Punya and Pavana

Sage Vasishtha

Continued from here

O Rama, in this connection there is an ancient legend which I shall narrate to you.

In the continent known as Jambudvipa there is a great mountain known as Mahendra. In the forests on the slopes of that mountain many holy men and sages lived. They had in fact brought down onto that mountain the river Vyoma Ganga (Akasa Ganga) for their bath, drinking, etc. On the bank of this river there lived a holy man named Dirgatapa who was, as his name implies, the very embodiment of ceaseless austerity.

The ascetic had two sons named Punya and Paavana. Of these Punya had reached full enlightenment, but Paavana, though he had overcome ignorance, had not yet reached full enlightenment and hence he had semi-wisdom.

With the inexorable passage of invisible and intangible time, the sage Dirgatapa (who had freed himself from every form of attachment and craving) had grown in age and, even as a bird flies away from its cage, abandoned the body and reached the state of utter purity. Using the yogic method she had learnt from him, his wife too, followed him.

(To be continued)