Markandeyapurana 45

English (machine translation) 45

Language: English

45.73 — 5 parts

45.1

Jaimini said: / "This has been explained well to me by you, O best of the twice-born: / Vedic action is of two kinds, active and contemplative.

45.2

Ah, such knowledge belongs to you through the grace of your father, / by which delusion has been cast aside even after attaining this state of animals!

45.3

Blessed are you for ultimate perfection, since you abide in your former state; / your mind is not agitated by the delusions born of sense-objects.

45.4

Happily, by that venerable and wise Mārkaṇḍeya / you indeed were declared to be the best destroyers of every doubt.

45.5

For men wandering in this very distressing saṃsāra, / association with people such as you does not come about without ascetic practice.

45.6

If I, having gained association with you who possess vision of knowledge, / should not attain my goal, then surely attainment of my goal can be found nowhere else.

45.7

In active and contemplative knowledge and action, / I consider your intellect to be spotless as that of no one else.

45.8

If your intellect is gracious toward me, O best of the twice-born, / then you should declare this in its entirety:

45.9

How did this universe of mobile and immobile beings arise, / and how will it return again at the time of dissolution, O best of men?

45.10

And how did the lineages of the gods, sages, ancestors, and creatures originate? / And how [did] the manvantaras and the deeds of the dynasties [arise]?

45.11

As many as the creations are, and likewise as many as the dissolutions, / how the division of kalpas is, and what the duration of a manvantara is,

45.12

and how the configuration of the earth is, and what the extent of the earth is, / and how the oceans, mountains, rivers, and forests are situated,

45.13

the host of realms from Bhūrloka up to Svarloka, resting upon Pātāla, / and likewise the movement of the sun, moon, planets, asterisms, and luminaries—

45.14

all of this that has been brought together in the deluge, I wish to hear, / and what remnant there will be when this universe is withdrawn.

45.15

The birds said: / This unequaled weight of questions that you have asked, O best of sages, / we will proclaim to you; listen to it here, O Jaimini,

45.16

as it was told of old by Mārkaṇḍeya to Krauṣṭuki, / to the tranquil, wise son of a twice-born, preserved by his vows.

45.17

To the great-souled Mārkaṇḍeya, attended by the best of the twice-born, / Krauṣṭuki inquired just as you have inquired, O lord.

45.18

And what the sage, the delight of Bhṛgu, told him with affection, / that we shall proclaim to you; listen, O best of the twice-born.

Having bowed down to the lord of the universe, lotus-born, grandfather of all, / the womb of the universe, who abides in creation, who has the form of Viṣṇu in maintenance, / and the dreadful one, having the form of Rudra, who brings about the end in dissolution—

45.20

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Of old, as soon as Brahmā of unmanifest birth arose, / this Purāṇa and the Vedas issued forth from his mouths.

45.21

The supreme sages made numerous collections of the Purāṇas, / and by them the division of the Vedas was made by the thousands.

45.22

Dharma, knowledge, detachment, and lordship— / without the instruction of that great-souled one, the fourfold [aim] is not attained.

45.23

From him, his mind-born seven sages received the Vedas, / and the primal sages, his mind-born sons, received the Purāṇa.

45.24

From Bhṛgu [it went] to Cyavana, and by him it was declared to the twice-born; / and by the great-souled sages it was also told to Dakṣa.

45.25

And by Dakṣa it was then told to me; / that I declare to you today, destroying the impurities of the Kali age.

45.26

May all this be heard from me with focused attention, O fortunate one, / as it was previously heard by me when Dakṣa was speaking, O sage.

45.27

Having bowed down to the womb of the universe, unborn, imperishable, the refuge / of the mobile and immobile universe, the creator, the supreme abode,

45.28

to Brahmā, the primal Puruṣa, the peerless cause / in origination, maintenance, and restraint, in whom all is established,

45.29

to that Hiraṇyagarbha, the system of the worlds, the intelligent one, / having bowed, I will properly declare the unsurpassable category of elements,

45.30

beginning with mahat and ending with the specifics, endowed with variety and characteristics, / accessible through the five means of knowledge, endowed with six currents,

45.31

presided over by the Puruṣa, eternal, yet abiding as if non-eternal; / let that be heard with supreme concentration, O fortunate one.

45.32

That which the great sages call pradhāna, the cause named the unmanifest, / which they declare to be the subtle, eternal prakṛti consisting of existence and non-existence,

45.33

firm, imperishable, ageless, immeasurable, having no other support, / devoid of smell, form, and taste, free from sound and touch,

45.34

without beginning or end, womb of the universe, source and dissolution of the three guṇas, / non-temporal, unknowable, it existed in the beginning as brahman.

45.35

Following the dissolution, this [universe] was entirely pervaded by it; / then, from that state of equilibrium of the guṇas, presided over by the Knower of the Field, O sage,

45.36

from the modification of the guṇas being created at the time of creation, / the principle [called] mahat arose from pradhāna, and [pradhāna] enveloped that [mahat].

45.37

Just as a seed [is enveloped] by its skin, so mahat was enveloped by the unmanifest; / it is declared to be threefold: sāttvika, rājasa, and tāmasa.

45.38

Then from that, egoism was indeed born threefold: / vaikārika, taijasa, and bhūtādi, which is tāmasa.

45.39

And that too was enveloped by mahat, just as mahat was by the unmanifest; / but bhūtādi, undergoing modification, then produced the subtle element of sound.

45.40

From the subtle element of sound, it created space, having sound as its characteristic; / then bhūtādi enveloped space, which has sound as its subtle element.

45.41

Here, only the subtle element of touch is born, there is no doubt of this; / powerful wind is born, whose quality is regarded as touch.

45.42

Wind also, undergoing modification, created the subtle element of form; / from wind light arises, which is said to have the quality of form.

45.43

Wind, having touch as its subtle element, enveloped the subtle element of form; / light too, undergoing modification, created the subtle element of taste.

45.44

From that, waters indeed arise, and they possess the nature of taste; / and those waters, having taste as their subtle element, enveloped the subtle element of form.

45.45

Waters also, undergoing modification, created the subtle element of smell; / from that solid matter arises, whose quality is regarded as smell.

45.46

In each of them there is a subtle element (tanmātra), therefore subtle element-ness (tanmātratā) is remembered; / because they express what is non-specific, they are therefore non-specifics (aviśeṣa).

45.47

They are neither tranquil, nor fierce, nor deluded, because they are non-specific; / this is the creation of the elements and subtle elements from the tāmasa egoism.

45.48

From the vaikārika egoism, however, which is sāttvika and dominated by sattva, / that vaikārika creation proceeds simultaneously.

45.49

The sense faculties of intellect are five, and five are the sense faculties of action; / they declare these faculties to be taijasa, and the ten gods are vaikārika.

45.50

The mind is the eleventh among them; the gods are remembered as vaikārika: / ear, skin, eyes, tongue, and nose as the fifth,

45.51

for the perception of sound and the rest; they are spoken of as conjoined with intellect. / The feet, anus, genitals, hands, and speech is the fifth.

45.52

Locomotion, excretion, pleasure, craft, and utterance are their functions. / Space, having sound as its subtle element, entered the subtle element of touch;

45.53

wind is born with two qualities, its [own] quality being regarded as touch. / In the very same way, both qualities of sound and touch entered form;

45.54

then fire [became] twofold [in origin], possessing sound, touch, and form. / Sound, touch, and form entered the subtle element of taste;

45.55

therefore waters are known to have four qualities, possessing the nature of taste. / Sound, touch, form, and taste entered smell;

45.56

Combined with the subtle element of smell, they cover this earth; / therefore the earth, possessing five qualities, is seen as gross among the elements.

45.57

They are remembered as specific forms, calm, terrible, and deluding; / through mutual interpenetration they sustain one another.

45.58

Within the earth, however, all this visible and invisible [creation] is enclosed in compactness; / and the specific forms are perceived by the senses and remembered as determinate.

45.59

Each succeeding one attains the quality of the preceding one; / possessing various powers and existing separately, these seven, without combining,

45.60

were unable to create creatures without fully coming together; / having united in mutual combination and resorting to one another,

45.61

having the characteristic of a single mass and having attained complete unity, / through being presided over by the Puruṣa and through the favor of the unmanifest,

45.62

beginning with the Great Principle and ending with the specific forms, they produce the Egg, / which there gradually came to growth like a water bubble.

45.63

From the elements, O you of great intellect, [arose] that vast Egg resting on the water; / having grown within the material Egg, the Knower of the Field is called Brahmā.

45.64

He indeed is the first embodied being; he indeed is called the Puruṣa; / Brahmā arose in the beginning as the first creator of beings.

45.65

By him all this threefold world, moving and unmoving, was pervaded; / Mount Meru was born as its chorion, and the mountains as the outer membrane.

45.66

The oceans are the embryonic fluid of that great-souled Egg; / within that Egg is the entire world, with gods, asuras, and humans,

45.67

continents, mountains, oceans, and the assembly of stars and luminaries; / then, from the outside, by water, wind, fire, and space, and by the origin of the elements,

45.68

the Egg is enclosed by them, each one ten times [larger] than the other in succession; / it is wrapped around with that very measure along with the Great Principle.

45.69

The Great Principle, along with all of them, is surrounded by the unmanifest; / by these seven material coverings the Egg is enclosed.

45.70

And enclosing one another, those eight primary causes stand; / this is that eternal Prakṛti within which that Puruṣa is situated,

45.71

who has been spoken of to you in brief as named Brahmā. Listen again: / just as someone submerged in water, emerging, is born of water,

45.72

and casts the water away, so Brahmā, the all-pervading lord, [casts away] Prakṛti; / the unmanifest is declared to be the Field, and Brahmā is called the Knower of the Field.

45.73

One should understand all this as the mark of the Field and the Knower of the Field; / thus this is the primary creation presided over by the Knower of the Field; / not preceded by intellect, it first manifested like lightning.