Revākhaṇḍa ascribed to the Vāyupurāṇa (RKV) 20
English (machine translation) 20
- Language
- English
Contents
- 20.83 — 2 parts
20.1
Yudhiṣṭhira said:
Various religious duties have been heard by me, and the destructions wrought by the God Śarva by your grace,
which were witnessed by you, O sinless one.
20.2
Now I wish to hear of the majesty of the wielder of the Śārṅga bow
which was experienced by you, O best of Brahmins; you ought to relate that to me.
20.3
The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Henceforth I shall describe the characteristics of the destruction of living beings,
what signs are seen there, and how the kalpa is arranged.
20.4
There are falls of meteors accompanied by thunderclaps, and likewise earthquakes;
a shower of dust falls, and a terrible roaring sound.
20.5
Yakṣas, Kinnaras, and Gandharvas, Piśācas, serpents, and Rākṣasas,
all of them go to dissolution when the end of the yuga approaches.
20.6
Mountains, oceans, rivers, and various lakes,
trees, creepers, and grasses all reach their end.
20.7
When the three worlds, moving and unmoving, have thus become confounded,
devoid of all herbs and water, and turned into dry wood,
20.8
then, as I looked at midday when the time for bathing arrived,
the three worlds had the appearance of blazing fire, difficult to look at and hard to approach.
20.9
Two suns were seen in the east, dear one, and two in the west and north;
likewise two blazing suns were seen in the south.
20.10
Two suns stood in the world of the serpents, and two in the middle of the sky; / thus these twelve Ādityas burned in every direction.
20.11
They burned the entire earth along with mountains, forests, and groves; / nothing was seen unburned except the Revā and myself.
20.12
As the earth was burning, the smell of sacrificial oblations arose; / then my limbs dried up, and thirst also became intolerable.
20.13
For I could find no water, as it had been dried up by the suns; / as soon as I looked into my water-pot, that water too was dry.
20.14
Then, tormented by grief, especially afflicted by hunger and thirst, / I flew up above the earth, looking toward the sky.
20.15
Just then, I saw in the sky a house adorned with graceful beauty; / then, wishing to know about it, I set out, O best of kings.
20.16
Adorned with doors and bolts along a variegated rampart, / endowed with wondrous pinnacles, I arrived at the doorway.
20.17
Eighty-six thousand yojanas in height, / and half of that across, golden, adorned with gems.
20.18
There in the middle, O best of kings, I saw an excellent bed, / and lying upon the bed, a person with divine hair,
20.19
With the tips of his curled hair extending across a whole yojana, / adorned with a wondrous crown radiant with beauty,
20.20
Dark, resembling a lotus petal, brightly radiant and fine-nosed, / lion-faced, with long arms, marked with an excellent beard on his cheeks,
20.21
Graceful with three folds [on his belly], adorned with ear-pendants, / having a broad lustre, well-filled limbs, and flanks adorned with auspicious whorls,
20.22
Beautified by his waist, well-proportioned in his knees and shanks, / the god whose soles were marked with lotuses, with slightly red nails and fingers,
20.23
Deep-voiced like the roar of a thundercloud, handsome in all limbs— / I saw the supreme Puruṣa, the god lying in the middle of the bed,
20.24
Holding a conch, discus, and mace in his hands, lying on his right side, / his hand raised with a rosary, radiant as ten thousand suns.
20.25
Beholding that god, full of devotion and wishing to praise him, I stood: / “Victory, O lord! Victory, O lord of speech! Victory, O you whose divine limbs are adorned!
20.26
Victory, O lord of gods, O glorious one, eternal Brahman incarnate! / The worlds abide within your body; you are the refuge, O Parameśvara!
20.27
For all worlds are established resting on you, O lord of gods! / You are the best of all beings, you are the creator, the supporter of the earth.
20.28
You are the hotṛ’s rite of the fire sacrifices, and you alone are the cord and the mantra; / you are Gokarṇa, Bhadrakarṇa, and you are the realm of Maheśvara.
20.29
You are the fame of all fames, destroyer of poverty and sin; / you are Naimiṣa, Kurukṣetra, and you are the supreme abode of Viṣṇu.
20.30
By you indeed, O god, the earth was traversed in sport with a single stride; / by you Bali was bound, O god; by you Indra’s abode was established.
20.31
You are the Kali age, the Dvāpara age, O god, as well as the Tretā and Kṛta yugas; / you are the subduer of Pralamba, you are the creator, and you are the destroyer.
20.32
By you indeed the worlds are upheld; you are Time, the destruction of all; / by you indeed, O god, all classes of gods were created.
20.33
You are the path for all worlds, and you are liberation, the supreme goal. / Brahmā, the eternal god whose form is passion, was born from you; / Rudra was likewise born from your wrath, while you abide in pure goodness.
20.34
This moving and unmoving world was made by you for the sake of sport.” / Thus was the lord God praised by me whose body was tormented,
20.35
With supreme devotion, O king, the lord, master of all beings. / While praising him there, I saw jars filled with water.
20.36
Then that thirst of mine which had been forgotten increased once more; / I therefore approached the side of that person.
20.37
Desiring to drink water, I thought again: / “He does not see me, and though asleep, he does not wake.
20.38
He who, deluded by sin, awakens one who sleeps pleasantly— / from that sin there arises the great consequence of killing a brahmin.”
20.39
While I was reflecting thus, a second man arrived; / he did not look or speak at all, wearing a deer skin on his left shoulder,
20.40
With matted hair, carrying a water-pot, holding a staff, encircled with a girdle, / his whole body smeared with ashes, of great splendour, three-eyed.
20.41
Just as I wished to praise him and looked with clear eyes, / so too, through the manifestation of all her limbs, with immense abundance of beauty,
20.42
I saw an surrounded woman, adorned with every ornament. / Seeing her, I fell to the ground, then saying, "Be victorious!"
20.43
"Victory to you, born from Rudra's body! Victory, O stream! Eternal one! / Victory, Kaumārī, Māhendrī, Vaiṣṇavī, and Vāruṇī!
20.44
Victory, Kauberī, Sāvitrī! Victory, Dhātrī of beautiful face! / Protect me, whose body is burned by thirst, O [mother of] the moving and unmoving!"
20.45
The Goddess said:
"I am pleased, O tiger among Brahmins, by your very lovely words; / what is in your mind has been known by me, O best of the twice-born.
20.46
Listen, O Brahmin: I too have this very terrible vow; / through the fickleness of women, dull-witted, I undertook a difficult deed.
20.47
'If I am to have a son, most righteous and world-renowned, / then having given my breast to a Brahmin, I shall afterwards give it to the child.'
20.48
That son has been born to me, as was spoken by me, O great sage; / drink my breast, O chief among Brahmins, if you wish to live!"
20.49
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said:
"This is an improper act for Brahmins; whoever drinks this breast / [requires] another upanayana and does not attain the perfection of his vows.
20.50
Brahminhood is difficult to attain across the three worlds, O lotus-eyed one; / hear those consecrations by which a Brahmin is consecrated:
20.51
First, the sowing of seed into women through consecrations; / from the very casting of the seed, that is called seed-casting.
20.52
After that, O illustrious lady, garbhādhāna is the second; / puṃsavana is the third, and sīmanta is the fourth;
20.53
the fifth is jātakarma, and naming is called the sixth; / niṣkrāma is the seventh, and food-giving is the eighth;
20.54
the ninth is tonsure, and the tenth is the tying of the muñja girdle; / the aiṣika, the dārvika, the saumika, and the bhaumika;
20.55
joining with a wife, and then other rites for the gods; / the human and ancestral rites should be eighteen, O fair one;
20.56
the past, the future, as well as the iṣṭa, and the pārvaṇa after that;
20.57
the śrāddha, on Śrāvaṇī the āgrayaṇa, on Caitra and Aśvayujī the daśapaurṇamāsya, / the nirūḍhapaśusavana, sautrāmaṇī, agniṣṭoma, atyagniṣṭoma,
20.58
ṣoḍaśī, vājapeya, atirātra, āptoryāma, the ten vājapeyas, / patience toward all beings, absence of envy, purification, auspiciousness, absence of stinginess, freedom from craving.
20.59
Consecrated by these forty-eight consecrations, one becomes a Brahmin.
20.60
Knowing thus, O illustrious lady, you should not give me to drink; / how indeed could one like me drink a breast meant to be drunk by an infant, O noble one?"
20.61
Hearing this speech of mine, the woman spoke these words:
20.62
"If you do not drink breast milk, the child will die; / it is heard in the three worlds, in the Vedas, and in the traditions: / one is freed from all sins, [but] the slaying of an embryo does not release [him].
20.63
A killing will be on you, moreover, from the great devotee of the Lord; / and for eight hundred births one suffers from the slaying of an embryo.
20.64
When dead, he attains the state of a dog for three hundred years; / then, when that is exhausted, he enters the womb of a crow again.
20.65
There too he suffers for eight hundred [years] on account of that sinful deed; / he is a boar for ten births, [and] after that he is born as a worm.
20.66
Then, having reached the ascending scale, he receives births as cow, elephant, horse, and man; / so it is heard in the revelations, śāstras, and the Vedas, O scorcher of foes.
20.67
Greater than all sins is the sin of child-murder, O best of the twice-born; / a Brahmin possessed of child-murder surely cooks in hell.
20.68
And for eight hundred years he suffers the torment of Yama; / therefore the fault is smaller for you if you drink my breast.
20.69
Likewise, for one not drinking, sin lasting many years is born; / [while] drinking the breast, your hunger and thirst will cease, and religious merit will accrue.
20.70
Therefore, let not your mind be doubtful here at any time; / come, O Brahmin, drink my breast as you wish, for the sake of the child!"
20.71
Then, having heard her word, I resolved to drink the breast; / and I knew no satiety as I drank that excellent breast.
20.72
Thirty thousand and a hundred years passed thus, O Bhārata; / then I awoke in her lap, bewildered by illusory sleep.
20.73
My delusion from sleep having departed, as soon as I looked, O Pāṇḍava, / so long did I not see the sleeping one, nor did I see that child, O mighty lord!
20.74
Indeed, I saw four jars there, O Bhārata, / and I did not see that goddess; they had gone somewhere.
20.75
As I stood reflecting thus and thinking, / with a gently smiling voice the goddess spoke these words.
20.76
The Goddess said:
"That sleeping man is Kṛṣṇa; the second who arrived is Hara; / those four jars, they are the oceans, O best of the twice-born.
20.77
And the child seen by you is Brahmā, the grandfather of the worlds; / and I should be known as the Earth, with seven islands everywhere.
20.78
She who went away leaving you is well-established on the earth; / and you behold this Narmadā, the best of rivers,
20.79
characterized by religious merit, for the great benefit of all living beings; / she is renowned as the river Revā; therefore Narmadā is not dead.
20.80
Knowing thus, attain tranquility and be at ease, O great sage!" / Having spoken thus to me then, the goddess vanished right there.
20.81
Thus indeed the Lord always lies at the dissolution, abiding in sattva; / Mahādeva, whose form is sattva, upon whose support the universe is sustained.
20.82
Thus was this best of wonders experienced and seen by me; / removing all sins, yielding religious merit, it has been told to you, O best of men.
20.83
This deed of Viṣṇu has been related, which was enquired by you; / what else do you wish to hear again, O mighty-armed one?
20.83.p1
|| Thus ends the twentieth chapter, named 'Description of the Account of the Vārāha Kalpa', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth Avantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
20.83.p2
RKV Chapter 21
Linked texts (1)
- Revākhaṇḍa (Vāyupurāṇa) — Sanskrit