Markandeyapurana 40
English (machine translation) 40
- Language
- English
Contents
- 40.41 — 2 parts
40.1
Dattātreya said:
Obstacles indeed arise when the Self is seen by the yogin.
Those that [arise], I shall explain to you; listen to me concisely:
40.2
He desires actions born of desire, and likewise human pleasures:
women, the fruit of giving, learning, illusion, base metals, wealth, heaven,
40.3
godhead, lordship over immortals, rituals for elixirs of life,
throwing oneself into the wind, sacrifice, and entering into water and fire,
40.4
the fruits of ancestral rites and of all gifts, as well as observances,
and likewise from fasting, public works, and the worship of deities.
40.5
Afflicted by obstacles, he desires those various actions;
the yogin should carefully turn back his mind when it behaves in this way.
40.6
Attaching his mind to brahman, he is freed from the obstacle.
Once these obstacles are conquered, there then arise again
40.7
obstacles for the yogin that are sāttvika, rājasika, and tāmasika:
Prātibha, Śrāvaṇa, Daiva, and two others, Bhrama and Āvarta.
40.8
These five, of bitter outcome, arise as hindrances to yoga for yogins.
The meanings of the Vedas, the meanings of poetry and treatises, sciences, and arts in their entirety,
40.9
when they flash upon his mind, that is the yogin's Prātibha.
When he understands all meanings of sound and perceives sound
40.10
from thousands of yojanas, that is called Śrāvaṇa.
And when, like a god, he sees all around the eight [regions],
40.11
the wise call even that obstacle Daiva, [behaving] like a madman.
When the yogin's unsupported mind is whirled about by a defect,
40.12
owing to a lapse from all customary conduct, that is declared to be Bhrama.
Like a whirlpool of water, when a turbid whirlpool of knowledge
40.13
destroys the mind, that obstacle is called Āvarta.
All classes of gods, their yoga ruined by these
40.14
exceedingly dreadful obstacles, turn round again and again.
Therefore, having put on the white blanket made of mind,
40.15
the yogin should contemplate the supreme brahman, directing his mind toward it,
always yoked in yoga, taking light food, his senses conquered.
40.16
He should fix in his head the seven subtle concentrations beginning with earth.
The yogin concentrates on earth and attains its subtleness;
40.17
he thinks of himself as earth, and discards its smell.
Just as subtle taste in water, so also form in fire,
40.18
and likewise touch in wind—holding the concentration on each in that way,
he similarly discards the subtle activity and sound of space.
40.19
When through the mind he enters into the mind of all beings,
holding the mental concentration, his mind also becomes subtle.
40.20
Likewise, entering the intellect of all beings, the knower of yoga,
having attained the unexcelled subtlety of intellect, renounces it.
40.21
The knower of yoga who, having fully understood these seven subtle things,
renounces them, O Alarka, for him there is no return.
40.22
Having observed the subtlety of these seven concentrations, the self-controlled one,
renouncing one perfection after another, reaches the highest state.
40.23
For whatever element he conceives attachment to, O king,
developing deep attachment to that, he perishes.
40.24
Therefore, knowing the subtle elements linked with one another,
the embodied soul who renounces them attains the supreme state.
40.25
Unifying these seven subtle elements, O ruler of the earth,
detachment from the elements and the rest serves here for the liberation of the knower of truth.
40.26
Conceiving attachment to smell and the other objects, he is ruined;
he turns back again, O king, into human existence and below Brahmā.
40.27
Transcending these seven concentrations, if the yogin so desires,
he attains dissolution into that very subtle element, O lord of men!
40.28
He attains absorption in the bodies of gods, asuras, / gandharvas, serpents, or rākṣasas, and incurs attachment nowhere.
40.29
Minuteness, lightness, magnitude, reach, / irresistible will, lordship, and mastery as another,
40.30
and suppression of desires at will: these eight lordly qualities / he attains, O tiger among men, which indicate supreme nirvāṇa.
40.31
More minute than the subtle, exceedingly minute; the quality of lightness is speed; / magnitude is from being revered by all; reach is because nothing is unreachable for him;
40.32
irresistible will is from his omnipresence; lordship, because he is the lord; / because of holding under control, mastery is known as the yogin's seventh quality;
40.33
and where one's desire rests is termed suppression of desires at will. / By these causes of sovereignty, the [perfection] of the yogin is declared to be eightfold.
40.34
It indicates liberation, O king, the supreme nirvāṇa of the self; / thence he is neither born, nor does he grow, nor does he perish,
40.35
nor does he suffer decay, nor undergo change, / nor [suffer] cutting, wetness, burning, or drying from earth and the rest;
40.36
he receives nothing from the group of elements, nor is he carried away by sound and the like; / and sound and the like do not exist for him; their experiencer is not joined with them.
40.37
Just as a piece of gold, freed of base metal by fire, / having its impurities burnt away, merges into oneness with a second piece, O king,
40.38
and obtains no distinction, so the ascetic, with impurities burned / by the fire of yoga, attains oneness with brahman.
40.39
Just as fire cast into fire attains equality, / bearing that name, becoming that, and cannot be distinguished in particular,
40.40
so the yogin, having reached oneness with supreme brahman, his sins burnt away, / never attains separateness, O lord of the earth!
40.41
Just as water poured into water attains oneness, / so the self of the yogin attains sameness in the Supreme Self.
40.41.p1
Thus ends the fortieth chapter, named 'Yogic Perfection', in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.
40.41.p2
Chapter Forty-One
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit