Tapastīrtha
Tapastīrtha · tapas-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of tapas”
Deva-tīrtha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Deva-tīrtha. Agni Tīrtha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Agni Tīrtha. Āgneyatīrtha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Āgneyatīrtha.
Tapastīrtha is a tīrtha on the Gautamī, the Gaṅgā of the south, where the ṛshis performed tapas to learn whether the waters or fire is the greater, and where the river Sarasvatī rises and flows into the Gaṅgā. It is also called Satratīrtha, for the two satras (long yajña sessions) of the ṛshis held there, and Agnitīrtha and Sārasvatatīrtha. Brahmā tells Nārada that it greatly increases tapas, grants every cherished desire, is sacred, increases the happiness of the pitṛs and destroys pāpa. The divine voice of Sarasvatī, the mother of the Vedas, gave the ṛshis their answer there: the waters are the greater, for they are the mothers, and above all the mother of fire.
The question of the ṛshis
Brahmā tells Nārada that a dispute arose among the ṛshis, expounders of the Vedas, about the greatness of the waters (āpaḥ) and of fire (Agni).
Those who held fire to be the highest said: without fire, where can life exist? Fire is the very essence of life. Fire is the ātmā; it is the offerings (havis); everything is born of fire. The world is sustained by fire and lit by fire, so there is no deva greater than Agni. He alone is the inner light and the great flame; nothing exists without fire, whose abode is all three worlds. The seed a man places in the womb has a power greater than its form, and that power is of fire alone. Agni is the mouth of the devas.
Those who held the waters to be the highest said: food comes from water, and fire comes from water; everything is sustained by water. The waters are remembered as mothers (mātaraḥ). Those who know the ancient lore say water is the very life of the three worlds. Amṛta comes from water, and the healing herbs (oshadhis) live only by water.
Brahmā, Vāyu, Bhūmi and the divine voice
The ṛshis came to Brahmā, ruler of the three worlds, and asked which is the greater. Brahmā answered that both are worthy of pūjā. The world has come forth from both; havya (offerings to the devas), kavya (offerings to the pitṛs) and amṛta come from both; life in the world and the body are sustained by both. Their greatness is equal, and neither is above the other.
The ṛshis held that one must be the greater, and went to Vāyu, the prāṇa, in whom truth is rooted. Vāyu said: “Fire is greater; everything rests on fire.” Saying “No” among themselves, they went to Bhūmi, the support of all moving and unmoving beings. Bhūmi said humbly: “The waters, the eternal devīs, are my support. Everything is born of the waters.”
Saying “No” again, they went to Bhagavān Vishṇu, lying in the Ocean of Milk with the divine śaṅkha, the Sudarśana cakra and the gadā, and praised him: “We take refuge in that true Reality which knows the whole universe, the future, the present and what is hidden in the cave of the heart, into which the three worlds of many forms enter at the dissolution; which is imperishable, permanent and beyond measure, which the ṛshis say is known through the Vedas. You are the indwelling ātmā of every embodied being. You alone are everything, Bhagavān Vishṇu, and everything is in you; yet by the power of Prakṛti no one knows you, though you are within, without and everywhere. O abode of the universe, tell us the truth.”
Then the divine voice, the bodiless support of the universe, spoke: “Let both be propitiated by tapas, bhakti and niyama (regular observance). That from which one gains siddhi first may be called the greater.”
The tapas on the Gautamī
The ṛshis said “So be it” and went to the Gautamī, the one mother of all the worlds and purifier of the three worlds, weary, downcast within and filled with vairāgya (detachment). Keeping sacred observances with self-control, some worshipped Agni and some worshipped the waters.
Then the divine voice Sarasvatī, the mother of the Vedas (Vedamātā), spoke: “The waters are the source (yoni) of fire. Purity is gained through water. Without water, how can fire be worshipped? Only when water is made ready is one fit for sacred rites. A man remains impure and unfit for rites, even a scholar of the Vedas, until he plunges with faith into cool water. So the waters are the greater, for they are remembered as mothers, and above all the mother of fire.” The ṛshis heard her and were settled: the greatness belongs to the waters.
The names and the phala
Brahmā says that the tīrtha where this happened is Tapastīrtha, and the place where the two satras of the ṛshis took place is Satratīrtha. It is also called Agnitīrtha and Sārasvatatīrtha. A holy bath and dāna there are splendid and grant every cherished object. There are one thousand four hundred tīrthas there that give puṇya, and bath and dāna there give the joys of svarga and moksha.
The place where the divine voice took away the ṛshis’ doubts is the source of the river Sarasvatī, which flows into the Gaṅgā. “Who indeed could fully describe the glory of that confluence?” Brahmā says.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 56
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 56