Bhagavatapurana 9.9

English (machine translation) 9.9

Language: English

9.9.1

Śrī Śuka said: / And Aṃśumat performed austerities, desiring to bring down the Gaṅgā, / for a long time, but was unable; then in the course of time he passed away.

9.9.2

His son Dilīpa likewise was unable and met his end in time. / His son Bhagīratha performed very great austerities.

9.9.3

The goddess revealed herself to him, pleased, saying: "I will grant you a boon." / Thus addressed, the king bowed low and stated his intention.

9.9.4

[The goddess said:] "Who will sustain my momentum as I fall upon the surface of the earth? / Otherwise, piercing through the earth's surface, O king, I shall go down to the netherworld.

9.9.5

Moreover, I do not wish to go to earth; humans will wash off their sins in me. / Where shall I wash off that sin? O king, consider that matter."

Śrī Bhagīratha said: / "Virtuous devotees, renunciates, peaceful, established in Brahman, purifiers of the worlds / will remove your sin through physical contact, for Hari, the destroyer of sin, resides in them.

9.9.7

Rudra will sustain your momentum—he who is the self of embodied beings, / in whom this universe is woven warp and woof, like a cloth in threads."

9.9.8

Having spoken thus, that king pleased the god Śiva through austerities. / In a very short time, O king, the Lord was swiftly pleased with him.

9.9.9

Saying 'So be it' to what was spoken by the king, Śiva, who is beneficial to all the worlds, / attentively sustained the Gaṅgā, whose waters are purified by the foot of Hari.

9.9.10

Bhagīratha, that royal sage, led the purifier of the universe / to where the bodies of his ancestors lay reduced to ashes.

9.9.11

Running after him as he advanced in a chariot swift as the wind, / purifying the lands, she washed over the burned sons of Sagara.

9.9.12

Merely through the contact of whose water, though struck down by the curse of a brāhmaṇa, / the sons of Sagara went to heaven solely through the ashes of their bodies.

9.9.13

If the sons of Sagara went to heaven by contact with their ashen bodies, / what more [can be said] of those who, resolute in vows, serve the goddess with faith?

9.9.14

Indeed, this is no supreme wonder which has been told here of the celestial river, / born from the lotus feet of Ananta, which severs cyclic existence.

9.9.15

By fixing their minds upon Him with faith, taintless sages / abandon the triple qualities of material nature, so difficult to relinquish, and immediately attain oneness of nature with Him.

9.9.16

From Bhagīratha, Śruta was born; his [son] was Nābha, distinct [from the earlier one]; / from him was Sindhudvīpa; from him was Ayutāyus; from him arose

9.9.17

Ṛtūparṇa, the friend of Nala, who obtained the secret of horsemanship from Nala / after giving him the secret of dice; and Sarvakāma was his son.

9.9.18

Then his son was King Sudās, the husband of Damayantī, / whom indeed they call Mitrasaha, and somewhere Kalmāṣāṅghri. / Due to the curse of Vasiṣṭha, he became a demon and was childless through his own deed.

9.9.19

The king said: / What was the reason for the spiritual teacher's curse upon the high-souled Saudāsa? / We wish to know this; let it be spoken, if it is not a secret.

9.9.20

Śrī Śuka said: / Saudāsa, roaming while on a hunt, killed a demon. / He released the demon's brother, who then departed wishing for retaliation.

9.9.21

Plotting harm against the king, assuming the form of a cook in his house, / he cooked human flesh and brought it to the spiritual teacher who was desiring to eat.

9.9.22

The venerable [Vasiṣṭha], seeing directly that what was to be served was unfit to be eaten, / cursed the king in anger: "You shall indeed become a demon for this!"

9.9.23

Learning that it was the doing of a demon, he made it last twelve years. / He too, taking water in his palms, was prepared to curse the spiritual teacher.

9.9.24

Dissuaded by Madayantī, the king poured out the terrifying water upon his own feet, / seeing the quarters, the sky, the earth—everything as full of living beings.

9.9.25

Having fallen into demonic nature, his foot attained black-spottedness. / At the time of sexual union, he saw a brāhmaṇa couple living in the forest.

9.9.26

Afflicted by hunger, he seized the brāhmaṇa. His wife said, as one unfulfilled: / "You are not actually a demon; you are a great car-warrior of the Ikṣvākus,

9.9.27

the husband of Madayantī, O hero! You ought not to commit adharma. / Grant to me, who desire offspring, my unfulfilled husband, the brāhmaṇa.

9.9.28

This human body, O king, grants all ends to a person; / therefore, O hero, its killing is spoken of as the destruction of all ends.

9.9.29

For this learned brāhmaṇa, endowed with asceticism, good conduct, and virtue, / is desirous of worshipping Brahman, known as the Supreme Person, / hidden among beings by their qualities, through the state of being the self of all beings.

9.9.30

How does he, this best among brāhmaṇa sages, O all-powerful one, / deserve death from you, the foremost of royal sages, knower of dharma, as a son from a father?

9.9.31

How can you, esteemed by the virtuous, consider the death of him—a virtuous devotee, sinless, / learned in the Vedas, an expounder of Brahman—as though of a cow?

9.9.32

If he is to be made food, then devour me first! / Without him I shall not live for even a moment, like a corpse."

9.9.33

As she was speaking thus piteously, lamenting like one without a protector, / Saudāsa, deluded by the curse, ate him as a tiger eats an animal.

9.9.34

Seeing her husband being eaten by the man-eater, / the brāhmaṇa woman, grieving for herself, cursed the king in anger, faithful wife that she was:

9.9.35

"Because my husband was eaten by you, O wicked one, while I was stricken with desire, / for you too, O thoughtless fool, death is foreordained upon attempting intercourse!"

9.9.36

Having cursed Mitrasaha in this manner, devoted to the realm of her husband, / casting his bones into a kindled fire, she attained the destination of her husband.

9.9.37

Free from the curse at the end of twelve years, he prepared for sexual intercourse; / being informed of the brāhmaṇa woman's curse, he was prevented by his queen.

9.9.38

From then on, childless due to his karma, he abandoned the pleasure of women. / Permitted by him, Vasiṣṭha engendered offspring in Madayantī.

9.9.39

She indeed carried the fetus for seven years and did not deliver. / He struck her belly with a stone; on that account, he is called Aśmaka.

9.9.40

From Aśmaka was born Bālika, who was protected by women; / called Nārīkavaca, he became Mūlaka when the kṣatriyas were eradicated.

9.9.41

From him came Daśaratha, from him his son Aiḍaviḍi, / from him King Viśvasaha, whose [son] Khaṭvāṅga became a sovereign emperor,

9.9.42

who, requested by the gods, slew the Daityas in battle, invincible; / knowing his life to be only forty-eight minutes remaining, returning to his city, he concentrated his mind:

9.9.43

"Neither my life-breaths are dearer to me than the brāhmaṇa order and the deity of the clan, nor my sons, / nor riches, nor the earth, nor the kingdom, nor my wife, exceedingly dear though they be.

9.9.44

Even in my childhood, my mind never took pleasure in adharma, / nor did I see any reality other than He of highest renown."

9.9.45

The gods, the lords of the three worlds, offered me a wish of my choice. / Meditating on the creator of all beings, I do not choose that desire.

9.9.46

The gods themselves, their intellects distracted by the senses, / do not constantly find the beloved self dwelling in their own hearts—how much less others?

9.9.47

Therefore, abandoning attachment to the qualities produced by the Lord's creative power—which are like a city in the clouds— / rooted naturally in my self, by devotion to the Maker of the universe I take refuge in Him.

9.9.48

Having thus resolved with an intellect seized by Nārāyaṇa, / casting aside the ignorance of other thoughts, he then became established in his own true nature.

9.9.49

That which is the supreme Brahman, subtle, not void though imagined as void, / which the Sātvatas indeed glorify as the Lord Vāsudeva.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit