166 - The power of Asikunda

Earth said:

1. I have been told, O great god, about various tirthas. Be pleased to tell me now about the tirtha named Asikunda.

Varäha said:

2. There was once a virtuous and renowned king named Sumati who went to heaven as a result of pilgrimage:

3. Then his son named Vimati began to rule the ancestral kingdom.

4. Närada once went to him and the king duly honoured the sage with Seat, Pädya and arghya.

5. Receiving all this, Närada said that the acquisition of dharma by a son depends on doing what he owes to the departed parents.

6. Närada then went away and when he was gone, the king asked the ministers:

7. ‘‘What did Närada say about the departed father. I have not understood what he meant by the words ‘doing what he owes to the departed parents’”

8. The ministers knew and they told him that what meant was a pilgrimage and it is a debt that we owe to the manes.

9. The king immediately decided to undertake a pilgrimage.

10. He decided to go to Mathura and spend there the four months of the rainy season.

11. When the king went there, all the different tirthas began to consult one another.

12. “It is not possible for us to fight with this Vimati. Let us all go to Kalpagräma where lord Varäha remains”.

13. All the tirthas, O Earth, went to Kalpagräma where, by accident, I was in the form of the boar. All of them stood before me.

The tirthas said:

14. Victory to you, O Lord victory to you, O Achyuta, victory to you, O Lord of the worlds, we all bow to you.

Varäha said:

15. Praised by the tirthas, O Earth, I spoke to them; “Seek of me whatever boon you have in mind”.

The tirthas said:

16-17. O Lord Varäha, you should give us protection from this sinful Vimati who is a source of fear for us. Check him if you wish us happiness.

Varäha said:

18. “For the sake of all of you, tirthas, I shall kill this great enemy”. Then I went to the city of Mathurä for the purpose.

19. When the haughty king came there, I engaged him in battle and hit him down with the divine sword, and in that process the tip of the sword pierced the earth.

20. When the sword was drawn out from there, a clod of earth was removed, and there gods and sages made a tirtha which came to be known as Asikunda (being the kunda ‘pit’, formed by asi ‘sword’).

21. I shall tell you about the wonder there pleasing to the mind and ear.

22. People who go there with full control of the senses on Dvädashï or Chaturdašhi never fail to get whatever they desire.

23. Having gone to Mathurä then, I remain there facing west.

 24. Four golden images have also been installed in the Varähatirtha in Mathurä. They are all beautiful and he who sees them gets liberation.

25. One is Varäha, the other is Näräyana. The third is Vämana and the fourth Räghava.

26. He who bathes in the Asikunda and sees these four images gets. the merit equivalent to going round the earth upto the four oceans.

27. He also gets the fruit of all tirthas in Mathurä.

28. Asikunda is. the most important of all tirthas there. As regards the order of the tirthas for the pilgrim told to you earlier, it is good to start it from Asikunda.

29. Even the man who bathes in Asikunda on Dvädašhi day after waking from sleep and sees the images there, becomes eligible for final liberation.

30. Even after a long lapse of time, he will not be born again.