176 - The Prowess of Krishnaganga and Kalinjara

Varaha said:

1-2. The youngest of the five sons of the Panchala Brahmin was rich and handsome and he started with his men and merchandise for trade in different countries. 

3. After trading in various places, crossing different kingdoms, mountains and rivers, he came to the city of Mathura and put up his tent in a place where food and fuel were plentiful.

4. He took bath early in the morning in that tirtha together with his men and dressing and decking himself well, proudly drove in his cart.

5. He saluted the deities and gave many gifts.

6. Then out of curiosity he visited the temple of Garteshvara and, seeing there the supremely charming Tilottama, fell a prey to passion.

7. To her matron he respectfully gave many clothes and hundreds of beautifully designed bangles.

8. He gave her also many jewelled chains and the essence of Agaru with camphor and sandal.

9. In that house (where Tilottama was living) he was spending his time everyday and used to go to his camp only after the sun had risen high in the horizon.

10. But everyday he would bathe in the tirtha in Krishnaganga. Out of the pride of wealth he was continuing in this way and six months passed.

11-12. Once when he went there to bathe, he was seen by sage Sumantu, who was in his hermitage nearby, to be full of worms all over his body.

13. These worms used to fall in plenty till he took bath, but the moment the bath was taken, they disappeared and he became handsome again.

14. This wonder was noticed by Sumantu for many days and he wanted to know who this youth was.

15. He then boldly asked him who he was, who his father was and what he was engaged in day and night.

Panchala said:

16. I belong to Panchala. I am the son of a Brahmin. I have taken to trading business.

17. I have come from Dekkan to this Mathura and spending the night in my camp, I come to this tirtha in the morning.

18. After bath, I worship this Lord Shiva named Trigarteshvara and also Kalinjara and your feet and then return to my camp.

Sumantu said:

19. “I see a wonder in your body everyday. I find it full of worms before bath but clean after bath.

20. You have unknowingly incurred some great sin which is kept afar by the power of this tirtha.

21. And by the contact of Kalinjara, the body becomes pure also.

22. Think well and tell me what can possibly be the cause of this sin now unknown to you. Seeing the power of this tirtha, I am asking this for your good”.

23. Hearing these words of the sage who knew the past, present and future, he could not say anything and simply went away.

24. When he was alone with Tilottama, he asked her.

25. “O dear, please tell me who you are, whose daughter, to which place you belong and why you are living here like this, though happily”.

  26. Although he pressed for an answer, she did not speak a word. He repeated the request several times but she was mum.

27. A few days passed and then he threatened to give up his life if she still refused to say the truth.

28. Compelled thus, she told him about her parents, brothers, native place, relations and the family (of her husband) to which she belonged.

29. “There is the beautiful city of Panchala on the northern bank of river Ganga. My parents were living there.

30. During a famine which caught hold of the entire country, they moved to Dekkan and settled on the southern bank of Narmada in a town full of Brahmins.

31. Five sons were born to them there and a daughter as the sixth. That daughter is myself and I became a widow.

32. The youngest of the five brothers, but elder to me, left home even while he was a baby with a view to earn and make himself rich.

33. When he was gone, the parents died. I came here with a group of traders to put the bones in this tirtha.

34. I used to spend my time here bathing in this tirtha and worshipping the gods and Brahmins. Then I was lured by these (courtesans) and transformed to my present state.

35. By resorting to prostitution I have traduced my family. By this sin of mine I have brought to hell twentyone persons in both the families”.

36. Telling him all this, Tilottama cried for long thinking of her once high family.

37. She cried in the night thinking of her own doings.

38. Hearing her cry, the other women there came to her and asked her why she was crying and spoke words of consolation.

39. By then, hearing her story, the Panchala too fell down unconscious and the women stood around and consoled him too and brought him back to consciousness by their efforts. 

40. Seeing him revive, they asked him why he fell down unconscious.

41. He then said all about himself and his great family in detail before those associates of Tilottama.

42. He became much dejected at his having committed inadvertent incest and thought seriously about the expiation for it.

43. If a Brahmin incurs the sin of killing a Brahmin or drinking liquor, the expiation ordained by the sages is the destruction of the body.

44. The only purification for the guilt of incest with mother, teacher’s wife, daughter, sister or daughter-in-law is immolation of the offender in fire.

45. He who cohabits with a prohibited person falls into the same category as the killer of the Brahmin, drinker of liquor, the murderer of women and the offender of the chastity of the teacher’s wife.

46. Knowing her paramour to be her own elder brother, that woman from Panchala (feeling herself guilty) gave away all her ornaments to Brahmins.

47. She gave them also all her jewels, clothes and grain. She gave these also for adorning Kalinjara and for (the maintenance of) the garden.

48. Then at the tirtha in Krishnaganga she arranged a pyre in the prescribed manner and blazed the fire for her own purification.

49. The Panchala too decided to do similarly for himself.

50. He took his bath, bowed to the gods and saluted sage Sumantu. He then sat before him and performed rites relating to his death.

51. He called the people of Mathura and gave them gifts liberally.

52. He purchased villages then and there and made them over to Brahmins. He asked them to recite the divine Ishavasya (upanishad).

53. He entrusted with them money for the maintenance of the rest-house and for conducting his obsequies.

54. Then bathing in that tirtha of and bowing to the Lord, he endowed funds for the worship of Kalinjara, for the rest-house and for the temple and gave the necessary instructions in the matter to his own people.

55. Then he held the feet of the great Sumantu and said: “O sage, your knowledge is wonderfully divine and exhilarating.

56. My sin has been now proved to be the consequence of incest.

57. From the time I came to Mathura, I was having sexual contact with my sister and I have thus done great harm to my family.

58. By your pure sight, O sage, you were able to see worms falling from my body but the body becoming clean again by the power of Krishnaganga.

59. All this was seen by you and I was asked about it again and again.

60. The sin of incest suspected has now been confirmed and for purification from that sin I am now giving up this body. I bow to your feet. Please give me approval”.

61. When he was about to enter the pyre blazing with the ghee poured on it, an aerial voice was heard to say:

62. “Don’t do this rash deed since you both have become free from the sin, for redemption from which you have decided to immolate yourselves.

63. This place where Lord Krishna had played and walked about with his feet marked by the disc is pure and equal to Brahman. 

64. A sin committed elsewhere disappears in a tirtha, but a sin committed in a tirtha sticks close like vajralepa (cement concrete).

65. Since both of you were bathing in Ganga sangama (you are freed from your sins). By bathing here even once, a man becomes free even from the sin of killing a Brahmin.

66. The same merit as is acquired by bathing in all other tirthas on earth, is acquired surely by bathing in five tirthas.

67-68. Bathing in Vishranti on Ekadashi day, Saukara on Dvadashi, Naimisha on Trayodashi, Prayaga on Chaturdashi and Pushkara on the new moon and full moon days in the month of Karttika removes all sins.

69. Among these five tirthas in Mathura, Vishranti is the most important.

70. But the same result as is obtained by bathing in these tirthas or in Asikunda in the river Sarasvati or in Kalinjara, is obtained tenfold by bathing in Krishnaganga.

71. Whatevcr sin is incurred knowingly or unknowingly disappears in Mathura, so too all merits and demerits.”

72. This narration of the greatness of tirthas made by Varaha to Earth is capable of removing all sins.

73. Varaha combines in himself all gods and Vedas. He has. no end and he cannot be fully known.

74. How can we speak fully of this god in whom the entire space is covered by but a part of his ear?

75. The entire, heat (as well as light) in the world is covered by the corners of his eyes.

76. The whole of Air is covered by his breath and the seven oceans by the tips of his hoofs and look like particles of sweat there.

77. The whole Earth that was lost is seen clinging with the mountains and forests in the roots of his hair. Who is greater than this god?

78. In order to protect tirthas he has taken his form himself.

79. And this is the Purana narrated by him for clearing the doubts of Earth.

80. There need be no doubt that the moment he is seen, every sin disappears.

81-82. By bathing in on Navami day in the bright half of the month Jyeshta and in Sukara for three days and then giving a lamp according to capacity, one gets rid of all sins.

83. By bathing in Kalinjara on Dvadashi day and worshipping god, one ascends an aerial car bright like twelve suns, and accepted by Vishnu remains esteemed in Vishnu-loka.

Varaha said:

84. Thus comforted by the divine voice, the Panchala asked Sumantu:

83. “O sage, you are my preceptor and father. Tell me what I may do, to enter this fire or resort to this tirtha.

86. May I perform for three days expiatory rites like Krucchra and Chandrayana in this place rendered more holy by your feet and get salvation?

Sumantu said:

87. The aerial voice we heard is true. It can never be false.

88. I was able to perceive the sin in your body before bath every day and its recession after bath.

89. You remain in this hermitage free from sin for the rest of your life. This sister of yours, who has also been freed from her sin, will surely attain salvation.

Varaha said:

90. O Earth, such is the prowess of this tirtha in Mathura.

91. The greatness of the tirtha in Kalinjara and Sukara is as I narrated to you.

92. He who listens to this with attention or recites it in the morning, will never be touched by sin.

93. The sin committed in seven lives disappears and the merit of giving a hundred cows is acquired.

94. Heaven is reached and immortality attained.