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2024-03-29, 8:32 PM |
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Chapter
29: The
Conversation of
Nârada and King Prâcînabarhi
(1) King
Prâcînabarhi said: 'Oh great sage, we never grasped the full
meaning of your words. The wise may understand what they really mean,
but we who
are fascinated by fruitive activities will never fully comprehend them.'
(2) Nârada said: 'The person
of Purañjana ['he who enjoys the city that is the body'] should
be seen as the creator of his own situation of dwelling in a one [a
ghost], two, three [as with having a stick] or four legged body or a
body with many legs or no legs at all. (3) The eternal friend and master
of the person is He whom I
described as unknown [Avijñâta, 4.
25:
10] because
He by His names,
activities and qualities is never [fully]
understood by the
living
entities
[compare
Adhokshaja]. (4) When the living entity wants to enjoy the totality of
the
modes of material nature, he thinks that [to have a human form with]
nine gates, two legs and two
hands is something that suits him very well. (5) The
young woman [pramadâ or Purañjanî] then
should be known as the intelligence
responsible for the 'I' and 'mine' of taking to the shelter of the
body by which this living being, sentient to the modes of material
nature, suffers and enjoys. (6) Her
male friends represent the senses
that lead to knowledge and action, the girl friends stand for the engagements of the senses,
while
the serpent refers to the life
air in its five forms [upgoing air (udana), downgoing (apâna),
expanding
(vyâna), balanced (samâna) and the
breath held high (prânavâyu)]. (7) The
mind one should recognize as the very powerful [eleventh] leader of the
two groups of
the senses and the kingdom of Pañcâla stands for the five
realms
[or objects] of the senses in the midst of which the city with the nine
apertures is
found. (8) The two eyes,
two nostrils, two ears, the
genitals and rectum are likewise the two by two gates with the mouth
[as the ninth] that one passes
when
one
accompanied by the senses goes outside. (9) The two eyes, the nostrils
and the mouth are thus understood
as the five gates in front [the east], with the right ear as the
gate to the south and the left ear as the gate to the north, while
downward in the west the two gates are found one calls the rectum
and the genital. (10) The ones named Khadyotâ and
Âvirmukhî that
were created at one place are the eyes by which the master can perceive
with his sense of sight the form called Vibhrâjita ['the clearly
seen', see 4.25: 47]. (11) The
ones named Nalinî and
Nâlinî represent the two
nostrils with [the city of] Saurabha
named to the aroma. The [companion called] Avadhûta is the sense
of smell. Mukhyâ stands for the mouth with [for his friends] the
faculty of
speech named Vipana and the sense of taste named
Rasajña [see 4.25: 48-49]. (12) Âpana
concerns
the
[domain
of
the]
tongue
and
Bahûdana
the
[realm
of
the]
variety
of eatables,
with [the gates of] the right ear having the name Pitrihû and the
left ear being
called Devahû [see 4.25: 49-51]. (13) Together
with
the
companion
of
hearing
called
S'rutadhara
following the path to [the southern and
northern realms of]
Pañcâla by the
processes of sense enjoyment and detachment as described in the
scriptures,
one reaches [respectively] Pitriloka and Devaloka. (14) Next
to
the
gate
of
the
rectum called
Nirriti
there
is on the lower side the sexual member called Âsurî,
which is the gate for the sexuality of the common man [who in the area
of Grâmaka] is attracted to the sexual act which is called [the
friend] Durmada [see 4.25:
52-53]. (15) Vais'asa
is
[the
realm
of]
hell
and [the
friend] called
Lubdhaka is the
organ of defecation. The blind
ones you next heard about from me are the legs and
hands with which the people engage in their work [see 4.25:
53-54]. (16) The
private quarters are the
heart and [the servant named] Vishûcîna is the mind, the
material nature of which is said to result in illusion,
satisfaction and jubilation. (17) As soon as
the mind is agitated and
activates in association with the natural modes, the individual soul,
who is [actually] the observer,
is carried away by those activities [just like
Purañjana falling for his queen, see 4.25:
56].
(18-20) The body
is the chariot that,
with the senses for its horses, in fact doesn't move ahead in the
course of one's years. The two
wheels constitute the activities of profit minded labor and piety, the
flags are the three modes of nature and the bindings stand for the five
types of air. The
rein is the mind, the chariot driver is the intelligence,
the sitting
place is the heart, the duality is formed by the posts for the
harnesses, the five weapons are
the sense
objects and the seven armor plates are the physical elements [of nails,
skin, fat, flesh, blood,
bone and marrow]. The five objectives and ways of approach constitute
[together with the eleventh commander] the false aspiration of the
eleven processes of the senses [the mind and the five senses
of action and perception] by which one in envy is engaged for the sake
of sensual pleasure [see again 4.26:
1-3]. (21)
The year symbolizing [the passage of] time was called Candavega to
which the three hundred and sixty men and women from
heaven are to be understood as the days and nights that by their
footsteps reduce the lifespan
that one has on this earth [see 4.27:
13]. (22) The daughter of Time
who was
welcomed by no one and as the sister-in-law was accepted by the king of the Yavanas in favor of death and
destruction, stood
for
jarâ, old age [see 4.27:
19-30]. (23-25) His
followers, the
Yavana soldiers represent the
disturbances of the mind and body who, at times when the
living beings are in distress,
very quickly rise to power with Prajvâra in the
form of two kinds of fever [hot and cold, physical and mental
conflict]. The one residing in
the body which is moved by the
material world is thus for a hundred years subjected to different sorts
of
tribulations that are caused by nature, other living beings and
himself. [Therein] abiding
by the fragmentary nature of sense enjoyment he meditates the 'I' and 'mine'
of himself as being the doer and thus,
despite of his transcendental
nature, wrongly
attributes to the soul the
characteristics of the life force, the
senses and the mind. (26-27) When
the person forgets the Supreme
Soul, the Almighty Lord who is the highest teacher, he next surrenders
himself to the modes of
matter to find therein his happiness. Driven by those modes he
thereupon takes to lives belonging to his karma. He therein is then
helplessly controlled by the performance of fruitive activities that
are of a white [a-karma
or service in goodness], a black [vi-karma or ill deeds in
ignorance] or a red nature [regular karma or work passionate
after the
profit; compare B.G. 13: 22 and 4: 17]. (28) Then ruled by
the light of goodness one reaches
better worlds, then with passion for one's work one ends up in distress and then at other times
indulging in darkness one finds oneself in
lamentation [see B.G. 18a:
37-39]. (29) Sometimes
one is a man, sometimes a woman and then one is neither of both. Then
one has lost one's mind and then again you're a human being, a beast or
a god. One is born according to one's karma with the modes of nature. (30-31) Like
a poor dog that overcome by hunger wanders from one
house to an other in order to be rewarded or else be punished, the living entity similarly pursuing different types
of higher and lower desires wanders high or low, or follows a
middle course and thus according to his destiny reaches that what is pleasurable or not that
pleasurable
['heaven' or 'hell']. (32) Even though he, being confronted with the different
kinds of
distress as caused by
nature, others or himself, takes his countermeasures, it is for the
living being not possible to
stop the misery. (33-34) All that he in fact
does is what a man carrying a heavy burden on
his head does when he shifts his burden to his shoulder. In fact he oh
sinless one, in a state of illusion thinks that he can counter a
dream with a dream. Counteracting one [karmic]
activity with another one doesn't arrive at a definitive solution,
only in counteracting the
both of them that is the case. (35) Just
as
there
is
no end to the subtle
form of
reflection that was created by the mind as in a
dream, there is also no end to
wandering around in the material world that in truth is not a fixed
reality. (36-37) In
order to put an
end to the succession of unwanted things in material life it is
therefore for the soul of essential importance to be of unalloyed
devotional service with that what the spiritual teacher [the Lord]
represents:
to be engaged in the bhakti yoga in relation to the Supreme Personality
of
Godhead Vâsudeva, by which the result is found of the
completeness of
knowledge and detachment. (38) That, oh best
of kings, will soon come about depending the cultivation of one's
constant and faithful listening to the narrations about the Infallible
One.
(39-40) From the
place where one finds the great devotees, the broad-minded pure souls
whose consciousness is bent on the regular reciting of and
hearing about the qualities of the Supreme Lord oh King, flow in all
directions from the mouths of the great examples the
countless streams of nectar concerning the exploits of the killer of
Madhu. They who eagerly drink in that nectar can never get enough of
it. Hunger, thirst, fear, lamentation
or illusion never get hold of those who are all ears [compare 3.25: 25]. (41) But the individual soul who is always troubled by his worldly habits, is not attracted to the
nectarean
ocean of stories about the Lord. (42-44) The father of
the founding fathers Brahmâ, lordships like
S'iva, Manu, and the rulers of mankind headed by Daksha, the strong
celibates led by Sanaka, Marîci, Atri, Angirâ, Pulastya,
Pulaha, Kratu, Bhrigu, Vasishthha and I myself finally, are all well
versed, authoritative brahmin speakers. Even though we have insight
because
of our meditation, education and
austerities, we cannot fathom the Seer Himself, the
Controller in the beyond. (45) Engaged in listening to the unlimited spiritual
knowledge and with mantras singing the glories of the greatly extended
partial powers [the demigods], one still doesn't know the Supreme. [see footnote 1] (1a, 2a) What now would the
difference be between animals and human beings when the intelligence of
all depends upon the animalistic maintenance of the body? After so many
births having attained a human life out here the
individual spiritual soul will become prominent when one on the path of
spiritual knowledge has broken
with
that
physicality,
when
one
has
given
up the
incorrect perception of being a gross or subtle body. (46) When He who showers His
grace, the Supreme Lord, by a soul
is realized, such a one will give up his worldly views as well as his attachment to Vedic rituals [see also B.G. 18: 66].
(47) Oh my dear
Prâcînabarhi, therefore never ignorantly take the glamour
of fruitive actions for the aim of
life. However nicely that [acquiring] might ring in your ears, the real
interest isn't served by it [compare B.G. 2: 42-43]. (48) The
less
intelligent
ones
speak
of
the
[four]
Vedas
to
the
interest
of rituals and ceremonies, but such
people do not know [the real purport of the Vedas], they have no idea
where the world of Lord Janârdana is to be found [of Vishnu,
Krishna as the conqueror of wealth]. (49) You who
[with your sons the Pracetâs] completely
covered the face of the world with the kus'a grass pointing
eastward [see 4.24: 10], take great pride in all
the killing
[of the sacrificial animals] and consider yourself very
important. But you do not know what work must be performed, what labor
would satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He who constitutes
the guiding principle of reason. (50) The Supreme Lord Himself is the Supersoul of all who
accepted a material body; He is the controller of material
nature. His feet form the shelter by which all men in this world find
their fortune. (51) He
indeed is the one
loved the most, the Subtle One
from whom there is no fear. He alone is in full knowledge, he alone who
has
learned this, is the spiritual master not different from the Lord.'
(52)
Nârada said: 'After thus
far having answered your questions oh man of wisdom, now listen to
the established opinion I am going to confide to you. (53) [Think of] a
deer safely grazing grass in a field of flowers. Undisturbed doing his
business he has in his ears the charming song of bumblebees, but
he is
not quite aware that in front of him there
are tigers eager to kill and that behind him there is a
hunter looking for a chance to pierce him with arrows. (54) The flowers work
just like a woman who with her sweet scent of flowers suggests the
safety of a household existence as being the result of an innocent
desire for sensual pleasures such as the plucking of flowers. Thus one fulfills one's desires [alike
the deer] in always being absorbed in thoughts of sex with the wife and
pleasures to the tongue. The sound of the different
bumblebees that is so very attractive to the ears compares to the most
attractive talks of the wife in the first place and also the children
that occupy one's mind completely. The tigers
together in front of him are alike all the moments of the days and
nights that
unnoticed in enjoying one's household take away one's life span. And
from behind there is the hunter taking care not to be seen who
crouches upon him like the superintendent of death by whose arrow one's
heart is pierced in
this
world. You
should see yourself in this as the one whose heart is
pierced oh King. (55) Place yourself in the
consciousness of the grazing deer and give up the fixation upon that
what you cherish in your heart.
Give up that notion and those stories of a household life so abominably
filled with
sexual concerns and go, gradually becoming detached, exclusively for the shelter of all
liberated souls.'
(56) The king said: 'Oh brahmin,
having heard what you said, I must say I
had no clue. Why is it so that the honorable gentlemen [my teachers],
if they knew that,
didn't explain it to me? (57) But my doubts about this oh brahmin, you have cleared
as you
spoke. Even they who have experience are indeed bewildered about
everything not pertaining to the activities of the senses. (58) Someone who
forsakes his body in order to enjoy another body in a next life has to
face the consequences of the karma he built up in this life. (59) One thus knows the
statement of the Vedic experts that says: of everything that one in
this
life wants to do one does not directly see the consequences.'
