Mudgalapurana 4.17: āṣāḍhaśukla caturthīcaritavarṇanaṃ nāma saptadaśo'dhyāyaḥ

Salutation to the glorious Gaṇeśa.

Daśaratha said: / Speak, O holy one, of the great story of the fourth lunar day / of the bright fortnight in Āṣāḍha; I am not satiated by hearing this tale that grants great success.

Vasiṣṭha said: / In the territory of Mithilā, O king, there is a great city named Gaṇḍakī; / there Bhadrasena ruled with boundless splendour.

Extremely skilled in weapons and missiles, crushing enemy realms, / having conquered the entire earth encircled by the ocean,

he ruled the kingdom with righteousness, statecraft, and punishment, O king— / a performer of sacrifices, humble, honourable, fond of the twice-born, the gods, and guests.

All kings were submissive and served that ruler of men; / endowed with a boundless army, the others became his tributaries.

In his kingdom, O king, countless parrots, locusts, and mice / forcefully devoured grain, clothing, and other goods.

In order to destroy them utterly, the glorious Bhadrasena, / making an effort with his weapons, killed many of them.

Though they were burnt on all sides by the fire-weapon, / the king saw that they were born again, and was greatly astonished.

Here and there inside the houses, those locusts and other pests roamed; / powerless, he went into the forest and became deeply sorrowful.

Devoted to fasting, the king performed supreme austerity; / remembering Śiva, he worshipped him with the Raudra mantra and praised him with devotion.

When a year had passed, the great yogin Bakadālbhya arrived / in that region by the power of fate and, wandering about, saw the king.

The king worshipped him, fed him, and, acting with propriety, / questioned the yogin there with a sorrowful heart.

Bhadrasena said: / O master, in my kingdom indeed, mice, locusts, and parrots, / intent on eating, have caused extreme distress to the people and to me.

All remedies devised there, O Brāhmaṇa, became completely fruitless; / having abandoned my kingdom, I stay in the forest because of my grief.

Worshipping Śaṅkara there, I have attained sight of you, O noble-minded one, / through the power of my austerity; tell me the remedy for this, O lord.

Vasiṣṭha said: / Hearing Bhadrasena’s words, the renowned Gāṇapatya, / that Bakadālbhya, spoke to the king as if gladdening him.

Bakadālbhya said: / I have been sent here by Śiva for your sake, O best of kings; / listen to my supreme word, which brings about the destruction of all suffering.

In your kingdom today, O Bhadrasena, the vow / named the Fourth has fallen into neglect; because of that, you are now beset with obstacles.

All your subjects have become agitated by fear under an unjust ruler; / as the ruler of the kingdom, O sinner, you will surely go to hell for this.

First of all, that vow must be observed by all as an obligatory duty, O lord; / it bestows the four aims of human life and removes obstacles.

If it is not performed, then all action performed is useless / because it lacks the four aims of life; reflect upon this, O noble-minded one.

Having spoken thus, Bakadālbhya indeed related / to the king the greatness of the fourth lunar day; having heard it, he spoke these words:

Bhadrasena said: / What is this Gaṇādhīśa like? Tell me of his true nature; / having known him, the lord of all the gods, I shall worship him especially.

Bakadālbhya said: / Listen, O protector of the earth, to what was done by me in the past; / through that you will become fully skilled in the knowledge of the king of the Gaṇas.

Formerly, engaged in austerity, I fed on air alone. / (

Sect. 4, ch. 17, p. 51) Then the moving and unmoving world was pervaded by my splendour, afflicted with fear.

Even so, O king, as I was engaged in austerity, there occurred to me / a wonderful, supreme vision of the all-pervading universal form.

Through that state of knowledge, remaining fixed for the sake of yoga, / having abandoned austerity especially, I took pleasure in behaving like a dullard, a madman, and the like.

Possessed of tranquility, devoted to self-restraint, intent on complete control of the mind, / I constantly and utterly cultivated the yoga that bestows full bliss.

Thus, in due course, O protector of the earth, I was situated in the innate Brahman, / having the nature of one who has become Brahman, full of joy at that time.

Then, through intense delusion, a void possessing an independent form / was seen by me; thereby I became perplexed: 'How can such a thing exist in Brahman?'

Then I went for refuge to Śambhu and praised him with hymns of praise; / seeing Śaṅkara pleased, I said: 'O Lord, explain yoga to me.'

