Markandeyapurana 10
English (machine translation) 10
- Language
- English
Contents
10.1
Jaimini said: / O tigers among the twice-born, explain the doubt to me as I ask, / wherein lie the appearance and disappearance of living beings:
10.2
How is a creature born? How does it grow? / Or how does it remain within the belly, squeezed by limbs?
10.3
Having emerged from the womb, how does it attain growth? / And at the time of departure, how is it separated from consciousness?
10.4
How does it, having died entirely, consume both good deeds and bad deeds? / And how do those two produce fruit for it in that manner?
10.5
How is it not digested there, rolled into a ball as it were in the belly— / in the womb of a woman where even very heavy consumed foodstuffs are digested, / how is that tiny creature not digested there?
10.6
Tell me all this without any statement of doubt; / for this is the supreme secret, over which living beings are bewildered.
10.7
The birds said: / This matchless burden of a question has been placed upon us by you; / it is hard to comprehend for all beings, resting on existence and non-existence.
10.8
Hear that, O highly fortunate one, as formerly a son / of supreme righteous nature, Sumati by name, said to his father.
10.9
A certain high-minded Bhārgava brahmin spoke to his son, / the tranquil Sumati, who had received the sacred thread but had the appearance of a fool:
10.10
“Study the Vedas, O Sumati, in order from the beginning, / intent on service to your guru, eating food obtained by begging alms.
10.11
Then, having entered upon householdership and performed unexcelled sacrifices, / having begotten desired offspring, you should then take to the forest.
10.12
And dwelling in the forest, child, you should become an itinerant ascetic free from possessions; / thus you will attain that brahman, having reached which you do not grieve.”
10.13
The birds said: / Though spoken to thus many times, he said nothing because of his dullness; / yet the father too, out of love, spoke to him repeatedly many times.
10.14
Being thus urged many times by his father with sweet words / out of paternal love, trying to entice him, he laughed and said this:
10.15
“Father, that which is taught by you today has been practiced by me many times; / and likewise other treatises and various arts.
10.16
More than ten thousand births have entered the path of my memory, / and dejections and satisfactions, experienced in decay, growth, and rise;
10.17
separations and unions with enemies, friends, and wives; / various mothers have been seen, and likewise various fathers.
10.18
Pleasures and pains have been experienced by the thousands; / many kinsmen have been obtained, and fathers of different kinds.
10.19
I have also dwelt in the belly of women, slippery with feces and urine, / and very intense sufferings were obtained, and diseases by the thousands.
10.20
Manifold sufferings of the womb, in childhood, and likewise in youth / and in old age have been obtained; I remember all of them.
10.21
In the wombs of brahmins, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas, and śūdras too, / and again of beasts, worms, wild animals, and birds,
10.22
and likewise in the houses of royal servants and kings distinguished in battle, / I have been born, and likewise in your house.
10.23
I have repeatedly entered servitude and slavery to men; / and I have experienced mastership, lordship, and poverty.
10.24
I have killed and have been killed by others; I have been struck down and have caused [others] to be slain; / gifts were given to me by others, and by me to others many times.
10.25
And on account of fathers, mothers, friends, brothers, wives, and others, / I have rejoiced repeatedly, and likewise gone to wretchedness with my face washed with tears.
10.26
As I wandered thus, father, in this perilous cycle of rebirth, / I attained this knowledge that brings about liberation.
10.27
When it is known, all this aggregate of rites designated by the Ṛg, Yajus, and Sāman / appears to me defective and not fitting.
10.28
Therefore, for one in whom awakening has arisen, what need have I of the Vedas— / satisfied with profound knowledge, free from desire, abiding ever in the Self?
10.29
I shall reach that supreme state, brahman, which is free / from the six kinds of actions, suffering, pleasure, joy, passions, and qualities.
10.30
[This world] is known to be afflicted with passion, joy, fear, agitation, anger, impatience, and old age, / and entangled in a hundred snares of packs of dogs hunting their prey.
10.31
Therefore, father, having abandoned this succession of miseries, I shall depart; / of what use is the dharma of the three Vedas, rich in unrighteousness, resembling the fruit of sin?
10.32
The birds said:
Hearing that speech of his, faltering with joy and wonder, / the illustrious father, his mind delighted, spoke to his son:
10.32.p1
The father said:
10.33
"What is this you are saying, child? Whence came the arising of your knowledge? / Why was there dullness in you before, and now awakened awareness?
10.34
Is this an alteration caused by the curse of a sage or a deity upon you, / by which your knowledge, having disappeared, has now appeared?"
10.35
The son said:
"Listen, father, to what happened to me, yielding pleasure and pain, / and who I was in another birth, and what came after that.
10.36
Formerly I was a brahmin, having fixed my self upon the Supreme Self, / having attained supreme devotion in inquiries into knowledge of the Self.
10.37
Constantly engaged in yoga, through association with constant practice, / through company with the good, through my own nature, and through purification by rules of inquiry,
10.38
in that alone was my supreme delight as I continually practiced, / and I attained the status of a teacher, dispelling the doubts of disciples.
10.39
Then, after a great length of time, having attained solitude, / my true being was drawn away by ignorance, and through heedlessness I fell.
10.40
Starting from the time of departure [from the body], there was no loss of memory for me; / as far back as the years have passed, memory of my births has returned.
10.41
By virtue of that same prior practice, father, my senses are subdued; / I shall strive to act in such a way that I will not be born again.
10.42
For this remembrance of past births of mine is the fruit of imparting knowledge; / indeed, father, this is not attained by men who rely on the dharma of the three Vedas.
10.43
Therefore, even from the prior stage of life, having taken refuge in the dharma of steadfast devotion, / having attained solitude, I shall strive for my own liberation.
10.44
Therefore speak, fortunate one, whatever doubt is in your heart; / even by doing this much, having generated your joy, may I be free from debt."
10.45
The birds said:
The father then spoke to the son, placing faith in his words, / about what we were asked by you concerning the clinging to the cycle of rebirth.
10.46
The son said:
"Listen, father, to the truth experienced repeatedly by me: / the ageless cycle of rebirth in which there is no permanence.
10.47
With your permission, father, I tell you everything / starting from the time of departure, as no other will tell.
10.48
Internal heat, aggravated in the body and stirred by a fierce wind, / burns without fuel and rends the vital spots.
10.49
Then the wind called udāna moves upward, / obstructing the downward passage of consumed food and water.
10.50
Then, one by whom gifts of water and delicious food / were given receives its refreshing relief in that distress.
10.51
One by whom food was given with a mind purified by faith / also attains satisfaction at that time, even without food.
10.52
He by whom falsehoods were not spoken, nor a breach of love made, / who is a believer and full of faith, meets death easily.
10.53
Those men who are devoted to worshiping gods and brahmins, not spiteful, / pure, generous, and modest, die easily.
10.54
He who would not abandon dharma out of desire, nor anger, nor hatred, / who acts as enjoined and is gentle, meets death easily.
10.55
Men who do not give water experience burning, and those who do not give food experience hunger / at that time when death has arrived.
10.56
Givers of firewood overcome cold, givers of sandalwood overcome heat, / and those who do not cause distress [overcome] grievous, life-destroying agony.
10.57
Those who bestow delusion and ignorance experience great fear; / base men are tormented with acute agonies.
10.58
A false witness, a liar, and one who gives wicked instruction, / and likewise abusers of the Vedas—all these die in delusion.
10.59
Then the dreadful, foul-smelling servants of Yama arrive, / vile in soul, holding spiked clubs in their hands.
10.60
When they enter his sight, trembling arises in him; / then he cries out incessantly for his brothers, mother, and sons.
10.61
His speech becomes indistinct, father, perceived as a single sound; / his gaze wanders from terror, and his mouth dries up from heavy breathing.
10.62
He is afflicted with upward gasping, his vision failing; / then, seized by agony, he abandons that body.
10.63
Moving swiftly as wind, he enters another body of like form, / born of his actions for the purpose of torment, not produced by mother and father, / identical to his previous existence in size, age, condition, and form.
10.64
Then Yama's messenger quickly binds him with terrible nooses, / and drags him toward the southern direction, bewildered by blows of the rod,
10.65
over ground rough with kuśa grass, thorns, ant-hills, spikes, and stones, / and blazing with fire, and in places terrible with hundreds of chasms,
10.66
and scorched by the blazing sun, burning with its rays; / he is dragged by Yama's messengers, who are frightful with ominous shrieks.
10.67
Dragged along by those fierce beings, devoured by hundreds of jackals, / the evil-doer travels on the terrible path to Yama's abode.
10.68
Men who are givers of parasols and sandals, and those who give clothing, / and likewise givers of food—such men travel that path with ease.
10.69
Thus experiencing afflictions, helpless, tormented by sins, / a man is brought in twelve days to the city of the King of Dharma.
10.70
While his corpse is being burned, he suffers great burning; / and likewise intense pain when it is beaten, and terrible [pain] when it is cut.
10.71
While it decays for a very long time, the creature experiences suffering / through the fruition of his own deeds, even though gone into another body.
10.72
Whatever water his kin offer there along with sesame seeds, / and whatever rice-ball they offer, he consumes that while being led away.
10.73
By the relatives' oil-massage and rubbing of limbs, / and by what the relatives eat, the creature is nourished.
10.74
Through relatives sleeping on the ground, the departed creature / does not suffer excessive torment; and likewise through their giving gifts he is sustained.
10.75
Being led away, he watches his own home for twelve days, / and enjoys the water, funeral rice-ball, and the like offered on the earth.
10.76
After twelve days, being dragged along, the creature then sees / the dreadful city of Yama, made of iron, frightful in appearance.
10.77
As soon as he arrives, he beholds Yama amid Death, Time, the Antaka, and the others, / his eyes deeply red, radiant as a heap of split collyrium,
10.78
with a face terrifying with fangs, an appearance dreadful with knitted brows, / the lord surrounded by hideous, frightful faces and hundreds of diseases,
10.79
holding a staff, long-armed, holding a noose, exceedingly terrible; / directed by him, the creature then goes to a good or evil fate.
10.80
The false witness and the untruthful man go to Raurava; / listen to its nature as I describe Raurava:
10.81
Raurava measures two thousand yojanas in extent, / and then [there is] a very impassable pit up to the knees.
10.82
There it is filled with a heap of charcoal and leveled with the ground; / blazing intensely with a ground of heated charcoal,
10.83
into its midst Yama's attendants release the evil-doer; / burning with fierce fire, he runs there.
10.84
At every step his foot falls away and is renewed again; / it takes a day and a night to lift and set down a foot.
10.85
Having crossed a thousand yojanas in this way, he is released; / then he goes to another such hell for the purification of his sins.
10.86
Then, having traversed them all, the sinner takes birth among animals: / among worms, insects, moths, beasts of prey, mosquitoes, and so on,
10.87
having passed into elephants, trees, and the like, cows and horses likewise, / and into other sinful, misery-inflicting wombs.
10.88
Reaching human form, a man is born hunchbacked, deformed, or a dwarf, / or into the wombs of Caṇḍālas, Pukkasas, and others.
10.89
Endowed with remaining sin and merit, / he then reaches an ascending caste—śūdra, vaiśya, king, and so on,
10.90
the state of a brahmin and of the lord of the gods, and sometimes a descending one. / Thus evil-doers fall downward into hells.
10.91
Hear from me as I tell how doers of good deeds proceed: / directed by Yama, those men go to a virtuous realm,
10.92
sung to by hosts of gandharvas, filled with coursing courtyards of apsarases, / adorned with the charm of necklaces and anklets, excellent,
10.93
and resplendent with various divine garments, they swiftly enter aerial cars. / And falling from there, they are born into the families of kings
10.94
and of other great-souled men, keepers of good conduct; / they attain intense pleasures, and from there go upward, or otherwise,
10.95
reaching a descending [birth], men fare as before. / All this has been related to you—how a creature dies; / now hear, O brahmin sage, how he enters the womb.
10.95.p1
Thus ends the tenth chapter in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, named 'Dialogue between Father and Son'.
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit