Matsyapurana 37

English (machine translation) 37

Language: English

37.1

Indra said: / Having completed all your duties, O king, you abandoned home and went to the forest. / Therefore I ask you, son of Nahuṣa: are you equal to anyone in ascetic power, O Yayāti?

37.2

Yayāti said: / Neither among gods nor men, nor among gandharvas or great seers, / do I see anyone equal to myself in ascetic power, O Vāsava.

Indra said: / Since you have held in contempt your equals, your superiors, and your inferiors, unaware of their power, / therefore these worlds of yours have an end; with your merit exhausted, you have fallen today, O king.

37.4

Yayāti said: / If my worlds in Śakra's realm have perished because of contempt for divine seers, gandharvas, and men, / I wish, deprived of the gods' realm, to fall into the midst of the virtuous, O king of the gods.

37.5

Indra said: / You will fall into the presence of the virtuous, O king, fallen where you shall regain your firm standing. / Having understood this, O Yayāti, never again hold in contempt those who are your equals or your superiors.

37.6

Śaunaka said: / Then he fell from the holy world enjoyed by the king of the immortals; seeing Yayāti as he was falling, / Aṣṭaka, the best of royal seers, guardian of the ordinances of true righteousness, spoke to him.

37.7

Aṣṭaka said: / Who are you, a youth with an appearance equal to Indra, blazing with your own splendour like fire, / falling with the radiance of an upsurging cloud, like the sun, foremost among sky-wanderers in the sky?

37.8

Seeing you falling from the sun's path, having the immeasurable splendour of fire and the sun, / we are all utterly bewildered, debating: 'What indeed is this that seems to fall?'

37.9

And seeing you standing in the pathway of the gods, with majesty equal to Śakra, the sun, and Viṣṇu, / all of us have come out to meet you today, wishing to understand about this fall of yours.

37.10

Nor did we dare to ask you first, nor do you ask us who we are. / Therefore I ask you, whose form is worthy of desire: Whose are you, or for what reason have you come?

37.11

Let your fear depart, and cast aside despondency and delusion at once, O you of form equal to the lord of gods! / For while you are in the presence of the virtuous, not even Śakra, the slayer of Bala, is able to overcome you.

37.12

For the virtuous are always the foundation for the virtuous who have fallen from happiness, O you equal to the king of immortals; / they have gathered here, masters of the immobile and the mobile beings, and you are established among the virtuous, your peers.

37.13

Fire is lord in heating; the earth is lord in sowing; / the sun is lord through light; and the guest who arrives is lord of the virtuous.

Translations (1)

The Matsya Puranam — A Taluqdar of Oudh 1916, English

Linked texts (1)

Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit