Adhyaya 196
Chapter 196 records Mārkaṇḍeya’s guidance on pilgrimage, directing the listener to Haṃsatīrtha, praised as an unsurpassed sacred ford. Its authority is grounded in an origin legend: a Haṃsa performed tapas there and attained the status of Brahmā’s vehicle (brahma-vāhanatā), establishing the site’s mythic potency. The chapter then lays down the ritual-ethical observance: one who bathes at Haṃsatīrtha and gives a gift of gold (kāñcana-dāna) is proclaimed freed from all sins and destined for Brahmaloka. The reward is pictured in luminous visions—travel in a swan-yoked celestial conveyance, radiant like the young sun, enjoying all desired pleasures, attended by companies of apsarases. After experiencing enjoyments according to desire, the soul is said to return to human birth with jāti-smaraṇa (memory of former lives), implying moral continuity across lifetimes. The conclusion offers a soteriological summit: whoever relinquishes the body through saṃnyāsa attains mokṣa, and the tīrtha’s fruit is summed up as sin-destroying, merit-bestowing, and sorrow-dispelling.
Shlokas
Verse 1
श्रीमार्कण्डेय उवाच । ततो गच्छेद्धराधीश हंसतीर्थमनुत्तमम् । यत्र हंसस्तपस्तप्त्वा ब्रह्मवाहनतां गतः
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: “Then, O lord of the earth, one should go to the unsurpassed Haṃsatīrtha—where the Haṃsa performed austerities and attained the status of Brahmā’s vehicle.”
Verse 2
हंसतीर्थे नरः स्नात्वा दानं दत्त्वा च काञ्चनम् । सर्वपापविनिर्मुक्तो ब्रह्मलोकं स गच्छति
At Haṃsatīrtha, having bathed and having given charity—gold as well—a man is freed from all sins and goes to Brahmaloka.
Verse 3
हंसयुक्तेन यानेन तरुणादित्यवर्चसा । सर्वकामसमृद्धेन सेव्यमानोऽप्सरोगणैः
He is borne in a swan-yoked celestial conveyance, radiant like the rising sun, complete with every desired enjoyment, and attended by hosts of apsarases.
Verse 4
तत्र भुक्त्वा यथाकामं सर्वान् भोगान् यथेप्सितान् । जातिस्मरो हि जायेत पुनर्मानुष्यमागतः
There, having enjoyed at will all pleasures as desired, when he returns again to human birth, he is indeed born with remembrance of his former lives.
Verse 5
संन्यासेन त्यजेद्देहं मोक्षमाप्नोति भारत
O Bhārata, if he abandons the body through renunciation (saṃnyāsa), he attains liberation (mokṣa).
Verse 6
एतत्ते कथितं पार्थ हंसतीर्थस्य यत्फलम् । सर्वपापहरं पुण्यं सर्वदुःखविनाशनम्
O Pārtha, thus have I told you the fruit of Haṃsatīrtha: it is holy, it removes all sins, and it destroys every sorrow.
Verse 196
अध्याय
Chapter (heading).