Bhagavatapurana 11.1
English (machine translation) 11.1
- Language
- English
Contents
11.1.1
Śrī Śuka said: / Having slain the demons, Kṛṣṇa, accompanied by Rāma and surrounded by the Yadus, / relieved the burden of the earth, instigating a swift conflict.
11.1.1.p1
Using those sons of Pāṇḍu who had been greatly enraged by their rivals / through the rigged dice match, insult, dragging by the hair, and other wrongs,
11.1.2
as his instrument, and having slain the kings assembled against one another, / the Lord removed the earth's burden.
11.1.2.p1
[…]
11.1.2.p2
Having repelled the armies of kings that burdened the earth through the Yadus / who were protected by his own arms, the immeasurable Lord reflected:
11.1.2.p3
Having repelled the armies of kings that burdened the earth through the Yadus / who were protected by his own arms, the immeasurable Lord reflected:
11.1.3
“I consider that although the burden of the earth is gone, it is not truly gone, / for the Yādava family, alas, remains unbearable.
11.1.3.p1
[…]
11.1.3.p2
There can never be defeat for it from any other source, / since it is constantly sheltered by me and inflated with power.
11.1.3.p3
There can never be defeat for it from any other source, / since it is constantly sheltered by me and inflated with power.
11.1.4
Engendering internal strife in the Yadu clan, like fire in a bamboo thicket, / I shall attain peace and return to my abode.”
11.1.4.p1
[…]
11.1.5
Thus resolved, O king, the all-powerful Lord of true resolve / withdrew his own lineage through the pretext of a curse by brāhmaṇas.
11.1.6
Attracting the eyes of men with his own form that held the essence of the world's beauty, / the minds of those who remembered it with his words, and the actions of those who beheld his footsteps,
11.1.7
and spreading his glorious fame, by which men on earth would easily cross beyond darkness, / the Lord departed to his own abode.
11.1.8
The King said: / How did a curse from brāhmaṇas fall upon the Vṛṣṇis, / who were devoted to brāhmaṇas, generous, ever serving elders, and whose minds were absorbed in Kṛṣṇa?
11.1.9
What was the cause of that curse, and what was it like, O best of the twice-born? / How did division arise among those of one mind? Tell me all this.
11.1.10
Śrī Bādarāyaṇi said: / Bearing a form containing all beauty, performing most auspicious deeds on earth, / his desires fulfilled, resting in his glorious state and taking pleasure there, he of noble renown, / having only this final task remaining, desired to destroy his family.
11.1.11
Having performed righteous, supremely auspicious deeds / that take away the impurities of the Kali age for the singing world, / while dwelling as time itself in the house of the Yadus, he sent the sages, who then went to Piṇḍāraka:
11.1.12
Viśvāmitra, Asita, Kaṇva, / Durvāsas, Bhṛgu, Aṅgiras, / Kaśyapa, Vāmadeva, Atri, / Vasiṣṭha, Nārada, and others.
11.1.13
Playing there, the young princes of the Yadus approached them; / greeting them respectfully, insolent though they were, they asked as if humble.
11.1.14
Having dressed Sāmba, the son of Jāmbavatī, in a woman's attire, / [they said:] “This dark-eyed pregnant woman asks you, O brāhmaṇas:
11.1.15
She is ashamed to ask in person; tell her, O sages of unfailing vision: / about to give birth, desiring a son, what indeed will she bear?”
11.1.16
Tricked in this manner, the enraged sages said to them, O king: / “She will bear for you, fools, an iron club that will destroy your clan!”
11.1.17
Hearing that, utterly terrified, they quickly uncovered the belly / of Sāmba and indeed saw an iron club there.
11.1.18
“What have we unfortunate fools done? What will people say to us?” / Thus distraught, they took the iron club and went home.
11.1.19
Bringing it to the royal assembly, their faces pale, / they reported it to the king in the presence of all the Yādavas.
11.1.20
Hearing of the unfailing curse of the brāhmaṇas and seeing the iron club, O king, / the inhabitants of Dvārakā were astonished and seized with fear.
11.1.21
Having ground that iron club to powder, Āhuka, the king of the Yadus, / cast it into the waters of the ocean, along with the piece of iron that remained.
11.1.22
A certain fish swallowed that piece of iron, and the powdered particles, / carried to the shore by the waves, grew into erakā reeds.
11.1.23
The fish was caught in the ocean by fishermen along with other fish; / a hunter made the piece of iron found inside its belly into an arrowhead.
11.1.24
Even though he knew everything, the Lord did not wish / to undo the curse of the brāhmaṇas; appearing as Time, he consented to it.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit