Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Bhagavatapurana 5

English (machine translation) 5

Language
English

Contents

5.1.1

The king said:
How did Priyavrata, a great Bhāgavata delighting in the self, O sage,
take pleasure in the household, the root of karmic bondage and humiliation?

5.1.2

Indeed, O best of the twice-born, it is not fitting for men of such nature,
whose attachments are abandoned, to be deeply attached to homes.

5.1.3

For truly, O brāhmaṇa sage, the minds of exalted devotees, pacified
in the shade of the feet of He of highest renown, have no longing for family.

5.1.4

This is a great doubt, O brāhmaṇa: that a man attached
to wife, home, sons, and the like should attain perfection and an unfailing thought for Kṛṣṇa.

5.1.5

Śuka said:
Well spoken! Those whose minds are absorbed in the nectar-flavor of the glorious lotus feet of the Lord of highest renown generally do not abandon their most auspicious path—consisting of accounts dear to the paramahaṃsas among the Bhāgavatas—even if somewhat obstructed by impediments.

5.1.6

Indeed, O king, when that prince Priyavrata, a supreme Bhāgavata, having swiftly grasped the true nature of the ultimate reality through serving the feet of Nārada, was about to be initiated into the sacrificial session of Brahman, he was urged by his own father to protect the surface of the earth as the sole worthy vessel for the multitude of eminent virtues spoken of in tradition; yet, having all the functions of his faculties absorbed in the Lord Vāsudeva alone through unmediated absorption, he did not welcome it at all, even though it was not to be refused, foreseeing in that office his own downfall from the unreal other.

5.1.7

Then the Lord, the primeval deity, the self-born [Brahmā], who resolved upon the intention of the whole universe through meditating upon the expansion of this creation of qualities, descended from his own abode, surrounded by the entire collection of the Vedas personified as his own attendants.

5.1.8

Here and there in the expanse of the sky, like the lord of the stars [the moon], being worshipped along the path with rows of celestial chariots by the chiefs of the immortals, and being sung of on every road in hosts by troops of Siddhas, Gandharvas, Sādhyas, Cāraṇas, and sages, illuminating the valley of Gandhamādana, he drew near.

5.1.9

There indeed, recognizing his father, the Lord Hiraṇyagarbha, arriving on his swan-vehicle, the divine sage [Nārada] stood up at once and, together with the father [Manu] and son [Priyavrata], approached him with an offering of worship, his hands joined in reverence.

5.1.10

The Lord, the first person, having received their respectful offering, O descendant of Bharata, his glorious conquest over the descent of his qualities exalted by words of well-spoken hymns, spoke thus with a gaze accompanied by a compassionate smile to that Priyavrata:

5.1.11

The Lord said:
Understand this, my child: I speak the truth; you should not harbor resentment toward the immeasurable Lord.
We, Śiva, your father, and this great sage [Nārada] all helplessly carry out what is ordained by Him.

5.1.12

Neither by austerity nor by knowledge, neither by the power of yoga nor by intellect,
nor by wealth and dharma, whether through others or by oneself, could any embodied being overturn what is ordained by Him.

5.1.13

For creation and destruction, to perform action,
for sorrow, delusion, constant fear,
and for happiness and distress, people assume the connection with a body ordained by the Unmanifest, my dear.

5.1.14

Bound fast by the ropes of qualities and actions, exceedingly hard to cross, to the cord of His word, my child,
we all bear tribute to the Lord, just as four-footed animals, pierced through the nose, obey two-footed men.

5.1.15

For we experience happiness or distress ordained by the Lord, my dear, through attachment to qualities and actions,
relying on whatever the Protector has assigned, like blind men led by one who has sight.

5.1.16

Even a liberated man may sustain his own body while experiencing the karma already begun, free from false ego,
just like a man awakened from sleep relates to what was experienced [in a dream]; but he does not turn toward the qualities so as to cause another body.

5.1.17

Even in the forests there is fear for a heedless man, since he dwells together with six rivals [the five senses and mind];
what harm can the householder stage of life do to a wise man of subdued senses who delights in the self?

5.1.18

He who, desiring to conquer the six rivals, strives first having entered the household,
overcomes his powerful enemies having taken refuge in a fortress; when they are weakened, the wise man may wander at will.

5.1.19

You, however, having taken shelter in the fortress of the lotus bud of the feet of the Lotus-naveled Lord, have conquered the six rivals;
enjoy here the pleasures assigned by the Supreme Person and, freed from attachment, accept your natural state.

5.1.20

Śuka said:
Having been addressed in this manner, that great Bhāgavata bowed his head in humility before the instruction of the Lord, the guru of the three worlds, and with deep respect accepted it, saying: 'So be it.'

5.1.21

And the Lord [Brahmā], duly worshipped with reverence by Manu, while Priyavrata and Nārada looked on without partiality, departed, establishing them in an unconditioned state, an abode beyond speech and mind, which was identical to Himself.

5.1.22

Manu also, having had his intention thus restored by the Supreme, installed his son for the protection and preservation of the entire circle of the earth with the approval of the foremost divine sage [Nārada], and himself withdrew from the desire for the reservoir of poison that is the extremely treacherous sense objects.

5.1.23

Thus indeed that ruler of the world, with his authority for action imposed upon him by the will of the Lord, though already pure because the impurities of his heart were burned away by the power of unceasing meditation on the pair of feet of the Lord, the primeval person, whose supreme power destroys the bondage of the entire universe, ruled the surface of the earth, enhancing the honor of exalted devotees.

5.1.24

And then he married Barhiṣmatī, the daughter of the Prajāpati Viśvakarman; and in her he fathered ten sons, noble in character, virtue, actions, beauty, and strength equal to himself, and a younger daughter named Ūrjasvatī.

