Chapter 192 - Greatness of Sāvitrī

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Sūta said:

1-3. On hearing the loud report of the musical instruments approaching, Nārada knew that it was his own mother. So he came face to face with her.

He was extremely distressed and completely drenched in tears. His words were choked in his throat due to tears. He bowed down and spoke falteringly. Standing before the celestial ladies, the Brāhmaṇa who was fond of quarrels wanted to increase her anger but at the same time wanted to save himself from being cursed.

4. Though he faltered at every word, his voice was as majestic as the rumbling of a cloud: “O goddess, you were invited by me and also by Pulastya thereafter.

5. But due to the predominance of natural womanly procrastination you did not come even at the time of the initiation (to the sacrifice).

6. Then at the behest of Vidhi, another woman was brought by Śakra, a virgin hailing from a cowherd community but having the exquisite divine form.

7. She was forced into the mouth of a cow, O highly esteemed lady, and immediately pulled through the anus. Soon she was brought here.

8. Then she was approved by Viṣṇu for the rite of marriage, imitating your name, the name Gāyatrī was given to her by Īśvara.

9. ‘Let her be a Brāhmaṇa lady.’ So declared all the Brāhmaṇas and said, ‘O Lord Brahmā, grasp her hand, (in marriage).’

10. So said all the Devas too. Then (Brahmā) immediately employed her with all the duties of a ‘Patnī’ (wife at the side of the person performing Yajña).

11. Why should there be too much of talk? She came into the Patnīśālā (the inner chamber of Yajña). The sacred Raśanā (girdle) was tied round the waist of that cowherd-lass, O goddess of Suras.

12. On seeing this censurable activity, I could not tolerate it at all. I was unable to see her. I came out of the Yajña pavilion.

13. O highly esteemed lady, now that you have come to know of this, do what suits this occasion. Either go away or stay in that pavilion devoid of piety.”

14. On hearing it, O excellent Brāhmaṇas, Goddess Sāvitrī’s face became pallid like a lotus-pond when snow begins to fall.

15. She resembled a creeper the root of which has been cut, a ruddy goose separated from her loving mate or like a dried lake at the advent of the bright summer season.

16. She was like a digit of the waning moon or like a hind bereft of her stag, or like an army with the king killed or like a chaste lady whose husband has gone away.

17. Further, she was like a garland of flowers that has faded or a mother cow with the calf dead. On seeing her sitting motionless in an absent-minded state, the wives of the Devas said to Nārada:

18. “Fie upon you, O (Sage) fond of quarrels! You cause estrangement where there is affectionate intimacy! The change in the (behaviour) of Vidhi has been wholly brought about by you.”

Gaurī said:

19. O goddess, he is very fond of quarrels and speaks half truths and half lies. This sage sustains his life only through this type of activity always.

20. O Sāvitrī, I was repeatedly warned beforehand by the Three-eyed Lord: “O dear Pārvatī, if you desire that I should be happy, you must not pay heed to the words of Nārada at all.”

21. Ever since then I have not given any credence to his words at all. Hence, let us go where your husband is present.

22. Only after seeing for ourselves all the matter on hand we should do what is befitting. We must not tarry here merely because he says so. We shall go there.

Sūta said:

23-26. On hearing the words of Gaurī, Sāvitrī lost all delight, O excellent Brāhmaṇas. Her mind was void as it were. She proceeded towards the Yajña pavilion faltering at every step.

Even sweet music appeared jarring to her ears as it came continuously, O excellent Brāhmaṇas. The sound of the instruments of music like Mṛdaṅga, Ānaka etc. appeared like a barren, discordant note.

While she proceeded to the place of Yajña the great chaste lady could not bear to see the human concourse. It appeared as though she was looking at corpses.

27. She thought of the various articles of make-up on her body as though they were burning charcoal. Thus the great chaste lady went along in greater distress with her eyes filled with tears.

28. With very great difficulty she reached the Yajña pavilion that fell within the range of her sight It appeared to her as a prison house very repulsive to look at.

29. Seeing that Sāvitrī had reached the Yajṅa pavilion the Four-faced Lord stood immediately with face turned down due to shame.

30. Same was the plight of Śaṃbhu, Śakra, Vāsudeva and all other Devas who happened to be in that Yajña pavilion.

31. The tiger-like (eminent) Brāhmaṇas stopped their Vedic chant abruptly. They were so frightened that they remained perfectly dumb.

32. Seeing her husband in the company of her co-wife, Sāvitrī became furious with the eyes turned red. She spoke these harsh words:

Sāvitrī said:

33. O you wretch of senile features, is it proper on your part that you should get a cowherdlass as your wife?

34. On both the sides (paternal and maternal) of that girl, the women have anyone they fancied as their husbands. They have cast off their cleanliness and decorum. They are averse to righteous activities.

35-38. All the people in her family became enthusiastically happy in brutish way of sexual indulgence and dalliance. The men carnally approach all other women except perhaps their uterine sisters and mothers.

Just as animals go on grazing and chewing grass and drinking water, passing urine and discarding dung and meekly bearing burdens, so also the whole set of her family knows nothing except imbibing buttermilk to fill their belly. Evacuating the bowels and emptying their bladders is their sole duty without any superior enjoyment, in the course of their lives. They have no other duty except concern for their bellies.

39. Such despicable activities as even Śūdras eschew, these Ābhīras do not hesitate to carry on. What is it that you have done now!

40-42. If at all you had the necessity of another wife in the course of the Yajña, why was not a Brāhmaṇa lady well-known in all the three worlds married by you? O Vidhi, I consider you a bald-headed useless person of roguish propensities, since you took a Cowherd-lass for wife, whose virginity has been defiled, who has already been enjoyed earlier by many, who is extremely sinful excelling even a hundred harlots!

43. A girl with, ruptured hymen becomes a Śūdra woman. Any of the Cowherd-lasses also becomes so.

44. Such a woman (bride) will cause the downfall of the ancestors on her mother’s, father’s and father-in-law’s sides by this despicable deed on the earth.

45. If at all I have any truth (Ṛta) left with me, I aver that on account of this sinful act you and the other Devas will never get any honoured adoration.

46. Those who adore (you) will become poverty-stricken. How is it that you are not at all ashamed to do this despicable deed?

47. What you have committed is something not proper to your sons, grandsons and the other heaven-dwellers as well as Brāhmaṇas.

48. Or, perhaps this is not your fault. Men subject to the control of Kāma are shameless. They do not know what should be done and what should not be done, what is auspicious and what is not auspicious.

49. A man under the influence of Kāma considers what should not be done as his duty. He considers his friend as his enemy and vice versa.

50. Just as there is no honesty in a gamester, no fraternity in a thief and there is no (real) friend to a king, so also there is no sense of shame in lustful men.

51. Even fire may get cool. The moon may become ñery and the briny sea may become sweet in taste, but certainly a lustful man does not feel ashamed.

52. I do not feel distressed that ī have to put up with a co-wife. Thousands of men and women do have it.

53. If you are that lustful, you marry other noble ladies of purity and belonging to your caste.

54. This is the most painful grief that an Ābhīrī who is as much censured as a harlot, has given up feminine modesty and has many husbands, has been married by you.

55. Hence, O Vidhi, I shall go to that place where even your name is never heard, because you are greedy and lustful as well as bereft of shame.

56. O Vidhi, after fetching me here, I have been ridiculed by you in front of the wives of Devas, Devas and Brāhmaṇas. So, no one will perform your worship now.

57-58. From now onwards, if any man on the earth worships you in a temple with or without Mantras as in the case of other heaven-dwellers, his lineage will become destitute and miserable, whether he is a Brāhmaṇa or a Kṣatriya, a Vaiśya or a Śūdra.

59. Since this despised daughter of an Abhīra has been put in my place, she will never raise a family as per my words.

60. She will never be offered worship as in the case of other goddesses.

61. A woman who worships her at any place will become miserable, unfortunate and barren.

62. She will become the most sinful with her chastity violated like this woman with five (i.e. many) husbands. She will be notorious like this woman.

63-64. The members of the family of this woman shall become sinful night-stalkers. Those who maintain themselves through cows in her family shall be devoid of honesty and cleanliness. They will not have association with good people. They will never have a permanent residence.

Thus, she cursed Vidhi and Gāyatrī thereafter.

65-67a. Then, the chaste lady cursed all the groups of Devas; “O Śakra, since this woman of five (many) husbands was brought by you and apparently you thus did good to your preceptor, you will as a result thereof be bound and put in bondage after being defeated by your enemies.

Undoubtedly, you will be in prison for a long time.

67b-68. O Vāsudeva, earlier you approved this woman of five husbands as fit for Vidhi. So, I shall curse you too without hesitation. O wicked-minded one, you will undergo the state of being a servant of another.

69. O foolish Rudra, though close at hand you were indifferent to this act. You did not stop it. So listen to my words:

70. The grief of separation from a living husband which I experience now, will be yours after the death of your wife.

71-72. O Vahni (Fire-god), you accepted Havis out of greed in that Yajña where this despised woman of five husbands entered as also in other Yajñas without the least hesitation. So, your conduct has become defiled. You will become omnivorous.

73. As before, you will never have long standing happiness along with Svāhā and Svadhā. You will be miserable!

74-75. All the Brāhmaṇas had been greedy in their minds. Due to the covetousness for wealth, they performed Homa in the despised Yajña where this woman of five husbands had entered and also said, ‘She will become a Brāhmaṇī’.

76. Hence, all these will be assailed by poverty and will become paramours of Vṛṣalīs (Śūdra women or harlots). They will undoubtedly sell the Vedas.

77. O Lord of wealth, you distributed monetary gifts in this miserable Makha. Hence, all your wealth will be unfit for consumption and enjoyment.

78-79. All the groups of the Devas who extended their cooperation and assistance in a defective Yajña pertaining to one with five husbands, will be devoid of progeny. They will be attacked and defeated by Dānavas and will meet with misery.

80. Four others are settled at her side. They are also mentioned as Ābhīrī and Sapatnī (co-wife) and they are delighted in their meditation.

81. With Śivadūtī as their leader they are always engaged in hating me. They will not have mutual association.

82. They will not have any contact with any other man on the earth, not even a visual contact. Their residence shall be confined to unsealable tops of mountains, very impassable to all the embodied beings, devoid of all pleasures and enjoyments.”

Sūta said:

83. After saying thus the extremely infuriated Sāvitrī dismissed all the Deva-wives who were staying at her sides.

84. She started towards the north though prevented by all the Deva-wives, including Lakṣmī, from all sides.

85. (She said to herself:) ‘I will go there where even the name of this lascivious person is not to be heard. I will certainly go there.’

86. She placed one of her feet, the left one, at the ridge of the mountain. With the second she climbed on to the top of the mountain.

87. Even today her left footprint is visible there. It is impressed on the ridge of the mountain. It is meritorious and it is destructive of all sins.

88. A man may be of sinful conduct, but if he worships that footprint, he will be rid of all sins and he will attain the greatest position.

89. A man may worship it with any desire in his mind. He will surely attain it even if it is very rare.

Sūta said:

90. Thus, after meeting with great insult from her own husband, Goddess Sāvitrī settled there on the (top of the) mountain.

91. He who adores her scrupulously, especially on a Full-moon day, attains all wishes desired mentally by him.

92. Listen to the benefit of Dīpadāna (offering of a lamp) by a woman devoutly in front of her, with ghee and red wicks.

93. She will enjoy conjugal felicity for as many thousands of births as there are threads burning in the lamp and Muhūrtas during which the ghee lamp burns.

94. She will be blessed with sons and grandsons as well as wealth. She will never be unlucky, barren, one-eyed or hideous in features.

95. Listen to the benefit attained by a woman, even if she be a widow, who dances or sings songs before her.

96. As and when she makes movements of the body while dancing, she actually sheds off the sin perpetrated earlier.

97. She will stay in heaven for as many thousands of years as there are creatures listening to her songs.

98. If any woman makes gifts of fruits with Sāvitrī in view, she rejoices in heaven for as many Yugas as there are fruits.

99. O excellent Brāhmaṇas, if a man offers sweetmeat especially to women having husbands, in the presence of her Dakṣiṇāmūrti (image on the right side, or on the right side of the image), he rejoices in heaven for as many Yugas as there are grains of cooked rice.

100. If anyone performs Śrāddha there with perfect faith offering one Rasa (juice) and one Sasya (vegetable dish), he will attain the merit that accrues from Gayāśrāddha.

101-102. A Brāhmaṇa (person) should turn to the southern direction (of the goddess) and perform at least one Sandhyā prayer by means of waters poured by his wife at the evening time, O excellent Brāhmaṇas. Thereby he gets as much benefit as though he performed Sandhyā prayer for twelve years.

103. O Brāhmaṇas, do listen to the benefit of the Brāhmaṇas who performs the Japa of Sāvitrī Mantra in front of her. I shall narrate it.

104. If he recites the Mantra ten times, the sins he committed during that birth perish. If he recites it a hundred times, all the sins committed formerly perish and if he recites the Mantra a thousand times, all the sins committed in three Yugas perish.

105. Hence one should assiduously go to Camatkārapura and worship that goddess. She should be specially prayed to and eulogized.

106. He who reads or listens to this story of Sāvitrī shall be rid of all sins and become happy here.

107. Thus, O excellent Brāhmaṇas, what I was asked has been completely narrated to you all, regarding the greatness of Sāvitrī. What more shall I narrate to you?