Glorification of Gita Chapter V
Pingala & his wife Aruna
(Chapter 179, Padma Purana, Part-VIII)The lord said:
O goddess, I shall now narrate in brief the importance of the fifth chapter, respected by the world. O dear one, listen attentively. There was a brahmana named Pingala, born in the city of Purukutsa in the Bhadra country. He was born in a pure family of brahmanas, expounders of the Vedas. Having abandoned (the study of) holy texts proper for his family and the Vedas, he took to instrumental music, song, dance etc. and played upon a tabor etc. Having exerted himself in (mastering) singing, dancing and instrumental music, he obtained great fame and entered the king's house. (Thus) formerly he stayed with the king. He approached others' wives and enjoyed them with an undivided mind. Then he, puffed up with pride and unrestrained, always told him in private the weak points of others. His wife was Aruna by name, who was born in a mean family. She moving with a lover and looking for (paramours), took him to be a hindrance, and in her house at night she killed him by cutting off his head and buried him in the ground. Deprived of his life, he went to Yama's abode. Having lived in invincible hells, he was born as a vulture in a solitary forest. She too, casting her body due to fistula of the pudendum went to dreadful hells, and was born as a female parrot in that forest. The vulture remembering his former enmity, tore her wandering here and there with a desire to take grains, with his sharp talons. Then the vulture ran after the female parrot falling into a human skull, and he too was killed by bird-catchers. His wife (i.e. the female parrot) died there in the water in the human skull. The very cruel vulture having gone there, got drowned into that only. The two, taken by Yama's servants, went to the world of the manes. The two, entertaining fear, remembered the wicked deeds formerly done by them. Then Yama noticed their censurable deeds, and suddenly also noticed their great auspicious deed in bathing in it (i.e. in the human skull) and dying. Then he permitted the two to go to their desired world ; though their minds were unassailable, they were amazed at remembering their own sins. (1-17a)
Approaching and bowing they said to Yama: "We have collected censurable sins before. (Then) what is the cause for our (going to the) desired worlds? (Please) tell it to us." Thus addressed by them, Yama then spoke these words to them: "On the bank of Ganga there lived an excellent brahmana Batu by name. He was alone, without the feeling of mineness (meanness?), tranquil, free from attachment and jealousy. He always repeated the fifth chapter of the Gita. With his soul purified due to that religious merit, he, though a sinner, realised the eternal Brahman on hearing it after he cast his body. His soul, whose body was purified by the Gita, was purified. Having reached that water in his skull, you two became pure. Therefore, you go to the worlds desired by you who are purified by the fifth chapter of the Gita." Thus advised by him, the impartial one, they got into a divine car and went to the position of Vishnu. (17b-24)
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SUMMARY
Lord Vishnu asked Lakshmi devi to listen carefully as He described the glories of the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. Once in a town named Puru-kutsapura there lived a brahmana called Pingala. Although well educated, he lacked interest in studying, and so when he reached youth he gave up his educational pursuits. Instead, he learned to play musical instruments and sing and dance. He became so skilled and famous that the king invited him to live in the palace. But his intimacy with the king made him proud, and he became fond of criticizing others; worse, he took up intoxication and adultery.
Despite his promiscuity, Pingala had a wife named Aruna, who had been born in a low-class family. She too was lusty and promiscuous, and when Pingala discovered this, Aruna murdered him.Thereafter she enjoyed life with many men, but she soon contracted a venereal disease. Her youthful body therefore became ugly, and before long she died. Both husband and wife fell into the deepest regions of hell and suffered tremendously. In their next lives, they both took birth as birds, Pingala a vulture and Aruna a parrot.
One day while the parrot searched for food, the vulture attacked her. The vulture could somehow remember his past life, and he understood that the parrot had been his wife. After a flurry of fighting, both birds fell down and drowned in a human skull filled with water. They were brought before Yamaraja, and because they vividly remembered their sins, they were frightened. But Yamaraja said, “You are now freed of all sinful reactions and may go to Vaikuntha.”
Dumbfounded, Pingala and Aruna asked Yamaraja how persons of their caliber had the right to enter Vaikuntha. Then Yamaraja told them about a pure devotee of Lord Vishnu who had daily recited the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. When this devotee, who was completely free of lust, left his body, he went straight to Vaikuntha. Because of his recitations of Bhagavad-gita his body had also become pure. Therefore, when Pingala and Aruna, as birds, had touched his skull, both of them had achieved freedom from sinful reactions and attained the right to enter Vaikuntha.
After Pingala and Aruna heard the glories of the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita they became overjoyed, and a flower airplane arrived to take them to the spiritual world.
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Online Sources:
1a) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : West Bengal Public Library Network
1b) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : Digital Library of India
1c) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : Derived from 1a,b
Hard Copy Source: (scanned "PDF"s from Online Source#1a,b)
"The Padma-Purana (English)" by Veda Vyasa, 1954 & 1956. Translated by Sri N.A. Deshpande, Indian Translation Series of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, jointly sponsored by UNESCO & Government of India. Part VIII & IX, First Edition. 2906-2970p. Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt.Ltd., Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi-1110007. Printed by Jainendra Prakash Jain at Jainendra Press, A-45 Naraina Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi-110028.
Online References:
- http://www.bhagavad-gita.us
- http://www.gita-society.com/scriptures/GitaMahatmya.IGS.pdf
- http://www.iskconbangalore.org/gitamahatmya-introduction
- https://archive.org/details/puran_padam
संस्कृत श्लोक - Sanskrit Padmapuran-5
বাংলা অনুবাদ - Bengali Padmapuran-5
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বাংলা অনুবাদ - Bengali Padmapuran-5
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Typed, OCR-ed, edited and uploaded by rk
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