Bhagavatapurana 3.25

English (machine translation) 3.25

Language: English

3.25.1

Śaunaka said:
Kapila, the enumerator of the truths, the Lord, through His own creative power / was born Himself, though unborn, directly to teach the knowledge of the self to men.

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Indeed, my senses are never sufficiently satiated / by hearing of this foremost of beings, the greatest of all yogins, celebrated in sacred tradition.

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Whatever the self-willed Lord performs through His own creative power— / recount all those praiseworthy deeds to me who am full of faith.

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Sūta said:
The friend of Dvaipāyana, the venerable Maitreya, / thus addressed Vidura with joy, when questioned about the inquiry into the self.

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Maitreya said:
When his father had departed to the forest, wishing to do what was pleasing to his mother, / the Lord Kapila resided at that Bindusaras.

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To Him seated there free from action, possessing the highest vision of the path of truth, / Devahūti spoke to her own son, remembering the words of Brahmā:

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Devahūti said:
"I am completely dejected, O Infinite One, from the thirst of the base senses, / through catering to which, O Lord, I have fallen into blinding darkness.

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Now at the end of many births, by Your grace, I have obtained You / as the true eye to cross to the other shore of that blinding, impassable darkness.

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You are indeed that primal Lord, the Supreme Master of men, / risen like the sun as an eye for the world blinded by darkness.

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Therefore, O Lord, You should dispel my delusion, / this stubborn notion of 'I' and 'mine' in which I was engaged by You.

To You I have come for refuge, who are the worthy refuge, the axe to the tree of transmigration for Your servants; / desiring to know the truth of nature and the Spirit, I bow to the foremost of those who know the true dharma."

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Maitreya said:
Having thus heard the faultless desire of His own mother, which promotes liberation for mortals, / the refuge of the virtuous who possess self-control rejoiced in His mind and spoke, His face adorned with a gentle smile.

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The Lord said:
"The spiritual yoga of men is considered by Me to lead to the highest good, / wherein there is the absolute cessation of both sorrow and joy.

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This very yoga, which I spoke of of old, O sinless one, / to the sages who desired to hear it—complete in all its parts—I shall explain to you.

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The mind is indeed considered to be the cause of bondage and of liberation for the self: / attached to the qualities of nature it leads to bondage, or devoted to the Spirit it leads to liberation.

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When the mind is cleansed of the impurities such as lust and greed arisen from the egoism of 'I' and 'mine', / and is pure, without sorrow, without joy, and equal—

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then the Spirit [sees] the self as isolated, beyond material nature, / uninterrupted, self-effulgent, subtle, undivided,

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and with a mind endowed with knowledge, dispassion, and devotion, / sees [itself as] detached, and material nature as stripped of its power."

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There is no auspicious path for yogins to attain Brahman / equal to devotion practiced toward the Lord, the Self of all.

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The wise know that attachment is an unbreakable fetter for the soul; / but when directed toward the virtuous, that very attachment is the open door to liberation.

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Tolerant, compassionate, friends of all living beings, / without enemies, tranquil, the virtuous have virtuous conduct as their ornament.

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They practice steadfast devotion to Me with undivided feeling; / for My sake they have abandoned worldly duties, abandoning their own kin and relatives.

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Centered on Me, they hear and recite delightful narratives [of Me]; / various miseries do not torment these whose minds are fixed on Me.

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These indeed are the virtuous devotees, O virtuous lady, completely free from all worldly attachments; / attachment to them is what you should seek, for they remove the faults of attachment.

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Through association with the virtuous devotees, discussions of My heroic deeds become an elixir to the heart and ear; / by savoring them, faith, loving attachment, and devotion will follow in succession upon the path of liberation.

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Through devotion, having developed dispassion toward sense objects seen or heard, through contemplation of My creation, / a person, striving to restrain the mind and engaged in yoga, will strive by the straightforward paths of yoga.

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By non-enjoyment of nature's qualities, by knowledge enhanced by dispassion, / by yoga, and by devotion offered to Me, one attains Me, the inner Self, in this very life.

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Devahūti said: / What kind of devotion to You is suitable and accessible to me, / by which I may easily attain Your realm of liberation?

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That yoga which has the Lord as its aim, which You described, O Embodiment of Liberation, / what is it like, and how many are its limbs, by which realization of the truth is attained?

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Explain this to me, O Hari, so that I, dull-witted / as a woman, may easily comprehend what is difficult to understand, by Your grace.

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Maitreya said: / Knowing His mother's intent, Kapila, feeling affection born of having taken birth from her body, / expounded the tradition of truth that is called Sāṅkhya, together with the yoga of the unfolding of devotion.

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The Lord said: / Of the senses, whose signs are the qualities and which perform Vedic actions, / that spontaneous movement of a single-pointed mind toward pure goodness—

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unmotivated devotion to the Lord—is superior to liberation; / it quickly consumes the subtle body, as fire consumes digested food.

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Some who delight in serving My feet and are devoted to My endeavors do not even desire oneness with Me; / associating with one another, the devotees celebrate My heroic deeds.

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They behold My charming forms, O mother, with serene faces and reddish eyes, / divine and granting boons, and they converse together in desirable speech.

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With their minds captivated and their life-breaths seized by those delightful limbs, / noble sport, smiling glances, and pleasing words, devotion leads them, even without their desiring it, to My subtle state.

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Moreover, though they do not desire that majesty of Mine, the Master of creative power—the eightfold supernatural power that follows upon it— / or divine, auspicious opulence, they nevertheless enjoy them in My highest realm.

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Never do those dedicated to Me perish, O peaceful one, nor does My weapon, the unwinking [Time], consume them; / to them I am the beloved, the self, the son, the friend, the guru, the well-wisher, and the chosen deity.

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This world, and likewise the other, and the self that travels between both, / and whatever is connected to oneself here—wealth, cattle, houses—

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relinquishing all these and all others, they worship Me alone, whose face is everywhere, / with undivided devotion; I carry them beyond death.

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From none other than Me, the Lord, the ruler of nature and spirit, / the Self of all beings, does severe fear depart.

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Out of fear of Me this wind blows; out of fear of Me the sun blazes; / out of fear of Me Indra showers, fire burns, and death stalks.

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Yogins, through the yoga of devotion accompanied by knowledge and dispassion, / enter the refuge of My feet, free from fear anywhere, for their well-being.

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Only this much in this world brings the dawn of the supreme good for human beings: / the mind firmly fixed on Me through intense yoga of devotion.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit