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King Janamejaya’s heart had filled with grief the moment he learned of the ruin his father had fallen into. He resolved to perform a yajna (fire-rite) for the Goddess and lift his father free. When Navaratra arrived he summoned Dhaumya and the other sages, and without the least stinting of wealth he swiftly began the Amba-yajna. To win the favor of Bhagavati Jagadamba, mother of the worlds, he had the brahmanas recite before him that very greatest of texts, the Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana.
The Amba-yajna
In this yajna the king fed countless brahmanas, married women of good fortune, unmarried girls, celibate students, and the poor and the orphaned, and he satisfied every one of them fully with gifts of goods and money. He had scarcely finished the rite and settled onto his seat when Devarshi Narada, his radiance like the leaping flame of a kindled fire, descended from the sky playing his vina, the one named Mahati. Astonished at the sight, the king rose from his seat, honored him with a seat and every courtesy, asked after his well-being, and sought the reason for his coming. With great humility the king said that Narada’s arrival had made him a man protected and fulfilled, and he asked what service he might render.
Narada’s Glad News
Narada said that this very day he had witnessed a wonder in the world of the gods, and it was to tell of it that he had come, still marveling. The king’s father, on account of his contrary deeds, had lain sunk in a wretched fate. That same father had now taken on a divine body, mounted a splendid celestial chariot, and, praised on every side by gods and apsaras, had gone to Manidvipa. It was by the fruit born of hearing this Devi Bhagavata, and by the fruit of the Amba-yajna, that his father had reached that highest state. O jewel of your line, you have delivered your father from hell; today your great fame has spread through the world of the gods. You are blessed, and all you set out to do is done.
Hearing this, King Janamejaya’s heart overflowed with love, and he fell at the lotus feet of Vyasa. He said that it was by Vyasa’s grace alone that he had been made whole; beyond bowing low, what more could he possibly do for him. He asked only that such favor rest upon him always.
Vyasa’s Counsel
Lord Badarayana Vyasa blessed the king and said in sweet words that he should renounce all else and worship the lotus feet of Bhagavati, reciting the Devi Bhagavata each day with a gathered mind; and that, casting off sloth, he should carry out the Devi-yajna with devotion, so that by its fruit he would slip free of worldly bondage with ease. Though there are many Puranas, the Vishnu Purana and the Shiva Purana among them, none of them can match even the sixteenth part of this Devi Bhagavata. This Purana is the distilled essence of all the Vedas and all the Puranas; where the primordial Nature herself is set forth in person, how could any other Purana be its equal? Reciting it grants merit equal to the recitation of the Vedas. Having said this, the sage-king Vyasa departed, and Dhaumya and the other pure-souled sages, praising the Devi Bhagavata highly, returned each to his own place. After that, with a contented mind, Janamejaya ruled the earth while reciting and hearing the Devi Bhagavata without pause.
The Glory of the Purana
Now Suta told the ascetic sages of Naimisharanya the glory of this Mahapurana. From the lotus mouth of the supreme Amba there had once issued a half-verse that awakens the knowledge of the Vedic truth, सर्वं खल्विदमेवाहं नान्यदस्ति सनातनम्, meaning all this is I myself alone, there is no eternal being apart from me; and this very teaching the Goddess gave to Vishnu as he lay upon the banyan leaf. In an earlier age Brahma expanded it into a hundred crore shlokas; then Vyasa, to teach it to Shukadeva, gathered its essential part and composed the Shrimad Devi Bhagavata of eighteen thousand shlokas across twelve skandhas (books), which even today survives in the world of the gods in that vast form. No other Purana grants merit and destroys sin as this one does; from the recitation of a single line of it a person gains the fruit of an ashvamedha (horse-sacrifice).
One should write this Purana out by one’s own hand, or have a scribe write it, then honor the learned reciter with garments and ornaments and hear it from his lips while regarding him as Vyasa himself. On the day the recitation ends, one should set the text upon a golden throne and gift it to that learned man of the Puranas, giving as fee ornaments, a chain of gold, and a milk-giving tawny Kapila cow together with its calf. As many chapters as the text holds, so many brahmanas, married women, unmarried girls, and young children should be honored as forms of the Goddess and fed the finest sweet rice pudding. For the one who hears it daily with devotion, nothing at all stays beyond reach; the sonless gain a son, the seeker of wealth gains wealth, the student gains learning, and even a barren woman is freed of her defect. The house where it dwells, honored, is never left by Lakshmi and Sarasvati, and vetalas, dakinis, and rakshasas do not so much as peer inside. If it is recited with a one-pointed mind while touching a fever-stricken person, the burning fever abandons its circle and flees, and by a hundred repetitions even consumption is brought to an end.
During the autumn Navaratra one should recite it daily with the highest devotion; then Jagadamba, made glad, grants fruit beyond even what was longed for. Let Vaishnavas, Shaivas, Sauras, and Ganapatyas recite it in all four Navaratras for the contentment of the power of their chosen deity, and let the followers of Vedic rite recite it for the favor of their Gayatri; in this Purana there is no word set against anyone. For women and shudras the injunction is this: that they should not read it themselves; instead they should hear it daily from the mouth of a brahmana. It is the very essence of the Vedas; from reading it and hearing it one gains fruit equal to the recitation of the Vedas.
The Conclusion
To that Bhagavati whose very form is being, consciousness, and bliss, she who is made of the seed-sound Hrim and is celebrated under the name Gayatri, Suta bowed, praying that she guide our minds toward the good path. Hearing these words of Suta, foremost among the tellers of the Puranas, the sages of Naimisharanya, rich in the wealth of tapas (austerity), honored him with great ceremony. All those sages, worshippers at the lotus feet of Bhagavati, grew glad of heart and, by the power of this Purana, reached the highest peace. Bowing to Suta again and again and asking his forgiveness, they said that he was surely their very boat for crossing this ocean of the world. In this way, having recited to the humble sages this Shrimad Devi Bhagavata, which sets forth the deeds of Durga and holds the secret matter of all the Vedas, and having grown by their blessings, Suta, a bee at the lotus feet of Bhagavati, went on his way. Here the twelfth skandha reaches its close, and here this whole Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana too reaches its completion.
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)