Harivamsha 19

English (machine translation) 19

Language: English

19.1

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / To Brahmadatta was born that son of the Vaibhrāja line, / of yogic soul, endowed with ascetic heat, known as Viṣvaksena.

19.2

Once Brahmadatta, accompanied by his wife in the forest, / sported, delighted in heart, like Śatakratu with Śacī.

19.3

Then the king heard the speech of an ant, / as an impassioned male was crying out loudly, begging a passionate female.

19.4

Hearing that tiny female ant being begged and becoming angry, / Brahmadatta burst into loud laughter without any apparent cause.

19.5

Then that Saṃnati, dejected, ashamed, and distressed in mind, / went without food for many days, O crusher of enemies.

19.6

Being appeased by her husband, she of bright smile said to him: / "Laughed at by you, O king, I have no desire to live."

19.7

He explained the cause of it, but she did not believe it; / and becoming angry, she said to him: "This is impossible, O king!

What human being can understand the speech of an ant / except by the grace of a god, or by deeds done in a previous birth, / or by the fruit of ascetic heat, O king, or through knowledge, O ruler of men?

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If this power of yours truly is knowledge of the speech of all living beings,

19.9

then convince me so that I may know it, / or else I will abandon my life, O king; I swear to you in truth!"

19.10

Hearing that harsh speech of his queen, O lord, / that king, deeply distressed, then went to the best of gods, / the refuge, the lord of all beings, Lord Nārāyaṇa, with devotion.

19.11

Concentrated and fasting for six nights, the illustrious king / saw in a vision the god Nārāyaṇa, Hari.

19.12

And the Blessed One, compassionate to all beings, said to him: / "Brahmadatta, in the morning you will attain good fortune." / Having spoken thus, the blessed god vanished right there.

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Royal seer Brahmadatta, too, having taught the knowledge of the speech of all living beings

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to his wife, returned from the forest to the city.

19.13

Now the father of the four great-souled brahmins, / having learned the verse from his sons, felt as if he had accomplished his purpose.

19.14

He then sought the unfailing king along with his ministers, / but found no opportunity to recite the verse to him then.

19.15

Then the king, having bathed his head, having received the boon from Nārāyaṇa, / gladly entered the city, having mounted a golden chariot.

19.16

The best of brahmins, Kaṇḍarīka, held his reins, / and Bābhravya waved the chowrie fan.

19.17

Thinking, "This is the moment," that brahmin then / recited that verse to the king and to those two ministers:

19.18

"Seven hunters in Daśārṇa, deer on Mount Kālañjara, / swans on Lake Mānasa, / we were born in Kurukṣetra as brahmins who had mastered the Vedas, / departed on a distant path; / cakravāka birds on a river island—you fall short of them!"

19.19

Hearing that, Brahmadatta fell into a swoon then, O sinless one, / and his two ministers, Pāñcāla and Kaṇḍarīka, O Bhārata.

19.20

Seeing both of them with reins and whip dropped and the fan fallen, / the citizens and the bystanders became alarmed.

19.21

After an instant, the king, standing on the chariot with the two of them, / regained consciousness and recovered, O subduer of enemies.

19.22

Then, remembering that lake and attaining that yoga, / they endowed the brahmin with vast wealth and enjoyments.

19.23

Having anointed Viṣvaksena, the subduer of enemies, in his kingdom, / Brahmadatta then went to the forest with his wife.

19.24

Then the wise Saṃnati, daughter of Devala, / highly pleased, spoke through yoga to the king who had gone to the forest:

19.25

"Knowing that you possessed knowledge of the speech of ants, O great king, / you, who were attached to desires, were provoked by me regarding anger.

19.26

From here we will go to the desired, supreme state; / your yoga was lost, and then it was brought back to your memory by me."

19.27

That king, supremely pleased upon hearing his wife's speech then, / attaining yoga right from the forest, attained a state very hard to attain.

19.28

Kaṇḍarīka too, of yogic soul, attaining the supreme Sāṃkhya-yoga / and the path of yoga, became perfected, purified by his own action.

19.29

Having composed the krama and created the whole phonetic science, / Pāñcāla of great ascetic heat reached the state of a master of yoga and foremost fame.

19.30

Thus did this happen formerly before my very eyes, O Acyuta; / retain it, O son of Gaṅgā, and from that you will be joined with the highest good.

19.31

And whatever others retain their excellent life story / will never at any time be born among animals.

19.32

And hearing this narrative of great import, the goal of the great ones, / the dharma of yoga would always dwell in one's heart, O Bhārata.

19.33

From that very connection he occasionally obtained peace. / Whoever recites this at a śrāddha, doing merit, pleases the ancestors; / and eternal satisfaction accrues to the ancestors, unending. / Those who read it, listen to it, and make brahmins hear it, / then attain the state of mind of the perfected, difficult to obtain on earth.

19.34

Vaiśaṃpāyana said: / Thus this was sung in the past by the wise Mārkaṇḍeya / regarding the fruit of a śrāddha, for the nourishing of Soma.

19.35

For the lord Soma is a god, the supreme nourishment of the world. / In the context of the Vṛṣṇi lineage, listen to his lineage from me.

Linked texts (1)

Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit