Bhagavatapurana 12.5: atha pañcamo'dhyāyaḥ

12.5.1

/0 śrī-śuka uvāca
atrānuvarṇyate 'bhīkṣṇaṃ viśvātmā bhagavān hariḥ /
yasya prasāda-jo brahmā rudraḥ krodha-samudbhavaḥ //

Śrī Śuka said: / Here is constantly celebrated the Lord Hari, the self of the universe, / from whose grace Brahmā was born, and Rudra arose from his anger.

1. Sri Suka said:—In this Purana at every step the omnipotent Hari, Atman of all, is sung in devotion, of whose cheerfulness (graciousness) Brahma was born and of whose anger Rudra.

12.5.2

tvaṃ tu rājan mariṣyeti paśu-buddhim imāṃ jahi /
na jātaḥ prāg abhūto 'dya deha-vat tvaṃ na naṅkṣyasi //

O king, cast away this animal notion, 'I shall die': / you were not born, nor did you not exist previously, nor today will you perish like the body.

2. O king, rid thyself of the foolish notion natural to a brute that thou wilt die; unlike the body, thou wast before, thou art now and thou wilt not perish.

12.5.3

na bhaviṣyasi bhūtvā tvaṃ putra-pautrādi-rūpavān /
bījāṅkura-vad dehāder vyatirikto yathānalaḥ //

You will not become, having come into being, one having the form of sons, grandsons, and so forth, / like a sprout from a seed; you are distinct from the body and the rest, just as fire [from wood].

3. Thou dost not, having been once, (as father), take the form of a son or a grandson or anything like it, or like the seed and the tree; but thou art quite distinct from the body and the like just as fire is distinct from fuel and other things with which it is associated.

12.5.4

svapne yathā śiraś-chedaṃ pañcatvādy ātmanaḥ svayam /
yasmāt paśyati dehasya tata ātmā hy ajo 'maraḥ //

Since one perceives by oneself in a dream the decapitation of one's head and the death, etc., / of the body, therefore the self is indeed unborn and immortal.

4. Just as in a state of dream a person sees himself beheaded, so also in the state of wakefulness he observes the death of the body and other conditions; and therefore Atman or the soul is unborn and undying (by nature).

12.5.5

ghaṭe bhinne ghaṭākāśa ākāśaḥ syād yathā purā /
evaṃ dehe mṛte jīvo brahma sampadyate punaḥ //

When a pot is broken, the pot-space becomes space just as before; / likewise, when the body dies, the individual soul attains Brahman once more.

5. When a pot is broken the space enclosed by it is one with space in general; similarly when the body is dead the soul becomes one with Brahman.

12.5.6

manaḥ sṛjati vai dehān guṇān karmāṇi cātmanaḥ /
tan manaḥ sṛjate māyā tato jīvasya saṃsṛtiḥ //

The mind indeed produces the bodies, the qualities, and the karmic actions of the soul; / creative power creates that mind, and from that arises the transmigration of the individual soul.

6. Manas (the mind) creates the body and its belongings for Atman and that mind creates Maya; thence (under the conditions of Maya and its products), proceeds the Samsara or the mundane life of Jivas.

12.5.7

snehādhiṣṭhāna-varty-agni- saṃyogo yāvad īyate /
tāvad dīpasya dīpatvam evaṃ deha-kṛto bhavaḥ /
rajaḥ-sattva-tamo-vṛttyā jāyate 'tha vinaśyati //

As long as the combination of oil, container, wick, and fire is observed, / so long does the lamp have the nature of a lamp; likewise, existence produced by the body / is born and then destroyed through the activity of passion, purity, and darkness.

7. As long as there exists the relation of fire to the wick which is charged with oil, a light is light; similarly the Samsara or the mundane life depends on the body (or the mind).

12.5.8

na tatrātmā svayaṃ-jyotir yo vyaktāvyaktayoḥ paraḥ /
ākāśa iva cādhāro dhruvo 'nantopamas tataḥ //

There the self is self-luminous, beyond both the manifest and the unmanifest; / like space, it is the support, constant, and therefore comparable to infinity.

8. There (in that combination) Atman does not perish; for He is a light Himself and distinct from the subtle and gross universe He is the support, like the sky, of every thing, subject to no change

and is without limits or another like him, (without a second) hence He is Omnipresent.

12.5.9

evam ātmānam ātma-stham ātmanaivāmṛśa prabho /
buddhyānumāna-garbhiṇyā vāsudevānucintayā //

Thus reflect upon the self dwelling in yourself by yourself, O master, / with an intellect full of reasoning and through meditation upon Vāsudeva.

9. Do thou thus enquire after Atman present in the body by means of thy reasoning faculty and meditation on Vasudeva.

12.5.10

codito vipra-vākyena na tvāṃ dhakṣyati takṣakaḥ /
mṛtyavo nopadhakṣyanti mṛtyūnāṃ mṛtyum īśvaram //

Impelled by the brahmin's words, Takṣaka will not burn you; / deaths will not burn the Ruler, the death of deaths.

10. Urged as he may be by the Brahmin's words Takshaka will not burn thee; the causes of death (deadly things) cannot do harm to the Supreme Ruler who is death to all that are agents of Death.

12.5.11

ahaṃ brahma paraṃ dhāma brahmāhaṃ paramaṃ padam /
evaṃ samīkṣya cātmānam ātmany ādhāya niṣkale //

'I am Brahman, the supreme abode; I am Brahman, the supreme state'— / having thus understood, and having placed the self in the indivisible self,

11. & 12. 'I am Brahman, the Supreme abode or support, Brahman the highest goal to be reached am I'. Having thus realised and having placed thyself in the unconditioned Atman, thou wilt see neither Takshaka biting thee at foot or his licking with his poisonous tongues nor the body nor the world, as having an existence separate from Atman.

12.5.12

daśantaṃ takṣakaṃ pāde lelihānaṃ viṣānanaiḥ /
na drakṣyasi śarīraṃ ca viśvaṃ ca pṛthag ātmanaḥ //

you will not see Takṣaka biting your foot and licking with mouths full of poison, / nor your body, nor the universe, as separate from the self.

12.5.13

etat te kathitaṃ tāta yad ātmā pṛṣṭavān nṛpa /
harer viśvātmanaś ceṣṭāṃ kiṃ bhūyaḥ śrotum icchasi //

This has been told to you, dear one, which you asked concerning yourself, O king, / [and] the activity of Hari, the self of the universe; what more do you wish to hear?

13. O son, all this has been explained to thee which thyself enquiredest about. O king regarding the work of Hari, the Atman. And what else dost thou wish to be told of?