Markandeyapurana 42
English (machine translation) 42
- Language
- English
Contents
- 42.17 — 2 parts
42.1
Dattātreya said: / The yogin who conducts himself thus, properly established in yoga, / cannot be turned back even by hundreds of other births.
42.2
And having directly seen the Supreme Self, who has the universe as His form, / having feet, heads, and necks everywhere, the Lord of the universe, the Creator of the universe,
42.3
to attain Him one should recite the single syllable 'Om' of great merit; / that alone is the study for him hearing His supreme essential nature.
42.4
The letter 'a', the letter 'u', and the letter 'm': these are the three syllables; / these indeed are the three morae, characterized by sattva, rajas, and tamas.
42.5
The other [mora], situated above, the half-mora, is devoid of qualities and accessible only to yogins. / It should be known as Gāndhārī, based on the gāndhāra note.
42.6
Applied, it is perceived in the crown of the head with the touch of an ant's movement. / Just as the syllable Om, when applied, issues forth in the crown of the head,
42.7
even so the yogin, composed of the syllable Om, becomes imperishable in the imperishable. / Prāṇa is the bow, the self is the arrow, and brahman is the supreme target.
42.8
It is to be pierced without distraction; like the arrow, one becomes absorbed in it. / This syllable Om represents the three Vedas, the three worlds, and the three fires,
42.9
Viṣṇu, Brahmā, and Hara, and the Ṛg, Sāman, and Yajus [verses]. / In the highest sense, the three and a half moras should be known [as these].
42.10
The yogin who is concentrated on it attains dissolution in that. / The letter 'a' is spoken of as the earth-world, and the letter 'u' as the atmosphere-world;
42.11
and the consonant letter 'm' is conceived as the heaven-world. / The first mora is manifest, while the second is known as the unmanifest;
42.12
the third mora is the power of consciousness, and the half-mora is the supreme state. / In this very order, these stages of yoga are to be known.
42.13
From the utterance of 'Om', all that is real and unreal is grasped. / The first mora is short, and the second is endowed with length;
42.14
and the third is called protracted-half, beyond the range of speech. / Such is this imperishable brahman designated as the supreme syllable Om.
42.15
The man who knows this properly, or furthermore meditates upon it thus, / casting off the cycle of worldly existence and freed from the threefold bondage,
42.16
attains dissolution in brahman, the supreme Supreme Self. / And one whose bondage of karma is not yet exhausted, knowing death from portents,
42.17
remembering [this] at the time of departure, attains yoginhood once again. / Therefore, whether by an imperfect yogin or by an accomplished yogin, / portents are always to be known, so that one does not sink at the time of departure.
42.17.p1
Thus ends the forty-second chapter, entitled 'Meditation on the Syllable Om,' in the section on the duties of yoga in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.
42.17.p2
Chapter Forty-Three
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit