Praṇītā-saṅgama
Praṇītā-saṅgama · praṇītā-saṅgama, “the confluence of the Praṇītā”
Praṇītā-saṅgama is a tīrtha at the confluence of the Gautamī Gaṅgā (the Godāvarī) with the river Praṇītā, known together with the neighbouring tīrtha Kuśatarpaṇa. The Praṇītā was born at the very beginning of creation, from the water of the praṇītā vessel of Brahmā’s yajña of creation, which he performed in the Karmabhūmi south of the Sahya mountain with the Purusha Sūkta, and in which Bhagavān Vishṇu, Yajñapati, appeared in the three fires. Kuśatarpaṇa is the spot where the kuśa grass with which Brahmā wiped the vessel fell. Long afterwards the Gautamī joined the Praṇītā. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, calling it the secret of secrets, declared by the Vedas. The tīrtha yields bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti (freedom), and a bath and dāna there lead to the supreme region.
The tīrtha and its place
Brahmā says that the tīrtha famed in the worlds as Kuśatarpaṇa and Praṇītā-saṅgama yields bhukti and mukti, is auspicious and dispels pāpa. South of the Vindhya is the great mountain Sahya, and from its feet arose the Godāvarī, the Bhīmarathī and other rivers. The place where the river Ekavīrā arose is Virajā, the stainless, whose greatness no one can describe. What happened in the holy spot on that mountain is the secret of secrets, declared by the Vedas, unknown even to ṛshis, devas, pitṛs and asuras; Brahmā tells it for Nārada‘s delight, and hearing it gives every cherished thing.
Brahmā and the divine Voice
The supreme Purusha is to be known as Avyakta, the unmanifest, and Akshara, the imperishable; the lower is Kshara, the perishable, joined with Prakṛti. From the formless was born the Purusha with form. The waters were born of him and the Purusha of the waters; from both a lotus was born, and Brahmā was born in that lotus. Earth, wind, ether, water and fire had come forth before him. Brahmā saw only these elements and no other being; the Vedas were not yet present, and he could not see even the lotus from which he was born. As he sat silent, he heard an excellent voice.
The Voice said: “O Brahmā, perform the rite of creation of the universe.” Brahmā asked: “How shall I create it, and with what?” The Voice said: “The mother of the universe is called Prakṛti, and she works under the guidance of Vishṇu. Perform yajña, and you will gain the power. The eternal Śruti says: ‘Yajña is Vishṇu.’ What cannot be achieved by those who perform yajña?” Brahmā asked where and with what, and the Voice, the Devī who is Oṃkāra, one with the universe and mother of all, said: “Here in the Karmabhūmi, the land of holy rites, worship the Yajña-Purusha, the master of yajñas. He alone is your means and your instrument; worship him with himself. Hari alone is the yajña, svāhā, svadhā, the mantras, the brāhmaṇas and the havis.”
Brahmā asked where the Karmabhūmi lay. At that time there was no Bhāgīrathī, Narmadā, Yamunā, Tāpī, Sarasvatī or Gautamī, no sea, river, lake or pool. The Voice said: “South of Sumeru and of Himavān, south of the Vindhya and south of the Sahya is the Karmabhūmi, where all rise to good at all times.” Brahmā left Meru and came there, and the Voice told him: “Go this way, stay on this side, sit here alone, and make the resolve for yajña. That yajña will be completed. After the saṅkalpa (resolve), perform what the Vedas prescribe.”
Brahmā’s yajña of creation
Then the Itihāsas, the Purāṇas and the other sacred texts came of their own accord to Brahmā‘s mouth and memory; in that moment he understood the meaning of the Vedas and remembered the world-renowned Purusha Sūkta. He gathered the materials of yajña named in it and made the yajña vessels it names. The place where he purified and restrained himself and took dīkshā (initiation) became a land of brāhmaṇas, glorified after his name. The holy place of his yajña is remembered as Brahmagiri, and it stretched twenty-four yojanas east of Brahmagiri. In the middle of the vedi he set up the three sacred fires, Gārhapatya, Dakshiṇa and Āhavanīya.
A yajña cannot be completed without the wife, says the Veda, so Brahmā divided his body in two: one half became his wife, for the fulfilment of the yajña, and the other half was Brahmā himself, for the Śruti says, “Half of oneself is one’s wife.” The seasons became the materials: Vasanta (spring) the ghee, Grīshma (summer) the fuel twigs, Śarad (autumn) the havis, and the rains the kuśa grass. The Vedas were the seven enclosing sticks round the fire; Kalā, Kāshṭhā and Nimesha, the measures of time, were the sacred twig, the vessel and the kuśa. Kāla, Time without beginning or end, became the yūpa (the post), and the three guṇas, sattva and the rest, became the tie for the paśu (the offering), but there was no paśu.
