Bhagavatapurana 3.24

English (machine translation) 3.24

Language: English

3.24.1

Maitreya said: / To Manu's modest daughter who spoke thus with worldly indifference, / the compassionate sage spoke, remembering what had been said by the pure Lord.

3.24.2

The sage said: / Do not torment yourself thus concerning your self, O blameless princess; / the imperishable Lord will enter your womb before long.

3.24.3

You have kept your vows; all auspiciousness to you! With restraint and regulation, / with penance, gifts of wealth, and faith, worship the Lord.

3.24.4

Worshiped by you, that pure Lord, spreading my renown, / born of your womb, revealing Brahman, will cut through the knot in your heart.

3.24.5

Maitreya said: / Devahūti also, accepting with great reverence the instruction of the Prajāpati, / having full faith, worshiped the unchangeable Guru, the Supreme Person.

3.24.6

After a long period of time, the Lord, the slayer of Madhu, / having entered the semen of Kardama, was born [from her] like fire from wood.

3.24.7

Then heavenly clouds sounded musical instruments in the sky; / Gandharvas sang to him, and Apsarases danced with joy.

3.24.8

Divine flowers dropped, showered down by the sky-dwellers; / and all the directions, the waters, and the minds of beings grew serene.

3.24.9

To that hermitage of Kardama bordered by the Sarasvatī, / the self-born Brahmā went together with the sages, Marīci and the rest.

3.24.10

Knowing that the Lord, the Supreme Brahman, had taken birth in an amorous portion through purity / in order to explain the enumeration of truths, O slayer of foes, the unborn, self-ruling Brahmā,

3.24.11

honoring with a pure mind what He intended to do, / his vital breaths overflowing with delight, addressed Kardama thus:

3.24.12

Brahmā said: / Worship has been rendered to me by you, dear child, without deceit, / in that you accepted my word, honoring it, O giver of honor.

3.24.13

Just this much obedience should be rendered to a father by his sons: / that one should assent with reverence to the words of the elder, saying, 'So be it!'

3.24.14

These virtuous daughters of yours of slender waists, my child, / will expand this creation in many ways through their own powers.

3.24.15

Therefore, bestow your daughters today upon the foremost sages / according to character and according to preference, and spread your renown on earth.

3.24.16

I know that the primal Person has descended through His own creative power, / bearing a body that is a treasure-house for living beings, as Kapila, O sage.

3.24.17

Severing the tangled knots of actions by the yoga of knowledge and realization, / He has golden hair, lotus-eyes, and lotus-feet marked with the sign of the lotus.

3.24.18

This slayer of Kaiṭabha has entered your womb, O daughter of Manu; / cutting through the knot of ignorance and doubt, He will wander the earth.

3.24.19

This master of the hosts of Siddhas, highly honored by the teachers of Sāṅkhya, / will be known in the world by the name Kapila, enhancing your renown.

3.24.20

Maitreya said: / Having comforted the two of them, the creator of the universe, together with the Kumāras and Nārada, / the pure sage went to the highest threefold realm upon his swan vehicle.

3.24.21

When Brahmā of a hundred sacrifices had departed, O Vidura, Kardama, instructed by him, / then gave his daughters to the creators of the universe according to what had been spoken.

3.24.22

He gave Kalā to Marīci, and Anasūyā to Atri; / he gave Śraddhā to Aṅgiras, and Havirbhū to Pulastya.

3.24.23

To Pulaha he gave the suitable Gati, and to Kratu the virtuous Kriyā; / and to Bhṛgu he gave Khyāti, and to Vasiṣṭha also Arundhatī.

3.24.24

To Atharvan he gave Śānti, by whom the sacrifice is performed. / Having married these best of brahmins, he honored them along with their wives.

3.24.25

Then those sages, O Kṣattṛ, having taken wives, took leave of him / and departed, filled with joy, each to his own circle of hermitages.

3.24.26

And recognizing that the Lord of three yugas, the foremost of the gods, had descended, / he approached Him in a solitary place, bowed down, and addressed Him:

3.24.27

"Ah, toward those suffering torments in hell on account of their own inauspicious deeds, / after a long time the gods surely become gracious in this world.

3.24.28

That state which ascetics strive to see in desolate dwellings / by the samādhi of complete yoga ripened over many births—

3.24.29

that very Lord today, disregarding our faults, / has been born in the homes of worldly men, He who nourishes the party of His own devotees.

3.24.30

To make Your own word true You have descended into my home, / wishing to impart knowledge, O Lord who increases the honor of Your devotees.

3.24.31

Those forms of Yours are indeed suitable forms, O Lord, / whatever ones are pleasing to Your own people, though You are formless.

3.24.32

To You, whose footstool is ever worthy of worship by the wise desiring to know the truth, / full of sovereignty, dispassion, fame, knowledge, power, and splendor, I surrender.

To the supreme, primal matter, the Spirit, the cosmic intellect, time, the seer, the threefold ruler of the worlds, / who pervades the universe through self-realization, whose power is unrestrained—to Kapila I surrender.

3.24.34

Today I ask permission of You, the Lord of living beings; with my debt discharged through You, my desires attained, / I shall take to the path of the wandering ascetic and wander free of sorrow, fixing You in my heart."

3.24.35

The Lord said:
"Indeed, what is spoken by Me is the standard of authority for people in both spiritual and worldly matters; / therefore I was born to you, in order that what I spoke to you would be true, O sage.

3.24.36

This birth of Mine in this world is for the sake of setting forth the enumeration of the principles, / intended for self-realization by those who seek liberation from the difficult material mind.

3.24.37

This unmanifest path of the self was lost over a long time; / know that this body has been assumed by Me in order to set it in motion.

3.24.38

Go as you wish, with My permission, offering your actions to Me; / having conquered death, which is so difficult to conquer, worship Me for the sake of immortality.

3.24.39

Seeing Me, the self, the self-effulgent, dwelling in the cave of the heart of all beings, / within the self alone by means of the self, free from sorrow you will attain fearlessness.

3.24.40

To my mother I shall bestow the spiritual knowledge that puts an end to all karmas, / by which she too will completely cross beyond fear."

3.24.41

Maitreya said:
Having been addressed in this manner by that Kapila, the lord of creatures, / circumambulating Him with joy, went indeed to the forest.

3.24.42

Having undertaken the vow of silence, having the self as his sole refuge, the sage / wandered the earth without attachment, without sacred fire, and without a fixed abode.

3.24.43

Fixing his mind on Brahman, which is beyond being and non-being, / devoid of qualities though manifesting through qualities, realized by single-minded devotion,

3.24.44

free from egoism and possessiveness, free from the pairs of opposites, seeing equally, seeing the self, / his intellect turned inward and tranquil, steadfast like an ocean with its waves calmed,

3.24.45

in the Lord Vāsudeva, the all-knowing inner self, / through supreme devotion he realized the self, freed from bondage.

3.24.46

He saw the self, the Lord, abiding in all beings, / and all beings in the Lord and in the self.

3.24.47

Free from desire and hatred, with an equal mind everywhere, / endowed with devotion to the Lord, he attained the divine destination of the Lord.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit