Markandeyapurana 41
English (machine translation) 41
- Language
- English
Contents
41.1
Alarka said: / Venerable one, I wish to hear truly about the conduct of a yogin, / following which path of brahman the yogin does not falter.
41.2
Dattātreya said: / Honor and dishonor, which both cause anxiety to men, / are of the opposite meaning to the yogin: they produce perfection.
41.3
Honor and dishonor—these two they indeed call poison and nectar: / among them, dishonor is nectar, but honor is dreadful poison.
41.4
One should step forward purified by sight; one should drink water purified by cloth; / one should speak speech purified by truth; and one should reflect on what is purified by intellect.
41.5
To hospitality feasts, ancestral rites, sacrifices, processions of deities, and festivals, / and among crowds, the knower of yoga should never go for the sake of perfection.
41.6
When the hearth-fires are extinguished, free of smoke and charcoal, when all people have eaten, / the knower of yoga should wander for alms, but not regularly in only three [houses].
41.7
In such a way that people despise and treat him with contempt, / so composed the yogin should wander, not defiling the path of the good.
41.8
He should beg alms among householders and in the houses of wandering ascetics; / indeed, this first mode of livelihood is taught as the best for him.
41.9
Then, the ascetic may regularly wander among settled householders, / men of faith, self-restrained, learned in the Veda, and noble-minded.
41.10
Next after this, also among uncorrupted and unfallen people / of other castes, wandering for alms is considered the lowest mode of livelihood.
41.11
Alms-food, barley gruel, or buttermilk, milk or barley meal, / fruits, roots, or panic seed, broken grains, oil-cake, or parched barley meal:
41.12
these are auspicious foods that produce perfection for the yogin; / therefore the sage should consume them with devotion, in supreme absorption.
41.13
Having first sipped water once, becoming silent and collected, / then the first oblation is prescribed for him, with the formula 'To prāṇa!'
41.14
The second is 'To apāna!', and the other is 'To samāna!'; / the fourth should be 'To udāna!', and the fifth 'To vyāna!'
41.15
Having separated [the food] with prāṇāyāmas, he may eat the rest at will; / having sipped water once again and rinsed his mouth, he should touch his heart.
41.16
Non-stealing, celibacy, renunciation, and freedom from greed, / and non-violence foremost: these indeed are the five vows of mendicants.
41.17
Freedom from anger, service to the guru, purity, lightness of food, / and constant personal study of the Veda: these are declared the five observances.
41.18
He should pursue the knowledge that is essential and accomplishes his purpose; / for this multitude of knowledges causes obstacles to yoga.
41.19
He who wanders thirsting, thinking 'this is to be known, this is to be known,' / would not attain what is to be known even in thousands of kalpas.
41.19.p1
Abandoning attachment, conquering anger, taking light food, his senses conquered,
41.20
having closed the gates [of the senses] with his intellect, he should fix his mind on meditation.
41.21
Only in empty places, in caves, and in forests, / always disciplined, the yogin should properly begin meditation.
41.22
Restraint of speech, restraint of action, and restraint of mind are the three; / he who has these restraints governed is a triple-staffed great ascetic.
41.23
He for whom all this world, real and unreal, consists of the self, / composed of qualities and devoid of qualities: what is dear to him, O king, what is not dear?
41.24
With pure intellect, regarding a clod of earth and gold alike, / and composed equally toward all beings, / by knowing the supreme, eternal, and imperishable state, / the Supreme, he is not born again.
41.25
Superior to the Veda are all sacrificial rites; / superior to sacrifice is recitation, and the path of knowledge is superior to recitation; / superior to knowledge is meditation free from attachment and passion; / when that is attained, there is realization of the eternal.
41.26
Collected, intent on brahman, vigilant, / pure, delighting in solitude, his senses restrained, / the noble-minded one should attain this yoga; / thence, through his own yoga, he attains release.
41.26.p1
Thus ends the forty-first chapter, named 'The Conduct of a Yogin', in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.
41.26.p2
Chapter Forty-Two
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit