Mudgalapurana 2.17: pulahopadeśavarṇanaṃ nāma saptadaśo'dhyāyaḥ

Salutations to the holy Gaṇeśa!

Mudgala said:
The conduct performed by Ṛṣabha revealed various yogas.
In the beginning, a king, having observed it and dwelling in the house of the Arhat, adopted it.

That evil-minded one, fallen, having indeed abandoned the path of ritual action,
Made men devoid of dharma, like animals.

The Jain path originated from then on, O Prajāpati;
It was concealed by Bharata, who followed the path of ritual action.

In the Kali age, that very [path] will indeed be present in house after house;
Men, accompanied by the faults of the Kali age, will embrace it.

The great [path] undertaken by Ṛṣabha as a saṃnyāsin, having renounced home,
When adopted by householders, is said to lead to hell.

Ṛṣabha's eldest son was Bharata, devoted to dharma;
He ruled the kingdom according to dharma, delighting all his subjects.

Having entrusted the kingdom to his son, that highly renowned one went to the forest;
There he remained, gradually emaciating his body through austerities.

Remaining in the hermitage of Śāligrāma, intent on meditating upon Viṣṇu,
That king, who knew the supreme dharma, performed severe austerities.

Once, as he stood on the riverbank offering water to the ancestors,
Suddenly there was a roar of a lion, striking terror.

Hearing that sound, a pregnant doe there suddenly
Leapt across that river and fled in fear.

As she leapt, her fetus fell into the water of the river;
And she too went far away, O Dakṣa, and died in misery at that very moment.

The young deer, remaining in the water, was caught by Bharata;
With a mind full of compassion, it was raised by him with care.

Then love for the fawn arose in that great-souled one;
With affection the king fondled it and played with it.

Gradually, all his ritual action consisting of austerities was lost,
As his mind became attached to the deer, not seeing the fault of attachment.

One day, that deer, accompanied by other deer,
Went somewhere into another forest, unbeknownst to that virtuous man.

When Bharata did not see that deer there, O Lord,
Then, overwhelmed with grief, he wandered from forest to forest.

The king did not see the deer anywhere, and he lamented;
Constantly overcome with sorrow, in time he died.

At death, that deer was seen by him near himself;
By the power of the fault of attachment, he was born in the womb of a deer.

There, due to his former austerities, he remembered his previous birth;
Endowed with knowledge, afraid of attachment, he himself wandered about.

Abandoning attachment to the deer, he then went to his former hermitage;
there he remained endowed with non-injury, averse to duality.

Eating dry grass and the like, he remembered the imperishable Viṣṇu,
Then bathing at sacred fords, longing for the sight of virtuous people.

Once that deer wandered at ease in the middle of the forest;
By his former merit, he saw the excellent hermitage of Pulaha.

Certain lordly sages lived there, devoted to that,
Fortunate ones, endowed with austerity, delighting in the worship of Gaṇeśa.

There Bharata, born in the species of deer, in the presence of the sages
Made his abode, rejoiced, devoted to the company of the virtuous.

Once, Lord Brahmā went to the hermitage of Pulaha;
Seeing him, Pulaha and the others bowed to that grandfather [of the worlds].

Page 39) Having worshiped him with great devotion, Pulaha, along with everyone,
Having pleased the god himself, remained massaging his feet.

Having praised him, Pulaha, full of devotion, questioned him—
The primal god, the highly fortunate one, who is naturally a Gāṇapatya.

Pulaha said:
O father, by what do all creatures, though full of sorrow, become enjoyers,
Become liberated, and become identified with Brahman? Tell me that!

Mudgala said:
Hearing Pulaha's words, the lord Creator spoke to him,
to his son who was endowed with modesty and stood with folded hands.

Brahmā said:
Listen, my son; I will declare the supreme truth that you asked of me,
all of which destroys all sins and illuminates the path of peace.

Disregarding the king of obstacles, men are filled with sorrow;
they are born in all the worlds, beset by obstacles and stricken with fear.

Whatever causes suffering is indeed of the nature of obstacles, without doubt;
hell and the rest are considered most terrible, yielding the fruits of improper deeds.

And all that which is associated with [ritual] action is considered to bestow enjoyment in heaven;
know that that too, my son, is certainly of the nature of suffering.

In the heavens there is duality, of this there is no doubt;
likewise, see that there exists the obstacle accompanied by female and male, causing delusion.

Beset by fears from Daityas and others, those gods dwell there;
and when they are free from fear, slaying them, in the dissolution [the lord] causes the fear of death.

The entire cosmic egg is considered subject to origination and destruction;
endowed with suffering arising from the three guṇas and the like, it is remembered as swallowed by obstacles.

Through inaction a man attains liberation, of this there is no doubt;
hear about that liberation, my son, which is also associated with obstacles:

Deluded by the four bodies, the embodied soul enters into bondage;
performing the spiritual discipline, he becomes free from bondage.

This embodied soul, bound by delusion, is universally acknowledged as deficient;
and that very state, O highly intelligent one, is attained there as an obstacle.

In the yoga consisting of body and soul, that Brahman is of the nature of conceptualization;
split into two through conceptual differentiation, it is called spontaneous arousal.

Through non-conceptual yoga, it would abide in its own glory;
that too is beset by obstacles, through presence and absence of conceptualization.

The Sāṅkhya Brahman is established in the Self, wherein no sublation is found;
if it were another, not established in the Self, then it would consist of the Self.

By whom that which is established in the Self is held, from that the unestablished in the Self
has arisen, O fortunate one, yet it is not made [by him], O son.

That too is of the nature of an obstacle, due to the occurrence of a subsequent rising;
Sāṅkhya Brahman, without doubt, is a seed bearing arousal.

With seed, it itself becomes that which is seedless;
therefore it was never entirely accepted by the yogins.

The Brahman that is declared as Svānanda, bearing the form of absorption—
there, one's own union occurs having that form.

It is said to consist of union in the form of non-difference from all;
there is nothing beyond what is known by oneself that bestows union and non-difference.

Therefore, that very thing was said by yogins to be associated with obstacles;
for from that arose this world, which by yoga attained non-difference.

Because of the fault of positive concomitance, it is shown to be of the nature of an obstacle;
hence it has never attained acceptance in the paths of peace.

Therefore, the nature of yoga is praised as always distinct;
no yoga of it with anything could ever take place anywhere.

What is distinct from Brahman is called non-yoga, hence it is crowded with obstacles;
for the fault of negative concomitance is said to cause unrest.

Section 2, Chapter 18, page 40) Having abandoned both conjunctness and non-conjunctness, you will attain peace;
there, state of freedom from obstacles is attained, my son, without doubt.

Relinquish the fivefold nature of the mental plane, O best of brahmins;
you will become the very nature of non-difference in yoga, without doubt.

Intellect, taking the fivefold form of the mind, is indeed called Māyā;
in the fivefold delusions of sovereignty, it is called perfection causing delusion.

There the reflection of Gaṇeśa has fallen through the form of yoga;
spoken of as duality endowed with Māyā, abandon the state of reflection, O lord.

Long ago, my son, our family deity was declared by me
as the form of Gaṇeśa; he was worshipped by you with reverence.

Thereby you have become a worthy vessel for the peace of yoga, O great sage;
now has been declared, my son, the nature of complete peace.

Through the yoga of peace, constantly worship him according to rule;
then you will indeed become Gaṇeśa, of this there is no doubt.

Having spoken thus, Brahmā himself vanished, O lord of creatures;
Pulaha, established in austerity, accomplished yoga there.

Om tat sat. Thus ends the seventeenth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Instruction to Pulaha', in the story of Ekadanta in the second section of the glorious and final Purāṇopaniṣad, the Mudgalapurāṇa.