Daśāvatāra Prayer
Daśāvatāra Prārthanā · daśa-avatāra-prārthanā, “the prayer of the ten avatāras”
The Daśāvatāra prayer is the prayer said to Bhagavān Vishṇu in the Daśāvatāra vrata, after the worship of his ten avatāras. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches it to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa.
The setting
Śrī Kṛshṇa tells that at the beginning of the Satya Yuga, when the asuras took refuge with Bhṛgu Maharshi, Bhagavān Vishṇu came on Garuḍa and destroyed them; when Divyā, Bhṛgu’s wife, rose to pronounce a śāpa, he severed her head with the cakra. Bhṛgu returned from his tapas, and, blind with anger, pronounced a śāpa that he would take birth ten times in the world of men. “By Bhṛgu’s śāpa,” Śrī Kṛshṇa says, “for the protection of the world, I take avatāra again and again. Those who worship me with bhakti surely go to svarga.”
The vrata is kept on Bhādrapada śukla daśamī, every year for ten years, by one with restrained senses. The vratī bathes, offers tarpaṇa, cooks three handfuls of grain flour in ghee into the year’s preparation, pūrī, ghevara, kasāra, modaka and the rest, and offers it as naivedya; ten cows are given to ten brāhmaṇas. Then the ten avatāras are worshipped with mantras: Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha, Nṛsiṃha, Trivikrama, Paraśurāma, Śrī Rāma, Śrī Kṛshṇa, Buddha and Kalki. Then the vratī prays.
The prayer
The prayer has two verses. Its meaning: “I have gone for refuge to the Deva, Hari Nārāyaṇa, bearer of the ten avatāras, all-pervading, master of the whole world; I bow to Jagannātha; may that Vishṇu be gracious to me. O Janārdana, pleased by bhakti, remove your Vaishṇavī māyā and take us to Śvetadvīpa, your dhāma. I have given myself to you.”
The phala
One who keeps the vrata in this way is released from birth and death by the grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu and dwells always in Vishṇuloka.
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 63