Chapter 69 - The Greatness of Kāmākṣā

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Mohinī said:

1. The narrative of Kāmodaka that is destructive of sins and conducive to the attainment of merit has been heard by me. O Brāhmaṇa, now I wish to hear the benefit derived from devotion of Kāmākṣā.^[1]

Vasu said

3. The greatest goddess Kāmākṣā is stationed in the eastern quarter. She is present on the shores of the marshy place near the Sea. She is the bestower of Siddhi on men in the Kali age.

4. The devotee who goes there and observing restriction in the deity, worships Kāmākṣā and stays a night there seating himself steadfastly, shall then visualize her, O gentle lady.

5. That goddess appears before men in a terrible form. He who is not moved with fear on seeing her, shall attain the desired Siddhi.

6. If on seeing the goddess of Devas, Kāmākṣā of terrific features, the devotee sways from his seats instantaneouly, he shall then certainly become distracted in mind and behaviour.

7. O fair-faced lady, Siddhanātha^[2], the son of Pārvatī stays there (engaged) in a severe penance. He is never seen by the people.

8. During the three Yugas: Kṛta, Tretā and Dvāpara he was directly perceived by every one. In the Kali age, as long as the first quarter of it does not pass off, he shall stay invisible.

8-9. When a quarter of the Kali age has passed off and the surface of the earth has become terrible, he becomes visible and controls the people. O blessed lady, by his powers like Mohana (fascination) Uccāṭana (eradication) etc., he gains control over the people most of whom are Mlecchas^[3] (alien out-castes). He will spend the remaininig three quarters of the Kali age by keeping them submissive.

10-11. The devotee should go to Siddhanātha and meditate on him with devotional feelings, for a whole year. Every day he must worship Kāmākṣā. He shall then gain the vision of Siḍḍhanātha in the dream. At the end of the vision he shall have great concentration. He shall achieve Siddhi indicated by it and be a Siddha on the Earth.

12. O auspicious lady, he will be wandering, fulfilling the desires of all the worlds. By means of the boon, he will attract all the articles in the three worlds.

13. He is Matsyanātha (Matsyendra of the Nātha cult) stationed there. O gentle lady, he has mastered the perfect knowledge. He performed a terrible penance, distributing among the people whatever they desired. But he never becomes visible.

14. Formerly, he had roamed all over the worlds without his movement being impeded, for the period of many Yugas. Today the noble-minded personage is completely engaged in penance. O auspicious lady, he is not oppressed by the velocity of Kāla (the force of the stream of time).

15. O highly blessed lady, in the previous birth he had been born as the son of a certain Brāhmaṇa. He was born during the astrologically evil period of a ‘Gaṇḍānta’ (the tenth astrological Yoga). Hence the moment he was born in the continent named Puṣkara, he was cast into the ocean by his father.

16. As soon as he was thrown into the sea, thanks to a lucky coincidence, a certain fish swallowed the boy. For many Yugas, he remained there without ageing or dying due to the flux of time.

17. Thereafter, O gentle lady, once urged by his wife, the daughter of the mountain, Maheśvara, the incomprehensible deity accompanied her to the mountain Lokāloka for the instruction in the esoteric principles.

18-19a. On its gentle and beautiful peak illuminated by jewels, the lord stood for half a moment with his mind engrossed in Hari. He enlightened spiritually goddess Umā by means of his Śakti. He drove away the Sattvas (animals, living beings) with three Tālas (clapping of hands).

19b-20. He then told her the Tattva (the real principle) in the form of the meaning of the twelve-syllabled Mantra which had been an esoteric secret. The daughter of the mountain bowed down to Maheśa, the destroyer of Māra. She understood the principle a little and sat there firmly. At that time the fish in the great ocean immediately jumped on to the peak.^[4] The Brāhmaṇa boy who was within its belly became a Tattvasiddha (a person who realised the principle) and freed of all bondages.

21. O splendid-faced lady, coming out of the belly of the fish, he made obeisance in front of Śiva and Umā. Though he was aware of the truth Maheśvara asked him the cause of being within the womb of the fish.

22-23. In front of them, he recounted everything in the manner it had happened. On hearing what had happened to him, Umā was pleased. Getting the permission of Maheśa, she made him her son. O fair-limbed lady, placing him on her lap she kissed his face and said:—“O, is this not my Son? He is Matsyanātha, (lord of fish). He has understood the principle. Hence he is Siddhanātha for all.

24-25. Let him go over the worlds according to his will. May he accord happiness unto us now.”

Ever since that time this son of Ambikā roamed about all the worlds as he pleased. He attained the Siddhapīṭha.^[5] He has occupied that seat as one engaged in penance. By mentally meditating on Siddhanātha, a man shall be one who has realised all his desires.

26-27a. He will acquire learning. He will be drawing the multitudes of scholars in the current of his words (eloquent speech). He who hears this story which is the most sacred in the universe, (even though) it might have entered his ears (casually), realises whatever he desires on the Earth and goes to the heaven. His feet are worshipped by the Devas.

27bc. Thus O lady of beautiful eyes, I have told you about the greatness of Kāmākṣā along with the story of Siddhanātha. It is destructive of sins at the outset. O gentle lady, what else shall I recount to you?

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Kāmākṣā is the most important Devī pīṭha. It is at a distance of about two miles from Gauhati on a beautiful hill called Nīlācala over-hanging the Brahmaputra. The author of the Nārada-purāṇa. is so overawed with the wide expanse of the Brahmaputra that he thinks it to be a sea and the goddess (Tripura-bhairavi) is described as standing near the sea (sāgarānūpa-taṭa-gā) in V. 2 below, Devī Bhāgavata VII. 38.15 states that it is the place where the private part of Tripura-bhairavī fell. According to mythological legend, when Śiva became too much grieved at the deaṃ of his first wife Satī, he carried her body on his shoulder. So to bring him to normalcy, Viṣṇu cut to pieces Satī’s body with his discus Sudarśana and as Śiva went on wandering with Satī’s body, one after another, her limbs went on falling on the ground. Her private parts fell on the Nilācala and the Devī Bhāgavata calls it the jewel among sacred places where Mahāmāyā ever abides’.

Kāmākṣā is a centre of Tantrism. One wonders why the Nārada-purāṇa. which devotes a whole section to tantra, mantra etc. finishes the glory of Kāmākṣā within four (2-5) verses, when he waxes so eloquent on the Tantric worship of Rādhā (and of other deities like Rāma, Narasiṃha, Hanumān and even king Kārttavīrya).

[2]:

This nātha is Matsyendra-nātha, the so-called founder of the Nātha Sampradāya. It is understandable that Jñāneśvara, a 13th century writer from the South, being far away from Assam and writing some four centuries after Matsyendra, should look upon Matsyendra as the human founder of Nātha-Pantha. But Tibetan records show that it was sarahapā, the seventh ancestor of Matsyendra, who should be credited if at all with being the founder. Although I have discussed this problem in Marathi under the tide “The spiritual lineage of jñāneśvara” in the Nava-bhārata (a monthly), I would recommend Rahul Sankrityayana’s (Hindi) Introduction to Sarahapāda’s Dohā Kośa (Bihāra Rāṣṭrabhāṣā Pariṣad, Patna 1957).

It is surprising why the last redactor of Nārada Purāṇa who comes from east- India (Bengal-Orissa region) should be so ignorant about Matsyendra who was not much removed in time and space from him.

[3]:

The inclusion of Mlecchas in the Nātha cult is implied here, and the initiation of Matsyendra who was abandoned by his father and had become ‘casteless’, shows the breadth of outlook of the Nātha cult in its early stage.

[4]:

The absurdity of the story—jumping of a fish from the great ocean to the peak of the Lokāloka mountain-top where Śiva was secretly instructing Pārvatī in an esoteric lore—is obvious. Jñāneśvara states that it was on a small island in the ocean where Śiva imparted that spiritual knowledge to Pārvatī and which was heard by Matsyendra from his fish-mother’s belly.

[5]:

Kāmākhyā is both Śaktipīṭha and a Siddha-Pīṭha.

Somanātha. Inscriptional evidence e.g. the Nasik inscription of Uṣavadāta (Bombay, G. XVI p. 669) testifies to the holiness of Prabhāsa. Most of the sub-tīrthas mentioned in this chapter are described in detail in the Skandapurāṇa Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa.