Nara Tīrtha
Nara Tīrtha · nara-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of Nara”
Nara has other meanings too: see all meanings of Nara.
Nara Tīrtha is a holy tīrtha of the earth, named near the close of the great list of tīrthas and kshetras in Chapter 25 of the Brahma Purāṇa, the Sarva-tīrtha-māhātmya, “the glory of all the tīrthas”. The chapter gives it no location or account of its own; like every tīrtha of that list, it is served with faith, the bath, three nights of fasting and tarpaṇa, and it gives endless fruits and the fruit of an aśvamedha.
In the list of tīrthas
The listeners asked the teller, “O knower of dharma, how many tīrthas and kshetras of puṇya are there on the earth? Tell us.” Before naming them, the teller gave the teaching of the inner tīrtha. One whose hands, feet and mind are under control, and who has jñāna, tapas and a good name, gains the fruit of serving all the tīrthas. When the mind, speech and senses are pure, these are tīrthas within one’s own body, and they show the path to svarga. If the inner faculty is corrupt, no number of baths in tīrthas makes it pure, as an unclean toddy pot is not made pure though washed in water a hundred times. Tīrthas, dānas, vratas and āśramas cannot purify one of bad nature, a hypocrite whose senses roam unchecked. Wherever a person lives with the senses restrained, that very place is for him Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara. Then he named the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, more than four hundred of them, beginning with Pushkara. In the list it is named after Rohiṇī, Pravara-tīrtha and Indradyumna, and before Sānugarta, Mahendra-tīrtha and Śrīnada, about twenty names before the list closes. The list closes with the words “these are the tīrthas so named”.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25
The rite and its phala
At the close of the list the teller gives the rite for all these tīrthas. One who serves them with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, fasts, masters the senses, offers tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the devas, ṛshis and pitṛs, worships the devatās and fasts three nights there gains distinct and endless fruits, and by them the fruit of the aśvamedha yāga. “There is no doubt,” the teller says. And one who hears or reads this glory of the tīrthas every day is freed from every pāpa (sin).
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25