Bhagavatapurana 5.5

English (machine translation) 5.5

Language: English

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.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit