have sons and disciples. One who grasps the inner meaning knows that the son is greater than the disciple: the son protects from all pāpas, the disciple only from the remaining pāpas.” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35.)

Given to Brahmā as his son

The Sādhya, rich in tapas, answered: “I am thrice over your son. Please teach me yoga.” Brahmā said: “Vatsa, if your mother and father give you to me, you will become my son.” The Sādhya asked: “Deva, what is a dāyāda (an heir, a son who inherits)? Tell me that rule.” Pitāmaha smiled and said, “Vatsa, listen.”

He named twelve kinds of dāyāda. To the first six, the debt, the piṇḍa, the wealth, the rites, the gotra, the family calling and the standing pass naturally from the parents: the aurasa, the kshetraja, the datta, the kṛtrima, the gūḍhotpanna and the apaviddha. To the other six they do not pass, for they are sons in name only, not born of the kula and gotra: the kānīna, the sahoḍha, the krīta, the punarbhava, the svayaṃdatta and the pāraśava. At Sanatkumāra’s request he explained each one: the aurasa is the son born to one’s wife from oneself, the very image of the father; the datta is one given in adoption by his mother and father; the kānīna is born to a maiden before marriage; the krīta is brought for a price; the pāraśava is the son of a brāhmaṇa by a śūdra woman; and so the rest. “For these reasons, vatsa, I cannot take you as my son on your word alone. Go quickly and call your mother and father.”

At once the Sādhya remembered his mother and father, and by that remembrance alone they came there. Dharma and Ahiṃsā Devī bowed to Parameshṭhī and sat down. Seeing them seated at ease, Sanatkumāra said: “Father, I asked Parameshṭhī Brahmā for yoga-vidyā, and he told me to become his son. So you may give me to him.” Dharma and Ahiṃsā said to Pitāmaha: “From today this son of ours will be your son.” And at once they went back to the place from which they had come.

Then Pitāmaha taught the dvādaśa-patraka yoga, the yoga of the twelve leaves, to Sanatkumāra, adorned with humility (vinaya-bhūshaṇa). (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35.)

The yoga of the twelve leaves

Each of the twelve leaves of this yoga has a syllable, a place on the body, a rāśi and a month:

“Thus the cakra of the Paramātmā Keśava Vāsudeva, made of twelve leaves, has twelve spokes and two navels. Though seen in three mūrtis, that Parameśvara is one, and the form of that Sarveśvara is twelvefold. For those who know this there is no more death.” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 35.)

In the morning stotra of Śaṅkara

The ṛshis taught Sukeśī the suprabhāta stotra that Śaṅkara gave, to be recited on rising at brāhma-muhūrta. Sanatkumāra is among those it calls on: “Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatkumāra and Sanātana, Āsuri and Piṅgaḷa, the seven svaras and the seven rasātalas: may they make this morning of mine auspicious!” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 14.)

At the Sthāṇuvaṭa: Mārkaṇḍeya’s questions

Near the Sthāṇuvaṭa, the vaṭa tree of Sthāṇu at Kurukshetra, Sanatkumāra, the mind-born son of Brahmā, was seated with great ones, the sons of Brahmā, the Vālakhilyas and other munis. Once Mārkaṇḍeya Muni came to him, saluted him humbly and said: “O Brahmakumāra, learned in all the śāstras, I wish to know the glory of the lake that washes away all pāpas.”

He asked which tīrthas are there in plain sight and which are hidden; which most holy liṅgas stand nearest to Sthāṇu and give mukti by their mere darśana; the puṇya of the darśana of the holy vaṭa tree, and its origin; the fruit of circling the tīrtha and bathing in it; the fruit of worshipping the devatās who are there, seen and unseen; how Sthāṇu, the Devādideva, is in the middle of the lake; how Śakra (Indra) filled that tīrtha with earth; the glory of the Sthāṇu tīrtha, and of the Cakra, Sūrya and Soma tīrthas. “O Mahāmuni, with what you learned from Brahmā’s own mouth, tell me in full the secret places of Īśvara, the places of Vishṇu, the account of the Sarasvatī and the glory of the Devādideva.”

Hearing Mārkaṇḍeya, that mahāmuni, whose self was Brahman, full of śraddhā for the tīrthas, left his seated posture with great bhakti, bowed to Paramaśiva, and began to tell all that he had heard long ago from Brahmā. “O Mahāmuni, bowing to Maheśvara, the giver of varas and doer of good, I shall tell you the origin of the tīrthas as I heard it from Brahmā long ago.”

His teaching: the ātmā as the true tīrtha

Long ago, Sanatkumāra said, a great dissolution by water came, and the whole world of the moving and the unmoving perished. A great aṇḍa (egg) came into being, the root of the creation of all beings. Brahmā, within it, slept for a thousand yugas and woke; seeing the world empty, he thought to create. Rajas is the guṇa of creation, and at the time of withdrawal tamas acts. But the Parama Purusha who pervades all beings is beyond every guṇa: the eternal one who is called Brahmā, Īśvara and Govinda. One who has known that supreme reality knows everything.

For the great ones who know the ātma-tattva, tīrthas and āśramas are not needed at all; they are free. “The ātmā, which shines with the holy tīrtha called saṃyama (restraint) and with the holy waters called truth, good conduct and samādhi, is itself holy. The puṇya one who bathes in it becomes pure. Purity of the inner self cannot come from water.” To remain in the bliss of ātma-jñāna is the chief duty of a human being; the elder sādhus say this is the one thing to be known, and that one who gains it gives up all desires. The true wealth of a brāhmaṇa is an equal regard for all, oneness, never leaving good conduct, giving up hiṃsā, freedom from krodha, and uparati (non-attachment): there is no wealth like it.

“O best of brāhmaṇas, I have told you in brief the nature of Brahman. One who knows this will without doubt attain the Parabrahman.”

The lake, the Sthāṇuvaṭa and the Vālakhilyas

“Now hear the origin of Brahmā, the Paramātmā,” Sanatkumāra went on. The waters are called nāra; because Bhagavān Vishṇu lay upon them, he is named Nārāyaṇa. Knowing the whole world sunk in water, he broke open the great egg, and from it came the Oṃkāra; from the Oṃkāra came the three lokas, bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ and svaḥ; and from them the radiance, “tat savitur vareṇyam”. That radiance dried up the waters, and what remained became hard: it was called Dharaṇī, the earth, for she bears all beings. The place where the egg stood is the Sannihita lake. Brahmā arose in the middle of the egg; the pure water at the place of Brahmā’s navel filled that great lake, and in its middle appeared a vaṭa tree in the form of Sthāṇu. From that Sthāṇuvaṭa the four varṇas arose. From Brahmā’s mind arose Sanaka and the other ṛshis, then the seven ṛshis, the Prajāpatis, and then the Vālakhilya munis.

He told of the Vālakhilyas’ fierce tapas in the Devadāruvana for a thousand divine years, until only nāḍīs and sinews remained; of Devī Pārvatī, moved with compassion as she passed by the path of the sky, asking Bhagavān Śiva to bless them; of Bhagavān Śiva, smiling, going among their āśramas in the form of a beautiful youth, sky-clad, wearing a garland of forest flowers, a kapāla in his hand, begging for alms; of the munis, who did not know him, striking him with sticks and stones until his liṅga fell to the earth and he withdrew from sight; of the whole creation shaken; and of Brahmā’s teaching to the munis when they came to him for refuge: that Parameśvara dwells always within them, that only purity of mind gives the fruit of tapas, and that all the yajñas, dānas, tapas and vratas of one overcome by krodha are as useless as rose-water poured on ash. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22.)

The glory of the Sthāṇu tīrtha

Mārkaṇḍeya asked: “Mahāmuni, I wish to hear the glory of the Sthāṇu tīrtha in full. Who attained there the siddhi that removes all pāpas?” Sanatkumāra answered: “O Mārkaṇḍeya Maharshi, the glory of this most excellent Sthāṇu tīrtha must be heard in full. A man who hears it becomes free of all pāpas.”

Then he told the account of King Vena: his line from Brahmā through Marīci, Kaśyapa, Sūrya and Manu; how Vena reviled the Vedas, forbade yajña and dāna, and was slain by the ṛshis with mantra-charged kuśa grass; how his son, counselled by Nārada Maharshi, found him born among the mlecchas, struck with kshaya and kushṭha, and brought him to the Sthāṇu tīrtha; how a dog, once the keeper of the deva-dravya of the Sthāṇu maṭha, freed Vena when it shook its wet body and the drops fell on him, and Vena in fear plunged into the Sthāṇu tīrtha; Vena’s stotra to Sthāṇu; and Bhagavān Śiva’s vara to Vena, his words on Vena’s coming births as Andhaka and as Bhṛṅgiriṭi, first of the Śiva-gaṇas, and the gift of Śivaloka to the dog. “Sanatkumāra said further”: Parama Śiva, worshipped by all the worlds, withdrew there, while all looked on; Vena installed Maheśvara at the tīrtha and attained siddhi; and Vena’s son, his debt to his father repaid, ruled by dharma and at last reached the supreme abode by tapas at Kurukshetra. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 26–27.)

The Caturmukha liṅga, and the close of the Purāṇa

Mārkaṇḍeya asked once more: “O one free of pāpa, I wish to hear in detail how Caturmukha and Brahmeśvara arose.” Sanatkumāra answered: “O pāpa-free Mārkaṇḍeya, hear; I shall explain in full the whole account of what happened when Brahmā, born of the lotus, wished to create.”

He told how Brahmā came to the holy Sannihita lake, installed Caturmukha at the Sthāṇu tīrtha on the northern bank of the Sarasvatī, and worshipped him every day with dhūpa, dīpa, gandha and naivedya and the recitation of the Rudrasūkta; how Bhagavān Nīlalohita came himself to that devotee, and Brahmā praised him with a stotra; how Bhagavān Śiva told Brahmā the origin of the Sthāṇu liṅga; and how Brahmā installed four liṅgas of the Devadeva, one for each yuga: beside Hari, in his own āśrama, to the east of it, and on the bank of the Sarasvatī.

Then Sanatkumāra closed his telling: “In this way I have explained the māhātmya to you in full. The man who hears it is freed from all pāpas and gains mukti.” With these words the Saro Māhātmya ends, and with it the Śrī Vāmana Mahāpurāṇa is complete. (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 28.)

Sources

• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 134–138
• Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 21–22
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 3rd Skandha, Chapters 15–16
• Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapter 7
• Śiva Purāṇa, Vidyeśvara Saṃhitā, Chapter 1
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 14, 34–35
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22, 26–28