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Bhagavatapurana 5.6

English (machine translation) 5.6

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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."

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