Vyasa was answering a doubt of Janamejaya’s. The Paramba of Manidvipa had once brought forth Gauri, Lakshmi and Sarasvati and given them to Hara, Hari and Brahma; how then could Gauri be called the daughter of Daksha and of the Himalaya, and Mahalakshmi the daughter of the Ocean of Milk? The answer began with a war. Mighty daityas named Halahala had risen and taken the three worlds in a moment, and proud of Brahma’s boon they laid siege to Kailasa and to Vaikuntha. Shiva and Vishnu went out against them, and the battle lasted sixty thousand years before the two gods, with great effort, killed the danavas. They came home to their own worlds and grew proud before their own Shaktis, Gauri and Lakshmi, by whose power the killing had been done. The two goddesses saw the pride and laughed a feigned laugh, and the gods, deluded by the Adi-maya, grew angry and answered them with disrespect. In that moment the goddesses left them and vanished. A great cry of dismay went up, and Hari and Hara, through the slight to their Shaktis, lost their luster and their strength and wandered deranged and senseless. Brahma, troubled, closed his eyes and learned that the anger of Parashakti had done this. For a time he did the work of the two gods by the strength of his own Shakti, and then he called his sons, Manu and the others, Sanaka and the others, and told them that he was burdened with the world and could not do tapas himself. “Shiva and Vishnu are deranged by Parashakti’s anger. Please that supreme Shakti with your devotion and your tapas, so that the two are as they were, joined to their Shaktis. Your fame will grow, and the family in which those two Shaktis are born will purify the whole world and be fulfilled itself.” So his pure-hearted sons, Daksha at their head, went into the forest. At the foot of the Himalaya they gathered their minds to a single point and gave themselves to japa of the Mayabija, the mantra of Bhuvaneshvari, for a hundred thousand years. Then the Devi, pleased, stood before them in visible form: four arms bearing the pasha and the ankusha, the hand of boon and the hand that takes away fear, three eyes in her face, full of the rasa of compassion, her form sat-chit-ananda itself. The pure munis saw the mother of all and praised her with voices choked by devotion. “Homage to you whose form is the universe, embodied as Vaishvanara. Homage to you whose form is Taijasa, whose body is the Sutratman on which every subtle body is strung warp and woof. Homage to you whose form is Prajna. Homage to the unmanifest, homage to the self turned inward, homage to you whose form is Brahman, to you of every form, the self marked in all beings.” Daksha and the munis bowed at her lotus feet, and the Devi, her voice sweet as a koel’s, told them to ask a boon, for she had always been held the giver of boons. They asked for health for the bodies of Hara and Vishnu and the return of their Shaktis.
Then Daksha spoke again, his hands folded. “Amba, be born in my family, so that my life reaches its end. And tell me from your own mouth your japa, your dhyana, your worship, and the places where you dwell.” The Devi answered him. “Their condition came from slighting my Shaktis. Such an offense against me must never be done. Now by a trace of my grace their bodies will be well, and those two Shaktis will be born in your house and in the Ocean of Milk, and at my sending they will go to those two gods again. The Mayabija is my chief mantra, always dear to me. For dhyana, hold my Virat form, or this form that stands before you, or the form that is sat-chit-ananda. The whole world is my place. Worship me always, and meditate on me.” With that the Devi who dwells in Manidvipa vanished. Daksha and the munis went back to Brahma and told him everything with reverence, and by Paramba’s grace Hara and Hari were well again, fit for their tasks, and their pride was gone from them.
Some time passed, and a great Shakta radiance came down into Daksha’s house. There was festival in the three worlds. The gods rained flowers in their joy, and in heaven the drums sounded, struck by hand; the minds of pure and good men grew glad, the rivers ran in their courses, the sun grew bright. The auspicious one had been born, and everything everywhere turned auspicious. Daksha named her Sati, because she was truth itself, the supreme consciousness, and he gave her once more to Shiva, whose Shakti she had been before. And that same Sati, Vyasa said, by the turning of fate, was burned to ash in fire at Daksha’s sacrifice.
Durvasa’s Garland and Daksha’s Malice
Janamejaya could not let that pass. How was so great a being burned in a fire, when a man who only remembers her name loses his fear of the fire of samsara? What ripening of Daksha’s karma burned her? Vyasa told him the old story of the cause. Once Durvasa went to Jambunadeshvari, saw the Devi there, and sat down to japa of the Mayabija. Pleased, the Devi took the garland from her own neck, heavy with divine pollen, with bees hovering on it drunk on its nectar, and gave it to him as prasada, and the muni received it with bowed head. He left quickly by the path of the sky and came to where Daksha, Sati’s own father, was, for he wished to see Amba, and there he bowed at Sati’s feet. Daksha looked at the garland. “Whose is this unearthly garland? How did you come by it, a thing so rare for men on earth?” The muni’s eyes filled and his heart choked with love. “It is the Devi’s matchless prasada.” Then Sati’s father begged the garland from him, and the muni thought that there was nothing in the three worlds that may not be given to a devotee of the Shakti, and he gave it.
Daksha took it with bowed head and set it down in the room of his house where the beautiful bed of husband and wife stood. In the night, intoxicated by the garland’s fragrance, he gave himself to the act of beasts. By that sin the king’s mind turned hostile toward the auspicious Shankara and toward Devi Sati.
Sati’s Dharma and Shiva’s Grief
By that offense, and wishing to show the dharma of a sati, Sati burned with yogic fire the body that had been born of Daksha, and that same radiance appeared again upon the Himalaya. Janamejaya asked what Shiva did then, Shiva to whom Sati was dearer than life, in the distress of losing her. Vyasa said that what happened after that was past his telling. From the fire of Shiva’s anger came a dissolution of the three worlds. Virabhadra arose with Bhadrakali and the ganas, and when he stood ready to destroy the three worlds, Brahma and the gods took refuge with Shankara. Even after the ruin of everything, that ocean of compassion gave them freedom from fear and brought Daksha back to life with the head of a goat.
Then Maheshvara, dejected, came to the ground of the sacrifice and wept, grieved past all measure. He saw Sati, a portion of consciousness itself, burning in the fire. “Alas, Sati! Alas, Sati!” he cried, again and again, and he lifted her onto his shoulder and, his mind bewildered, wandered through land after land.
Vishnu’s Arrows and the Birth of the Pithas
Brahma and the gods fell into the deepest anxiety at the sight of him. Vishnu quickly raised his bow and with his arrows cut the limbs of Sati, and the limbs fell in place after place. In each of those places Hara stayed, taking many forms.
Then he said to the gods, “Those who worship her in these places with supreme devotion will find nothing hard to get, for there Parambika is always present in her own limbs. The mortals who perform purascharana in these places will find their mantras perfected, and the Mayabija above all.” Having said this, Shankara, pained by the separation, passed his time in those places in japa, in dhyana and in samadhi.
The One Hundred Eight Pithas and Their Goddesses
Janamejaya wanted the places. Which were the places that had become siddhapithas, how many were they, and what were their names? And would the sage, out of his kindness, quickly tell him the names of the goddesses who presided at each of them, so that his hearing would be complete? Vyasa gave them in their true order, the Devi-pithas by the mere hearing of which a man becomes sinless, the places where those who want siddhi worship her and those who want prosperity meditate on her, each place with the name she bears there. In Varanasi she is Vishalakshi, who dwells in Gauri’s face, and in Naimisharanya Lingadharini. In Prayaga she is Lalita, on Gandhamadana Kamuki, at the southern Manasa Kumuda and at the northern Manasa Vishvakama, who fills every wish; at Gomanta Gomati, on Mandara Kamacharini, at Chaitraratha Madotkata. In Hastinapura she is Jayanti, in Kanyakubja Gauri, on the Malaya mountain Rambha, at the Ekamra-pitha Kirtimati, at the Vishva-pitha Vishveshvari, in Pushkara Puruhuta, and in Kedara Sanmargadayini, who gives the traveler the right road. On the back of the Himavat she is Manda, in Gokarna Bhadrakarnika, in Sthaneshvara Bhavani, in Bilvaka Bilvapatrika, in Shrishaila Madhavi, in Bhadreshvara Bhadra, on the Varaha hill Jaya, in Kamalalaya Kamala, at Rudrakoti Rudrani, in Kalanjara Kali, at Shalagrama Mahadevi, at the Shivalinga Jalapriya, at the Mahalinga Kapila, and in Makota Mukuteshvari. At Mayapuri she is Kumari, at the Santana-pitha Lalitambika, in Gaya Mangala, in Purushottama Vimala, at Sahasraksha Utpalakshi, at Hiranyaksha Mahotpala, on the Vipasha Amoghakshi, in Pundravardhana Padala, at Suparshva Narayani, on Trikuta Rudrasundari, in the Vipula country Vipula, on the Malaya hill Kalyani, on the Sahyadri Ekavira, at Harishchandra Chandrika, at Ramatirtha Ramana, on the Yamuna Mrigavati, at Kotatirtha Kotavi, in the Madhava forest Sugandha, on the Godavari Trisandhya, at Gangadvara Ratipriya, at Shivakunda Shubhananda, and on the bank of the Devika Nandini.
The count went on, river by river and hill by hill, and Janamejaya kept listening. In Dvaravati she is Rukmini, in Vrindavana Radha, in Mathura Devaki, in Patala Parameshvari, in Chitrakuta Sita, on the Vindhya Vindhyavasini, in Karavira Mahalakshmi, in the Vinayaka country Uma, at Vaidyanatha Arogya, in Mahakala Maheshvari, at the hot springs Abhaya, on the Vindhya range Nitamba, in the Mandavya country Mandavi, and in Maheshvaripura Svaha. In Chhagalanda she is Prachanda, at Amarakantaka Chandika, at Someshvara Vararoha, in Prabhasa Pushkaravati, at the Sarasvati tirtha Devamata, on the seashore Paravara, at Mahalaya Mahabhaga, and on the Payoshni Pingaleshvari. At Kritashaucha she is Simhika, in the Kartika country Atishankari, at Utpalavartaka Lola, at the meeting of the Shona Subhadra, in Siddhavana the mother Lakshmi, at Bharatashrama Ananga, in Jalandhara Vishvamukhi, on the Kishkindha mountain Tara, in the Devadaru forest Pushti, in the Kashmir country Medha, on Himadri Bhima, in the Vishveshvara country Tushti, at Kapalamochana Shuddhi, at Kamavarohana Mata, at Shankhoddhara Dhara, and at Pindaraka Dhriti. On the bank of the Chandrabhaga she is Kala, at Achchhoda Shivadharini, on the bank of the Vena Amrita, at Badari Urvashi, in Uttarakuru Aushadhi, in Kushadvipa Kushodaka, on Hemakuta Manmatha, in the Kumuda forest Satyavadini, at the Ashvattha tirtha Vandaniya, in the house of Vaishravana Nidhi, and at the Vedavadana tirtha Gayatri. And past the places of the earth she is Parvati in Shiva’s presence, Indrani in the world of the gods, Sarasvati in the mouths of Brahma, Prabha in the orb of the sun, Vaishnavi among the Matrikas, Arundhati among faithful wives, Tilottama among the apsaras, and in the chitta of every embodied being the Shakti named Brahmakala.
These, Vyasa said, are the 108 pithas, with as many presiding goddesses declared for them: the pithas that are the limbs of Devi Sati, and with them, told as the occasion allowed, other principal places of the earth. Whoever remembers or hears these 108 excellent names is freed of every sin and goes to the supreme Devi-loka. One should go to all of them by the rule of pilgrimage, satisfy the pitrs with shraddha, perform the great worship of Bhagavati in due form, and ask forgiveness of Jagadamba again and again; then one may know oneself fulfilled. Then one feeds all the Brahmins there, and the married women, and the maidens, and the boys. Those who live in those kshetras, even the Chandalas, are declared forms of the Devi, and so they are to be honored, and in those kshetras one accepts no gift from anyone. The good sadhaka does the purascharana of the mantra as far as he can and worships without pause, with the Mayabija, the Deveshi who presides over each pitha; a man devoted to the Devi is never stingy with his money. Whoever makes the pilgrimage of Shri Devi this way, with a glad mind, gives his pitrs a thousand kalpas in the great Brahmaloka and himself a place in the Devi’s city, and at the end he gains the highest knowledge and is freed from the ocean of becoming. By japa of the 108 names many have become siddhas. Where they are written, or kept in a book, the fear of planets and of plague never enters, and good fortune grows in that house daily as the ocean grows at the parvan. For the one who tells these names in japa nothing is hard to get; the gods bow to him, for he is declared a form of the Devi, and he is worshiped by the gods in every way, and what then by the best of men. Whoever recites them at the time of shraddha sends all his pitrs, satisfied, to the supreme goal. These siddhapithas, Vyasa said, are fields of liberation, made of manifest consciousness, and a wise man takes refuge in them. “I have told you all you asked of Maheshi’s secret beyond secrets. What more do you wish to hear?”
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)