Chapter 92 - The Greatness of Yamahāsya Tīrtha

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said:

1-5. Thereafter, one should go to the excellent Yamahāsya Tīrtha which dispels all sins. It is situated on the banks of Narmadā.

Yudhiṣṭhira said:

O eminent Brāhmaṇa, how did this Yamahāsya come into existence on the earth? Narrate this entirely to me. I have got great curiosity about it.

Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said:

Well! Well! O highly intelligent one! I have been pertinently asked, O prince. Formerly your father (Yama/Dharma) came to the sacred Narmadā for taking his holy bath. Just as a cloth washed by a washerman becomes free from impurities, so also, O Yudhiṣṭhira, Dharmarāja (Yama) became free from impurities. On seeing his body devoid of impurities, he was surprised and he laughingly said:

Yama said:

6-18. How do men loaded with sins come to my city? Merely through a single holy bath in Revā, the position in the world of Viṣṇu is obtained.

Those who are physically fit but do not visit the auspicious Revā of meritorious waters, should be known as persons congenitally blind or on a par with dead and lame men.

O king, it is for this reason that the chastiser of the worlds laughed: Those who are physically fit, yet do not visit the river Revā of meritorious waters!

Yama installed the Lord there and went to heaven. O king, a devotee who has conquered anger and sense-organs should devoutly observe fast, particularly on the fourteenth lunar day in the dark half of the month of Āśvina. He shall be liberated from all the sins.

He should keep awake at night and light the lamp of the Lord with ghee, O great king. Listen to the benefit thereof.

He is redeemed of all sins such as those resulting from carnally approaching a prohibited woman, from eating prohibited foodstuffs and from drinking prohibited beverages.

The sin that results from riding what should not be ridden and by milking what should not be milked, is dispelled merely by the holy ablution. Thus all types of sins do perish.

That man never sees the world of Yama. O king, this is the greatest secret of the Pitṛs on the Earth.

Undoubtedly, to those who make gift at Yamahāsya everything becomes everlasting, A devotee should subdue anger and adore Brāhmaṇas on a new-moon day by means of various gifts such as gold, plot of land, gingelly seeds, skin of a black antelope, cow of gingelly seeds etc.

Those who gift in accordance with what is laid down in the scriptures, a horse, an elephant along with ploughshare, a girl, a cow, a buffalo that yields good quantity of milk etc. do not go to the world of Yama.

19-24. Yama becomes delighted at every birth, O Yudhiṣṭhira. Buffalo is the vehicle of Yama and buffaloes are the mothers of his vehicle, buffalo. Certainly Yama becomes pleased as a result of their gift.

Even if one is surrounded by sins, one does not go to Yama. For this reason the gift of a buffalo here is excellent. Water should be sprinkled on its horns. The buffalo should be covered with a smoke-coloured cloth. Hoofs should be made of iron and copper (red cloth?), should be placed on the back. On the east there shall be a hillock of salt; on the south-east there shall be a mountain of jaggery. Cotton constitutes the portion of the south; butter on the south-west; seven food-grains on the west. Rice grains should be placed on the northwest. Gold is placed on the northern side and ghee on the north-east. These: things should be offered uttering “May Yamarāja be pleased with me.”

25-30. Before the Brāhmaṇa one shall utter these words: “Yama’s world is highly frightening. Asipatravana is terrible. Yamacullī is extremely terrifying. Vaitaraṇī is horrible. Kumbhīpāka causes terror. Kālasūtra is extremely terrifying. So also the Yamala mountains, Krakaca (scissors), Tailayantra (oil-extracting machine), the hounds, the vultures are hideous. Nirucchvāsa is highly noisy, Raurava is excessively terrible. O excellent Brāhmaṇa, we hear that all these are present in the world of Yama. With your favour and by the power of this Tīrtha, let them be gentle. By the power of this Dana and with the favour of Yamarāja, may I not go to Naraka in any birth whatsoever.”

Men who listen to this account of Yamahāsya shall be rid of sins. They will not see the abode of Yama.