Bhagavatapurana 10.84
English (machine translation) 10.84
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Contents
10.84.1
Śrī Śuka said: / Hearing of this bond of love for Kṛṣṇa, Hari, the Self of all, / Pṛthā, the daughter of Subala, Draupadī, / Mādhavī, the wives of the kings, and the women of the cowherds / were all greatly amazed, their eyes filled with tears.
10.84.2
As the women were conversing thus among women, and the men among men, / sages arrived there, / desiring to see Kṛṣṇa and Rāma:
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Dvaipāyana, Nārada, Cyavana, Devala, Asita, / Viśvāmitra, Śatānanda, Bharadvāja, Gautama,
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Lord Paraśurāma with his disciples, Vasiṣṭha, Gālava, Bhṛgu, / Pulastya, Kaśyapa, Atri, Mārkaṇḍeya, Bṛhaspati,
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Dvita, Trita, Ekata, the sons of Brahmā, and Aṅgiras, / Agastya, Yājñavalkya, Vāmadeva, and others.
10.84.6
Seeing them, the kings and others, who had been seated before, stood up at once; / the Pāṇḍavas, Kṛṣṇa, and Rāma / bowed down to those worshiped by the universe.
10.84.7
Acyuta, along with Rāma, worshiped them, as did everyone, / with welcoming words, seats, water for the feet, respectful offerings, / garlands, incense, and ointments.
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When they were comfortably seated, the Lord, whose body protects dharma, / addressed them while that great assembly fell silent and listened:
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The Lord said: / Ah, our birth has borne fruit, its full reward is attained, / since we have gained the sight of the masters of yoga, which is difficult even for the gods to obtain.
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How much less [can it be attained] by men of meager austerities, who see the divine only in an image— / this seeing, touching, inquiring, bowing, worshiping their feet, and the rest?
10.84.11
For sacred waters consisting of water and deities consisting of clay or stone / purify only after a long time, but virtuous devotees purify by merely being seen.
10.84.11.p1
Neither fire, nor the sun, nor the moon and stars, nor earth, water, space, wind, speech, or mind,
10.84.12
worshiped by one who makes distinctions, remove sin; but the wise destroy it through even a moment's service.
10.84.12.p1
[…]
10.84.12.p2
He who thinks of this corpse of three humors as the self, who thinks of wife and kin as his own, who regards an earthen idol as an object of worship,
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He who thinks of this corpse of three humors as the self, who thinks of wife and kin as his own, who regards an earthen idol as an object of worship,
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and who considers a sacred place to consist of water, but never in wise people—he is indeed an ass among cows.
10.84.13.p1
[…]
10.84.14
Śrī Śuka said: / Hearing these words of the Lord Kṛṣṇa of unhindered intelligence, / words hard to fathom, the brāhmaṇas fell silent, their minds bewildered.
10.84.15
Pondering for a long time on the Lord acting as if subordinate to others, / the sages realized, 'This is for guiding the people,' and smiling, they addressed that teacher of the universe.
10.84.16
The sages said: / By whose creative power we, foremost knowers of truth and masters of the world-creators, are completely bewildered, / who, though hidden, acts through His endeavor as if subject to rule—ah, wondrous are the Lord's deeds!
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Desireless, alone, by Himself He creates, protects, and consumes this [universe] in many ways, yet is not bound, / just as the earth is not bound by earthly things of manifold names and forms; ah, the conduct of the limitless one is mere play!
10.84.18
Nevertheless, in time You assume purity to protect Your own people and subdue the wicked, / maintaining by Your divine play the eternal path of the Vedas—You, the Supreme Person who embody the classes and stages of life.
10.84.19
Brahman is Your pure heart, [revealed] by austerity, study of scripture, and self-restraint, / wherein is perceived reality, manifest, unmanifest, and beyond.
10.84.20
Therefore, O Brahman, You honor the brāhmaṇa community, who have the scriptures as their origin, as Your own true abode, / and thus You are the foremost champion of the brāhmaṇas.
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Today our birth, our learning, our austerity, and our vision have borne fruit / by meeting with You, the goal of the virtuous, which is the ultimate end of all blessings.
