Vishṇutīrtha (Gautamī)

Vishṇutīrtha · vishṇu-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of Vishṇu”

Vishṇu has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vishṇu.

Vishṇutīrtha, also called Maudgalya and Vaishṇava tīrtha, is the tīrtha on the bank of the Gaṅgā, the Gautamī (the Godāvarī), where the ṛshi Maudgalya, son of Mudgala, worshipped Bhagavān Vishṇu every day, and where Bhagavān Vishṇu came to him on Garuḍa, taught him the power of dāna given in his remembrance, and filled his house with wealth for seven generations. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. A bath and dāna here give both bhukti and moksha; even hearing of or remembering the tīrtha pleases Bhagavān Vishṇu and frees one from every pāpa. Eleven thousand tīrthas lie on its two banks.

Maudgalya’s daily pūjā

There was a ṛshi named Maudgalya, so called as the son of Mudgala. His wife was Jābālā, and they had good sons. His father, the ṛshi Mudgala, was old and famous in the worlds, and Mudgala’s splendid wife was named Bhāgīrathī.

Every morning Maudgalya bathed early in the Gaṅgā, regular in his rites and self-controlled. On the banks of the Gaṅgā, by the method his guru had taught him, he invoked Bhagavān Vishṇu in the lotus of his heart every day with kuśa grass, clay and śamī flowers. When he called, the consort of Lakshmī, Jagannātha, came to him in haste, seated on the divine vāhana Garuḍa, holding the śaṅkha, the cakra and the gadā. Worshipped with bhakti, Jagannātha told Maudgalya wonderful accounts of many kinds, and late in the afternoon he would say again and again: “Go home, dear one. You are tired.” Then the brāhmaṇa went home, and Bhagavān Vishṇu went to his own abode with the devas.

Maudgalya brought home what he had gathered himself and gave it to his wife, his heart given above all to the lotus feet of Mahāvishṇu. Jābālā, a pativratā who took her husband as her highest goal, cooked the greens, roots and fruits he brought and served them to guests, her husband and her sons, eating only after they had eaten; she too kept her rites with self-control. Every night, after all had eaten, Maudgalya joyfully told them the wonderful accounts he had heard from Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 66

Jābālā’s question

A long time passed in hardship. Then Jābālā said to her husband in private: “When Bhagavān Vishṇu comes near you, ask him: ‘If Vishṇu, honoured by the devas, comes to us, why should misery befall us?’ The moment he is remembered, old age, birth, death and sickness vanish; what then when he is seen!”

Maudgalya worshipped Hari as usual and asked him with joined palms: “When you are remembered, O Jagannātha, sorrow, poverty and pāpa vanish. How is it that adversity stays with me even when you are seen?”

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 66

Bhagavān Vishṇu’s teaching

Bhagavān Vishṇu said:

• All beings, everywhere and always, reap the fruit of their own karma; no one does good or ill to another.
• The fruit follows the seed; a mango never grows from a nimba seed.
• How can they be fit for glory and wealth who have not served the Gautamī, not worshipped Hari and Śaṅkara, and given nothing to brāhmaṇas? You have given nothing to brāhmaṇas or to me, and only what is given goes over to the supreme ātmā.
• One becomes pure in ātmā by cleansing with clay, water, kuśa and mantras, or by tapas; but nowhere can men gain bhoga (worldly enjoyment) without dāna.
• By holy rites one becomes pure, then detached (vairāgya); then knowledge (jñāna) flows unobstructed, and one becomes jīvanmukta, free while still living. Through bhakti to me, moksha is easy for everyone.
• Worldly enjoyments come by dāna and the like, or by relieving the misery of all beings. Through bhakti you may gain moksha, but not worldly enjoyments.

Maudgalya said: “How can there be moksha through bhakti? Moksha is rarer than enjoyment, and if moksha is gained, what need has an embodied being of anything else? Moksha is more worthy of honour by all than bhakti. O Prabhu Vishṇu, one with the universe, I would have it.”

Bhagavān Vishṇu said: “This is the difference, O brāhmaṇa. Whatever is given to a brāhmaṇa or to other suppliants in remembrance of me returns as everlasting (akshaya) good. What is given without thought of me yields only an equal return; it is used up and adds nothing. So, O wise one, give me something to eat, or give to a worthy brāhmaṇa, on the banks of the Gautamī.”

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 66

The ear of corn

Maudgalya said: “I have nothing else to give you. This body and all I have are already yours.” Then Bhagavān Vishṇu told Garuḍa: “Bring an ear of corn. He will offer it to me, and after that he will gain fitting enjoyments as he chooses.” Garuḍa, king of birds, did so, and Maudgalya, self-controlled in his rites, offered the grains of corn to Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Meanwhile Bhagavān Vishṇu said to Viśvakarmā: “In the family of this ṛshi, up to the seventh generation, every cherished desire shall be fulfilled. They will have cows, gold, grain, clothes and ornaments.” By the power of Bhagavān Vishṇu and of the Gaṅgā, Maudgalya gained everything that adorns life and gladdens the mind. Told “Go home,” he went back, and seeing all the wealth in his āśrama he cried: “Oh, the power of dāna! Oh, the remembrance of Vishṇu! Oh, the power of the Gaṅgā! Who could have imagined this?” With his wife, sons, grandsons and kin he enjoyed the good things of the world, and with his pitṛs he attained moksha.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 66

The names and the phala

• From then on the tīrtha is known as Maudgalya and Vaishṇava, as well as Vishṇutīrtha.
• A bath (snāna) and dāna there give both bhukti (worldly enjoyment) and mukti (moksha).
• If the tīrtha is in any way heard of or remembered, Bhagavān Vishṇu is pleased with that person; he is freed from all pāpas and is happy.
• There are eleven thousand tīrthas on the two banks together; by snāna, dāna, japa and the like they give every kind of wealth.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 66

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 66