Bhagavatī Ramā, i.e., Mahālakṣmī, became the Padmā river after becoming angry with her husband, Viṣṇu, and left Vaikuṇṭha. She also got cursed by Nārada Ṛṣi and dried up but later merged with Gaṅgā and was freed.
The story goes as follows. Once, Viṣṇu was in Vaikuṇṭha with Lakṣmī. Seeing the devotion of Vṛndā and Bhūdēvī, he accepted them. Worried or concerned about Lakṣmī’s anger, he spent time with them secretly. Even when Lakṣmī found out about this and questioned him, he concealed it. After that, Vāṇī, i.e., Sarasvatī, invited Lakṣmī, accompanied by her attendants, to Satyalōka for a visit with the permission of Viṣṇu. During her absence in Vaikuṇṭha, Viṣṇu sported with Vṛndā and Bhū.
Later, Lakṣmī came back from Satyalōka to Vaikuṇṭha, and she was furious to see Viṣṇu sporting in private with Vṛndā and Bhūmi. Viṣṇu was alarmed and followed Lakṣmī as she stormed out of Vaikuṇṭha in anger. He followed her to Himālaya, and he then attempted to console her by holding her right hand. Then Lakṣmī, who was burning with wrath and anger, was liquified like a mass of ghee by fire and flowed into a continuous river, becoming the Padmā river, which was later dried up due to the curse of Nārada.
After narrating this tale, it gets back to Dattātrēya and Paraśurāma. And Dattātrēya says that Bhagīratha, a sagely king, by performing great penance, made the river Gaṅgā flow on the earth. As Gaṅgā flowed as a river down to earth and followed Bhagīratha, she happened to reach where the dried Padmā river remained, causing Padmā to merge with Gaṅgā. Coming in contact with Gaṅgā, Padmā was relieved of her curse and joined the sea earlier than Gaṅgā.
After that, Paraśurāma asks his guru, Dattātrēya, the story of how the Padmā River got cursed, and he narrates the tale to him, which goes as follows.
Once, Nārada was at the sabhā in Brahmalōka, where Gandharvas, Yakṣas, Kinnaras, and other divine celestial beings were performing the Gandharva style of music. Each one of them excelled the other in skill. Then Nārada also played the rāgas (musical modes) on his vīṇā. By his rāgas, all those that were there were engrossed in the transcendental melody and were experiencing bliss and complimented Nārada.
Then Sarasvatī, the exponent in melody, played on her vīṇā, the Kacchapī. Nārada and others could not really grasp the intricacies of those rāgas. At the end of the event, Nārada left and on his way was thinking of the rāga by Sarasvatī, which was the best and which he could not comprehend.
He went to a solitary forest on the banks of the river Padmā and started to play the vīṇā with the same rāga that his mother, Sarasvatī, had splendidly performed. Hearing the discord in his rendering, the river Padmā laughed loudly.
Put to shame and angered by the insult, Nārada cursed the river Padmā and said thus: “Oh great River! You shall dry up for your insolence towards me.” Hearing that frightening curse, Padmā fell prostrate before Nārada and repeatedly begged for the termination of the curse. Upon her request, Nārada said: “Oh Great River! When you unite (merge) with the supreme Gaṅgā, you will be free from the curse.”
After that, Padmā, with great reverence, asks Nārada about Gaṅgā, where she is and how she will reach the earth. Then Nārada narrates the tale of Gaṅgā, her origin, and how she will descend down or flow down on earth as a river and eventually reach Padmā, and she would merge with her, being freed from the curse.
The timeline is unclear here in this scripture, though it is heavily implied that some time after or later on in the future, eventually Gaṅgā did come down to earth and flow as a river due to Bhagīratha’s penance, and she ended up reaching where the dried-up river of Padmā was, causing Padmā to merge with her. After that, Padmā was freed from the curse.
It gets back to Dattātrēya narrating to Paraśurāma, and he says that like this, Ramā (Lakṣmī) suffered great distress from her co-wives. And this is pretty much the entire story of Padmā Nadī according to the Tripurārahasya - त्रिपुरारहस्य.
Art by: Parimala Devi Namasivayam
Jaya Mā Lakṣmīsvarūpā Padmā! 🙏🏼