5.1.25

[These sons were named] Āgnīdhra, Idhmajihva, Yajñabāhu, Mahāvīra, Hiraṇyaretas, Ghṛtapṛṣṭha, Savana, Medhātithi, Vītihotra, and Kavi—all indeed names of the sacred fire.

5.1.26

Among these, the three named Kavi, Mahāvīra, and Savana were celibate from childhood. Practiced in the knowledge of the self from boyhood, they embraced the state of the supreme ascetic.

5.1.27

In that [state], those great sages of tranquil nature—by the power of the supreme yoga of devotion, unceasingly melting in remembrance of the blessed lotus feet of the Lord Vāsudeva, the refuge of the fearful and the abode of all hosts of living beings—attained complete identity with the Lord, the inner self who is the self of all beings, realized within their hearts.

5.1.28

By another wife he had three [more] sons, Uttama, Tāmasa, and Raivata, who became rulers of their respective manvantaras.

5.1.29

When his sons had thus retired into tranquil detachment, the king, high-minded though he was, ruled the earth for eleven arbuda [one billion one hundred million] years. His opponents of dharma were checked by the twanging of the bowstring drawn by his two arms, endowed with unimpeded masculine prowess; yet he enjoyed the earth as though his discernment were defeated and as though bewildered by Barhiṣmatī's feminine charms, ever-increasing joy, bashful stolen smiles, amorous glances, playful dalliance, and the like.

5.1.30

As the divine sun circles Mount Meru, illuminating one half of the earth's surface with heat and leaving the other half covered in darkness, he—whose extraordinary prowess was magnified by the worship of the Lord—disapproved of this and, resolving, “I shall turn night into day,” rode a chariot of light equal in speed to the sun, encircling it seven times like a second sun.

5.1.31

The ditches dug by the rims of the wheels of his chariot became the seven oceans, and by them the seven continental islands of the earth were formed.

5.1.32

These are known as Jambū, Plakṣa, Śālmali, Kuśa, Krauñca, Śāka, and Puṣkara. Their extent is measured outward on all sides, each successive one being double the size of the preceding one in regular succession.

5.1.33

And he gave his daughter named Ūrjasvatī to Uśanas; of her was born Devayānī, the daughter of Kāvya.

5.1.34

Such heroic achievement is not surprising for men who have conquered the six enemies by the dust of His feet, the Lord of wide strides; / even an outcast who utters His name once is at once freed from bondage.

5.1.35

Thus possessed of immeasurable strength and valor, one day he felt discontented, as it were, through contact with the creation of the gunas that had followed his abandonment of the divine sage's feet, and in self-disgust he said:

5.1.36

“Alas, how poorly I have acted, in that I was plunged by my senses into the dark well of treacherous worldly objects constructed by ignorance! Enough, enough of this! Woe to me, a pet monkey for this woman!” Thus he reproached himself.

5.1.37

By the self-realization attained through the grace of the Supreme Deity, he divided this earth among his sons who followed his ways according to their inheritance, abandoned his queen with whom he had enjoyed pleasures as if she were a corpse, along with his immense sovereignty, and, having personally conceived disgust with the world, with the majesty of Hari's pastimes held in his heart, he set out once more along the path of the divine sage Nārada.

5.1.38

Regarding him, there are these verses: / “Who indeed could perform the deed done by Priyavrata, save the Lord? / Dispelling darkness, he created the seven oceans with the ruts of his chariot wheels.

5.1.39

By him was determined the arrangement of the earth with its rivers, mountains, and forests, / and the boundaries in each island separately, for the well-being of all living beings.

5.1.40

Earthly, celestial, and human greatness born of ritual works / he considered equal to hell, he who was dear to the followers of the Supreme Person.”

5.2.1

Śrī Śuka said: / When his father had departed in this manner, Āgnīdhra, abiding by his instructions, protected the subjects residing in Jambūdvīpa righteously, as if they were his own begotten children.

5.2.2

Once, desiring the realm of the ancestors, he went to a valley of the pleasure mountain of the celestial women, and there the ascetic worshipped the Lord, the master of the creators of the universe, with gathered offerings of worship and single-minded concentration of the self.

5.2.3

Perceiving this, the Lord, the Primal Person, dispatched the Apsaras named Pūrvacitti, who was singing in the celestial assembly.

5.2.4

She wandered near the garden of his hermitage, which was exceedingly charming—thronged with pairs of land-dwelling birds perched on golden creepers intertwined with dense branches of varied trees, singing their notes; and enlivened with clear ponds filled with lotuses resounding with the calls of water fowl, kāraṇḍava ducks, and geese awakened by them.

5.2.5

Hearing the tinkling of her lovely foot-ornaments jingling at every step of her gracefully charming gait and playfully undulating movements, the royal prince opened slightly the bud-like lotus petals of his eyes, which had been closed in meditative absorption, and beheld her.

5.2.6

Seeing her nearby, smelling flowers like a female bee; opening a path into the hearts of men for the flower-arrowed god of love by her gait, playfulness, modest glances, and sweet melodious speech that brought delight to the minds and eyes of gods and mortals; her hips, mass of hair, and jar-like breasts charmingly trembling under the quickened steps she took because of the swarm of bees blinded by rut-perfume, attracted by the fragrance of the smiling words filled with sweet nectar dripping from her mouth; the prince, brought under the sway of the shark-bannered god of love who found his opportunity in that sight, spoke as if bewildered:

5.2.7

Who are you, best of ascetics, and what do you wish to do on this mountain? Are you some creative power of the Supreme Deity, the Lord? / You carry two stringless bows for your own sake or a friend’s; or are you hunting intoxicated deer in the forest?

5.2.8

These two arrows of your reverence, feathered with lotus petals, are peaceful, lovely without shafts, yet possessing exceedingly sharp tips. / Wandering in the forest, whom do you wish to strike? We do not know. May your power be for our well-being, dull of wit as we are.