Śiva said: / Know that truths and untruths are equal, joined with the innate, / arising from the realization of one's own Self, and originating from Svānanda.

One's own true nature is to be known in conjunction according to the declaration of the Veda; / in disjunction, every conjunction is destroyed, of this there is no doubt.

Conjunction and likewise yoga—the union of these two, O highly intelligent one, / is declared by yogins through the practice of yoga to bestow the peace of yoga.

Know Gaṇeśa, the lord of Brahman, to consist of the peace of yoga; / worship him according to rule, and you will become one who has become Brahman.

Conjunction is named by the syllable 'ga', and the syllable 'ṇa' designates yoga; / the lord of both is Gaṇādhīśa: see this especially in the Veda.

Having spoken thus, Mahādeva gave to me, the twice-born, / the single-syllable mantra of Gaṇeśa, complete with ritual injunctions, bestowing proper yoga.

Having bowed to Śaṅkara, O king, I went to the forest itself; / meditating upon that king of the Gaṇas, devoted to recitation, I worshipped him.

Then, by his grace, peace was attained by me especially; / yet, attached to his worship, I meditated upon him in my heart.

Then he showed me his form adorned with a trunk; / having seen him, I bowed down and, filled with joy, praised him.

Having granted devotion to me, Gaṇādhīśa vanished; / from then on, O fortunate one, I have been a Gāṇapatya with reverence.

Having spoken thus, the sage gave him the five-syllable mantra; / that best of the twice-born caused the disappearance of Gaṇeśa.

Seeing Bakadālbhya gone, the king, filled with joy, / returned to his city and ruled his kingdom according to dharma.

Then, together with the citizens, he performed the excellent observance / belonging to the fourth lunar day in the bright half of Āṣāḍha with excellent devotion.

Then that observance was celebrated by him everywhere; / the people performed the observance belonging to the fourth lunar day of both the bright and dark fortnights, O king.

Parrots, mice, and locusts there met their destruction; / endowed with wealth and grain, the people attained prosperity with great joy.

Having abandoned various sorrows, enveloped solely in bliss, / in the end they all went to Svānanda and became one with Brahman.

Having consecrated his son in the kingdom, he went to the forest accompanied by his wife; / there he worshipped that king of the Gaṇas with undivided devotion.

In the end, going to Svānanda together with his wife, O son of the Unborn, / he became one with Brahman through the grace of this observance.

Hear another deed born of that observance, which increases merit / and yields the fruit of worldly enjoyment and liberation, belonging to the boon-granting [fourth lunar day] in Āṣāḍha.

Sect. 4, ch. 17, p. 52) A merchant born in the country of Baṅga, an evil-doer, / having abandoned his own dharma, became devoted to visible pleasures.

Constantly joined with violence, he indulged in gambling, liquor, and the like; / seizing her by force, he enjoyed another's wife who had not come under his control.

Knowing his conduct to be wicked, he was reproached by his father; / repeatedly agitated by that, the vile man gave poison to his father.

Afflicted by the poison, he died, and [the son] cremated him; / then, approaching his mother, he seized her wealth by force.

All the people then, learning of the utterly painful deed / of that wicked man, became deeply distressed.

The leading men went to the king and told him specifically of that / deed; the king was agitated upon hearing it, and had him brought there.

By the king's command, O king, that evil-minded man was impaled on a stake by the men; / on that day, by the turn of fate, it was the bright [fourth] of Āṣāḍha.

There he remained without water and without food; / on the fifth lunar day, afflicted with agony, the evil-minded man died, O king.

Through the merit of the observance [performed] unknowingly, he went to Svānanda; / through the power of that very observance, O king, [though] a great sinner,

having seen Gaṇapa in Svānanda, he became one with Brahman; / in this way, through the power of the observance, people attain Brahman.

How many [such people] there are cannot ever be numbered / in all, even in ten thousand years, O great king, by any yogin.

If that divine fourth day, the boon-granting one, is accomplished with knowledge, / what wonder is there that she would bestow Brahman upon him?

If one reads or hears this deed of the fourth lunar day / occurring in Āṣāḍha, the boon-granting one, he will obtain his desired fruit.

Om tat sat. Thus ends the seventeenth chapter, named 'Description of the deeds of the bright fourth lunar day of Āṣāḍha', in the story of Gajānana, in the fourth section of the glorious Mudgalapurāṇa, the final Purāṇa-Upaniṣad.