Agnipurana 381

English (machine translation) 381

Language: English

381.7 — 1 part
381.19 — 1 part
381.30 — 1 part
381.37 — 4 parts

381.1

Agni said: / I shall declare the Song of Yama, which was spoken to Naciketas, / for the worldly enjoyment and liberation of good people who read and listen, who seek liberation.

381.2

Yama said: / Alas, through extreme delusion, [man], himself unstable, desires / a seat, bed, vehicle, garments, houses, and the like to be permanently stable.

381.3

Constant attachment to sense objects, and likewise the vision of the Self, / is the supreme good for men: thus indeed was sung by Kapila.

381.4

Impartiality everywhere, freedom from egoism, detachment— / this is the supreme good for men: indeed it was sung by Pañcaśikha.

381.5

Knowledge of the stages of life such as conception, birth, childhood, and the like / is the supreme good for men: [so] was proclaimed by Gaṅgā and Viṣṇu.

381.6

Remedy from beginning to end for the sufferings beginning with the spiritual / is the supreme good for men: indeed it was sung by Janaka.

381.7

The cognition of difference between the Supreme Self and [individual soul] which are non-different— / the pacification of that is supreme good: [thus] was uttered what was sung by Brahmā.

381.8

Whatever rite known as Ṛg, Yajus, and Sāman is performed as a duty / for the sake of the highest good through attachment, is sung by Jaigīṣavya.

381.9

Abandonment of all desires, causing the happiness of the Self, / is the supreme good for men: it was declared as sung by Devala.

381.10

From renunciation of desire comes experiential knowledge, bliss, and Brahman, the supreme abode; / for those full of desire, experiential knowledge does not arise: that indeed was sung by Sanaka.

381.11

He who is devoted to action has spoken of the duty of active engagement and renunciation; / this indeed is the best of all goods: actionless Brahman, that is Hari.

381.12

And the man who has attained knowledge, the best of good men, finds no difference / with Brahman, named Viṣṇu, supreme and imperishable.

381.13

Knowledge, experiential knowledge, faith, good fortune, and supreme beauty— / everything whatever one desires in mind is obtained through ascetic austerity.

381.14

There is no object of meditation equal to Viṣṇu; there is no ascetic austerity higher than fasting; / there is no fortune equal to health; there is no river equal to the Gaṅgā.

381.15

There is no relative whatsoever except Viṣṇu, the teacher of the universe; / Hari is below and above, in front, in the body, senses, mind, and mouth.

381.16

Remembering thus, whoever relinquishes his vital breaths becomes Hari. / That which is Brahman, from which everything arises, which is all, [in it] his universe is established;

381.17

which cannot be grasped, cannot be designated, firmly established, and supreme— / in the form of both higher and lower, Viṣṇu resides in the heart of all.

381.18

Some desire that supreme [deity] as the Lord of sacrifice, the Spirit of sacrifice; / some as Viṣṇu, some as Hara, some as Brahmā the Lord;

381.19

some by names such as Indra, the sun, moon, and Time;

381.19_2

and they proclaim the universe from Brahmā down to a tuft of grass to be Viṣṇu.

381.20

That Viṣṇu is the supreme Brahman, from which one does not return again. / By great gifts such as gold, ablutions in sacred fords,

381.21

meditations, votive observances, worship, and listening to the sacred law, one attains that. / Know the Self as the chariot-rider, and the body as the chariot;

381.22

know the intellect as the charioteer, and the mind as the reins. / The senses are called the horses, and sense objects are their pasture.

381.23

The wise call [the Self] joined with the senses and the mind the enjoyer. / But whoever is devoid of experiential knowledge, with mind always undisciplined,

381.24

does not attain the good realm, and goes into worldly existence. / But whoever possesses experiential knowledge, with mind always disciplined,

381.25

attains that state from which he is not born again. / The man who has experiential knowledge as his charioteer, who holds the reins of the mind,

381.26

reaches the end of the road, that supreme abode of Viṣṇu. / For higher than the senses are the objects, and higher than the objects is the mind;

381.27

higher than the mind is the intellect, higher than the intellect is the Great Self; / higher than the Great is the Unmanifest, higher than the Unmanifest is the Spirit (Puruṣa).

381.28

Higher than Puruṣa there is nothing; that is the goal, that is the supreme destination. / Hidden in all these beings, the Self does not shine forth.

381.29

But it is seen by subtle intellect, / sharp, by those who perceive what is subtle. / A wise man should restrain speech in the mind; he should restrain that in knowledge, in the self;

381.30

He should restrain knowledge in the great self, and that in the tranquil self. / Having known the union of brahman and the self by means of restraints and the rest, one becomes the true brahman.

381.31

Non-injury, truth, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-possession: / these are the restraints; and the five observances are ritual purity, contentment, true ascetic austerity,

381.32

Vedic study, and worship of God. Posture is the lotus posture and the like. / Breath control is the mastery of breath. Sensory withdrawal is self-restraint.

381.33

The holding of the mind firmly upon a single auspicious object, / because of immobility, is called concentration by the wise, O twice-born.

381.34

Holding [the mind] repeatedly on that very object / is remembered as meditation. Concentration, however, is the state of the self as “I am brahman.”

381.35

Just as space becomes identical with the sky upon the destruction of a jar, / even so the liberated individual soul, being brahman, becomes the true brahman indeed.

381.36

The individual soul considers itself as brahman through knowledge, not otherwise; / for freed from ignorance and its effects, the individual soul becomes ageless and immortal.

Agni said: / O Vasiṣṭha, this Yama’s Song has been spoken, granting worldly enjoyment and liberation to those who recite it. / Absolute dissolution has been explained, consisting of the realization of brahman through Vedānta.

381.37.p1

Thus in the great Purāṇa of Agni, the three hundred and eighty-first chapter, named “The Song of Yama.”

381.37.p2

[Page 354]

381.37.p4

Now the three hundred and eighty-second chapter:

381.37.p5

The Greatness of the Agni Purāṇa.

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Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit

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Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit

Agnipurana 381

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