Somaśaila

Somaśaila · soma-śaila, “the mountain of Soma”

Somaśaila is a holy tīrtha (a sacred place of pilgrimage and bathing) named in the Brahma Purāṇa’s great list of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth. The list is given in Chapter 25, the Sarva-tīrtha-māhātmya, “the glory of all the tīrthas”. Like every tīrtha of the list, it gives endless fruits and the fruit of an aśvamedha to one who serves it with faith and the prescribed rite.

In the list of tīrthas

Asked by the brāhmaṇas how many holy tīrthas and kshetras there are on the earth, the teller, the knower of dharma, first speaks 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. But if the inner faculty is corrupt, bathing in any number of tīrthas does not make it pure, just as an impure toddy pot does not become pure though washed a hundred times. Wherever a person lives with the senses restrained, that very place is Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara for him. Then the teller names the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, beginning with Pushkara. Somaśaila comes after Urvaśī-tīrtha, Lokapāla and Manuvara, and before Sadāprabha, Merukuṇḍa and Somābhishecana-tīrtha.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25

The rite and its phala

The chapter gives one rite for all the tīrthas of the list. One who serves these tīrthas with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, keeps the fast, is master of the senses, offers tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the devas, the ṛshis and the pitṛs, worships the devatās and fasts there for three nights, gains distinct and endless fruits, and by them the fruit of the aśvamedha yajña. “There is no doubt,” the teller says.

The phalaśruti of the chapter: 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