Kalpavṛksha Dāna Mantras
Kalpavṛksha Dāna Mantra, “the mantras of the gift of the wish-tree”
The Kalpavṛksha Dāna Mantras are two mantras said to the golden Kalpavṛksha (wish-fulfilling tree) in the Kalpavṛksha-dāna: a prayer at its pūjā, and a mantra of salutation when it is given. In the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira how Bhagavān Śiva taught this dāna to Devī Pārvatī.
The setting
When Bhagavān Śaṅkara was wedded to Devī Pārvatī, the devas prayed that he remain ūrdhvaretā, and he said he would remain as Sthāṇu. Devī Pārvatī then pronounced a śāpa on the devas, that they too would have no sons. She asked Bhagavān Śiva for a means of uplift in both worlds, since the Śruti says one without a son has no gati. Bhagavān Śiva said that a man or woman without a son should make and give a Kalpavṛksha of gold, or hold the feeling of sonship towards a living tree imagined as the Kalpavṛksha.
The tree is of pure gold, of more than twenty palas, with branches, leaves, flowers, gems and fruits, set on a heap of guḍa in a maṇḍapa of ten hastas. Brahmā, Vishṇu, Śiva and Sūrya are painted on its branches, and Kāmadeva with his wife on the lowest. Around it stand four deva-trees: Santāna on salt with Gāyatrī in the east, Mandāra on ghee with Śrīdevī in the south, Pārijāta on cumin with Umā in the west, and Haricandana on sesame with Surabhī in the north, with eight full kalaśas, grains, naivedya and rows of lamps.
The prayer at the pūjā
कामदस्त्वं हि देवानां कामवृक्षस्ततः स्मृतः ।
मया सम्पूजितो भक्त्या पूरयस्व मनोरथान्॥kāmadastvaṃ hi devānāṃ kāmavṛkshastataḥ smṛtaḥ |
mayā sampūjito bhaktyā pūrayasva manorathān ||“Kalpavṛksha, you fulfil the desires of the devas; so you are called the Kāmavṛksha. I have worshipped you with bhakti; fulfil my wishes.”
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 178–179
After this the night is kept awake with a great utsava, and the brāhmaṇas perform homa.
The mantra of gift
In the morning, at an auspicious muhūrta, the donor goes three or four times round the Kalpavṛksha, bows and says, in meaning: “Kalpavṛksha, giver of abundant wealth, namaskāra to you. Deva, you sustain the universe; you are Viśvamūrti, whose form is the universe; praṇāma to you. Sanātana, since you are Viśvātmā, Brahmā, Śiva and Divākara, the formed and the formless, and the supreme seed of the universe, protect me.” He then gives the Kalpavṛksha to the guru and the four deva-trees to the ṛtvijas.
The phala
The one who gives by this rule goes without obstacle to Indraloka in a beautiful vimāna bright as the Sun, filled with apsarās and hung with nets of small bells. When the puṇya is spent he is born in a śrotriya family as a valiant, learned, dhārmika king who performs yajñas, and at the last he attains the loka of Bhagavān Vishṇu.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 178–179
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 178–179