Bhagavatapurana 12.4
English (machine translation) 12.4
- Language
- English
Contents
12.4.1
Śrī Śuka said:
Time, beginning with an indivisible atom and ending with two parārdhas, has been spoken to you, O king,
as well as the duration of the yugas. Hear now about the kalpas and dissolutions.
12.4.2
A thousand cycles of four yugas is said to be a day of Brahmā;
that is a kalpa, in which there are fourteen Manus, O ruler of men.
12.4.3
At its end occurs a dissolution of the same length, called the night of Brahmā;
there these three worlds indeed undergo dissolution.
12.4.4
This is declared to be the occasional dissolution, wherein the creator of the universe,
the self-born, having absorbed the universe into Himself, sleeps upon the couch of Ananta.
12.4.5
When two parārdhas of Brahmā, the supreme being, have passed,
then the seven primary elements indeed undergo dissolution.
12.4.6
This, O king, is the elemental dissolution, wherein dissolves
the shell of the cosmic egg, the aggregate, when disintegration has arrived.
12.4.7
Rain does not fall upon the earth for a hundred years, O king;
then, destitute of food, afflicted with hunger, preying on one another,
12.4.8
the creatures, assaulted by time, will gradually go to destruction.
The cosmic-dissolution sun drinks the moisture
12.4.9
of the ocean, of bodies, and of the earth with its terrible rays, and releases nothing.
Then the fire of cosmic dissolution, arisen from the mouth of Saṅkarṣaṇa,
12.4.10
augmented by the force of the wind, burns the empty fissures of the earth.
Above, below, and on all sides, by the flames of fire and sun,
12.4.11
the universe, being burned, glows like a burned ball of cow dung.
Then a violent, cosmic-dissolution wind blows for more than a hundred years,
12.4.12
and the sky turns smoky, covered with dust.
Then multitudes of clouds of manifold colors, my dear,
12.4.13
pour down rain for a hundred years, thundering with fierce roaring sounds.
Then the universe within the cosmic egg becomes a single sheet of water.
12.4.14
Then, during the inundation of water, the waters consume the quality of smell of the earth;
and the earth, its smell consumed, is resolved into dissolution.
12.4.15
Then fire consumes the taste of the waters, and they, bereft of taste, dissolve.
Wind then consumes the form of fire, and deprived of that, fire dissolves
12.4.16
into the wind; and space consumes the quality of wind.
Wind enters space, O king, and then the origin of the elements
12.4.17
consumes sound, the quality of space, and space dissolves into it.
The taijasa ego consumes the senses, my dear, and the vaikārika ego consumes the deities along with the qualities;
12.4.18
the Mahat consumes the ego, and the guṇas, sattva and the rest, consume it;
and the unmanifest, impelled by time, consumes the guṇas, O king.
12.4.19
It has no transformation or other attributes caused by the divisions of time;
it is beginningless, endless, unmanifest, eternal, the imperishable cause.
12.4.20
Where there is neither speech nor mind, neither sattva, tamas, nor rajas, nor these [principles] such as the Mahat;
neither vital breath, intellect, sense organs, nor deities; nor the cosmic arrangement of the worlds;
12.4.21
neither dreaming, waking, nor deep sleep; neither space, water, earth, wind, fire, nor the sun;
like deep sleep, like the void, inconceivable—that original state they declare to be the foundation.
12.4.22
This is the elemental dissolution, when of the Puruṣa and the Unmanifest
the powers, driven by time, dissolve helplessly.
12.4.23
Consciousness shines in the form of intellect, senses, and sense objects, being their foundation;
whatever has a beginning and an end is non-substantial, because of being perceivable and non-different [from its cause].
12.4.24
A lamp, the eye, and visible form are not separate from light;
likewise the intellect, the sense organs, and their objects cannot exist apart from the one absolute Truth.
12.4.25
The waking state, dreaming, and deep sleep are said to belong to the intellect;
this multiplicity in the inner self is mere creative power, O king.
12.4.26
Just as clouds appear and disappear in the sky,
so does this composite universe in Brahman, through origination and dissolution.
12.4.27
For the part is declared to be the reality of all composite wholes in this world;
they can be conceived without the composite whole, just as the threads [can be conceived without] the cloth, my dear.
12.4.28
Whatever is perceived through generic and specific characteristics is an illusion;
because of mutual dependence, everything that has a beginning and an end is unreal.
12.4.29
Even though a transformation is perceived, apart from the inner self
not even an atom of it can be determined; if it could, it would be identical to consciousness, like the self.
12.4.30
Indeed there is no multiplicity in the Truth, though the ignorant may think so;
just as there is no difference between two spaces, two lights, or two winds.
12.4.31
Just as gold is spoken of in many ways by men through various functions in customary practice,
so the Lord, Adhokṣaja, is described in various terms by worldly and Vedic people.
12.4.31.p1
Just as a cloud, originated by the sun and revealed by the sun,
is darkness to the eye which is a part of the sun,
12.4.32
so the ego, a quality of Brahman, witnessed by it,
is the self's bondage for the self, which is an integral part of Brahman.
12.4.32.p1
[…]
12.4.33
When the cloud produced by the sun is dispersed, then the eye beholds the sun in its true form;
when the ego, the limiting adjunct of the self, is destroyed by inquiry, then one remembers [one's true nature].
12.4.34
When thus, by this weapon of discrimination, one cuts away
the bondage of the self in the form of illusory ego, and abides in the direct experience of the immutable Self—that, my dear, they call absolute dissolution.
12.4.35
Some who possess subtle insight declare, O scorcher of foes,
that creation and dissolution are continuously occurring for all beings, from Brahmā downwards.
12.4.36
Carried away swiftly and continuously by the momentum of the stream of time,
those changing states of transforming entities are the causes of birth and dissolution.
12.4.37
By this time, which is without beginning or end and is an embodiment of the Lord, / the stages [of change] are not perceived at all, just as [the movements] of the heavenly bodies in the sky.
12.4.38
The continuous dissolution, the occasional dissolution, and likewise the elemental dissolution, / and the ultimate dissolution have been described; such is the course of time.
12.4.39
These stories of the divine play of Nārāyaṇa, the creator of the universe and abode of all purity, / have been told to you in brief, O best of Kurus; even the unborn [Brahmā] is not capable of reciting them completely.
12.4.39.p1
For a person wishing to cross the ocean of the cycle of rebirth, which is exceedingly difficult to traverse, / there is no other boat than
12.4.40
the relishing of the aesthetic flavor of the stories of the divine play of the Lord, the Supreme Person, / for one tormented by the forest fire of various sufferings.
12.4.40.p1
[…]
12.4.41
This collection of Purāṇas the imperishable sage Nārāyaṇa / formerly spoke to Nārada, and he to Kṛṣṇa-Dvaipāyana.
12.4.42
Indeed, the glorious Bādarāyaṇa, pleased [with me], O great king, / [imparted] to me this Bhāgavata collection, equal to the Vedas.
12.4.43
This very [work] Sūta will speak to the sages residing at Naimiṣa, / at the long sacrificial session, O best of the Kurus, when questioned by Śaunaka and others.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Commentaries (2)
- Bhāgavatacandrikā — Vīrarāghava, Sanskrit
- Padaratnāvalī — Vijayadhvaja Tīrtha, Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit