Bhagavatapurana 5.12: atha dvādaśo'dhyāyaḥ

5.12.1

/0 rahūgaṇa uvāca
namo namaḥ kāraṇa-vigrahāya svarūpa-tucchīkṛta-vigrahāya /
namo 'vadhūta dvija-bandhu-liṅga- nigūḍha-nityānubhavāya tubhyam //

Rahūgaṇa said: / Obeisances, obeisances to You whose form is the ultimate cause, who through your true nature have belittled the physical form; / obeisances to you, the Avadhūta, whose eternal experience is hidden under the disguise of a degraded brāhmaṇa.

1. I bow again and again to Thee who art the first cause, now in a human form (for the protection of the world) and who hast rendered ineffectual that body by Thy blissful effulgent essence; I bow to Thee, O selfless ascetic who hidest Thy eternally blissful character (by Thy habits) in the mask of a fallen Brahmin.

5.12.2

jvarāmayārtasya yathāgadaṃ sat nidāgha-dagdhasya yathā himāmbhaḥ /
kudeha-mānāhi-vidaṣṭa-dṛṣṭeḥ brahman vacas te 'mṛtam auṣadhaṃ me //

Just as genuine medicine is for one afflicted with the disease of fever, just as cold water is for one scorched by summer heat, / so for me, whose sight is bitten by the serpent of conceit in a wretched body, O brāhmaṇa, your word is nectarous medicine.

2. Like an efficacious or unfailing medicine (remedy), to one suffering from the disease of fever, like ice-cold water to one who is scorched by summer heat Thy word, O Brahmin, is an immortalising medicine to me whose eye of understanding has been badly poisoned by the serpent of attachment to the worthless body.

5.12.3

tasmād bhavantaṃ mama saṃśayārthaṃ prakṣyāmi paścād adhunā subodham /
adhyātma-yoga-grathitaṃ tavoktam ākhyāhi kautūhala-cetaso me //

Therefore, I will ask you later about the matter of my doubt; now, what is easily understood / and strung together with spiritual yoga as spoken by you, explain to me whose mind is filled with curiosity.

3. Therefore I shall later on request Thee to clear my doubts; but now be pleased to explain to me of an inquisitive mind, Thy words full of yogic import, regarding Atman, so that they may be easily intelligible to me.

5.12.4

yad āha yogeśvara dṛśyamānaṃ kriyā-phalaṃ sad-vyavahāra-mūlam /
na hy añjasā tattva-vimarśanāya bhavān amuṣmin bhramate mano me //

As for what you said, O master of yoga, that the visible fruit of action is the root of virtuous worldly activity, / yet not directly fit for the investigation of truth—regarding this my mind is confused.

4. O Lord of yoga, it was said (by Thee) that the perceptible world of action and its fruit, though apparently real, is but a word at the bottom and that I am not wholly competent to hold a search into the truth: and about this matter my mind wanders (is bewildered).

5.12.5

/0 brāhmaṇa uvāca
ayaṃ jano nāma calan pṛthivyāṃ yaḥ pārthivaḥ pārthiva kasya hetoḥ /
tasyāpi cāṅghryor adhi gulpha-jaṅghā- jānūru-madhyora-śirodharāṃsāḥ //

The brāhmaṇa said: / For what reason is this person who walks on the earth called an earthly being, O king? / And above his two feet are ankles, shanks, knees, thighs, waist, chest, neck, and shoulders;

5. O Lord of the earth, this modification of the earth (matter) which goes from place to place on earth owing to some cause is known as 'person'; above the feet of that modification there are the two joints, the two shanks, the two knees, the two thighs, the middle or hip, the chest, the neck, and the shoulders (one upon the other).

5.12.6

aṃse 'dhi dārvī śibikā ca yasyāṃ sauvīra-rājety apadeśa āste /
yasmin bhavān rūḍha-nijābhimāno rājāsmi sindhuṣv iti durmadāndhaḥ //

and above the shoulder is a wooden palanquin, upon which sits the one designated as 'King of Sauvīra', / in which you, blinded by false pride, harbor the ingrained conceit: 'I am the king of the Sindhu territory.'

6. On the shoulders the wooden palanquin and into this there is but the name, "Sowviraraja" which is also a modification of earth (Matter) and in that thou art with strongly-rooted attachment, utterly blind with pride (thinking) "I am the king of Sindhu country".

5.12.7

śocyān imāṃs tvam adhikaṣṭa-dīnān viṣṭyā nigṛhṇan niranugraho 'si /
janasya goptāsmi vikatthamāno na śobhase vṛddha-sabhāsu dhṛṣṭaḥ //

Forcibly pressing into unpaid labor these pitiable men, who are in great distress and miserable, you are merciless; / boasting, 'I am the protector of the people,' impudent, you do not shine in assemblies of the elders.

7. In having seized these pitiable and much afflicted creatures by force to do labour, thou art merciless; yet thou flatterest thyself as the protector of the people and being thus officious (presumptuous), thou dost not cut any honourable figure in the assemblies of the great men of wisdom.

5.12.8

yadā kṣitāv eva carācarasya vidāma niṣṭhāṃ prabhavaṃ ca nityam /
tan nāmato 'nyad vyavahāra-mūlaṃ nirūpyatāṃ sat-kriyayānumeyam //

When we know that the source and final rest of all moving and unmoving beings is ever in the earth alone, / let what is other than a mere name as the basis of convention, to be inferred by real effect, be pointed out.

8. So long as we might think that the beginning and the end of every thing, mobile or immobile, always rest only on this earth (under our feet), let the true cause other than what is only in name of all the phenomena be investigated into and inferred by its effect and function.

5.12.9

evaṃ niruktaṃ kṣiti-śabda-vṛttam asan nidhānāt paramāṇavo ye /
avidyayā manasā kalpitās te yeṣāṃ samūhena kṛto viśeṣaḥ //

Thus has the function of the word 'earth' been explained. As for the atoms, from the non-existence of their source,
they are imagined by the mind through nescience, by whose aggregation a particular modification is formed.

9. Thus is explained the function of the word, Earth, since it vanishes into subtle atoms which are but the creation of theorists after their minds and this also is thine own creation through Avidya;

and the particular gross form called the earth is again the product of those atoms forming into a collection.

of the mind under the force of Avidya (thus the transient character of the earth also is made clear.)

D. In the same manner (for the reason that he pervades everything He is denoted by the word Prithivi) the import of the term *kshiti* *i. e.*, that which becomes the support, or, abode of all is none but the Lord. That the atoms which assemble to form the Earth of dimensions become the support of the world of mobile and immobile creatures is indeed remote from consideration; but through Avidya the mind creates them as support but they cannot be any real support.

5.12.10

evaṃ kṛśaṃ sthūlam aṇur bṛhad yad asac ca saj jīvam ajīvam anyat /
dravya-svabhāvāśaya-kāla-karma- nāmnājayāvehi kṛtaṃ dvitīyam //

So too, thin, thick, subtle, great, non-existent, existent, living, non-living, and anything else—
know this duality to be made by the unborn creative power through substance, nature, disposition, time, karma, and name.

10. V. Similarly thinness, stoutness, subtle or gross form, cause or effect, higher or lower existence, differing in relation to every jiva, mobile or immobile, still quite distinct from Atman and second to Him is the physical body; do thou distinctly observe, and it is the creation of Prakriti under the names of etc. *Nature*. the natural characteristic of undergoing modification.

D. Do thou distinctly understand that as by the supreme Hari primarily, so by Prakriti in the next place remains supported the whole world, subtle or gross, consisting of cause and effect or Akasa and Vayu, the subtle Bhutas and the gross Bhutas of fire, water and earth, the intelligent Being and the unintelligent matter which differ from one another as well as the supreme Lord.

5.12.11

jñānaṃ viśuddhaṃ paramārtham ekam anantaraṃ tv abahir brahma satyam /
pratyak praśāntaṃ bhagavac-chabda-saṃjñaṃ yad vāsudevaṃ kavayo vadanti //

Pure, ultimate truth, one, without inside or outside, Brahman is the real—
inner, tranquil, designated by the word 'Bhagavān', which the wise call Vāsudeva.

11. V. Atman is intelligence free from Karma and passions and the one object to be gained, absolutely of one nature, destitute of aspects as in and out, all-pervading by its quality, eternal, full of self-realisation, untouched by hunger and other conditions pertaining to physical nature and none but Vasudeva known by the distinctive name *Bhagavat*.

D. Hari the Paramatman is supreme intelligence, absolute, immutable truth, only one without a second, without another in and out to guide or control, perfect and omnipresent, full of bliss and other excellent attributes the most supreme one, omniscient and present in the heart facing the jiva, tranquil like a still ocean, the one thing denoted by the word *Bhagavat*, *i.e.*, the one thing which alone is absolutely worshipful whom the wise speak of as Vasudeva.

5.12.12

rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā /
na cchandasā naiva jalāgni-sūryair vinā mahat-pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekam //

O Rahūgaṇa, this is not attained by austerity, nor by sacrifice, nor by giving food or home,
nor by Vedic hymns, nor indeed by water, fire, or the sun, without bathing in the dust of the exalted devotees' feet.

12. D. O Rahugana, a person cannot attain this knowledge or attain to Brahman by virtue of austerities, by learning, by ascetic life, by domestic virtue, by the recitation of Vedas, etc. 13. And there (i.e., in the assembly of the great) are always held discourses on the excellent attributes of the most Glorious Lord which completely shut out all talk or thought of vulgar objects and which, when daily listened to, produce pure thoughts of Vasudeva in him who seeks after salvation.

5.12.13

yatrottamaśloka-guṇānuvādaḥ prastūyate grāmya-kathā-vighātaḥ /
niṣevyamāṇo 'nudinaṃ mumukṣor matiṃ satīṃ yacchati vāsudeve //

Where the recounting of the qualities of He of highest renown is proclaimed, terminating vulgar talk—
attended to day by day, it bestows upon the seeker of liberation a pure mind fixed on Vāsudeva.

5.12.14

ahaṃ purā bharato nāma rājā vimukta-dṛṣṭa-śruta-saṅga-bandhaḥ /
ārādhanaṃ bhagavata īhamāno mṛgo 'bhavaṃ mṛga-saṅgād dhatārthaḥ //

Formerly, I was a king named Bharata, who had renounced the bonds of attachment to things seen and heard;
striving to worship the Lord, through attachment to a deer I became a deer, my goal destroyed.

14. Formerly I was king Bharata who had shaken off the tie of attachment to things seen and heard and endeavoured to worship the glorious Lord; but through attachment to a deer, became myself a deer and got defeated in my purpose.

5.12.15

sā māṃ smṛtir mṛga-dehe 'pi vīra kṛṣṇārcana-prabhavā no jahāti /
atho ahaṃ jana-saṅgād asaṅgo viśaṅkamāno 'vivṛtaś carāmi //

Yet, O hero, that remembrance born of worshipping Kṛṣṇa did not leave me even in a deer's body.
Therefore, unattached, fearing association with people, I wander unrevealed.

15. O Warrior, through the strength of Krishna's worship, that memory did not fail me: even as a deer, therefore, feeling no attachment and afraid of mixing with the populace I go about without disclosing myself.

5.12.16

tasmān naro 'saṅga-susaṅga-jāta- jñānāsinehaiva vivṛkṇa-mohaḥ /
hariṃ tad-īhā-kathana-śrutābhyāṃ labdha-smṛtir yāty atipāram adhvanaḥ //

Hence, with the sword of knowledge born of freedom from attachment and of good association, a man cuts down delusion here;
remembering Hari through narrating and listening to His activities, he reaches the end of the road.

16. Therefore a man ought to have his delusion cut off by the sword of wisdom acquired by intimate association with those who are rid of affections; and (in due course) by recounting and listening to the glorious work of Hari he obtains proper insight, gets to the end of this long road of samsara and attains to Hari.