Bhagavatapurana 11.12

English (machine translation) 11.12

Language: English

11.12.1

The Lord said: / Yoga does not bind me, nor Sāṅkhya, nor even dharma, / nor study of the Veda, austerity, renunciation, sacrifices and philanthropic deeds, nor the priestly gift,

11.12.2

vows, sacrifice, Vedic meters, sacred pilgrimage sites, restraints, and observances, / as does the company of virtuous devotees, which destroys all attachments, indeed captivate me.

11.12.3

For through the company of virtuous devotees, Daityas, Yātudhānas, beasts, birds, / Gandharvas, Apsarases, Nāgas, Siddhas, Cāraṇas, and Guhyakas,

11.12.4

Vidyādharas, and among human beings, Vaiśyas, Śūdras, women, and outcasts, / whose natures were driven by passion and darkness, across the various yugas,

11.12.5

many have attained my state: Vṛtra the son of Tvaṣṭṛ, Prahlāda the son of Kayādhū, and others, / Vṛṣaparvan, Bali, Bāṇa, Maya, and also Vibhīṣaṇa,

Sugrīva, Hanumān, Jāmbavān the bear, the elephant Gajendra, Jaṭāyu the vulture, the merchant Tulādhāra, / the hunter, Kubjā, the gopīs in Vraja, the wives of the sacrificial priests, and likewise others.

11.12.7

They had not studied the corpus of revelation, nor attended upon the greatest sages; / without undertaking vows and without enduring austerities, through association with me they attained me.

11.12.8

Through pure devotional emotion alone the gopīs, cows, trees, beasts, / and other dull-witted serpents became perfected and swiftly reached me.

11.12.9

Whom one could not reach through yoga, Sāṅkhya, giving, vows, austerities, sacrifices, / philosophical exposition, personal study of the Veda, or renunciation, even with great endeavor,

11.12.10

when I was taken along with Balarāma to Mathurā by Akrūra the son of Śvaphalka, those [gopīs] whose minds were devoted to me / through deeply immersed devotional emotion, with intense sorrow born of separation from me, saw nothing else that could bring them joy.

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Those nights spent with me, the most beloved, wandering in Vṛndāvana, / had passed like half a moment, yet, my dear friend, deprived of me they became equal to an aeon.

11.12.12

With their minds bound to me by deep attachment, they did not know themselves, nor that, nor this, / just as sages in deep absorption, or rivers entered into the waters of the ocean, lose their name and form.

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Longing for me as a lover, a paramour, those women, unaware of my true nature, / by the hundreds of thousands attained me, the supreme Brahman, through association.

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Therefore, O Uddhava, abandoning injunction and prohibition, / worldly action and renunciation, that which is yet to be heard and that which has been heard,

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take refuge in me alone, the self of all embodied beings, / with your entire being; by me you will indeed become free from all fear.

11.12.16

Śrī Uddhava said: / Hearing your words, O Lord of the masters of yoga, / the doubt residing within my self does not depart, and because of it my mind is bewildered.

11.12.17

The Lord said: / That very living soul, born of the cavity [of the body], enters the heart-cave along with the vital breath and sound; / having assumed a subtle form composed of mind, it becomes grossest as measure, tone, and letter.

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Just as fire, subtle heat dwelling in the ether, an ally of the wind, when churned with force in wood / is born minute and grows strong through ghee, so too is this speech, which is my manifestation.

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Thus speech, action, locomotion, excretion; smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing; / mental resolve, discernment, and ego; the cosmic thread, and the transformation of passion, purity, and darkness—

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this living soul is threefold, born of the lotus, unmanifest, single, the primordial one in time; / its power differentiated, it appears manifold, just as seeds having entered the soil.

11.12.21

In whom this entire world is woven lengthwise and crosswise, like cloth established in an expanse of threads— / this is the ancient tree of the cycle of rebirth, whose nature is karma, yielding flowers and fruits.

11.12.22

Two are its seeds, a hundred its roots, three its trunks, five its main branches, producing five juices; / eleven are its boughs, two birds make their nest in it, three are its barks, two its fruits, and it extends into the sun.

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Vultures dwelling in villages eat one of its fruits, while swans residing in the forest eat the other; / he who knows this one tree of diverse forms, made of creative power, through the worshipful teachers, knows the Veda.

11.12.24

Thus, through service to the guru with exclusive devotion, with the sharpened axe of knowledge, / having cut down the resting-place of the soul while remaining vigilant, and having attained the self, then lay down your weapon.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Commentaries (1)

Padaratnāvalī — Vijayadhvaja Tīrtha, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit