Shri Narayana had just finished telling Narada the tale of Shashthi, as the Agama gives it, and he went straight on. There were more goddesses to account for, each of them a form of the one Mulaprakriti, and he had their tales from the mouth of Dharma himself and gave them as he had received them, in agreement with the Shruti and dear to all who are learned. Two names came next: Mangalachandi, who works every blessing, and Manasa, mother of the serpents.
Mangalachandi: The Auspicious Form of the Primal Prakriti
Her name can be read three ways, and all three are true. She is sudaksha, skilled in doing good; she is Chandi, full of might; and among all things auspicious she is the fierce auspiciousness itself, prachanda mangala, and so she is Mangalachandika. Or she is the Chandi whom Mangala, the son of the Earth, worships as his own chosen goddess. Or the name comes from a king called Mangala, born in Manu’s line, lord of the whole earth with its seven dvipas, whose worshipful chosen goddess she was. By difference of form she is Mulaprakriti herself, Bhagavati Durga; she is grace that has taken a shape, so that she appears before the eyes of those who call her, and she is the chosen deity of women. Shankara was the first of all to worship her, prompted by Vishnu and taught by Brahma, and it happened at the terrible slaying of Tripurasura. The demon in his fury had flung Shiva’s vimana down out of the sky, and Shiva, in that danger, heeding Brahma and Vishnu, praised Bhagavati Durga. It was Mangalachandi who had only changed her form. She appeared before him. “Now you have no fear. The Lord of all, Shri Hari, will become your vehicle in the form of a bull, and I, as the power of battle, will help you; have no doubt. With the help of Hari, who is Maya itself, you will slay this Tripura demon, your enemy, who has thrown the gods from their stations.” With that she vanished, and in the same moment she was Shiva’s shakti. Then Umapati Shankara killed the demon with the weapon Vishnu had given him, and when the demon fell, all the gods and the great rishis bowed their heads in devotion and praised Shiva; a rain of flowers came down on his head, and Brahma and Vishnu, much pleased, gave him their blessings. Then, on the word of those same two, Shankara bathed with the proper rites and worshiped Mangalachandika with devotion: water for her feet, the arghya, water for her mouth, cloth of many kinds, flowers, sandal, food of many kinds, cloth again and ornaments, garlands, payasa, cakes, honey, sudha, fruit beyond counting, and song, dance, instruments, festival and the chanting of her names. He meditated on her by the dhyana of the Madhyandina shakha, and he offered every article with her root mantra of twenty-one syllables, Om hrim shrim klim sarvapujye devi mangalachandike hum hum phat svaha, a kalpataru that gives its devotees everything they desire and comes to siddhi by ten lakh repetitions. The dhyana the Veda gives, which all accept, pictures her sixteen years old, her youth never fading, her lips like the bimba fruit, her teeth fine, her face the autumn lotus, her color the white champaka, her eyes the open blue lotus: sustainer of the world, giver of all wealth to all, a light for beings fallen in the terrible ocean of samsara. Then Mahadeva sang her stotra: mother of the world, destroyer of heaps of calamity, maker and giver of joy and of every mangala, the mangala of all mangalas, refuge of all mangalas, giver of mangala to the good and of the mangala that is moksha, essence and fruit of all actions, worshiped on Tuesday, the chosen goddess of the planet Mangala and ever worshipful to King Mangala of Manu’s line, and at its heart the cry, “Mangalachandike, protect, protect.” Having praised her so, Shiva worshiped her every Tuesday from then on, and went his way. So she who is Sarvamangala was worshiped first by Shiva, second by the planet Mangala, third by King Mangala, fourth by good women on Tuesday, fifth by men who desired their own good; and because the lord of the universe had worshiped her, she came to be worshiped in all the worlds, by all the gods, the munis, the Manus and all human beings everywhere. Whoever hears this stotra of Mangalachandika with a one-pointed mind always has good and never ill, and his good grows day by day, with sons and grandsons.
Manasa, Mother of the Serpents
In ancient times there came a season when every human being on the earth lived in dread of the nagas, and all of them went for refuge to Kashyapa, the best of munis. Kashyapa was frightened too. Together with Brahma, following the seed-mantras of the Veda and Brahma’s own teaching, he composed mantras against the serpents, and with his mind he created the presiding goddess of those mantras, Bhagavati Manasa; made by tapas and by mind, she took her name from the mind. The name holds more than that. She is Kashyapa’s mind-born daughter, and she shines for those who meditate on her with the mind, and she herself meditates with her mind on the Supreme Brahman and shines by that dhyana-yoga. While still a kumari she went up to Kailasa and worshiped and praised Shiva with devotion, in the proper way, and for a thousand divine years the muni’s daughter served him. Shiva, who is quickly pleased, was pleased. He gave her the great knowledge, taught her the Samaveda, gave her Shri Krishna’s eight-syllable mantra, a kalpataru, and gave her the kavacha called Trailokyamangala, with its order of worship, its Vedic purashcharana and its mantra; from Mrityunjaya she had also the supreme vidya that brings the dead back to life, the mritasanjivani. Then at Shankara’s command the chaste girl went to Pushkara for tapas, and there for three yugas she did tapas to the Supreme Lord Krishna and became siddha and saw Krishna standing before her. Krishna, that ocean of mercy, looked kindly at the girl whose body and whose cloth were worn thin by her austerity, and for that he gave her the name Jaratkaru. He worshiped her himself and had others worship her, and he gave her a boon, “Be worshiped in the world,” and vanished. So Manasa was worshiped first by Krishna, the Supreme Self, second by Shiva, and then by Kashyapa, by the gods, the munis, the Manus, the nagas and men, and that goddess of good vows came to be worshiped in the three worlds, from Brahmaloka to svarga, the earth and Nagaloka. Her twelve names are the record of what she is: Jaratkaru, for the worn body; Jagadgauri, because in every world she is fair, beautiful and charming; Manasa; Siddhayogini, for the siddha-yoga Shiva gave her; Vaishnavi, for her unbroken devotion to Vishnu; Nagabhagini and Nageshvari, sister and queen of the serpents whose lives she saved at the yajna of Janamejaya, son of Parikshit; Shaivi, Shiva’s disciple; Jaratkarupriya, dear wife of the muni Jaratkaru, the supreme yogi whom the world reveres; Astikamata, mother of the muni Astika; Vishahara, who draws out poison; and Mahajnanayuta, joined to the great knowledge, for the mahajnana, the yoga and the mritasanjivani she had from Shiva. Whoever recites these twelve names at his worship has no fear of nagas, nor do his descendants; in a bedroom where snakes are feared, in a house where they live, in a place made terrible by them or ringed by them, the recitation frees a man from that fear, and the nagas flee at the sight of one who reads it daily. By ten lakh recitations the stotra becomes siddha, and the one who has that siddhi can eat poison, wear nagas as ornaments and ride them, sit and lie on them; he becomes a mahasiddha, and at the end he sports day and night with Vishnu. Her Samavedic dhyana pictures her the color of the white champaka, adorned with jewels, in cloth pure as fire, wearing a sacred thread of nagas, full of great knowledge, the presiding goddess of the siddhas, siddhi itself and the giver of siddhi; one meditates on her so and worships her with her root mantra of twelve syllables, hrim shrim klim aim manasadevyai svaha, with naivedya, incense, flowers and scented unguent. Five lakh repetitions make it siddha, and the man who has that siddhi is a siddha on the earth; poison is nectar to him, and he becomes another Dhanvantari. And whoever bathes on the day of the sankranti and, in a secret place, with great devotion, invokes and worships Manasa, and on the panchami offers her naivedya with his mind fixed on her, surely becomes wealthy, blessed with sons and famous.
The Sage Jaratkaru and the Birth of Astika
Then Kashyapa gave the goddess to the muni Jaratkaru, who bore the same name she did, and the best of munis, who wanted nothing, accepted her as his wife by Brahma’s command. After the wedding the great yogi, tired by his long tapas, lay down at Pushkara under a banyan tree with his head on Manasa’s thigh, remembered Shiva, the lord of sleep, and slept. The sun began to go down while he slept on. Evening came, and the chaste Manasa, afraid for his dharma, turned the matter over: if he let pass the evening sandhya that every Brahmin owes, her husband would share in a sin as heavy as Brahmahatya, for the Vedas say that one who fails the sandhya at morning and at evening is always impure in every way and carries that sin. So she woke him, and the muni woke in a great anger. Why had she broken a sleep he was enjoying? For a woman who wrongs her husband, he told her, every vow turns useless; all her tapas, fasts, vows and gifts bear no fruit. A woman who has worshiped her husband has as good as worshiped Krishna, for Hari himself stands in the husband’s form to receive the vow of the pativrata. All gifts, all yajnas, all visits to tirthas, all vows, tapas, fasts, dharma, truth and the worship of every god together do not equal a sixteenth part of service to the husband. The woman who serves her husband in holy Bharatavarsha goes with him to Vaikuntha and finds refuge at the feet of Hari, the Supreme Brahman. And the woman of bad family who acts against her husband and speaks unkind words to him goes to Kumbhipaka and stays there as long as the sun and moon endure, and after that she is born a chandali, without husband or son. His lips were quivering as he finished. Manasa trembled, and she answered him. “It was only for fear that your sandhya would lapse that I broke your sleep. The fault is certainly mine, and I am wicked for it; now be calm. The one who breaks another’s adornment, meal or sleep lives in Kalasutra as long as the sun and moon endure.” Saying this, she fell at his feet in fear and devotion and wept, and went on weeping. The muni’s anger had found another target by then, and he turned to curse the Sun. Surya saw it, and he came to that place with the goddess Sandhya and spoke humbly and in fear. “It was the hour of my setting she saw, and it was fear for your dharma that made Manasa wake you. I have come to your refuge; forgive me. It is not right that you should curse me. A Brahmin’s heart is always soft as fresh butter, and yet half a moment of his anger could burn the whole world to ash, and a dvija could make the world again; there is no one more radiant than a dvija. Blazing with brahma-tejas, light of Brahman in form, of the line of Brahman, the Brahmin should always meditate on the eternal Lord Krishna.” Jaratkaru was pleased with that, and the Sun took his blessing and went back to his place. And then, to keep his vow, with a heart that ached as he did it, the muni left Manasa where she wept, stricken with grief. In that calamity, distraught with fear, she remembered her guru Shiva, her chosen deity Brahma, Bhagavan Hari, and Kashyapa who had given her birth, and as she held them in her mind Krishna, lord of the gopis, came to that place, and Shankara, and Brahma, and Kashyapa. Jaratkaru saw his own chosen deity standing there, beyond Prakriti, without gunas, and he praised him and prostrated himself again and again, and bowed to Shiva and Brahma and Kashyapa, and asked why they had come. Brahma bowed to Krishna’s lotus feet and gave the answer the hour required. If the muni must abandon his chaste wife, who was devoted to dharma, let him first beget a son on her, so that she could fulfill her own dharma; after that he might leave her; for the merit of a detached man who abandons his dear wife without begetting a son runs away from him like water from a sieve. Jaratkaru heard him, and uttering a mantra and relying on the power of yoga he touched Manasa’s navel, and he told her what would come of it. From this womb would be born a son, best of the self-controlled, righteous, foremost of Brahmins, radiant, ascetic, famous, virtuous, the best of those who know the Veda, of the jnanis and the yogis; a devotee of Vishnu who would save the whole line, at whose mere birth the Pitris would dance for joy. Then, for the little time he had left with her, the muni gave her his knowledge. “A dear wife is the one who is soft-spoken and well-mannered, a pativrata, righteous, the mother of a good son, a woman of family who keeps the family.” From there he went on, claim by claim. The true kinsman is the one who gives devotion to Hari; the one who gives only the pleasures a person wants is no kinsman at all. The true father is the kinsman who shows the way to God. The true mother is the one who frees from coming and going. The true sister is compassion itself, which frees from the terror of Yama. The guru is the one who gives Vishnu’s mantra and creates devotion to Hari, and the guru of knowledge is the one who gives the knowledge that leads to thinking of Krishna, for the whole world, moving and unmoving, from a blade of grass up to Brahma, appears and perishes again, and how could knowledge come from anything in it? Whatever essence there is in Veda or yajna is the service of Hari; that is the essence of all truths, and all else is mockery. The husband who gives knowledge is the one who frees by knowledge from bondage; the one who binds is an enemy. A guru who does not give knowledge joined to devotion to Hari is his disciple’s killer and his enemy, since he does not set him free; one who cannot free a person from the pain of the womb and the torments of Yama cannot be called guru or father or kinsman; and one who does not always show the eternal path of Krishna, who is bliss itself, is no kinsman to anyone. So let her worship Krishna, nirguna, Achyuta, the Supreme Brahman, by whose worship all of a person’s karma is pulled up by the root. Then he said the thing he had been coming to. “I have abandoned you by a pretext; forgive this offense of mine. Chaste women, forgiving by the power of sattva, have no anger in them. I am going to Pushkara for tapas; you too go happily from here. Love for Krishna’s lotus feet is the one wish of those who want nothing.” Manasa heard him through, overcome with grief, her eyes full of tears, and she spoke humbly to the husband she loved. “In your leaving me because I broke your sleep, there is no fault in me. So I ask one thing: wherever I remember you, always give me darshan there.” Separation from kin is very painful, she said, and separation from a son more painful, and separation from the husband, the lord of one’s life, is like life itself being cut away, the most painful of all. For a pativrata the husband is dearer than a hundred sons; for women he is the dearest of all, and that is why the learned call him priya. As the mind of those with one son stays on the son, of a Vaishnava on Hari, of the one-eyed on his eye, of the thirsty on water, of the hungry on food, of the lustful on union, of thieves on other people’s wealth, of wanton women on their lovers, of the learned on the shastras and of merchants on trade, so the mind of chaste women stays always on the husband. Saying this she fell at his feet, and the merciful muni took her into his lap for a moment and bathed her with his tears, and Manasa, distraught with the fear of parting, her eyes brimming, wet his lap with hers. Then both of them, Jaratkaru and Manasa, were freed of grief by knowledge. He consoled his beloved, and meditating again and again on Krishna’s lotus feet he went to his tapas, and Manasa went to Kailasa, the abode of her guru Shiva. There Parvati consoled the grieving goddess at length, and Shiva gave her the most auspicious knowledge, and there, at a most excellent and auspicious hour, Manasa bore a son, a portion of Narayana and a guru of yogis and jnanis. While he was still in the womb the child had heard the great knowledge from Shiva’s mouth and had already become a lord of yogis. Shiva had the jatakarma performed for him, with the svastivachana and the recitation of the Veda for his good, and gave the Brahmins gems, jewels and crowns, while Parvati gave them lakhs of cows and jewels of many kinds. Shiva taught the boy the four Vedas and the Vedangas and the excellent Mrityunjaya-jnana. Manasa’s devotion to her husband, her chosen deity and her guru was great, the devotion the word asti names, faith, and so her son’s name was Astika. Jaratkaru meanwhile had gone, at Shiva’s command, to Pushkara, to do tapas to Vishnu, and having received there the great mantra of Krishna and done tapas for three lakh divine years, the great yogi came to bow to Shiva and stayed in that place, where the boy also was. Then Manasa came to the ashrama of her father Kashyapa. Prajapati Kashyapa saw his daughter with her son and was overjoyed; for the child’s welfare he gave crores of jewels to Brahmins and fed Brahmins without number, and Diti and Aditi and all his other wives were glad. There mother and son stayed a long while.
The Rescue of the Serpents at the Snake Sacrifice
Elsewhere, King Parikshit, the son of Abhimanyu, was suddenly seized by a Brahmin’s curse, by the push of fate and because of a faulty deed of his own. The rishi Shringi took up water from the river Kaushiki and cursed him: when a week had passed, Takshaka would bite him. Parikshit heard of the curse and shut himself in a place so safe that not even the wind could enter it, and there he sat out the seven days with his whole mind on guarding his body. When the week was over, Dhanvantari set out to free the king of the poison, and on the road he saw Takshaka going to bite the king. The two fell into talk, and the talk grew into a great friendship, and Takshaka of his own will gave him a jewel; Dhanvantari took it, was satisfied, and went back glad. Then Takshaka bit the king where he sat on his raised platform, and Parikshit left his body that instant and went to the other world. King Janamejaya had all his father’s funeral rites performed, and then he began the yajna called the sarpa-satra, in which, before the brahma-tejas of the priests, serpent after serpent gave up its life. Takshaka fled in terror to Indra’s shelter, and the company of Brahmins made ready to kill Takshaka and Indra together. In that pass all the gods went with Indra to Devi Manasa, and there the frightened and distressed Indra praised Bhagavati Manasa. At his mother’s command the muni Astika came to the yajna and asked Janamejaya, the best of kings, for the lives of Indra and Takshaka, and the king graciously granted them their lives, completed the yajna on the Brahmins’ order and gladly gave the priests their dakshina. Then the Brahmins, the munis and the gods went to Devi Manasa and worshiped and praised her, each in his own way, Indra with the greatest reverence of all, and when they had worshiped her on the command of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, they all went home. Narada wanted the rest: with what stotra had Indra praised her, and what exactly was the order of her worship? Narayana told him. Indra bathed with the proper rites, made himself pure, did achamana, put on two clean cloths, and with devotion seated Manasa on a throne of jewels. Chanting Vedic mantras, he bathed Bhagavati with the water of the heavenly Ganga from a kalasha of jewels, dressed her in two lovely cloths pure as fire, smeared sandal on all her limbs, offered water for her feet and the arghya, and after worshiping six deities in due order, Ganesha, Surya, Agni, Vishnu, Shiva and Parvati, he worshiped the chaste Manasa. With her ten-syllable root mantra, Om hrim shrim manasadevyai svaha, he offered every article properly; prompted by Vishnu, the king of the gods offered her sixteen rare upacharas and worshiped her gladly, and had many instruments played, and by the command of Indra and of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva a rain of flowers fell on Manasa from the sky. Then Indra, the hair standing on his body and his eyes full of tears, praised her. He wished to praise her, he said, the foremost of pativratas, beyond the highest, and he could not; he could not describe the Vedic marks of her stotras or the tales of her deeds, and no count could be made of her qualities. “You are pure sattva, free of anger, of violence and the rest. The muni Jaratkaru could not abandon you, and so he asked your forgiveness. You are as worshipful to me as my mother Aditi; in the form of compassion you are my sister, and in the form of forbearance my mother. By you my life, my son and my wife were saved, and so I worship you; may my love for you always grow. You, who are eternal, are worshiped everywhere already, and I am spreading your worship.” Those who worship her with devotion at the sankranti of Ashadha, on Manasa-panchami, which is Nagapanchami, at the month’s end or daily, he went on, will surely grow in sons, grandsons and wealth, and be famous, renowned, learned and virtuous; and those who do not worship her and in their ignorance revile her will be without Lakshmi and always in fear of nagas. She herself is Sarvalakshmi, and Kamalalaya in Vaikuntha, and the lord of munis, Bhagavan Jaratkaru, is a portion of Narayana. Her father created her by his mind, through tapas and tejas, only for the protection of the gods, and so she is called Manasa; by her own power she is a siddha-yogini, worshiped and saluted by all, and the gods worship her with devotion in the mind, which is another reason the learned call her Manasadevi; by always worshiping truth she is truth itself, and whoever meditates on her constantly attains her. Having praised Manasadevi so and received a boon from that sister-goddess, Indra went back to his palace adorned with many ornaments. Manasa lived long with her son in her father Kashyapa’s ashrama, always worshiped, honored and saluted by her brothers. Then the cow Surabhi came there from Goloka and bathed Manasa, whom Indra had worshiped, in her own milk, and worshiped her with reverence, and the goddess taught Surabhi the whole of her knowledge, very rare and very secret. Worshiped by Surabhi and by the gods, Manasa went again to svarga. And whoever reads this stotra of Indra, a seed of merit, and worships Bhagavati Manasa has no fear of nagas, nor do his descendants; five lakh repetitions make it siddha, and for that man poison is nectar.
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)