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Markandeyapurana 37

English (machine translation) 37

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37.1

Jaḍa said:
That righteous-minded Alarka also protected his subjects justly like sons, / contented and established each in their own proper duties.

37.2

Exercising punishment on the wicked and proper protection over the virtuous, / he attained supreme joy and sacrificed with great sacrifices.

37.3

And sons were born to him of great strength and prowess, / righteous-minded, noble-spirited, and opponents of evil ways.

37.4

He pursued wealth through dharma, or again dharma through wealth, / and without conflict between the two, he also enjoyed sensual pleasures.

37.5

Thus, while he was protecting the earth, attached to dharma, wealth, and desire, / many years passed like a single day.

37.6

No detachment arose in him as he enjoyed delightful sensual objects, / nor was there any feeling of 'enough' regarding the acquisition of dharma and wealth.

37.6.p1

Him, thus intoxicated by the association with pleasures, his senses uncontrolled,

37.7

his forest-dwelling brother named Subāhu heard about.

37.8

Then that king, wishing to awaken him, having reflected for a long time, / considered that king's taking refuge with an enemy to be his welfare.

37.9

Then, arriving to obtain his kingdom, the capable one repeatedly / went for refuge to the king of Kāśī, whose army and mounts were formidable.

37.10

That monarch also made military preparations against Alarka, / and sent a messenger: 'Let the kingdom be given to him.'

37.10.p1

He, knowing his own dharma, did not wish to give it at that time upon a mere command,

37.11

and Alarka replied to that messenger of the king of Kāśī:

37.12

"Let my elder brother come to me in person with affection and ask for the kingdom; / I will not give up even a little earth through invasion or fear."

37.13

The wise Subāhu also made no entreaty then, / [thinking,] 'Entreaty is not the dharma of a kṣatriya, for his wealth is valor.'

37.14

Then the lord of Kāśī, surrounded by his entire army, / advanced to invade the realm of King Alarka.

37.15

Having forged an alliance with neighboring kings immediately after that, / he invaded and brought [them] under control through certain of their own servants.

37.16

And without tormenting the neighboring rulers by blockading his realm, / he similarly brought the fortress commanders and forest-dwellers under his control.

37.17

He brought some kings under control by bribery, some by sowing dissension, / and others who remained neutral he subdued by conciliation alone.

37.18

Then that king, of diminished strength and distressed by a foreign army, / suffered severe depletion of his treasury, and his city was besieged by the enemy.

37.19

Tormented in this way, with his treasury depleted day by day, / he fell into supreme dejection and confusion of mind.

37.20

Having reached supreme distress, he remembered that ring / concerning which his mother Madālasā had spoken long ago.

37.21

Then, having bathed, become pure, and caused excellent brahmins to recite, / he drew out from it the instruction and saw the clear letters.

37.22

The monarch read what was written right there by his mother, / the hair of his limbs bristling with emotion, his eyes wide open with supreme joy:

37.23

"Attachment should be abandoned with all one's being; if it cannot be abandoned, / it should be formed with the good, for the company of the good is a medicine.

37.24

Desire should be abandoned with all one's being; if it cannot be abandoned, / it should be directed toward the desire for liberation, for that very thing is its medicine."

37.25

Having read [it] many times, and concluding, 'How indeed can men attain the highest good? / Through the desire for liberation, and since that comes from association with them [the good],'

37.26

then that lord of the earth, meditating upon contact with the virtuous, / went to the illustrious Dattātreya, being in supreme distress.

37.27

Approaching that great-souled one, sinless and free from attachment, / having bowed down and properly worshipped him, he spoke:

37.28

"O holy one, grant your favor to me, a refuge for those seeking refuge! / Take away my sorrow—for I am afflicted with sorrow and full of desire!"

37.29

"I will take away your sorrow this very day, O king! / Speak the truth: why do you have this sorrow, O lord of the earth?"

37.30

Jaḍa said:
Thus addressed by that wise one, the king considered / the threefold sorrow and its location, and the Self itself.

37.31

Having reflected for a long time again and again, that noble-minded king, / steadfast, [examining] the Self by the Self, smiled and then said:

37.32

"I am not the earth, nor water, nor light, nor air, / nor space; yet pleasure is regarded as occurring through contact with what belongs to the body.

37.33

Pleasure and pain undergo deficiency and excess in this group of five; / if it belonged to me, why would it not belong to me even when existing in another, since it is made of that?

37.33.p1

In the constant, abundant reality of the elements, the depression and elevation caused by deficiency and excess [do not belong to the Self];

37.34

and likewise, in that which is devoid of possessiveness, no distinction is perceived.

37.35

For one who sees the reality of the elements in the subtle state consisting of the subtle elements and in the third part, / what is pleasure or pain to the body in like manner?

37.36

Sorrow is situated in the mind, or pleasure which is mental; / therefore I have no sorrow or pleasure, for I am not the mind.

37.37

I am not egoism, nor the mind, nor am I intellect; therefore, / how can the sorrow arising from the internal organ, belonging to another, be mine?

37.38

I am not the body, nor the mind, because I am / distinct from the body, and likewise I am [distinct] from the mind; / therefore let pleasures and sorrows be in the mind or in the body—what is that to me here?

37.39

If the elder brother desires the kingship of this / body, which is a collection made of the five elements, / what indeed is that to me through the operation of the guṇas? / It is situated in them, and I am other than the body."

37.40

For the person who has no hands and the rest, nor any flesh,
nor bones, nor division of nerves,
what connection, even the slightest,
is there in this world with elephants, horses, chariots, and treasuries?

37.41

Therefore, I have no enemy, nor do I have suffering,
nor do I have pleasure, nor a city, nor a treasury;
nor does the army of horses, elephants, and so forth belong to him,
nor to anyone else, nor does it belong to me.

37.42

Just as the single space existing in a small pot, a water-jar, or a water-pot
is indeed seen as manifold,
even so is Subāhu, and he is the king of Kāśī, and I,
in various bodies through distinctions of physical forms.

37.42.p1

Thus ends the thirty-seventh chapter, named 'Discrimination of the Self', in the dialogue between father and son in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.

37.42.p2

Thirty-eighth chapter.

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