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Obeisance to that Lord Kṛṣṇa of unhindered intellect, / the Supreme Self whose majesty is concealed by His own power of illusion!
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Whom these kings and Vṛṣṇis, indulging in outer pleasures, do not know— / the Self, Time, and the Lord concealed by the curtain of creative power.
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Just as a sleeping person, observing the reality of the dream qualities, / knows only what appears to his senses of mere names, and does not know the supreme [self] free [from them],
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so one whose mind is bewildered by creative power in objects of mere names through sensory exertion / does not know You, due to the loss of memory.
10.84.25.p1
Today we have beheld Your foot, which destroys heaps of sins and is the abode of sacred waters, held in the heart by those of fully matured yoga;
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those whose inner sheath of the soul is destroyed by overflowing devotion attain Your state; therefore show grace to Your devotees.
10.84.26.p1
[…]
10.84.27
Śrī Śuka said: / Having thus taken leave of the descendant of Daśārha, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and Yudhiṣṭhira, / O royal sage, the sages set their minds on returning to their hermitages.
10.84.28
Seeing that, the illustrious Vasudeva approached them, / bowed, took hold [of their feet], and spoke with great restraint:
10.84.29
Śrī Vasudeva said: / Obeisance to you, embodiments of all the gods! O ṛṣis, please listen: / tell us how the eradication of karmic action by means of karmic action may take place.
10.84.30
Śrī Nārada said: / This is not very surprising, O brāhmaṇas, that desiring knowledge, / Vasudeva asks us about his own welfare, considering Kṛṣṇa to be a boy.
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In this world, familiarity is the cause of disrespect among mortals, / just as a person dwelling near the Gaṅgā abandons its water and goes to other water for purification.
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Whose direct experience is never impaired by time, through the dissolution, creation, and so forth of this [universe], / neither by Himself, nor by another, nor by the qualities, nor by anything at all;
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Him, whose experience is unimpeded by the streams of afflictions, karmic fruition, and gunas, the peerless Lord, / veiled by His own powers such as the vital breaths, another may consider [limited], like the sun [covered] by clouds, snow, or an eclipse.
10.84.34
Then the sages spoke, O King, addressing Ānakadundubhi, / while all the kings as well as Acyuta and Rāma were listening:
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This is well determined as the eradication of karmic action by karmic action: / that with faith one worships Viṣṇu, the Lord of all sacrifices, through sacrificial rites.
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This quieting of the mind, indeed, has been revealed by the wise through the eye of scripture / as an easy path of yoga and a dharma that brings joy to the soul.
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This is the auspicious path for a twice-born householder: / that with faith he worships the Supreme Person with wealth acquired by pure means.
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The wise man should cast off the desire for wealth through sacrifices and charity, the desire for house, wife, and sons through home life, / and, O lord, the desire for one's own heavenly world through time; all the wise, having abandoned desires while in the village, went to the forest of austerities.
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A twice-born is born with three debts, to the gods, ṛṣis, and ancestors, O lord; / renouncing without discharging them through sacrifices, study, and sons, he would fall.
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You, however, O wise one, are today freed from two [debts], those to the ṛṣis and the ancestors; / releasing yourself from the debt to the gods through sacrifices, become free of debt and without worldly shelter.
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Vasudeva, you indeed worshiped Hari, the Lord of the worlds, / with supreme devotion, since He has become the son of you two.
10.84.42
Śrī Śuka said: / Having heard those words, the noble-minded Vasudeva / bowed his head, propitiated those ṛṣis, and chose them as his officiating priests.
10.84.43
O King, chosen according to dharma, the ṛṣis made that righteous man / perform sacrifices in that sacred field with the most excellent rites.
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When that initiation began, the Vṛṣṇis, wearing lotus garlands, / having bathed and clad in fine garments, and the kings, splendidly adorned,
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and their joyful queens, wearing golden necklaces and fine garments, / anointed and carrying ritual items in their hands, approached the sacrificial hall.
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Mṛdaṅgas, drums, conches, kettle-drums, and ānakas resounded; / actors and dancer-women danced; sūtas and māgadhas sang praises; / sweet-voiced Gandharva women sang in harmony with their husbands.
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The officiating priests anointed him with sacred water according to rule, / along with his eighteen wives, after having anointed him with fragrant unguents, just as the moon-king is [anointed] with the lunar mansions.
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He shone forth, invested with the vow of consecration, clad in an antelope skin, / accompanied by them, richly adorned with silk garments, bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and earrings.
10.84.49
His officiating priests, O great king, wearing jewels and silken garments, / shone together with the assembly, just like those at the sacrifice of the slayer of Vṛtra.
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Then Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa, accompanied by their respective relatives, / with their sons and wives, shone like the two Lords of all living beings accompanied by their own manifestations of power.
10.84.51
He performed each sacrificial rite according to rule, marked by the agnihotra and other offerings, / with primary and secondary sacrifices, worshiping the Lord who is the substance, the knowledge, and the action.
10.84.52
Then, at the proper time, he bestowed priestly gifts according to the sacred tradition upon the officiating priests, / who were richly adorned, decorating [them] with cows, land, maiden servants, and immense wealth.
10.84.53
Having performed the patnīsaṃyāja and avabhṛtha rites, those great sages, / the brāhmaṇas, bathed in the lake of Paraśurāma, with the sacrificer leading the way.
10.84.54
Having bathed, he gave away ornaments and garments to the bards, as well as the women; / then, finely adorned, he honored all classes down to the dogs with food.
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His kinsmen, with their wives and sons, along with [the peoples of] Vidarbha, Kośala, the Kurus, Kāśi, Kekaya, and the Sṛñjayas, [he honored] with copious gifts of farewell;
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the members of the assembly, the priests, the hosts of gods, men, spirits, ancestors, and cāraṇas, / taking leave of the abode of Śrī and praising his sacrifice, departed.
10.84.57
Dhṛtarāṣṭra, his younger brother, the sons of Pṛthā, Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Pṛthā, the twins, / Nārada, the lord Vyāsa, friends, relations, and kinsmen,
10.84.58
embraced their kinsmen, the Yadus, their hearts melted with affection; / filled with the pain of separation, they and the other people departed for their own lands.
10.84.59
Nanda, however, along with the cowherds, honored with grand hospitality / by Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Ugrasena, and the others, stayed on, fond of his relatives.
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Vasudeva, having effortlessly crossed the great ocean of his desire, / surrounded by friends, with a delighted mind, took Nanda by the hand and said:
10.84.61
Śrī Vasudeva said:
Brother, the snare woven by the Lord among men, known as affection— / that, I consider hard to break even for brave men and yogins.
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This friendship bestowed by the best of virtuous men upon us, who are ungrateful / and incapable of returning the favor, bears no fruitive expectation, yet never slackens at any time.
10.84.63
For in the past, through our incapacity, brother, we did not render any welfare to you; / and now, our eyes blinded by the intoxication of royal wealth, we do not see those virtuous devotees before us.
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May royal fortune never come to a man seeking the highest good, O bestower of honor, / [a fortune] by which, with eyes blinded, he does not see his own people or his kinsmen!
10.84.65
Śrī Śuka said:
Thus, his heart softened by affection, Ānakadundubhi / wept, remembering the friendship shown by him, tears filling his eyes.
10.84.66
Nanda, however, doing what was dear to his friend out of love for Govinda and Balarāma, / stayed for three months, saying “today, tomorrow,” honored by the Yadus.
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Then, showered with whatever he desired, together with his settlement of Vraja and his kinsmen, / with priceless ornaments, silks, and various invaluable accoutrements,
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taking the farewell gifts given by Vasudeva, Ugrasena, / Kṛṣṇa, Uddhava, Baladeva, and others, seen off by the Yadus, he departed.
10.84.69
Nanda, the cowherd men, and the cowherd women, unable to withdraw / their minds cast into the lotus feet of Govinda, went to Mathurā.
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When the relatives had departed, the Vṛṣṇis, who held Kṛṣṇa as their supreme deity, / seeing the rainy season near, returned again to Dvāravatī.
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They related to the people the great festival of the Lord of the Yadus, / and whatever took place during the pilgrimage, such as meeting their friends.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit