Bhagavatapurana 11.22: atha dvāviṃśo'dhyāyaḥ

11.22.1

/0 śrī-uddhava uvāca
kati tattvāni viśveśa saṅkhyātāny ṛṣibhiḥ prabho /
navaikādaśa pañca trīṇy āttha tvam iha śuśruma //

Śrī Uddhava said: / How many truths, O Lord of the universe, have been enumerated by the sages, O master? / You have spoken here of nine, eleven, five, and three; and we have heard [others].

1. Uddhava said:—O Lord of the Universe, how many are the fundamental principles enumerated by Rishis: here in a previous chapter we heard Thee say that they are nine, eleven, five and three.

11.22.2

kecit ṣaḍ-viṃśatiṃ prāhur apare pañca-viṃśatiṃ /
saptaike nava ṣaṭ kecic catvāry ekādaśāpare /
kecit saptadaśa prāhuḥ ṣoḍaśaike trayodaśa //

Some say twenty-six, others twenty-five; / some say seven, [others] nine, some six, [others] four, others eleven; / some speak of seventeen, some sixteen, [and others] thirteen.

2. Some say it is twenty six, others twenty-five, some seven, some sixteen, some others four and some others still eleven; some say it is seventeen, some sixteen, some thirteen.

11.22.3

etāvattvaṃ hi saṅkhyānām ṛṣayo yad-vivakṣayā /
gāyanti pṛthag āyuṣmann idaṃ no vaktum arhasi //

With what intention do the sages sing / such different numbers, O long-lived one? Please tell us this.

3. From what stand-point do Rishis severally fix the number? O long-lived one, may Thou be pleased to tell me this!

11.22.4

/0 śrī-bhagavān uvāca
yuktaṃ ca santi sarvatra bhāṣante brāhmaṇā yathā /
māyāṃ madīyām udgṛhya vadatāṃ kiṃ nu durghaṭam //

The Lord said: / It is reasonable, and [these truths] exist everywhere, as the brāhmaṇas say. / Taking hold of My creative power, what is difficult for those who speak [of them]?

4. The Lord said:—All the principles are everywhere; what brahmins say is right, (but not with reference to reality); for those who accept the basis of My Maya and explain things, ‘what theory is not possible to maintain?

11.22.5

naitad evaṃ yathāttha tvaṃ yad ahaṃ vacmi tat tathā /
evaṃ vivadatāṃ hetuṃ śaktayo me duratyayāḥ //

"It is not as you say; what I say is the truth": / My energies, difficult to overcome, are the cause of those who dispute in this way.

5. “It is not as thou sayest: what I say is the fact.” Why they dispute as to the cause is that in their minds My own insuperable powers (Satva and others) work differently modified.

11.22.6

yāsāṃ vyatikarād āsīd vikalpo vadatāṃ padam /
prāpte śama-dame 'pyeti vādas tam anu śāmyati //

From their agitation arose division, the ground of those who debate. / When tranquility and self-restraint are attained, it disappears, and debate subsides accordingly.

6. From the various combinations of these powers arises the matter for dispute, viz. difference in theories; when sama and dama are attained the difference ceases to be seen and the discussion or dispute vanishes with it.

11.22.7

parasparānupraveśāt tattvānāṃ puruṣarṣabha /
paurvāparya-prasaṅkhyānaṃ yathā vaktur vivakṣitam //

Because the truths mutually interpenetrate, O best of men, / the enumeration of earlier and later is according to the intention of the speaker.

7. The principles being considered as contained (or not) in one another, their enumeration proceeds according to the speaker’s view to explain them (either) as cause and effect or as fewer or more.

11.22.8

ekasminn api dṛśyante praviṣṭānītarāṇi ca /
pūrvasmin vā parasmin vā tattve tattvāni sarvaśaḥ //

Even in one [truth] the others are seen to have entered; / in an earlier or in a later truth, all truths are contained everywhere.

8. Even in one all the others are found included; whether in the earlier or the later (principle), all the tatvas are found.

11.22.9

paurvāparyam ato 'mīṣāṃ prasaṅkhyānam abhīpsatām /
yathā viviktaṃ yad-vaktraṃ gṛhṇīmo yukti-sambhavāt //

Therefore, whatever order of prior and posterior / is desired by these enumerators according to their distinction, we accept that mouth[piece], for it is possible by logic.

9. The relation of these principles as cause and effect as well as their number may differ according to the power of speech which any one of the disputants may command and every such position we accept as correct, for it is possible to find an explanation for it.

11.22.10

anādy-avidyā-yuktasya puruṣasyātma-vedanam /
svato na sambhavād anyas tattva-jño jñāna-do bhavet //

For a person possessed of beginningless ignorance, knowledge of the self / cannot happen by oneself; another who knows the truth must be the giver of knowledge.

10. In the Jiva invested with nescience or ignorance from eternity, the understanding of self cannot arise of itself; therefore only another who perfectly knows the truth may impart that knowledge. Such a preceptor is Parameswara, distinct from the Jiva (and hence they hold that the principles are twenty-six).

11.22.11

puruṣeśvarayor atra na vailakṣaṇyam aṇv api /
tad-anya-kalpanāpārthā jñānaṃ ca prakṛter guṇaḥ //

Here there is not even the slightest distinction between the person and the Lord; / any assumption of a difference between them is useless, and knowledge is a quality of nature.

11. (Again some hold that the principles are twenty-five). For there is no difference at all between the Purusha and the Iswara: now to take them as two different principles is not right; and knowledge or the faculty of knowing is but a property of Prakriti.

11.22.12

prakṛtir guṇa-sāmyaṃ vai prakṛter nātmano guṇāḥ /
sattvaṃ rajas tama iti sthity-utpatty-anta-hetavaḥ //

Nature is indeed the equilibrium of the qualities; the qualities belong to nature, not to the self: / purity, passion, and darkness, the causes of preservation, origination, and destruction.

12. Prakriti is equibalance of the gunas which belong only to Prakriti and not to Atman, and the gunas are Satva, Rajas and Tamas, the causes (respectively) of subsistance, birth and death.

11.22.13

sattvaṃ jñānaṃ rajaḥ karma tamo 'jñānam ihocyate /
guṇa-vyatikaraḥ kālaḥ svabhāvaḥ sūtram eva ca //

Purity is here called knowledge, passion action, and darkness ignorance; / the agitation of the qualities is time, and nature is the thread.

13. In this sastra the modification of Satva is jnana, that of Rajas action, that of Tamas absence of jnana (knowledge):

Iswara who is the cause of the combination of the gunas is Time, Nature is Sutra i. e. Mahattatva.

11.22.14

puruṣaḥ prakṛtir vyaktam ahaṅkāro nabho 'nilaḥ /
jyotir āpaḥ kṣitir iti tattvāny uktāni me nava //

The person, nature, the manifest, ego, space, wind, / fire, water, and earth: these nine truths are spoken of by Me.

14. Purusha (intelligent being), Prakriti: Vyakta or Mahattatva, Ahankara, Akasa, air, light or fire, water, the earth—these are the nine principles I mentioned.

11.22.15

śrotraṃ tvag darśanaṃ ghrāṇo jihveti jñāna-śaktayaḥ /
vāk-pāṇy-upastha-pāyv-aṅghriḥ karmāṇy aṅgobhayaṃ manaḥ //

Hearing, touch, sight, smell, and tongue are the powers of knowledge; / speech, hands, genitals, anus, and feet are [the organs of] action, O dear one; the mind is both.

15. Hearing, touch, sight, smelling, and tasting are intellectual faculties, the senses, tongue hand, the lower passages, and the feet are the physical organs of action. O dear one, the mind is both.

11.22.16

śabdaḥ sparśo raso gandho rūpaṃ cety artha-jātayaḥ /
gaty-ukty-utsarga-śilpāni karmāyatana-siddhayaḥ //

Sound, touch, taste, smell, and form are the classes of objects; / movement, speech, evacuation, and craft are the functions of the organs of action.

16. Sound, feeling of touch, taste, smell, colours are the classes of objects; motion, speech, excretion, dexterity are the functions of the physical organs.

11.22.17

sargādau prakṛtir hy asya kārya-kāraṇa-rūpiṇī /
sattvādibhir guṇair dhatte puruṣo 'vyakta īkṣate //

At the beginning of creation, nature, consisting of cause and effect, / assumes [forms] through the qualities such as purity; the unmanifest person looks on.

17. In the beginning, when this Universe is created Prakriti assumes the forms of cause and effect through Satva and other gunas and is liable to every such state the intelligent being remains unmanifest and witnesses the work of Prakriti.

11.22.18

vyaktādāyo vikurvāṇā dhātavaḥ puruṣekṣayā /
labdha-vīryāḥ sṛjanty aṇḍaṃ saṃhatāḥ prakṛter balāt //

The elements beginning with the manifest, undergoing transformation through the gaze of the person, / having gained potency, united by the power of nature, create the cosmic egg.

D. Note In the beginning of creation the intelligent Prakriti presiding over the non-intelligent matter is like Hari, the inner guide from within, as present in every creature and also presides over the three gunas in three forms as Sri, Bhu and Durga and thus maintains the Universe. Thus the principles or Tattvas are thirty-four including Hari. The Purusha or Hiranyagarbha directs His attention to Sarasvati called Avyakta for the purpose of creation, i. e., employing Sarasvati as an instrument. He creates Vyakta and other Tattvas. 18. Mahattatva and other fundamentals furnished with energy through the glance of the Intelligent Being, undergo change and combine together to create the Egg of the Universe, strengthened by their source, viz., Prakriti.

11.22.19

saptaiva dhātava iti tatrārthāḥ pañca khādayaḥ /
jñānam ātmobhayādhāras tato dehendriyāsavaḥ //

There are only seven elements: there, the five objects beginning with space, / and knowledge, the self, the locus of both; from that proceed the body, the senses, and the vital breaths.

19. Some say that the fundamentals are only seven and they are the five beginning with Akasa, the Jiva and Atman, (Paramatman), the support of both [the seer and the seen] and from these seven arise the body, the senses and breaths.

11.22.20

ṣaḍ ity atrāpi bhūtāni pañca ṣaṣṭhaḥ paraḥ pumān /
tair yuita ātma-sambhūtaiḥ sṛṣṭvedaṃ samapāviśat //

In the view of six, there are the five elements, and the sixth is the supreme person; / joined with them, arisen from Himself, having created this [universe], He entered it.

20. Again according to another view they are six: the five Bhutas and the sixth is the Supreme Being who mixing Himself with them creates this and enters it.

11.22.21

catvāry eveti tatrāpi teja āpo 'nnam ātmanaḥ /
jātāni tair idaṃ jātaṃ janmāvayavinaḥ khalu //

In the view of four, fire, water, and food / arose from the self; by them this [universe] was born; birth belongs indeed to that which has parts.

21. Another theory is that they are only four and here fire, water and earth are born of Atman, and by these four the Universe is produced, birth or creation is indeed spoken of in respect of a thing which is made up of parts (i. e., the gross body). (If it be eleven, Atman, the five Bhutas and the five senses.)

11.22.22

saṅkhyāne saptadaśake bhūta-mātrendriyāṇi ca /
pañca pañcaika-manasā ātmā saptadaśaḥ smṛtaḥ //

In the enumeration of seventeen, there are the elements, the subtle elements, and the senses, / five each, with the one mind; the self is remembered as the seventeenth.

22. When it is spoken of as seventeen the five Bhutas, the five objects, the five senses, and the one mind, and Atman is taken as the seventeenth.

11.22.23

tadvat ṣoḍaśa-saṅkhyāne ātmaiva mana ucyate /
bhūtendriyāṇi pañcaiva mana ātmā trayodaśa //

Likewise, in the enumeration of sixteen, the self alone is called the mind; / the elements, the senses, five each, the mind, and the self are thirteen.

23. When the number is taken to be sixteen, Atman is spoken of as the mind; or the five Bhutas, the five senses, the mind, Atman in two forms, (Prana V.) (D. Brahma and Paramatman) are said to make thirteen.

11.22.24

ekādaśatva ātmāsau mahā-bhūtendriyāṇi ca /
aṣṭau prakṛtayaś caiva puruṣaś ca navety atha //

In eleven, there are this self, the great elements, and the senses; / and the eight primary elements and the person make nine.

24. When counted as eleven, they are Atman, the

Brahma, Paramatman, Indriyas, the (5) Pranas and the body (the sun, its presiding deity) — are nine. The nine may also be counted in other ways. The body, the Prana, 5 Indriyas, Brahma and Paramatman: or Manas including speech etc., the five sense-organs, the body, Prana and Paramatman. five Bhutas and the five senses; the eight Prakritis and one Purusha make nine.

11.22.25

iti nānā-prasaṅkhyānaṃ tattvānām ṛṣibhiḥ kṛtam /
sarvaṃ nyāyyaṃ yuktimattvād viduṣāṃ kim aśobhanam //

Thus various enumerations of the truths have been made by the sages; / all are proper because they are logical. What could be inappropriate for the wise?

25. Thus the different ways of reckoning the principles have been adopted by Rishis; every view is correct, having some reason for it; could there be anything wrong in what the wise say? (Nothing).

11.22.26

/0 śrī-uddhava uvāca
prakṛtiḥ puruṣaś cobhau yady apy ātma-vilakṣaṇau /
anyonyāpāśrayāt kṛṣṇa dṛśyate na bhidā tayoḥ /
prakṛtau lakṣyate hy ātmā prakṛtiś ca tathātmani //

Śrī Uddhava said: / Although nature and the person are both inherently distinct, / because of their mutual dependence, O Kṛṣṇa, no distinction is seen between them; / for the self is perceived in nature, and nature in the self.

26. Uddhava said:— Though both Prakriti and Purusha seem by nature distinct from each other, still by their mutual internate association, O Krishna, the difference between them is not evident; Atman indeed appears to be in Prakriti (its product, viz., the body) and Prakriti also in Atman (in the act of identifying self with the body).

11.22.27

evaṃ me puṇḍarīkākṣa mahāntaṃ saṃśayaṃ hṛdi /
chettum arhasi sarva-jña vacobhir naya-naipuṇaiḥ //

Thus, O lotus-eyed one, this great doubt in my heart / You should sever, O omniscient one, with words skillful in reasoning.

27. O Pundarikaksha, (O Omniscient Lord, O Lord of Prakriti), may Thou be pleased to remove the great doubt in my mind in this respect with Thy words powerful with reasons (in expounding the truth).

11.22.28

tvatto jñānaṃ hi jīvānāṃ pramoṣas te 'tra śaktitaḥ /
tvam eva hy ātma-māyāyā gatiṃ vettha na cāparaḥ //

For knowledge of living beings comes from You, and their delusion comes from Your power; / You alone know the course of Your own creative power, and none other.

28. Through Thy grace Jivas derive knowledge, and under Thy power they lose their knowledge; therefore Thou alone knowest the (true) course of Thy Maya and no other.

11.22.29

/0 śrī-bhagavān uvāca
prakṛtiḥ puruṣaś ceti vikalpaḥ puruṣarṣabha /
eṣa vaikārikaḥ sargo guṇa-vyatikarātmakaḥ //

The Lord said: / Nature and the person—this distinction, O best of men, / is this transforming creation, consisting of the agitation of the qualities.

29. The Lord said:— There exists the distinction as Prakriti and Purusha, O bull among men; the body is the modification constituted of the three gunas in combination.

11.22.30

mamāṅga māyā guṇa-mayy anekadhā vikalpa-buddhīś ca guṇair vidhatte /
vaikārikas tri-vidho 'dhyātmam ekam athādhidaivam adhibhūtam anyat //

My creative power, O dear one, composed of the qualities, produces manifold divisive thoughts through the qualities; / the transformation is threefold: one within the self, another regarding the deities, and another regarding the elements.

30. O dear one, My Maya composed of gunas causes through them various notions as well as notions of difference. The modifi-

cation is of three descriptions, viz., Adhyatma, Adhidaiva and Adhibhuta.

11.22.31

dṛg rūpam ārkaṃ vapur atra randhre parasparaṃ sidhyati yaḥ svataḥ khe /
ātmā yad eṣām aparo ya ādyaḥ svayānubhūtyākhila-siddha-siddhiḥ //

Sight, form, and the solar form in the aperture here mutually establish one another; that which exists by itself in space / is the self, which is distinct from them, being the primal one that, by its own experience, establishes all that is established.

31. The eye or the sense of seeing is Adhyatma: colour is Adhibhuta; the amsa or the ray of the sun that is present in the organ is Adhidaiva; every one of these depends upon the other two for the proof of its existence, whereas the sun in the sky is self-evident. But Atman being the cause of all these (Adhibhuta, etc., is different from them; further Atman is by virtue of his own conscious nature gives light to all agents that illuminate things; similarly are to be viewed the senses of touch, hearing, taste and smell as well as the mind (and mental faculties).

11.22.32

evaṃ tvag-ādi śravaṇādi cakṣur jihvādi nāsādi ca citta-yuktam //

So too the skin and its objects, hearing and its objects, the eye, the tongue and its objects, the nose and its objects, along with the mind.

11.22.33

yo 'sau guṇa-kṣobha-kṛto vikāraḥ pradhāna-mūlān mahataḥ prasūtaḥ /
ahaṃ tri-vṛn moha-vikalpa-hetur vaikārikas tāmasa aindriyaś ca //

That transformation caused by the agitation of the qualities, brought forth from the cosmic intellect rooted in the unmanifest, / is the threefold ego, the cause of delusion and division: the pure, the dark, and the sensory.

32. The modification brought about by the agitation of gunas is produced out of Mahat which has its roots in Pradhana; and that becomes the three-fold Ahankara, the cause of delusion and doubt, (viz., Vaikarika, Rajasa and Tamasa).

11.22.34

ātmāparijñāna-mayo vivādo hy astīti nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ /
vyartho 'pi naivoparameta puṃsāṃ mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṃ sva-lokāt //

The debate rooted in ignorance of the self, based on differences of 'it exists' and 'it does not exist,' / though useless, never ceases for men whose minds have turned away from Me, their true self.

33. Indeed the dispute that 'it is', and 'it is not', viz., the dispute that centres on the subject of difference, is the result of not realising Atman. Though it is thus baseless, it does not vanish

from those whose mind is turned away from seeing their self.

11.22.35

/0 śrī-uddhava uvāca
tvattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyaḥ sva-kṛtaiḥ karmabhiḥ prabho /
uccāvacān yathā dehān gṛhṇanti visṛjanti ca //

Śrī Uddhava said: / How do those whose minds have turned away from You, through the actions done by themselves, O master, / take up and cast off high and low bodies?

34. Uddhava said:— O Lord, how do those, whose mind is not devoted to Thee, get into, or depart from, the various bodies, high or low, wrought by their own karma?

11.22.36

tan mamākhyāhi govinda durvibhāvyam anātmabhiḥ /
na hy etat prāyaśo loke vidvāṃsaḥ santi vañcitāḥ //

Tell me that, O Govinda; it is difficult to fathom for those of uncontrolled self; / for generally in this world, even the learned are deceived about this.

35. May Thou be pleased to explain to Me, O Govinda, that point which cannot be properly understood by creatures of poor mind! Mostly there are none indeed in the world who know this as they are deluded by Thy Maya.

11.22.37

/0 śrī-bhagavān uvāca
manaḥ karma-mayaṃ ṇṝṇām indriyaiḥ pañcabhir yutam /
lokāl lokaṃ prayāty anya ātmā tad anuvartate //

The Lord said: / The mind composed of action, joined with the five senses of human beings, / travels from world to world; the self, which is distinct, follows it.

36. The Lord said:— Accompanied by the five senses the mind of men full of karma (active registered tendency) goes from one body to another, and Atman who is distinct from it follows that mind (under the force of Ahankara).

11.22.38

dhyāyan mano 'nu viṣayān dṛṣṭān vānuśrutān atha /
udyat sīdat karma-tantraṃ smṛtis tad anu śāmyati //

The mind, meditating on sense objects seen or heard about, / rising and sinking under the control of karma, memory ceases after that.

37. Being under the influence of Karma the mind contemplates the objects perceived by the senses or heard of through the Vedas, tries for them, is lost in them and then the memory or the faculty that connects the past and the present states, is gradually lost.

11.22.39

viṣayābhiniveśena nātmānaṃ yat smaret punaḥ /
jantor vai kasyacid dhetor mṛtyur atyanta-vismṛtiḥ //

Because of absorption in sense objects, when one no longer remembers oneself, / for whatever reason of a living being, that utter forgetfulness is death.

38. & 39. That, through its intense attachment to the present body and objects, mind is not able to remember itself (itself in relation to the body in the preceding life) may be said to be the forgetting through some cause on the part of the Intelligent Being

11.22.40

janma tv ātmatayā puṃsaḥ sarva-bhāvena bhūri-da /
viṣaya-svīkṛtiṃ prāhur yathā svapna-manorathaḥ //

Birth, however, O generous one, they describe as a person's total acceptance / of [a new] body as the self, just like a dream or a daydream.

11.22.41

svapnaṃ manorathaṃ cetthaṃ prāktanaṃ na smaraty asau /
tatra pūrvam ivātmānam apūrvam cānupaśyati //

Such a person does not remember a former dream or daydream, / but regards oneself there as new, just as one did formerly.

40. For in this manner he does not recognise the dream vision and any fancy as what existed before and during those states he sees himself only as something quite new, though old or already in existence.

11.22.42

indriyāyana-sṛṣṭyedaṃ trai-vidhyaṃ bhāti vastuni /
bahir-antar-bhidā-hetur jano 'saj-jana-kṛd yathā //

Through the projection of the senses and their objects, this threefold distinction appears in reality, / causing division between outer and inner, just as a man creates wicked companions.

41. On account of the association with a new body of the mind to which all other senses are attached this three-fold distinction seems to be noted in the one real Atman. Atman so conditioned becomes the occasion for the idea of difference as the external and internal things (and so internal objects as well as happiness, misery and other states, just as a Jiva in dream creates and sees many bodies and himself and seems to be many. (Note:—The three-fold distinction may be taken as the best, the lowest and the middling, or, as Adhibhuta, Adhyatma, etc. The expression containing the simile may be interpreted also thus—like states in dreams or when indulging in fancies.

11.22.43

nityadā hy aṅga bhūtāni bhavanti na bhavanti ca /
kālenālakṣya-vegena sūkṣmatvāt tan na dṛśyate //

Indeed, my dear friend, beings continuously come to be and cease to be, / driven by time of imperceptible speed, yet because of subtlety that is not seen.

42. O dear one, every moment bodies come into existence and go to destruction and through the inconceivable velocity of Time, which is subtle, it (its work) is not noticed as in the case of flames, currents of water, fruits of trees.

11.22.44

yathārciṣāṃ srotasāṃ ca phalānāṃ vā vanaspateḥ /
tathaiva sarva-bhūtānāṃ vayo-'vasthādayaḥ kṛtāḥ //

Just as with the flames [of a lamp], the currents [of a river], and the fruits of a tree, / exactly so are the stages of life and other conditions ordained for all beings.

43. So in the case of all creatures, age and other conditions are thus produced by time in unbroken succession.

11.22.45

so 'yaṃ dīpo 'rciṣāṃ yadvat srotasāṃ tad idaṃ jalam /
so 'yaṃ pumān iti nṛṇāṃ mṛṣā gīr dhīr mṛṣāyuṣām //

Saying 'This is that very lamp' regarding flames, or 'That is this very water' regarding currents, / or 'This is that very person'—such words of mortals whose lifespans are false are themselves false, as is their understanding.

44. 'This is the same light,' this is the same water,—such notions of identity happen to be formed in respect of flames which are every moment different, and of the streams which every moment bring different particles of water to a given spot; so also is the notion, 'He is the same man', which men of unreal life falsely entertain in their mind or talk about.

11.22.46

mā svasya karma-bījena jāyate so 'py ayaṃ pumān /
mriyate vāmaro bhrāntyā yathāgnir dāru-saṃyutaḥ //

This person is neither born nor dies by the seed of his own karma; / being immortal, he is only thought to do so through delusion, just like fire associated with wood.

45. Birth or death cannot be predicated of Atman as caused by the seed of his own Karma, for even he who is ignorant, is born or dies; so through illusion even the unborn seems to be born; even the immortal seems to die like fire in a piece of wood though the element Agni continues to be in existence to the end of Brahmakalpa.

45. Another version.--Atman has no birth or death, Karma acting as the seed—For, be he an ignorant man or a god, he dies or is born through illusion, just as fire may be said to be born or to die out with the piece of fuel (it burns).

11.22.47

niṣeka-garbha-janmāni bālya-kaumāra-yauvanam /
vayo-madhyaṃ jarā mṛtyur ity avasthās tanor nava //

Insemination, embryonic state, birth, infancy, childhood, youth, / middle age, old age, and death: these are the nine states of the body.

46. The states or conditions of the body are nine.— the sowing of the seed, existence in the womb, birth, childhood, boyhood, youthfulness, middle age, old age and death.

11.22.48

etā manoratha-mayīr hānyasyoccāvacās tanūḥ /
guṇa-saṅgād upādatte kvacit kaścij jahāti ca //

These higher and lower bodies, fashioned of desires, / belonging to the other [the body], a person assumes through attachment to the modes, and somewhere, someone abandons them.

47. These fanciful states, high and low, relating to the body, some one thinks as his own through his association with the gunas or some one casts them off through the grace of the Lord.

11.22.49

ātmanaḥ pitṛ-putrābhyām anumeyau bhavāpyayau /
na bhavāpyaya-vastūnām abhijño dvaya-lakṣaṇaḥ //

One's own birth and death are to be inferred from one's father and son; / the one who knows things subject to birth and death is not characterized by both.

48. One's own birth and death may be easily understood in his relation to another as father and son, he who has a clear understanding of the bodies as subject to birth and death is the Atman who is not characterised by the two conditions.

11.22.50

taror bīja-vipākābhyāṃ yo vidvāñ janma-saṃyamau /
taror vilakṣaṇo draṣṭā evaṃ draṣṭā tanoḥ pṛthak //

Just as one who knows the birth and destruction of a tree from its seed and maturity / is an observer distinct from the tree, so the observer is distinct from the body.

49. He who sees the birth from the seed and the end of the tree from its last change, i. e., distinct from the tree itself its decay is, so also the seer is distinct from his body.

11.22.51

prakṛter evam ātmānam avivicyābudhaḥ pumān /
tattvena sparśa-sammūḍhaḥ saṃsāraṃ pratipadyate //

Thus failing to distinguish the self from material nature, an unwise person, / completely bewildered by contact with sense-objects, enters the cycle of rebirth in reality [as it seems to him].

50. The ignorant man does not thus see Atman to be distinct from Prakriti (body) and takes them both to be identical and, thus stupified with the objects, falls into samsara.

11.22.52

sattva-saṅgād ṛṣīn devān rajasāsura-mānuṣān /
tamasā bhūta-tiryaktvaṃ bhrāmito yāti karmabhiḥ //

Through connection with purity he attains the state of sages and gods, through passion that of demons and humans, / through darkness that of ghosts and beasts, wandering driven by his actions.

51. By intimate association with Satva he is born a Rishi or a celestial; by association with Rajas as an asura or a man; associated with Tamas he comes to be a Bhuta (a spirit) or a brute.

11.22.53

nṛtyato gāyataḥ paśyan yathaivānukaroti tān /
evaṃ buddhi-guṇān paśyann anīho 'py anukāryate //

Just as one watching people dancing and singing imitates them, / even so, watching the functions of the intellect, one is made to imitate them though without desires oneself.

52. Just as a person sees others dancing and singing and imitates them, so (by) witnessing the qualities of Buddhi

(Ahaṅkāra), even the inactive (Ātman) is made to act as it were.

11.22.54

yathāmbhasā pracalatā taravo 'pi calā iva /
cakṣusā bhrāmyamāṇena dṛśyate bhramatīva bhūḥ //

Just as when water moves, trees too seem to move, / and when the eye is spun around, the earth appears to spin,

53. Just as by the side of moving water the trees also seem to move and the eye set rolling, the earth seems to roll;

11.22.55

yathā manoratha-dhiyo viṣayṣānubhavo mṛṣā /
svapna-dṛṣṭāś ca dāśārha tathā saṃsāra ātmanaḥ //

and just as the experience of sense objects in the mind’s daydreams / or things seen in a dream are false, O descendant of Daśārha, so is the cycle of rebirth for the self.

54. Just as fancies and dream visions are unreal, so also the saṃsāra, i. e., the experience of objects is unreal to Ātman, O Uddhava.

11.22.56

arthe hy avidyamāne 'pi saṃsṛtir na nivartate /
dhyāyato viṣayān asya svapne 'narthāgamo yathā //

Even when the sense-object does not exist, transmigration does not cease / for one who contemplates sense objects, just as calamities come to one in a dream.

55. Though the objects are not at all present, the saṃsāra does not vanish to the man who is thinking of them, like the experience of evils while in a dream.

11.22.57

tasmād uddhava mā bhuṅkṣva viṣayān asad-indriyaiḥ /
ātmāgrahaṇa-nirbhātaṃ paśya vaikalpikaṃ bhramam //

Therefore, Uddhava, do not enjoy sense objects with the unchaste senses; / perceive this conceptual delusion that shines forth from failure to perceive the self.

56. Therefore, O Uddhava, do not indulge in enjoying the objects with the wicked senses; note that the illusion implying difference is only a display of the ignorance of Ātman.

11.22.58

kṣipto 'vamānito 'sadbhiḥ pralabdho 'sūyito 'tha vā /
tāḍitaḥ sanniruddho vā vṛttyā vā parihāpitaḥ //

Even if insulted, dishonored, cheated, or envied by the wicked, / or beaten, bound, or deprived of livelihood,

57. & 58. Whether scorned, disregarded, defrauded, envied, beaten, restrained, or deprived of means, spit at, covered with offal by the wicked and thus variously harrassed by the ignorant and reduced to difficulty, he who is bent upon final good, should lift his Ātman by himself.

11.22.59

niṣṭhyuto mūtrito vājñair bahudhaivaṃ prakampitaḥ /
śreyas-kāmaḥ kṛcchra-gata ātmanātmānam uddharet //

spat upon or urinated on by fools, and shaken in many such ways, / one desiring the highest good, though fallen into distress, should deliver oneself by oneself.

11.22.60

/0 śrī-uddhava uvāca
yathaivam anubudhyeyaṃ vada no vadatāṃ vara /
su-duḥṣaham imaṃ manya ātmany asad-atikramam //

Śrī Uddhava said:
Tell me how I may understand this thus, O best of speakers; / I consider this transgression of the wicked against oneself exceedingly hard to bear,

59. Uddhava said.—O most eloquent One, please explain to me in such a way that I may grasp it. I think this inroad of evil on Ātman is unbearable.

11.22.61

viduṣām api viśvātman prakṛtir hi balīyasī /
ṛte tvad-dharma-niratān śāntāṃs te caraṇālayān //

for nature is indeed powerful even for the wise, O Self of the universe, / except for those devoted to your dharma, who are peaceful and have taken refuge at your feet.

60. O Lord of the Universe, Antaryāmin of all, Prakṛiti is indeed too powerful even for men of knowledge, except for those that are constant in following the duties taught by Thee and having sought shelter under Thy feet are possessed of tranquility.