Harivamsha 59

English (machine translation) 59

Language: English

59.1

While the two of them, Kṛṣṇa and Bala, were thus engaged,
wandering in the forest, the two rainy months passed away.

59.2

The two heroes returned to the cowherd station, and then in the cowherd station heard
that the festival of Śakra had arrived, and [saw] the cowherds longing for the festival.

59.3

Out of curiosity, Kṛṣṇa spoke this sentence there:
"What is this festival named the festival of Śakra, by which joy has come to you?"

59.4

There the eldest cowherd spoke this speech:
"Hear, dear boy, for what purpose the festival of Śakra is desired.

59.5

Śakra is the lord of the gods and of the clouds, O slayer of foes;
and this is the eternal sacrifice of that world protector, Kṛṣṇa.

59.6

The clouds, urged by him, adorned with his weapon,
obedient to his command alone, produce grain with fresh water.

59.7

Puruhūta, Puraṃdara is the giver of water from the cloud;
greatly delighted, that blessed lord pleases the entire world.

59.8

Consuming the grain produced by him,
we and other men maintain our livelihood and satisfy the deities.

59.9

The god rains upon the worlds; from that, grain arises;
and when the earth is satisfied, the world appears full of nectar.

59.10

These cows, yielding milk and possessing calves, are contented;
thriving because of him, nourished by grass, the cows are accompanied by bulls.

59.11

Neither are cows seen without grain or without grass, nor is any person afflicted by hunger,
where rain-bearing clouds are seen.

59.12

Śakra milked the divine, milk-rich cows of Savitṛ;
they pour forth fresh, pure milk held by masses of clouds.

59.13

Moved by the wind among the clouds, it makes a great noise;
and people know it to roar when driven by speed.

59.14

And as he is borne along by clouds accompanied by wind,
sounds equal to thunderbolts occur, shattering mountains.

59.14x692

Thundering sounds equal to thunderbolts, standing in the sky,

59.15

Śakra releases that water situated in the sky through collisions of thunderbolts,
by means of many clouds going at will, as a lord through servants."

59.16

With clouds here resembling a stormy day, there remaining covered in vapor,
and elsewhere making the sky shine like pearls of mist,

59.16x693-1

here having the appearance of split collyrium, there showering droplets,

59.16x693-2

the lord of the gods adorned the entire sky with clouds.

59.17

In this way the cloud, the rain-bearer, for the welfare of all worlds, / rains down upon the earth this water milked by the rays of the sun.

59.17x694

Because this rainy season belongs to Śakra on earth, O Kṛṣṇa,

59.18

therefore in the rainy season all kings, filled with joy, / we, and other men worship the lord of the gods with festivals.

59.19

Having heard the words of the elder cowherd concerning devotion to Śakra, / Dāmodara, although knowing the power of Śakra, spoke these words:

59.20

"We are forest-dwellers, O cowherds, cowherds living on the wealth of cattle; / know that cattle are our deity, and the mountains and the forests.

The livelihood of farmers is agriculture; the livelihood of merchants is trade; / our supreme livelihood is the cow—thus this threefold division is proclaimed. / Whatever lore a person is engaged in, that is his supreme deity;

59.21x695

that alone is to be revered and worshipped, that alone is his benefactor.

59.22

The man who, enjoying the fruit of one, performs honoring of another, / obtains two misfortunes, both after death and in this world.

59.23

Boundaries are known to end where plowing ends; the forest is said to be the border beyond them; / mountains are the borders of the forest, and that is our certain destiny.

59.24

Mountains too in this forest are said to take any form at will; / having entered various bodies, they take delight on their own slopes.

59.25

Becoming maned lions and tigers, the best among clawed beasts, / they protect their own forests, frightening away tree-cutters.

59.26

And when those living in the forest harm these [mountains], / they kill those evil-doers through cannibal acts.

59.27

Brahmins are devoted to the sacrifice of mantras, and farmers to the sacrifice of the plowshare; / we cowherds are devoted to the mountain-sacrifice: the mountain should be sacrificed to by us in the forest.

59.28

Therefore it pleases me, O cowherds, that we perform a mountain-sacrifice / in the forest, making a pleasant place either under a tree or on the mountain.

59.29

Having slaughtered fit sacrificial beasts there, laid out when the sanctuary is made, / let an offering of milk from the whole settlement be made; why hesitate?

59.30

Adorned with autumn flowers, having circumambulated that best of mountains, / keeping it to the right, let all the cows then go again into the forest.

59.31

Truly, this autumn has arrived, possessing virtues for cows with sweet, nourishing grasses, / delightful and rejoiced in, its clouds and water-reservoirs cleared.

59.32

Tawny with blooming priyaka trees, dark in places with groves of bāṇa plants, / with mature grass, the forest shines forth, devoid of the cries of peacocks.

59.33

Clear, waterless in the sky, without cranes, without lightnings, / the clouds wander like elephants devoid of rut.

59.34

Shaken by the sharp rain-wind of the monsoon, / all the trees, dense with heaps of leaves, attain serenity.

59.34x696-1

And without the thunder of clouds, the forest is devoid of peacock cries;

59.34x696-2

and the rivers, taking on many forms, carry clear water.

59.35

With a turban of white clouds, fanned by the chowries of geese, / with the pure parasol of the full moon, the sky is as if consecrated.

59.36

As if laughed upon by geese, loudly cheered by cranes, / all waters diminish with the disappearance of the clouds.

59.37

With the flanks of ruddy sheldrakes as their breasts, sandy banks as their round hips, / smiling with the marks of wild geese, the rivers go to their husband, the ocean.

59.38

The water blooming with white water lilies, and the sky adorned with stars, / seem to smile equally at each other in the nights.

59.39

In forests resounded by impassioned cranes, pale with ripe autumn rice, / entered and charming, the mind delights.

59.40

Lotus-pools, ponds, and step-wells with blooming water lilies, / paddy fields, rivers, and lakes blazed with splendor.

59.41

Lotuses and water lilies, and others that were white, / lotuses blazing with beauty, copper-colored and white, / and blue water lilies attained the glory of water-born flowers.

59.42

Peacocks shed their frenzy, winds blew softly, / the sky became cloudless, and the ocean became calm.

59.43

With peacocks' tail-feathers loosened by the change of season, / cast off after their dances were done, the earth appears as if having many eyes.

59.44

With its banks stained with its own mud, covered with kāśa flowers and creepers, / with arrangements of geese and cranes, the Yamunā flows restrained.

59.45

In the rice-fields with ripe autumn grain and in the forests, / birds, eaters of grain and eaters of water-creatures, cried out in excitement.

59.46

The young shoots of grass that the clouds sprinkled with water / at the advent of the monsoon have reached maturity and become stiff.

59.47

Casting off his cloud garment, illuminated by the qualities of autumn, / this moon, delighted, dwells in the cloudless sky.

59.48

Cows give twice as much milk; bulls are twice as vigorous; / the beauty of the forests is doubled; the earth is endowed with abundant crops.

59.49

The luminaries are free of clouds, the waters have lotuses, / and the minds of men indeed attain clarity.

59.50

The sun, possessing sharp rays, drying things up, intensely emitted in the sky / freed of clouds its brilliance ignited by autumn.

59.51

Having performed the lustration of their armies, kings seeking conquest, / the lords of the earth, march out facing one another's kingdoms.

59.52

The mind rests on the lovely, variegated rows of forest trees, / deep red with bandhujīva flowers and retaining dried mud.

59.53

And in the forests shine the trees that adorn the woods: / the asana, saptaparṇa, and kovidāra trees in full bloom,

59.54

the iṣusāhva, nikumbha, priyaka, and svarṇaka trees, / sugarcanes, nikupya, and especially the priyaṅgu, / the sṛmara, picuka, and ketakī trees on every side.

59.55

And especially in the cow-settlements, laughing with the churning of pots, / autumn wanders in bodily form among the cowpens like a radiant woman.

59.56

Surely, the dwellers of heaven are awakening the god whose emblem is a bird, / who dwells in the world of the thirty [gods] and rested comfortably during the rainy season.

59.57

Thus, when autumn rich in grain has arrived at the end of the rains, / let us worship the divine mountain and especially the cows— / [the mountain] fashioned with many birds colored like the dark blue, the moon, and the sun, / dense with fruits and coral-like shoots resembling Indra's bow, / with boughs shaped like pavilions, decorated with superior vines, / bent low by its broad base, adorned with breezes sweeping through.

Linked texts (1)

Harivaṃśa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit