Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Garudapurana 1.223

English (machine translation) 1.223

Language
English

Contents

1.223.1

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa: chapter 223.
Brahmā said:
The dharmas practiced by the sages have been declared by me out of devotion, O Vyāsa, / by which Viṣṇu is pleased through the worship of the sun and other [deities].

1.223.2

Through water-libations, through oblation into fire, and through worship at the junctures of day, / the Blessed Viṣṇu is attained, who grants dharma, desire, wealth, and liberation.

1.223.3

For dharma is the Blessed Viṣṇu; the worship of Viṣṇu is indeed libation, / oblation, worship at twilight, meditation, and concentration; Hari is all.

1.223.4

Sūta said:
I shall describe the dissolution of the world; hear all of that, O Śaunaka. / A thousand sets of four yugas are considered one day of the lotus-born [Brahmā].

1.223.5

Learn from me the state of the yugas: Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara, and so forth. / In the Kṛta [yuga], dharma is four-footed: truth, giving, austerity, and compassion.

1.223.6

Hari is the protector of dharma; men are contented and wise. / Indeed, men live then for four thousand [years].

1.223.7

At the end of Kṛta, the twice-born were subdued by Kṣatriyas, and the Vaiśyas and Śūdras by the twice-born. / Viṣṇu, heroic and exceedingly mighty, slew the rakṣases.

1.223.8

In the Tretā yuga, dharma has three feet, consisting of truth, giving, and compassion. / Men in it are devoted to sacrifice, and the world has its origin from the Kṣatriyas.

1.223.9

Hari is red, to be worshipped by men; men have a lifespan of a thousand [years]. / There, Viṣṇu had an earthly chariot, and Kṣatriyas killed the rākṣasas.

1.223.10

Dharma is two-footed in form, and when the Infallible One was yellow, / people had a lifespan of four hundred [years], and the populace originated from twice-born and Kṣatriyas.

1.223.11

Seeing those of small intellect there, Viṣṇu, assuming the form of Vyāsa, / again divided that single Yajurveda into four.

1.223.12

He instructed disciples; learn about all of them from me: / the Ṛgveda to Paila, and the Sāmaveda to Jaimini,

1.223.13

and the Atharvaveda to Sumantu, the Yajurveda to the great sage / Vaiśampāyana, the auxiliary texts and the Purāṇa to Sūta— / the eighteen Purāṇas through which Hari alone is known.

1.223.14

Creation, secondary creation, genealogy, the Manvantaras, / and the history of dynasties—such is the fivefold characteristic of a Purāṇa.

1.223.15

The Brāhma, Pādma, and Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva and likewise Bhāgavata, / Bhaviṣyat, Nāradīya, Skānda, Liṅga, and Vārāha,

1.223.16

Mārkaṇḍeya, Āgneya, and Brahmavaivarta, / Kaurma, Mātsya, Gāruḍa, and immediately following, Vāyavīya; / the eighteenth declared is known as the Brahmāṇḍa.

1.223.17

Other Upapurāṇas were spoken by the sages: / the first was spoken by Sanatkumāra, and the next is the Nārasiṃha;

1.223.18

the third is declared to be the Skānda, spoken by Kumāra, / and the fourth is known as the Śivadharma, spoken by Nandīśvara;

1.223.19

the Āścarya spoken by Durvāsas; next, the one spoken by Nārada; / the Kāpila and the Vāmana, and likewise that uttered by Uśanas;

1.223.20

the Brahmāṇḍa, Vāruṇa, and the one named Kālikā, / the Māheśvara and the Sāmba, which contains all goals; / another spoken by Parāśara, the Mārīca, and the one called Bhārgava.

1.223.21

Purāṇa, Dharmaśāstra, the Vedas and their limbs, O sage, / Nyāya, O Śaunaka, Mīmāṃsā, Āyurveda, Arthaśāstra, / Gāndharva, and Dhanurveda: these are remembered as the eighteen branches of learning.

1.223.22

At the close of Dvāpara, Hari removed the heavy burden; / when dharma stood on a single leg, and Acyuta departed, the Kali age set in.

1.223.23

Then people will become wicked in conduct and pitiless. / Sattva, rajas, and tamas are the qualities seen in man; / impelled by time, they too revolve within oneself.

1.223.24

When sattva is predominant in mind, intellect, and senses, / one should know that to be the Kṛtayuga, wherein delight is in knowledge and asceticism.

1.223.25

When embodied beings are devoted to desire-prompted rites and attached to renown, / know that to be Tretā, the arising of rajas, O Śaunaka.

1.223.26

When greed, discontent, arrogance, deceit, and jealousy prevail, / as well as desire-prompted rites, that is Dvāpara, characterized by rajas and tamas.

1.223.27

When untruth, indolence, sleep, violence, and other harmful means [prevail], / along with grief, delusion, fear, and misery, that is known as Kali, grounded in tamas,

1.223.28

in which people will be lustful, constantly speaking harsh words, / provinces will be overrun by thieves, and the Vedas corrupted by heretics.

1.223.29

Kings will beg from their subjects, overcome by genitals and belly; / student novices will lack vows and purity, and mendicants will maintain households.

1.223.30

Ascetics will dwell in villages, and renunciants will be greedy for wealth; / people will be short in stature, voracious eaters, and thieves will be regarded as holy men.

1.223.31

Servants will abandon their master, and the ascetic will abandon his vow; / Śūdras will accept gifts, and Vaiśyas will be devoted to ascetic vows.

1.223.32

People will live in anxiety, subjects will resemble Piśācas; / with unlawfully gained food they will perform worship of fire, gods, and guests.

1.223.33

When Kali arrives, they will not perform the water-rites for the ancestors; / all people will be devoted only to women, and almost all will be Śūdras, O Śaunaka.

1.223.34

In Kali, women will have many offspring but little good fortune; / scratching their heads, they will break commands when rebuked.

1.223.35

Afflicted by heretics, people will not worship Viṣṇu. / Yet in Kali, a treasure-house of faults, O brāhmaṇas, there is one supreme virtue:

1.223.36

merely by chanting the praise of Kṛṣṇa, one may cast off great bondage. / The fruit one attains by meditating on Viṣṇu in Kṛta, or by murmuring prayers in Tretā,

1.223.37

or by ritual service in Dvāpara, is obtained in Kali through chanting Hari's praise. / Therefore, Hari should constantly be meditated upon, sung of, and worshipped, O Śaunaka.

1.223.37.p1

Thus ends the two hundred and twenty-third chapter, entitled 'Discourse on the Duties of the World Ages', in the Ācārakāṇḍa of the first section of the first part in the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.

Linked texts (1)