Chapter 66 - Jalpeśvara (jalpa-īśvara-liṅga)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Note: King Jalpa divided his kingdom into five regions and installed each of his five sons as the king of a region. Vikrānta was ill-advised by his minister to kill his brothers and annex their kingdoms to his own. When the minister of Vikrānta adopted black magic for the destruction, they, in return ordered their family priests to perform the same rite. They did and the ogresses created ate up the five sons, the priests, dependents, and the citizens. King Jalpa blamed himself. He was advised to go to a particular Liṅga. Jalpa visited and propitiated the Liṅga and the Liṅga came to be known after King Jalpa as Jalpeśvara.

Īśvara said:

1. O my beloved, know Jalpeśvara Liṅga as the sixty-sixth deity. Merely by seeing it great sins become subdued.

2-9. O great goddess, there was a king well-known on the earth by the name Jalpa. He was always engaged in prattling and talking. He used to provoke argumentation always through his prattle. He was very much imaginative and used to reflect on the ways of the world. He had five mighty sons, with Subāhu as the most prominent among them.

O beautiful lady, the five sons of the king were personified forms of the five fires as it were. They were Subāhu, Śatrumardana, Jaya, Vijaya and Vikrānta, the fifth son. All of them were masters of weaponry and use of missiles.

The sons were installed in separate lands by the father, Jalpa. They were made rulers of separate realms.

Subāhu became the king in the east, Śatrumardana in the south, Jaya the king in the west and Vijaya became the king in the north. In the middle country the Prince named Vikrānta was appointed in his own place. After making this arrangement, he himself went to the forest.

Their hereditary well-wishers became their ministers. The new kings enjoyed their respective kingdoms. The minister of Vikrānta was one who was solely given to contrivances. In a secluded spot he said to King Vikrānta:

10-18. “He who has this entire earth in his possession is glorified as the most powerful. Even the noble-souled Vāsava gained his position only through endeavour. The Amṛta (Nectar) was acquired, O king, by the Devas only through exertion. Men devoid of endeavour, Kṣatriyas in particular, become laughing-stocks (of the common people) and they become reduced in vigour and vitality day by day. A brother covetous of the kingdom shows love of wealth. The king makes (him) contented only with the strength of the wealth. O king, why is my counsel not accepted? The entire kingdom of yours is forcibly enjoyed by me, your minister. A stranger should be considered as a kinsman if he is a well-wisher. Even a kinsman who wishes ill is an enemy. An ailment though born of the body is not beneficial. A medicine brought from the forest is beneficial (though not related to the body). Those (i.e. those who are not well-wishers) swallow the earth like serpents devouring the beings lurking in their holes. They swallow a king who does not resist and a Brāhmaṇa who does not go abroad. Everything is deluded by Māyā (Ignorance). Who is whose kinsman? (None.) Hence let endeavour be made for controlling your brothers quickly. For the sake of kingdoms all the brothers have been killed by (certain) brothers. After realizing that righteousness prevails forever, Asuras have been killed by Suras.”

19-28. On hearing the words of the minister, that king was surprised. He laughed and said:

Vikrānta said:

This is my enemy that has come. All of us, we five, desire for the earth. If unsatisfied, how can the several sovereignties become one. “How will the entire earth be mine?” The eldest brother is Subāhu. The second one is Śatrumardana. Then Jaya and Vijaya. I am the youngest of all.

The Minister said:

With excellent means of honour, they adore one who rules the kingdom as the eldest. Otherwise what is there in this state of being the youngest or the eldest in the eyes of men who seek the kingdom?

When King Vikrānta assented to the suggestion the minister proceeded ahead in the performance of Abhicāra (black magic). Through the Mantras found in Atharva Veda, the priest verily performed everything. This became known to priests of other brothers. They also did likewise with concentration. A Kṛtyā (ogress) issued forth. After her there arose four other Kṛtyās. These Kṛtyās swallowed them (the kings) along with the priests and servants simultaneously. A great surprise overwhelmed the entire world, because the citizens of separate regions perished at the same time. On hearing about the death of his sons, King Jalpaka who was in the forest asked Vaśiṣṭha: “O holy Sir, what is this?” The noble-souled Vaśiṣṭha understood the details through his divine knowledge and told the same to the king. The king was in a dilemma.

The King said:

29-38. I am the instrumental cause of this destruction. Fie, fie upon my life! Along with the sons and the ministers five Brāhmaṇas are dead. Who else can be a greater sinner than I in the world? If only I had not been born on this earth, the priests of my sons would not have been dead. Fie upon this kingdom! Fie upon my birth in the great family of kings! I have become the cause of the death of the Brāhmaṇas. The priests of my sons were performing the rites for the sake of their masters and in it they perished. They are not defiled. Being the cause of the destruction, I am defiled.

Distressed extremely in his heart thus, Jalpa, the king, humbly asked Vaśiṣṭha, the most excellent one among wise men:

The King said:

O holy Sir, tell me about that Tīrtha which prevents separation forever. O holy Lord, mention a Liṅga which instantaneously destroys sins.

On hearing the words of King Jalpa, O Pārvatī, Vaśiṣṭha who was endowed with divine knowledge, said: “O Jalpa, at my bidding do go to the excellent Mahākālavana. It is here that Paraśurāma performs his penance after making the earth devoid of Kṣatriyas. There, to the west of Kukkuṭeśvara is the beginningless Liṅga. Staying in the hermitage of Jāmadagnya, propitiate it, O eminent king.”

On hearing the words of Vaśiṣṭha, King Jalpa left Devadāru forest and went to Mahākālavana. There he visited that beginningless Liṅga eulogized by Devas. He duly adored it with great concentration and meditation.

39-45. O lady of excellent countenance, a voice issued forth from the centre of the Liṅga: “You are not a sinner, nor are you the cause of the death of your sons or the Brāhmaṇas. O king, Adṛṣṭa (the unseen result of Karma) is the cause. They have gone to the city of Vaivasvata (god of Death) due to the fruition of their Karmas. O great king, do not be grief-stricken. Inscrutable indeed is the way of Karma. O excellent king, I am pleased with your purity of feeling. Ask for a boon you desire. I shall grant it to you.”

The King said:

If you are pleased with me, O Lord, if a boon has to be given to me, let not my (future) life be (spent) in this terrible worldly ocean. Grant me everlasting fame. Let this deity propitiated by Jalpa be well-known by the name Jalpeśvara. May all the Devas say this. This is the rare boon I wish to be granted. May the men who visit you, well-known after my name, be free from separation from their sons and wealth. They should never face the fear from worldly existence, nor from robbers, nor from kings, and let them never be afraid of goblins, malefic Planets and ailments.

46-51. May they be blessed with happiness and welfare forever—they who have been granted your vision. In the mortal world, only they are blessed who have sought refuge in you. O Lord, by visiting you, one gets more merit than what is acquired by men through holy ablution in all the Tīrthas. One falls into and remains in the terrible worldly existence complicated on account of hundreds of miseries, only as long as the deity, the redeemer from the ocean of worldly existence, is not visited. Your vision occurs only when the sins are destroyed, O Lord, through the great meritorious deeds of men and not through only a modicum of penance.

O Pārvatī, after saying, “It will become thus,” the Liṅga took him within its body even as all the Devas were watching. When King Jalpa got merged into that Liṅga, O lady of excellent countenance, the deity became well-known as Jalpeśvara all over the earth. The deity was mentioned by the Devas as the bestower of worldly pleasures and salvation. He is remembered as the bestower of all desires.

52. Thus the sin-destroying power of Jalpeśvara Deva has been recounted to you, O goddess. Listen to the story of the deity named Kedāreśvara.