Bhagavatapurana 10.89
English (machine translation) 10.89
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Contents
10.89.1
Śrī Śuka said: / On the bank of the Sarasvatī, O King, sages sat at a sacrificial session. / A dispute arose among them: “Among the three lords, who is the greatest?”
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Desiring to know this, O King, in order to ascertain it, / they sent Bhṛgu, the son of Brahmā; he went to the assembly of Brahmā.
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To test his purity, he did not offer him prostrations or praise; / the Lord became angry with him, blazing with his own brilliance.
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The Lord, the self-born, by his own effort extinguished the anger that had arisen within himself / toward his son, just as fire is extinguished by water produced from itself.
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Then he went to Kailāsa; the god Maheśvara, / rising with joy, stepped forward to embrace his brother.
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[Bhṛgu] did not desire it, saying, “You are transgressing the path!” and the god grew angry. / Raising his trident, his eyes fierce, he moved forward to slay him.
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Falling at his feet, the goddess pacified him with her words. / Then [Bhṛgu] went to Vaikuṇṭha, where the god Janārdana is.
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He struck with his foot the chest of Him who lay on Śrī’s lap. / Thereupon rising, the Lord, the refuge of the virtuous devotees, along with Lakṣmī,
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stepped down from His bed and bowed his head to the sage. / He said: “Welcome, O brāhmaṇa! Sit here on this seat for a moment. / O master, you ought to forgive us who did not notice you arriving.
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Purify me, along with my realm and the world-protectors devoted to me, / with the water of your feet, which makes holy places into sacred waters.
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Today, O venerable one, I have become the sole vessel of Lakṣmī; / prosperity will dwell upon my chest, its misfortune destroyed by your foot.”
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Śrī Śuka said: / When Vaikuṇṭha spoke thus in his deep voice, Bhṛgu, / contented, gratified, remained silent, his eyes filled with tears from longing devotion.
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Returning again to the sacrificial session of the sages who proclaim Brahman, / Bhṛgu described in full what he had experienced himself, O King.
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Hearing that, the sages, astonished and free from doubt, / placed their faith in Viṣṇu as the highest, from whom peace comes, from whom fearlessness arises,
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from whom dharma visibly arises, and knowledge accompanied by dispassion, / and the eightfold sovereign power, and fame that wipes away all taint of the self;
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whom they call the supreme goal of sages who have laid down their staff of punishment, / peaceful, even-minded, possessing nothing, and virtuous;
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whose beloved form is purity, while brāhmaṇas are His chosen deities; / whom those of calm mind, free from desires, or those of sharp intellect worship.
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Threefold are the forms created by His creative power endowed with the guṇas: / rākṣasas, asuras, and devas; among them, purity is the means of attaining the holy goal.
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Śrī Śuka said: / Thus the brāhmaṇas dwelling by the Sarasvatī, to remove the doubts of men, / attained His state through service to the lotus feet of the Supreme Person.
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Śrī Sūta said: / Thus, one who drinks repeatedly through the cupped vessels of his ears this nectar having the fragrance of the lotus face of the sage’s son, / which destroys the fear of worldly existence and relates to the supreme person of pure fame, / abandons, as a traveler does, the fatigue of wandering on the road.
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Śrī Śuka said: / Once in Dvāravatī, a son of a brāhmaṇa’s wife, / as soon as he was born and touched the earth, died indeed, O Bhārata.
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The brāhmaṇa took the dead body, placed it at the king’s gate, / and, afflicted and dejected in mind, lamented and said this:
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“Because of the sinful action of the fallen kṣatriya, the hater of brāhmaṇas, / deceitful in mind, greedy, addicted to sense objects, my child has gone to the five elements.
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Serving a king whose pleasure is violence, of bad character, with uncontrolled senses, / the subjects languish, impoverished and perpetually miserable.”
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In the same way the brāhmaṇa sage left a second [child], and likewise a third, / at the gate of the king, and chanted that same lament.
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Once, Arjuna, overhearing it near Keśava / when the ninth child had died, addressed the brāhmaṇa:
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“Is there, O brāhmaṇa, no wielder of the bow living here in your place? / These brāhmaṇas sit at the sacrificial session, while these [rulers] are merely kin to royalty.
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Where brāhmaṇas lament, stripped of wealth, wives, and children, / those rulers are merely actors in the dress of royalty, living only to nourish their own bellies.
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I will protect the children of you two distressed ones here, O venerable one! / If my vow is not fulfilled, I will enter the fire, my sins destroyed.”
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The brāhmaṇa said: / “Saṅkarṣaṇa, Vāsudeva, Pradyumna the best of archers, / and Aniruddha of unrivaled chariot cannot protect them;
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so how can you perform a deed impossible for the lords of the universe? / You wish to do it out of foolishness; we do not believe it.”
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Śrī Arjuna said: / “I am not Saṅkarṣaṇa, O brāhmaṇa, nor Kṛṣṇa, nor the son of Kṛṣṇa; / I am indeed Arjuna, whose bow is Gāṇḍīva.
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Do not despise my prowess, O brāhmaṇa, which pleased the three-eyed Rudra! / Conquering Death in battle, I will bring back your children, O master.”
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Thus reassured by Phālguna, O scorcher of foes, / the brāhmaṇa went home glad, hearing of Pārtha’s heroism.
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When the time of delivery approached for his wife, the best of the twice-born, / distressed, said to Arjuna: “Protect, protect my child from death!”
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Touching pure water, bowing to Maheśvara, / and meditating on his celestial weapons, he strung his Gāṇḍīva bow.
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He enclosed the maternity ward with arrows fitted with diverse mystic weapons; / horizontally, upward, and downward, Pārtha made a cage of arrows.
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Then the child born to the brāhmaṇa’s wife, crying repeatedly, / suddenly vanished into the sky with his physical body.
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Then the brāhmaṇa spoke, denouncing Vijaya in the presence of Kṛṣṇa: / “Look at my foolishness, that I believed the boasting of a weakling!
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When neither Pradyumna nor Aniruddha nor Rāma nor Keśava / could save him, who else is capable of protecting him?
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Curse Arjuna the liar! Curse the bow of that self-praiser, / who out of foolishness, evil-minded, desires to bring back one seized by destiny!”
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While the brāhmaṇa sage cursed him thus, Phālguna, resorting to his mystic lore, / quickly went to Saṃyamanī, where the Lord Yama resides.
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Not seeing the brāhmaṇa’s child there, he went to the city of Indra, / then to that of Agni, of Nirṛti, of Soma, of Vāyu, and of Varuṇa,
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to Rasātala, to the vault of heaven, and to other realms, with weapons raised. / Not finding the son of the twice-born, having failed to fulfill his vow, / he wished to enter fire, but was spoken to by Kṛṣṇa, who stopped him:
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“I will show you the brāhmaṇa’s sons; do not despise yourself by yourself! / Those men shall establish our spotless renown.”
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Having spoken thus, the Lord, the supreme master, along with Arjuna, / mounted His celestial chariot and entered the western direction.
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Crossing the seven continents with their oceans, then the seven mountain ranges, / and Lokāloka as well, he entered a vast darkness.
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There the horses—Śaibya, Sugrīva, Meghapuṣpa, and Balāhaka— / lost their way in the darkness, O best of the Bharatas.
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Seeing them, the Lord Kṛṣṇa, master of the great masters of yoga, / sent forth his discus before them, radiant like a thousand suns.
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Cleaving the exceedingly dreadful, dense, and vast darkness with its boundless radiance,
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the Sudarśana [discus], swift as thought, sped forth like Rāma's arrow released from the bowstring piercing enemy armies.
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Following along the path made by the discus through that darkness, Arjuna, beholding the supreme, boundless light / that pervaded everything, was struck in the eyes and closed them both.
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Then [the chariot] entered water adorned with immense rolling waves raised by a powerful wind; / there stood a wondrous, supremely luminous palace, adorned with thousands of radiant gem-encrusted pillars.
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In it [they saw] the wondrous, infinite serpent Ananta of enormous coils, / gleaming with the luster of the gems upon his thousand hooded heads,
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terrific with his two thousand eyes, resembling a white mountain, and with a dark throat and tongues.
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He saw the all-pervading Lord seated comfortably upon those coils, / majestic, the highest of the highest persons,
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He saw the all-pervading Lord seated comfortably upon those coils, / majestic, the highest of the highest persons,
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resembling a dense rain-cloud, clad in splendid yellow garments, / with a serene face and lovely, expansive eyes.
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His thousand locks of hair were encircled by the splendor of his crown and earrings set with great jewels;
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His thousand locks of hair were encircled by the splendor of his crown and earrings set with great jewels;
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he had eight long, handsome arms, bore the Kaustubha gem, / was marked with the Śrīvatsa, and was draped with a garland of forest flowers.
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whose thousands of locks of hair were encircled by the brilliance of diadems and earrings set with clusters of great gems,
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whose thousands of locks of hair were encircled by the brilliance of diadems and earrings set with clusters of great gems,
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who possessed eight long and handsome arms, was adorned with the Kaustubha gem, marked with the Śrīvatsa, and draped with a garland of forest flowers.
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Acyuta bowed down to the Infinite One, his own self, and Jiṣṇu [Arjuna] did so too, struck with awe at his sight. / To the two of them, standing with folded palms, the Sovereign Lord of the creators of the universe spoke with a smile in a resonant voice:
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“The sons of the twice-born were brought here by me, who wished to see the two of you, who have descended to the earth as portions [of myself] for the protection of dharma. / Having slain the demons who were a burden to the earth, come back swiftly to my presence here!”
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“Even though you two, the ṛṣis Nara and Nārāyaṇa, have fulfilled all desires, / you, foremost of beings, should practice dharma for the maintenance [of order] and the guidance of the world.”
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Having been thus instructed by the Supreme Lord, the two Kṛṣṇas / said, “Yes,” bowed to the Sovereign One, took the brāhmaṇa’s boys,
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and returned delighted to their own abode along the path they had come. / They gave the sons to the brāhmaṇa, each in his proper form and proper age.
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Having seen the realm of Viṣṇu, Pārtha [Arjuna] was filled with supreme wonder, / and he realized that whatever manly prowess mortals possess is entirely by Kṛṣṇa’s grace.
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Displaying many such heroic exploits here in the world, / he enjoyed worldly pleasures and performed sacrifices with magnificent offerings.
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The Lord, established in supreme majesty, showered all desires / upon the subjects, beginning with the brāhmaṇas, in due season, just like Indra.
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Having slain the most unrighteous kings and having caused others to be slain by Arjuna and the rest, / he properly established dharma through the son of Dharma [Yudhiṣṭhira] and his brothers.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit