Agnipurana 380

English (machine translation) 380

Language: English

380.2 — 3 parts
380.14 — 1 part
380.25 — 2 parts
380.36 — 1 part
380.47 — 1 part
380.57 — 2 parts
380.58 — 3 parts

380.1

Agni said: / I shall declare the essence of the Gītā, highest of all songs, / which Kṛṣṇa anciently spoke to Arjuna, granting worldly enjoyment and liberation.

The Blessed Lord said: / Whether life is gone or not gone, the unborn embodied soul is not to be grieved for. / The self is ageless, immortal, indivisible; therefore, one should abandon grief and the like.

380.2.p1

[...]

380.2.p2

1. "Through knowledge, the king of the Sauvīras," thus in manuscripts kha and ña.

380.2.p3

2. "Granting worldly enjoyment and liberation to those who recite," thus in manuscript kha. / [p. 345]

380.3

For a man meditating on sense-objects, attachment to them is born; / from attachment arises desire, from that anger, and from anger delusion indeed.

380.4

From delusion comes loss of memory; from destruction of intellect he perishes. / Abandonment of bad company comes from good company, [and thus] desiring liberation and casting off desire,

380.5

steadfast in the self through relinquishing desire, he is then called one of steady wisdom. / That which is night for all beings, in that the self-controlled man keeps awake.

380.6

That in which beings keep awake is night for the seeing sage. / And satisfied in the self alone, for him there is no duty to be done.

380.7

For him there is no purpose at all in what is done here, nor in what is not done. / But the knower of truth, O mighty-armed one, regarding the divisions of gunas and actions,

380.8

thinking, "The gunas operate among the gunas," is not attached. / He will cross over all sin solely by the boat of knowledge.

380.9

The fire of knowledge reduces all actions to ashes, O Arjuna. / Dedicating actions to Brahman, he who acts having abandoned attachment

380.10

is not tainted by sin, just as a lotus leaf is not [tainted] by water. / Seeing the self in all beings and all beings in the self,

380.11

the one whose self is disciplined in yoga sees with equal vision everywhere. / One fallen from yoga is born in the house of the pure and prosperous.

380.12

For no one who does good goes to a bad state, my dear friend. / For this divine māyā of mine, composed of the gunas, is hard to overcome.

380.13

Those who take refuge in me alone cross beyond this māyā. / The afflicted, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the man of knowledge, O best of the Bharatas—

380.14

fourfold are they who worship me; and the man of knowledge is established in oneness.

380.14.p1

[p. 346]

380.14_2

The supreme imperishable is Brahman; essential nature is called the higher self.

380.15

The emission that brings about the origin of the existence of beings is known as action. / The perishable existence is the material realm, and the cosmic Person is the realm of the deities.

380.16

I alone am the realm of sacrifice here in this body, O best of embodied beings. / And at the time of death, remembering me, he attains my state beyond doubt.

380.17

Remembering whatever state of being at the end he leaves the body, to that he goes. / Placing the vital breath between the eyebrows at the end, he attains my supreme [state].

380.18

Pronouncing the single syllable OṂ, which is Brahman, thus casting off the body. / From Brahmā down to a blade of grass, all are my manifestations.

380.19

All living beings that are prosperous and powerful are considered portions of me. / Knowing, "I alone am the universal form," one is liberated.

380.20

He who knows the body as the field is declared to be the knower of the field. / The knowledge of the field and the knower of the field, that is considered knowledge by me.

380.21

The great elements, ego-sense, intellect, and the unmanifest; / the eleven sense faculties, and the five objects of the senses;

380.22

desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, consciousness, steadfastness: / this in brief is declared to be the field with its modifications.

380.23

Humility, unpretentiousness, non-violence, forbearance, uprightness, / attendance on the teacher, ritual purity, steadfastness, self-restraint,

380.24

dispassion toward sense-objects, and also absence of egoism, / contemplation of the evils of birth, death, old age, disease, and suffering,

380.25

non-clinging, absence of passionate attachment toward sons, wife, home, and the like,

380.25.p1

[...]

380.25.p2

1. "My limbs," thus in manuscript kha. / [p. 347]

380.25_2

and constant even-mindedness in desired and undesired occurrences,

380.26

and unswerving devotion to me through disciplined focus on no other, / resort to solitary places, distaste for crowds of people,

380.27

steadfastness in knowledge of the supreme self, perception of the aim of knowledge of reality: / this is declared to be knowledge; that which is contrary to it is ignorance.

380.28

I shall declare that which is to be known, knowing which one attains immortality: / the beginningless supreme Brahman; it is called neither being nor non-being.

380.29

With hands and feet on all sides, with eyes, heads, and faces on all sides, / with ears on all sides in the world, it stands encompassing all.

380.30

Shining with the virtues of all the senses, yet devoid of all the senses; / unattached, yet supporting all; free of the gunas, yet experiencing the gunas;

380.31

outside and inside beings, moving and unmoving; / incomprehensible because of its subtlety; both far away and near;

380.32

undivided among beings, yet standing as if divided; / it should be known as the sustainer of beings, devouring them and generating them.

380.33

The light even of lights, it is said to be beyond darkness; / knowledge, the object of knowledge, attainable by knowledge, seated in the heart of all.

380.34

By meditation, some see the self in the self by the self; / others by the yoga of knowledge, and others by the yoga of action.

380.35

Others, not knowing thus, worship having heard from others; / they too, devoted to hearing, certainly cross beyond death quickly.

380.36

From sattva arises knowledge, and from rajas greed; / negligence and delusion arise from tamas, as does ignorance.

380.36.p1

[p. 348]

380.37

He who stands firm, thinking only, "The gunas operate," and is not shaken, / equal in honor and dishonor, to friend and foe, renouncing [all undertakings]—he is beyond the gunas.

380.38

They speak of the imperishable Aśvattha tree with its roots above and branches below, / whose leaves are the Vedic hymns; he who knows it is a knower of the Veda.

380.39

There are two orders of beings in this world: the divine and the demonic. / Non-violence and the like, and forbearance, belong to men of divine endowment.

380.40

Neither ritual purity nor conduct arises from demonic endowment. / Because they lead to hell, one should abandon the triad of anger, greed, and desire.

380.41

Sacrifice, ascetic austerity, and gift are considered threefold according to sattva and the rest. / Food that promotes longevity, mental strength, physical strength, health, and happiness is sāttvika.

380.42

Food that brings suffering, sorrow, and disease, being pungent and dry, is rājasika. / Food that is impure, remnant, foul-smelling, and tasteless is tāmasika.

380.43

Sacrifice performed according to rule without desire is sāttvika; / a sacrifice [offered] for reward or out of ostentation is rājasika; [that devoid of faith and rules] is a tāmasika rite.

380.44

Ascetic austerity prescribed by faith, mantras, and the like, [such as] worship of gods and non-violence, is called bodily; / ascetic austerity consisting of speech is said [to be]:

380.45

words causing no agitation, truth, study of the Veda, and good recitation; / mental [austerity is that] of mental purity, silence, and self-restraint.

380.46

Ascetic austerity without desire is sāttvika, but that for the sake of fruit and the like is rājasika; / that for hurting others is tāmasika. Sāttvika gift is spoken of [as follows]:

380.47

it must be given in an appropriate place and the like; that for return of a favor is rājasika; / a gift given in an improper place and the like, with contempt, is declared tāmasika.

380.47.p1

[Page 349]

380.48

“Oṃ Tat Sat”—this is remembered as the threefold designation of Brahman. / Action such as sacrifice and gifts grants worldly enjoyment and liberation to men.

380.49

The threefold fruit of action—undesirable, desirable, and mixed— / comes after death to those who have not renounced, but never to renunciants.

380.50

[Renunciation is] tāmasika from connection to actions through delusion, suffering, fear, and the like; / rājasika [from pain], and sāttvika without desire. These five are the causes of action:

380.51

the seat [of action], likewise the agent, the various organs of action, / the various distinct endeavors, and fate as the fifth here.

380.52

Knowledge [seeing one reality] is sāttvika, but knowledge [seeing] distinction is rājasika; / that devoid of truth is tāmasika. Action without desire is sāttvika;

380.53

action for desire is rājasika, while action out of delusion is tāmasika. / The agent who is impartial in success and failure is sāttvika; [passionate] is rājasika;

380.54

crooked and lazy is tāmasika. The intellect discerning duty and non-duty is sāttvika; / that [interpreting duty] for self-interest is rājasika, while that inverted is tāmasika.

380.55

Resolve of the mind is sāttvika; that pursuing pleasure and desire is rājasika; / but that [persisting] in grief and the like is tāmasika. Happiness arising from sattva reaches its end [in bliss];

380.56

that pleasure is rājasika [like nectar] at first, but tāmasika brings suffering at the end. / From him is the activity of beings, by whom all this is pervaded;