5.2.9

These disciples around your reverence recite; they sing the Sāmaveda together with its esoteric secrets incessantly to the Lord. / Shaken down by your locks of hair, they all enjoy the rains of blossoms, just as groups of ṛṣis follow the branches of the Veda.

5.2.10

O brāhmaṇa, we hear only the speech of the partridges in the cage of your feet, sounding loudly without visible forms. / The beauty of the kadamba flower has been obtained on the round resting place of your hips, around which is a circle like a whirling firebrand; and where is your bark garment?

5.2.11

What is stored in your two beautiful horns, O twice-born one, where you, slender in the waist, carry that upon which my eyes rest? / Reddish and fragrant is the paste on your horns, by which, O handsome one, you perfume my hermitage.

5.2.12

Show me your realm, O dearest friend, where people possess such unprecedented parts upon their breasts, / which elevate the mind of one like me; and so much wonder—the nectar of passionate love-dances and the like—in the mouth!

5.2.13

What is your livelihood? Surely an oblation of food is fragrant, my friend! You are an expansion of Viṣṇu, and your two ears have unblinking makara-earrings. / Your face is like a lake, with two restless fish, the splendor of a row of teeth, and swarms of bees nearby!

5.2.14

That ball struck by your lotus hand, wandering in all directions, as it spins makes my eyes restless. / Do you not remember your loosened cluster of curly matted locks? This wretched, lustful wind is stealing your waist-cloth!

5.2.15

O rich in asceticism, by what penance was this beauty acquired by you—a beauty that destroys the asceticism of those practicing penance? / You ought to perform penance together with me, O friend; or will that creator of the world be pleased with me?

5.2.16

I will not leave you, my beloved, given to me by the god of the twice-born, upon whom my mind and eyes, having become fixed, never depart. / You ought to lead me, who am devoted to you, O you of lovely horns; wherever your mind goes, let your auspicious companions follow."

5.2.17

Śrī Śuka said: / Thus, with colloquial cleverness, he who possessed the intellect of an immortal, very skilled in flattering women, honored that celestial wife with this discourse.

5.2.18

And she then, her mind captivated by the intelligence, character, beauty, youth, royal splendor, and generosity of that leader of the assembly of heroes, enjoyed earthly heavenly pleasures with him, the master of Jambūdvīpa, for a duration marked by tens of thousands of years.

5.2.19

In her, Āgnīdhra, that excellent king, indeed begot nine sons named Nābhi, Kimpuruṣa, Harivarṣa, Ilāvṛta, Ramyaka, Hiraṇmaya, Kuru, Bhadrāśva, and Ketumāla.

5.2.20

Having given birth to nine sons, year after year, leaving them right at home, Pūrvacitti once again attended upon the unborn god.

5.2.21

Those sons of Āgnīdhra, endowed by the favor of their mother with inborn bodily firmness and strength, partitioned by their father, enjoyed according to their shares the divisions of Jambūdvīpa that bore their own respective names.

5.2.22

King Āgnīdhra, insatiable in his desires, thinking daily only of the apsaras, attained through the rites of the Vedic scriptures co-residence with her in the world where the ancestors rejoice.

5.2.23

When their father had died, the nine brothers married the nine daughters of Meru named Merudevī, Pratirūpā, Ugradaṃṣṭrī, Latā, Ramyā, Śyāmā, Nārī, Bhadrā, and Devavīti.

5.3.1

Śrī Śuka said: / Nābhi, desiring offspring, with concentrated mind worshipped the Lord, the sacrificial person, together with childless Merudevī.

5.3.2

As he sacrificed with faith and pure devotion while the pravargya rites were being performed, although the Lord is difficult to attain, because of the suitability of the arrangement of ingredients, place, time, mantras, priests, sacrificial gifts, and rituals, and out of affection for his devotee, he—of auspicious form, unconquered—his heart captured by the desire to bestow the desired object of his own servant, manifested himself, charming to the heart, pleasing to the mind and eyes in every limb.

5.3.3

Then, beholding that distinct supreme person, golden, with four manifest arms, wearing a tawny silk garment, with the mark of Śrīvatsa shining on his chest, characterized by an excellent conch, lotus, forest garland, sword, the Kaustubha jewel, and mace, adorned with ornaments on his limbs such as a foremost crown radiating clear beams of light, earrings, bracelets, a waist-chain, necklaces, armlets, and anklets—the priests, the assembly members, and the sacrificer, like poor men who have obtained supreme wealth, reverently approached him with offerings, their heads bowed low.

5.3.4

The sacrificial priests said: / You ought to accept our worship again and again, O most worthy of worship! We are Your followers, and thus far have we been instructed by the virtuous: 'Obeisance, obeisance unto You!' What man, whose intellect is disturbed by the transformations of the qualities of material nature, being powerless, is able to delineate the form of the supreme Lord—who is beyond material nature and the soul—through modern names, forms, and figures, except by recounting a mere portion of Your most auspicious and supreme multitude of qualities, which dispel the sins of all assemblies of beings?

5.3.5

For You are exceedingly pleased, O Supreme Lord, even with worship performed by Your attendants with love, consisting merely of indistinct sounds [of praise], water, and fresh shoots of tulasī and dūrvā grass.

5.3.6

And yet, by this sacrifice of great burden, we do not obtain any result worthy of You.

5.3.7

For You are Yourself the true nature of every human goal, continually, directly, and without distinction realized in Yourself at all times; yet, O Lord, this [sacrifice] can only be an act of worship on the part of those desiring blessings.

5.3.8

Thus, like children who do not know what is truly beneficial for themselves, O Supreme Supreme Person, out of Your intense compassion, desiring to grant us Your own glory known as liberation, You have appeared here as if ordinary, though You were not properly worshipped by us.

5.3.9

This indeed is our greatest boon, O most worthy of worship, best among givers of boons, that You have become visible to the eyes of Your own servants here in the sacrificial arena of the royal sage.

5.3.10

For the sages whose impurities have all been shaken off by the fire of knowledge sharpened through non-attachment, whose nature is attuned to Yours, and who delight in the self, You are the one whose multitude of qualities is unceasingly pondered, and the narration of Your multitude of qualities is the abode of supreme auspiciousness.

5.3.11

May Your names, born of Your divine qualities, which dispel all impurities, come within the range of our speech even when we are helpless in stumbling, hunger, falling, yawning, and distressed states, as well as in the condition of fever and death, so that we may remember You.

5.3.12

Furthermore, this royal sage, desiring offspring and longing for a son like You, runs after You, the Lord of blessings and even of heaven and liberation, for the sake of an ordinary child, like a pauper begging a wealthy person for chaff instead of wealth.

5.3.13

Who indeed in this world has not been conquered by Your unconquerable creative power, whose ways cannot be fathomed—whose mind is unclouded, whose nature is not inundated by the poisonous rush of sensual objects, unless he has worshipped the feet of the exalted devotees?

5.3.14

And because You, O performer of great deeds, have been summoned here by us, who are dull-witted and attached to petty ends—whatever disrespect we have shown toward the Deity, O God of gods, You ought, out of Your impartiality, to forgive all of it, since we are ignorant.

5.3.15

Śrī Śuka said: / Being thus praised in prose by them, the Lord, the foremost of the immortals, whose feet were saluted and venerated by the ruler of the realm, kindly spoke as follows.

5.3.16

The Lord said: / Ah, O sages, You whose words are never untrue have asked of Me a boon that is difficult to attain, saying, 'May his son be equal to Me.' I alone am equal to Myself, because of My absolute oneness; nevertheless, the word of a brāhmaṇa cannot be false, for the community of twice-born deities is My very mouth.

5.3.17

Therefore, not finding anyone equal to Myself, I shall descend in the wife of the son of Āgnīdhra with a portion of My plenary expansion.

5.3.18

Śrī Śuka said: / Having spoken thus to the husband while Merudevī was listening, the Lord disappeared.

5.4.1

Śrī Śuka said: / Then indeed, as the signs of the Lord were manifested from his very birth, and his glory increased daily through equanimity, peacefulness, dispassion, sovereignty, and immense majesty, the ministers, subjects, brāhmaṇas, and deities ardently desired him for the protection of the earth.

5.4.2

Because he had such a superior body, grand renown, vigor, strength, splendor, fame, prowess, and heroism, his father gave him this name, Ṛṣabha.

5.4.3

For, Indra, becoming envious, did not pour rain upon his realm; having understood this, the Lord Ṛṣabhadeva, the master of yoga, smiled and by His own creative power of yoga caused rain to fall upon His own realm, named Ajanābha.

5.4.4

Nābhi, however, having obtained the desired excellent offspring, was overwhelmed by an excess of joy; with words faltering with emotion, his mind enchanted by the divine creative power, he fondly caressed the Lord, the primal person who had voluntarily assumed the ways of mortal men, addressing Him affectionately as 'my child, my father,' and reached supreme bliss.

5.4.5

Having recognized the affection of the citizens and the people of the provinces, King Nābhi consecrated his son for the preservation of the boundaries of established order, placed him in the care of the brāhmaṇas, and went with Merudevī to Viśālā; there, worshipping the Lord Vāsudeva, known as Nara-Nārāyaṇa, through serene and skillful austerity and the yoga of deep meditation, he attained His glory in due course.

5.4.6

Concerning him, O son of Pāṇḍu, they recite these two verses: / 'Who indeed among men could imitate that deed of the royal sage Nābhi, / to whom Hari became a son through his pure ritual action?

5.4.7

'Who else was so devoted to brāhmaṇas as Nābhi, whose auspiciously worshipped priests / by their power made the Lord of sacrifice appear in his sacrificial arena?'

5.4.8

Then the Lord Ṛṣabhadeva, recognizing His realm as a field of ritual action, demonstrated the life of residence in the teacher's house; authorized by His teachers who had received their rewards, He learned the duties of householders, married Jayantī who was given by Indra, and performing twofold action as prescribed by the Vedic revelation, begot a hundred sons who were equal to Himself.

5.4.9

Among them, indeed, the eldest was the great yogin Bharata, endowed with the highest virtues, by whom they name this realm Bhārata.

5.4.10

Following him, the prominent ones among the ninety-nine were nine: Kuśāvarta, Ilāvarta, Brahmāvarta, Malaya, Ketu, Bhadrasena, Indraspṛk, Vidarbha, and Kīkaṭa.

5.4.11

Kavi, Havi, Antarikṣa, Prabuddha, Pippalāyana, / Āvirhotra, then Drumila, Camasa, and Karabhājana—

5.4.12

These were the nine great Bhāgavatas who taught the Bhāgavata-dharma; their noble life, enriched by the glory of the Lord, which leads to tranquility, we shall narrate later in the conversation between Vasudeva and Nārada.

5.4.13

The eighty-one younger sons born of Jayantī, carrying out their father's command, became extremely well-mannered, deeply learned in the Veda, devoted to sacrifice, purified by their deeds, and elevated to brāhmaṇas.

5.4.14

The Lord named Ṛṣabha, independent in Himself, having eternally eliminated the sequence of undesirable misfortunes, experiencing pure bliss, being the Sovereign Lord Himself, undertook actions as if contrary [to His self-sufficient nature], teaching through His conduct the dharma that had been obscured by time to those who were ignorant of it. Impartial, tranquil, friendly, and compassionate, He guided the people within household life by restraining them toward the bliss and nectar of dharma, wealth, fame, and progeny.

5.4.15

Whatever is practiced by the best of men, that the world follows.

5.4.16

Although He Himself knew all sacred, secret dharma, He governed the people along the path demonstrated by the brāhmaṇas, using the political means such as conciliation and the rest.

5.4.17

According to instruction, He performed sacrifices a hundred times with all kinds of ritual offerings, richly endowed with appropriate materials, place, time, age, faith, priests, and diverse objectives.

5.4.18

While this realm was being protected by the Lord Ṛṣabha, no person desired anything non-existent, nor did anyone ever look to anyone else for anything in any manner whatsoever, except toward their ruler, harboring an intense, overflowing affection at every sacrificial session.

5.4.19

Once, wandering about, the Lord Ṛṣabha arrived in Brahmāvarta. In an assembly of eminent brāhmaṇa seers, while the subjects were listening attentively, He spoke as follows, instructing His sons, who were composed in mind and well-restrained by abundant modesty and affection:

5.5.1

Ṛṣabha said: / This human body in the mortal world is not fit for pursuing distressing sensual pleasures that are enjoyed even by stool-eating hogs. / My sons, it is meant for divine austerity by which the inner being is purified, and from which arises endless bliss in Brahman.

5.5.2

They declare service to exalted devotees to be the gateway to liberation, and the company of those attached to women to be the gateway to darkness. / Exalted devotees are those who are even-minded, tranquil, free from anger, friendly to all, and virtuous.

5.5.3

Or those who regard friendship with Me, the Lord, as their sole purpose, who take no pleasure in ordinary people whose only trade is nourishing their bodies / or in households consisting of wives, children, and wealth, and who accept only what is necessary in the world.

5.5.4

Indeed, being heedless, a person commits forbidden action whenever he strives for the gratification of the senses. / I do not consider this good, since by it the self incurs this body which, though transient, causes suffering.

5.5.5

Defeat born of ignorance lasts as long as one does not inquire into the truth of the self. / As long as fruitive actions continue, so long this mind remains characterized by action, which binds one to a body.

5.5.6

Thus the mind, subject to action, acts when the self is conditioned by ignorance; / as long as there is no loving attachment to Me, Vāsudeva, one is not freed from connection with the body.

5.5.7

When, heedless regarding his own true interest, even a learned person fails to see that striving for the objects of the senses is unreal, / he loses his mindfulness, and reaching the house of sexual intimacy, that ignorant fool meets with miseries.

5.5.8

This sexual attraction between man and woman is called the knot binding their hearts together. / From this arises a person's delusion of 'I' and 'mine' regarding house, land, children, relatives, and wealth.

5.5.9

When the firm knot in the heart and mind, which is bound by past actions, becomes untied, / then a person turns away from this [delusion], and being freed, leaves behind the cause [of bondage] and attains the Supreme.

5.5.10

Through devotion and following Me, who am the supreme ascetic and guru, through freedom from thirst and endurance of dualities, / through seeing distress everywhere for living beings, through spiritual inquiry, through austerity, and through turning away from fruitive effort;

5.5.11

Through actions dedicated to Me, through constant talk about Me, through the company of those whose deity I am, through singing of My virtues, / through absence of enmity, impartiality, and tranquility, O sons, and through the desire to abandon the notion of the self in the body and house;

5.5.12

Through the yoga of the supreme self, through resorting to solitude, through completely subduing the breath, senses, and mind, / through genuine faith, through chastity, through constant vigilance, and through the restraint of speech;

5.5.13

Through perceiving My presence everywhere, through knowledge adorned with direct realization, / through yoga endowed with steadfastness, effort, and purity, a skilled person should cast off the subtle body known as the ego.

5.5.14

One should carefully and thoroughly dissolve, by this yoga as instructed, the storehouse of actions that binds the knot in the heart, brought about by ignorance; / and then one should cease from the practice of yoga.

5.5.15

A king or a spiritual preceptor, wishing to attain My realm and seeking to bestow My grace, / should thus free from anger instruct his sons and disciples who are ignorant of this, and should not engage them in fruitive rituals when they are already bewildered by action. / What benefit would a man obtain by engaging them, casting a blind person into a pit?

5.5.16

People themselves are blind to their highest good; driven by uncontrolled desires, they strive for wealth. / Envious of one another for the sake of a fraction of pleasure, the fool does not perceive the endless suffering ahead.

5.5.17

What learned person who himself knows this truth, seeing an ignorant person living within ignorance and walking on the wrong path, / would, being compassionate, urge him further into it, like leading a blind man into danger?

5.5.18

One should not be a guru, one should not be a relative, one should not be a father, one should not be a mother, / one should not be a deity, nor should one be a husband, if one does not liberate [one's dependent] from impending death.

5.5.19

This body of Mine is inconceivable to the mind; purity indeed is My heart, wherein dharma resides. / Because adharma has been cast far behind Me, the noble call Me Ṛṣabha.

5.5.20

Therefore, all of you born of My heart, serve with an untroubled mind this elder brother of yours, Bharata; / serving him is the maintenance of the people.

5.5.21

Among living beings, those that crawl are superior to plants; among them, those possessing consciousness are superior; / higher than them are humans; higher still are the Pramathas; then the Gandharvas and Siddhas, who are attendants of the gods.

5.5.22

Superior to the gods and asuras are those headed by Indra; but the sons of Brahmā, Dakṣa and others, are superior to them; / Bhava, born of the power of Viriñca, is superior to them; he is devoted to Me, and I am the God of the twice-born brāhmaṇas.

5.5.23

I do not equate any other being with the brāhmaṇas; O brāhmaṇas, what could I see higher than them? / For I do not eat sacrificial offerings with such pleasure in the sacred fire as I do when offered with faith through them by human beings.

5.5.24

In this world, they have held My beloved, ancient form, which is supreme, pure purity itself; / wherein dwell tranquility, self-control, truthfulness, compassion, austerity, endurance, and direct realization.

5.5.25

They desire nothing even from Me, who am infinite, superior to the highest, and the master of heaven and liberation; / what then could those who possess nothing and are devoted to Me with devotion have to do with anything else?

5.5.26

My sons, all beings, both moving and unmoving,
should be honored by you at every step with clear vision, since they are my dwelling-places; and that indeed is worship of me.

5.5.27

The direct offering to me is indeed that of the activities of mind, speech, sight, and senses,
without which a man would not be able to free himself from the great delusion, the snare of Death.

5.5.28

Śrī Śuka said:
Having thus instructed his sons, who were already self-restrained, for the sake of teaching the world, the illustrious Lord, the supreme friend named Ṛṣabha, exemplifying the dharma of the supreme ascetics characterized by devotion, knowledge, and dispassion for great sages who are peaceful in nature and have renounced action, anointed his eldest among a hundred sons, Bharata—a supreme Bhāgavata devoted to the Lord's people—to protect the earth. He himself, retaining in that very residence only the bare body, wandered forth from Brahmāvarta like a madman, clad in space, with disheveled hair, having internalized the sacred fires.

5.5.29

In the garb of an avadhūta like one dull, blind, mute, deaf, possessed, or mad, though spoken to by people, he observed the vow of silence and remained quiet.

5.5.30

Here and there, in cities, villages, mines, hamlets, gardens, country towns, encampments, cowherds' settlements, stations of cowherds, caravans, mountains, forests, and hermitages along the way, being harassed by vile men of the earth like a wild elephant by flies, with taunts, beatings, urination, spitting, throwing of stones, dung, and dust, passing of foul air, and abuse—utterly disregarding that, since in this unreal configuration indicated as a body, designated as real, his mind remained intact due to absence of the conception of 'I' and 'mine' through his abiding in his own greatness as the nature of experience of both—he roamed the earth alone.

5.5.31

His hands, feet, and chest were extremely delicate, with broad arms, shoulders, neck, face, and other limbs beautifully formed; his handsome face was naturally smiling and lovely; charming with eyes long, reddish, and cool like the petals of a fresh lotus; with symmetrical and beautiful cheeks, ears, neck, and nose; planting the god of the flower-bow in the minds of the townswomen through the great festival of his face with its deep smile; bearing a heavy mass of reddish, matted, curly hair hanging behind, he appeared, with his neglected and dirty body, like one possessed by a spirit.

5.5.32

When indeed that Lord perceived this world as directly adverse to yoga, adopting the counter-behavior as repulsive, he undertook the vow of a python: lying down right there, he ate, drank, chewed, urinated, and defecated, rolling about smeared with his own excrement on that spot.

5.5.33

The wind carrying the sweet fragrance of his stool made the country fragrant for ten yojanas all around.

5.5.34

Thus, following the conduct of cows, deer, and crows—walking, standing, sitting, and lying down like crows, deer, and cows—he drank, ate, and urinated.

5.5.35

Thus practicing various yogic ways of life, the Lord, the master of absolute liberation, Ṛṣabha, experiencing uninterrupted supreme bliss within himself, fulfilled in all attained ends through the state of non-differentiation and endless interiority with the Lord Vāsudeva, the Self of all beings, did not at heart directly welcome, O King, the yogic masteries—traveling in the sky, speed of mind, invisibility, entering another's body, grasping from afar, and others—that came to him unbidden.

5.6.1

The king said:
Surely, O venerable one, masteries that come unbidden cannot cause distress again to those who delight in the self, whose seeds of action have been roasted by the knowledge kindled by yoga.

5.6.2

The sage said:
What you said is true; however, in this world some indeed do not fully trust the unsteady mind, just as one does not trust a treacherous hunter.

5.6.3

And so it is said:
One should never make friendship with the unsteady mind;
through trust in it, the asceticism practiced for a long time by the lordly [Śiva] fell away.

5.6.4

It always gives an opening to desire, and following that, to the enemies,
just as an unchaste wife gives an opening to an adulterer, harming her husband who trusted her—even so to a yogi who made friends with it.

5.6.5

Desire, anger, pride, greed, grief, delusion, fear, and so forth,
and bondage to action have it as their root—what wise man, then, would take it as his own?

5.6.6

Then, although he was the ornament of all world-protectors, his divine power unperceived through distinct dress, speech, and conduct like an avadhūta appearing dull, instructing yogis in the manner of departure, desiring to cast off his body, beholding within himself the Self without division, as not other than the supreme goal, having ceased all outward engagement, he became completely still.

5.6.7

Of that Lord Ṛṣabha, who had thus cast off the subtle body, the physical body, wandering over this earth with a semblance of ego-sense through the lingering impression of his creative power, arrived by chance in the regions of Koṅka, Veṅka, Kuṭaka, and southern Karṇāṭaka; in a park on Mount Kuṭaka, placing stones in his mouth, like a madman with disheveled hair, unclad, he wandered about.

5.6.8

Then a fierce forest fire, arisen from the friction of bamboos tossed by the force of the wind, licking that forest, burned it together with him.

5.6.9

Hearing of his conduct, the king of Koṅka, Veṅka, and Kuṭaka, named Arhat, having learned it, in the Kali age when unrighteousness was on the rise, deluded by destiny, abandoning the fear-free path of his own dharma, out of foolishness will propagate by his own intellect an improper, heretical bad path.

5.6.10

By which, indeed, in the Kali age, the lowest of men, deluded by divine creative power, devoid of the prescriptions of their own rules, purity, and proper conduct, taking up through their own desires irreligious, improper vows that deride the gods—such as non-bathing, non-rinsing of the mouth, impurity, and pulling out of the hair—with their intellects impaired by the Kali age that is full of unrighteousness, will for the most part become revilers of the Veda, brāhmaṇas, sacrifices, and the Supreme Person, as well as the world.

5.6.11

And they, reassured by this recent worldly path of their own, in a succession of the blind, will fall of themselves into blinding darkness.

5.6.12

This incarnation was for the purpose of teaching absolute liberation to those afflicted by the quality of passion.

5.6.13

In accordance with this, they sing these verses: / "Ah, on this earth containing seven oceans, among its continents and realms, this one is supremely meritorious, / where the people sing the auspicious deeds of Murāri in His incarnations.

5.6.14

Ah, how spotless in renown is the lineage of Priyavrata, where the ancient Person, / that original Puruṣa, descended as an incarnation and practiced the dharma that causes the cessation of karma!

5.6.15

What other yogi could match his summit even in thought, the summit of Him who is free from worldly existence, / whose illusory mystic powers, striving because of their unreality, are rejected by him, though others desire them?

5.6.16

Thus has been narrated this pure conduct of the Lord named Ṛṣabha, the supreme guru of all the Vedas, worlds, gods, brāhmaṇas, and cattle—a conduct that removes all evil deeds of men and is the abode of supreme great auspiciousness. If one hears this with increasing faith or attentively recites it to others, exclusive devotion to that Lord Vāsudeva develops in both.

5.6.17

In that very devotion, wise sages constantly bathe their self that is burning with the torment of the cycle of rebirth filled with diverse sins. By that supreme bliss alone, they do not regard ultimate liberation, though it is the highest human goal and has presented itself on its own, for all their aims are completely fulfilled simply by belonging to the Lord.

5.6.18

O King, Mukunda was indeed your master, guru, deity, beloved, and the head of your family, and at times even your servant, as He was for the Yadus; / be that so, my dear friend, the Lord Mukunda grants liberation to those who worship Him, but rarely indeed does He bestow the yoga of devotion.

5.6.19

His thirst ceased through the constant experience of His own attainment; out of compassion for the world whose intellect had long been asleep to its welfare due to its engagement with what is not the Self, He proclaimed the fearless realm of the Self—obeisance to that Lord Ṛṣabha."

5.7.1

Śrī Śuka said: / But Bharata, a great Bhāgavata, when appointed by the Lord to govern the surface of the earth, intent on obeying His command, married Pañcajanī, the daughter of Viśvarūpa.

5.7.2

And upon her he fathered five sons entirely suited to himself, just as the ego-sense produces the five subtle elements: Sumati, Rāṣṭrabhṛt, Sudarśana, Āvaraṇa, and Dhūmraketu.

5.7.3

Starting from him, they designate this realm, formerly known as Ajanābha, as 'Bhārata'.

5.7.4

That monarch, knowing many things, following his own dharma, protected the subjects who were abiding each in their own proper duties, with great affection like a father and a grandfather.

5.7.5

And he worshipped the Lord whose form is sacrifice and ritual with sacrifices high and low: with the primary and modified forms of the agnihotra, darśapūrṇamāsa, cāturmāsya, animal sacrifice, and soma sacrifice, performed with faith at each ritual juncture according to the rules of the four priests.

5.7.6

While diverse sacrifices were being performed with their auxiliary rites completed, meditating on that unseen fruit of action called dharma as belonging to the supreme Brahman, the sacrifice personified—the direct agent who regulates the meaning of the mantras addressing the various gods, the supreme divinity, the Lord Vāsudeva Himself—his impurities wiped away by his spiritual skill, the patron of the sacrifice meditated upon those gods receiving portions of the sacrifice as present within the limbs of the Puruṣa as the oblations were being taken up by the adhvaryu priests.

5.7.7

Thus, through purity of action, his inner being was purified, and in the Lord Vāsudeva—Brahman whose body is the space within the heart, characterized by the form of the supreme Person, marked by the Śrīvatsa, the Kaustubha, the forest garland, the discus, conch, and mace, shining within his own self as the Person engraved upon the hearts of His own devotees—an exceedingly intense devotion arose, its momentum growing day by day.

5.7.8

Thus, when the time had arrived for his release from karma at the end of ten thousand times a thousand years, he divided the ancestral inheritance that was being enjoyed among his sons according to their rightful share, and himself departed from his home, the abode of all prosperity, to the hermitage of Pulaha.

5.7.9

There indeed the Lord Hari, out of affection for His own devotees living there, makes Himself present even today in the form of their desire.

5.7.10

There, the river Cakra, the foremost of rivers, purifies the hermitage grounds on all sides with stones marked with wheels resembling navels on both sides.

5.7.11

In that grove of Pulaha's hermitage, all alone in solitude, performing the worship of the Lord with various flowers, tender sprouts, tulasī leaves, water, and offerings of roots, tubers, and fruits, his desires for sense-objects ceased, having attained inner tranquility, he attained supreme bliss.

5.7.12

Through such uninterrupted service to the Lord, his heart melted with an overwhelming surge of growing affection for the Lord, leading to laxity in his limbs; clusters of hair bristling with joy burst forth upon his body; tears of love arising from intense longing obstructed the vision of his eyes; and thus, through the yoga of devotion practiced by continuous meditation on the reddish lotus feet of his beloved Lord, his intellect plunged deep into the pool of his heart overflowing with supreme joy, and he was not even aware of that very worship of the Lord that was being performed.

5.7.13

Having thus undertaken his vow to the Lord, splendid in his garment of black antelope skin and his tawny, matted, curling locks wet from bathings at every ritual juncture, worshipping the golden Person, the Lord, with a prayer to the sun as the solar disc was rising, he said this:

5.7.14

"Beyond the realm of rajas, the splendour of the divine Savitṛ, the knower of all beings, brought forth this universe by His mind. / Having entered it again with pure potency, He sustains it. We approach that Swan, desiring His grace, who dwells among mortals and moves through speech."

5.8.1

Śrī Śuka said: / One day, having bathed and performed his regular obligatory duties in the great river, chanting the imperishable syllable of Brahman, he sat down at the water's edge for three muhūrtas.

5.8.2

At that time, O King, a doe came near the water reservoir all alone, driven by thirst.

5.8.3

While she was drinking water copiously, right then, not far away, there arose the roar of a lion, striking terror into the world.

5.8.4

Hearing it, that doe, naturally timid and glancing about in fright, with her heart deeply agitated by the overpowering dread of the lion and her gaze darting restlessly, leaped up suddenly in fear, her thirst still unquenched.

5.8.5

As she leaped, heavy with young, the fetus slipped from her womb in overwhelming terror and fell into the stream.

5.8.6

Distressed by the pain of premature labor, the violent leap, and fear, and separated from her herd, the black doe fell into a mountain cave and died.

5.8.7

Seeing that wretched young fawn cast away and swept along by the current, the royal sage Bharata took it out of compassion like a kinsman, thinking, 'Its mother is dead,' and brought it to his hermitage.

5.8.8

Indeed, as he formed an intense sense of ownership over this fawn, daily meditating upon nursing, protecting, petting, and gratifying it, all his self-restraints along with the observances, his worship of the Lord, and other duties, detached one by one within a few days, completely vanished.

5.8.9

'Alas, this poor little fawn, cast off from its own herd, friends, and kin by the swift turning of the wheel of the Lord's chariot [of time], has approached me for refuge. It has taken me alone as its mother and father, its brother, kinsmen, and herd-mates; it knows no other, and places full trust in me. Therefore, knowing the fault of neglecting one who seeks shelter, I must without grudge attend to the nursing, protecting, pleasing, and fondling of this one who is wholly devoted to me.

5.8.10

Surely noble, virtuous men of tranquil nature, friends to the wretched, neglect even their own weightier interests for such a cause.'

5.8.11

Having thus formed an attachment, his heart remained bound by affection to the young deer while sitting, lying down, walking, bathing, eating, and in other activities.

5.8.12

When he would enter the forest with the fawn to gather kuśa grass, flowers, firewood, palāśa leaves, fruits, roots, and water, suspecting danger from wolves, jackals, and other beasts,

5.8.13

and on the paths, his heart overflowing with a burden of tender affection and his mind fixated on it here and there because of its charming innocence, he would carry it on his shoulder out of fondness; thus placing it on his lap and his chest and fondling it, he felt the highest joy.

5.8.14

Even in the middle of performing a religious rite, whenever he stood up repeatedly to gaze upon it, only then, his mind regaining its natural composure, would that ruler of the realm shower blessings upon it, praying, 'May all be well with you everywhere, my child.'

5.8.15

At another time, his mind intensely anxious, like a wretched pauper whose wealth is lost, with a heart tormented and overcome by grief at separation from the fawn, he lamented piteously with deep longing, overwhelmed indeed by great delusion, and spoke thus:

5.8.16

'Alas, will that helpless fawn, the son of the dead doe, placing trust in me out of his own pure nature and ignoring my unworthiness—I who am ignoble, with the mind of a deceitful hunter, destitute of pious merit—return like a true gentleman?

5.8.17

Shall I see him, protected by providence, grazing on tender grass in safety in this hermitage garden?

5.8.18

And has a wolf, a jackal, or some other animal, roaming solitary or in a pack, not eaten him?

5.8.19

The blessed sun, whose rising brings welfare to the entire world and whose self is the three Vedas, is now setting, yet the doe’s trust left in my care does not return even now!

5.8.20

Will that prince of deer come to gladden me, one who has earned no pious merit, dispelling the sorrow of his own folk through the varied, delightful, and charming play of a young fawn?

5.8.21

In play, when my eyes were half-shut in a pretended meditation, he would approach me timidly in an outburst of love and butt me with the tip of his soft, spotted horn.

5.8.22

When he defiled the sacrificial grass prepared for the oblation and was rebuked by me, he would immediately stop his frolic in utter fright and sit with all his senses restrained, like the son of a sage.

5.8.23

Ah, what austerity has this ascetic earth practiced, that by bearing the rows of very tiny, beautiful, and most auspicious hoof-prints of this modest fawn, it indicates the path to his treasure for wretched, distressed me who am bereft of wealth, and everywhere makes itself a delightful sacrificial ground for twice-born men desiring heaven and liberation?

5.8.24

Can it be that the lord of constellations, the moon, being affectionate toward the wretched, is out of compassion protecting this fawn whose mother died from fear of a lion, and who has strayed from his hermitage?

5.8.25

Or is he refreshing me, whose lotus of the heart is scorched by the flames of the forest fire of grief from separation from my child, and who had taken shelter with that fawn, with his nectar-filled rays that resemble water from his own countenance enhanced by cool and soothing affection?'

5.8.26

With his heart thus troubled by unfulfillable desires, fallen away from the practice of yoga and from the worship of the Lord because of the past karma begun by himself in the guise of a young deer—for how else could such attachment to a fawn of another species arise in one who had previously renounced his hard-to-abandon sons born of his own heart, since it was directly contrary to the highest beatitude?—the commencement of the yoga of that royal sage Bharata being thus ruined by obstacles, inescapable time, terrifying in its swiftness, arrived upon him as a snake enters a mouse-hole, while he, absorbed in nursing, protecting, pleasing, and fondling the young deer, took no heed of himself.

5.8.27

Even at that moment, gazing upon the fawn standing by his side and lamenting as if over a son, his mind entirely absorbed in the deer, he abandoned this world and alongside the deer followed the dead body; yet, unlike others, without losing the memory of his former birth, he attained the body of a deer.

5.8.28

There too, by the power of his past practice of worshipping the Lord, he remembered the cause of his attaining deer-hood, and feeling intense remorse, he spoke.

5.8.29

"Alas, what misery! I have fallen from the path of those who master the self! For although I had renounced all attachment, taken refuge in a solitary, sacred forest, and was self-controlled, and although my mind, fully absorbed and concentrated by unceasing application through every watch of time in listening to, reflecting on, chanting about, worshipping, and remembering the Lord Vāsudeva—the self of all selves—within my own self, yet that mind of foolish me ran off once more after a deer fawn!"

First 197 of 697 passages. Read on

Translations (1)

Linked texts (1)