Vāṇīsaṅgama

Vāṇīsaṅgama · vāṇī-saṅgama, “the confluence of Vāṇī”

Vāṇīsaṅgama is the confluence (saṅgama) where Vāṇī, Vāc in the form of a river, joins the Gaṅgā, the Gautamī. Its presiding deity is Hara, Bhagavān Śiva, as Vāgīśvara, the Īśvara of speech. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, as something that befell him. When Brahmā and Bhagavān Vishṇu disputed who was greater, Mahādeva appeared between them as a column of fiery light. Brahmā could not find its end, yet spoke an untruthful word through a fifth face, and Hari and Hara pronounced a śāpa that Vāc, the speech that had spoken it, should become a river. At her plea they granted that she would regain her body on joining the Gaṅgā. Where she joins the Gautamī she is called Vāṇī; in the Bhāgīrathī she is called Sarasvatī. The tīrtha rids one of every pāpa, even brahmahatyā, and grants all cherished desires; one who bathes there in purity and has darśana of Vāgīśvara attains moksha.

The column of light

Brahmā names the next tīrtha, Vāṇīsaṅgama. Its presiding deity is Hara as Vāgīśvara, the Īśvara of speech. It rids one of every pāpa (sin) and grants all cherished desires, and by snāna (holy bath) and dāna there one is freed even from the pāpa of brahmahatyā, the slaying of a brāhmaṇa.

Then Brahmā tells the account. A dispute arose between Brahmā and Bhagavān Vishṇu as to who was the greater; each kept saying, “I am great, I am great.” Between them Mahādeva appeared like a column of fiery flame, a column of light. A splendid divine voice spoke to the two: “He who sees the end of this column is the greater. It does not befit you to quarrel over it.”

At the voice’s word Vishṇu went downward and Brahmā upward. Vishṇu soon returned and sat near the column of light. Brahmā went farther and farther, could not reach its end, and came back to Īśa in the column.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 65

The fifth face and the untruthful word

Then this thought came to Brahmā again and again: “The end of this column has been seen by me; so my greatness over Vishṇu shall be clear.” Then he thought again: “How shall I speak a lie through my truthful mouths? Among all the kinds of pāpa there is none greater than telling a lie.” So Brahmā made a fifth face, terrible to see, like the face of a donkey, and resolved to speak the untruthful word with it. After long thought he said to Bhagavān Vishṇu, master of the worlds, who was seated there: “I have seen the end of this column, O Janārdana. So the greatness is mine.”

Even as he said it, Hari and Śaṅkara took a single form, joined like the sun and the moon. Seeing them, Brahmā praised them both.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 65

The śāpa on Vāc and her release

Then Hari and Hara, the masters of the worlds, pronounced a śāpa (curse) on Vāc, the speech that had spoken the lie: “O evil one, you shall become a river. There is no pāpa greater than falsehood.” Vāc took the form of a river. Then Brahmā said to her: “Since you spoke a lie, though you dwell in the voice of Brahmā, you shall become invisible. Surely you have done pāpa.”

Knowing the śāpa, Vāc bowed to Hari and Hara and praised them again and again, pleading to be released. Honoured by the devas and entreated by her, Hari and Hara were pleased, and out of vātsalya (tender affection) they said to Vāc: “O gentle one, sanctifier of the worlds, O splendid one, when you merge in the Gaṅgā your body shall be pure once more.”

Saying “So be it”, the divine Vāc joined the Gaṅgā. She regained her own body by joining the Bhāgīrathī and the Gautamī, a thing hard even for the devas. Where she joins the Gautamī, that giver of puṇya is well known as Vāṇī; in the Bhāgīrathī the same devī is called Sarasvatī. Both confluences are famous and honoured by the whole world: the Sarasvatīsaṅgama on the Bhāgīrathī and the Vāṇīsaṅgama on the Gautamī. “The divine river joined to the Gautamī is the Vāṇī; elsewhere she is Sarasvatī.”

The place where the divine Vāc worshipped Bhagavān Śiva, the Deva of devas, and was freed of her śāpa is a tīrtha honoured everywhere. Brahmā shook off the pāpa that had come to him from the untruthful word and went back to his own abode.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 65

The phala

  • Vāṇīsaṅgama rids one of every pāpa and grants all cherished desires.
  • Snāna and dāna there dispel even brahmahatyā.
  • One who stays pure, bathes at the confluence and has darśana of Vāgīśvara attains moksha by that alone.
  • One who performs a holy rite in the confluence, dāna, homa or upavāsa (fasting), is not born again in the world.
  • There are one thousand nine hundred tīrthas on either side of the river there. They dispel the pāpas gathered over many births.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 65

Sources

  • Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 65