Brahmā said to the Voice of Vishṇu: “Without a paśu this yajña cannot be completed.” The Voice said: “Praise the supreme Purusha with the Purusha Sūkta.” Brahmā devoutly praised Janārdana, Deveśa, ruler of the devas and his own progenitor, with the Purusha Sūkta, and the Devī said: “O Brahmā, make me your paśu.” Then Brahmā understood that the unchanging Purusha was his own father. He placed him beside the yūpa that is Time and bound him with the three guṇas as the halter, and the Purusha stood before him.
Creation from the Purusha
Then the whole universe came forth from the Purusha. The brāhmaṇas came from his mouth and the kshatriyas from his arms; Indra and Agni from his mouth, the wind from his breath, the quarters from his ear, svarga from his head; the moon from his mind, the sun from his eye, the antariksha (the middle space) from his navel, the vaiśyas from his thighs; the śūdra and the earth from his feet; the ṛshis from the pores of his skin and the healing herbs from his hair; the beasts, tame and wild, from his nails; worms and insects from his lower parts. Beings moving and unmoving, seen and unseen, were born of him, and the devas were born of Brahmā.
The completion and Vishṇu in the three fires
The Voice said: “All is complete; the desired creation has come about. Now give all the vessels to the fire. Cast off with due rite the yūpa, the praṇītā vessel and the kuśa; cast off the forms of the ṛtvijas and of the yajña, the ladle, the Purusha and the halters.” Brahmā offered them into the three fires, meditating on the Purusha, the cause of the universe, sanctified by the mantras. Then the pure Yajñapati, master of yajña and of the worlds, one with the universe, maker of all, appeared at the fire-pits: Bhagavān Vishṇu took a white form in the Āhavanīya fire, a dark form in the Dakshiṇa fire and a yellow form in the Gārhapatya fire. Vishṇu was present everywhere; there was nothing without him.
The river Praṇītā and Kuśatarpaṇa
Repeating the mantras, Brahmā carried forward the praṇītā vessel, and its water became the splendid river Praṇītā. He emptied the vessel with due rite after wiping it with kuśa grass, and as he wiped it, drops of water fell in many places, and every one of those places became a tīrtha of great puṇya. The river gives the fruit of yajñas to whoever bathes in it. It is ever adorned by Bhagavān Vishṇu, who bears the Śārṅga bow, and it is the flight of steps by which all ascend to Vaikuṇṭha.
The spot where the kuśa grass fell is called Kuśatarpaṇa, and it yields much puṇya: all these were propitiated (tarpita) with the kuśa, and so the place is called Kuśatarpaṇa. Afterwards, for another reason, the Gautamī joined the Praṇītā, and that became the Praṇītā-saṅgama.
Akshaya Vaṭa and the Daṇḍaka forest
The yūpa that Brahmā fashioned there, to the north of the Vindhya, was cast off with due rite and became a resort of Vishṇu, worthy of the pūjā of the worlds. Because that post was free from decay, the holy vaṭa (banyan) became Akshaya Vaṭa, the undecaying banyan; in the form of Time it is eternal, and remembering it yields the merit of yajñas.
The place of Brahmā’s divine yajña is called the Daṇḍaka forest. When the yajña was complete, Brahmā propitiated Bhagavān Vishṇu, bowed, and with due rite sent off the one called Virāṭ in the Vedas, from whom the acts of dharma were born, from whom Brahmā was born, and whose creation this universe is. The holy spot of the yajña stretched twenty-four yojanas, and three fire-pits are there even today, in the form of Yajñeśvara, Bhagavān Vishṇu who bears the cakra. Even worms and insects there attain moksha after death. The Daṇḍaka forest is called the seed of dharma and the seed of moksha, and most of all the part that touches the Gautamī.
The phala
One who bathes and gives dāna at the Praṇītā-saṅgama or at Kuśatarpaṇa goes to the supreme region (parama pada). Remembering, reading or hearing this account with devotion fulfils every cherished desire and gives bhukti and mukti. Learned men say there are eighty-six thousand tīrthas on both banks. Kuśatarpaṇa is more excellent even than Vārāṇasī, and there is no tīrtha equal to it in the world. Merely remembering it destroys brahmahatyā and every other pāpa, and it is called the gate to svarga on the face of the earth.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91