(60) Nârada
said: 'From the karma a person engages in the consequences are to be faced
in a next life, because [having died, in his unembodied state] nothing has
changed to that
what belongs to him:
his proof of character
[the subtle body or linga] and his mind about it stay the same. (61) The way a
person, lying in bed and breathing, letting go [of the gross body in a
dream] in his mind
has to experience the actions he [in the waking state] was engaged in,
the same way he will fare in
a similar or another [animal] body or world [being reincarnated after
his death]. (62) Whatever all
this 'my' of the mind might entail in acceptance of an 'I', is by the
living being taken along as the workload he acquired and by that karma
he
again enters
a material existence. (63) The way one
derives a state of mind from one's sensual experiences and what one
does
in response to them, one is likewise mentally characterized by
propensities that are the result of physical actions one engaged in in
a previous life. (64) Sometimes arbitrary forms pop up before one's mind's eye and that may
happen without
ever
having heard, seen or experienced those images before. (65) Oh
King believe me thereby when I tell you that to a living being
confronted with a proof
of life that as such rises in the body, not a single thing can
manifest itself in the mind which hasn't been tried, experienced or
understood
before. (66) The mind of a man is indicative of the forms he has
accepted
in the past as well as - I wish you all the best - what birth he next
will
take or that he will not be born again. (67) That
what someone has done in another time or at another place
[thus] can be derived from the images one sometimes has in the mind of
things one in this life hasn't seen or heard about before. (68) Everything
that
is perceived through the senses, may in different ways of sequential
ordering [or types of logic or individual perspectives] pop up
and vanish again in
the
heart; all
persons have a mind [filled with past impressions]. (69) With the
Fortunate
One constantly at one's side abiding by a spirit of pure goodness [free
from passion and ignorance], the world around oneself [the so-called
'here and now'] that
[with
all
those
impressions]
can
be
as
dark
as
the
[new]
moon, thus
being connected will manifest itself crystal clear. (70) A person is from this consciousness that
is thus free from 'I' and 'mine' separated for as
long as the eternal indweller [in the form of the subtle body of
impressions, the linga] forms a
distinct structure of material qualities consisting of intelligence,
mind, senses
and sense objects. (71) In deep sleep, when one faints or with the
arrest of one's breathing in great shock one does not think of an 'I', nor is there
such a notion when one has a high fever or when one dies. (72) Just
like one with a new moon cannot see the
moon itself, the self of typical life
signs [the subtle
body or the ego]
cannot be observed of a young
person in the
womb and during [early] childhood because of
the immaturity of the eleven [of the senses and the mind]. (73) Just
as unwanted
things in a dream have to run their own course [until one awakens],
also for a soul - despite of not
being there
for the sake of the sense objects -
material
life does not cease when he is
contemplating
the enjoyment of the senses [***]. (74) The individual soul [the jîva] is understood as a
combination of the
life force with the in sixteen expanded and by the three modes of
nature ruled typical self of signs, the linga
[expanded to the
five
objects of the senses, the five working and
knowing senses and the mind]. (75) By means of
this [linga] the person acquires material
bodies and
gives them up again and because he [the subtle body] thus is materially contained he finds enjoyment,
lamentation, fear, misery and happiness [compare B.G. 2:
13]. (76-77) Just
like a c aterpillar
doesn't disappear when it has to forsake its body [to become a
butterfly], a materially identified man doesn't vanish upon the
termination of his karmic existence, for the mind [transported by the linga]
is
the
ruler
of
man,
it is the cause of the
material existence of all the embodiments created. (78) When one thinking of success always [to the point of death] performs activities, one is by those actions bound to a[n other] physical
body for as long as one continues to perform in ignorance
[see B.G. 3: 9]. (79) In order to
counteract that therefore engage in
devotional service unto the Lord with
all your heart and soul and consider the cosmic manifestation thereto
as consisting of His being by which there is maintenance, creation and
annihilation. (1b) Being of
devotion
unto Krishna, of mercy towards others and in perfect knowledge of the
True Self, liberation
from
being
bound
to
a
material
life
will be the consequence. (2b) The great
secret of
it all is that material existence dissolves in what we do not see as
yet and have been seeing in the past, just like during one's sleep; in
other words, everything that happened in the past, happens in the
present and is going to happen in the future is but a
dream.'
(80) Maitreya said: 'After Nârada, the
most
powerful, pure and leading devotee had explained to him the position of
the two swans [of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul who is the
Lord], he took leave and departed for the abode of the perfected ones
[Siddhaloka]. (81) After leaving
orders for his sons to protect the common people, Prâcînabarhi, the
wise king then left
for practicing austerities in the spiritual resort of Kapila [at
Gangâ-sâgara, where the Ganges flows into the bay of
Bengal, see for Kapila Canto 3.24-33]. (82) There, with a one-pointed
mind living soberly at the lotus
feet of Govinda he, continuously chanting, by his devotion managed to free himself from his
attachments and attain sameness with the One Reality. (83) Oh sinless
one, anyone who listens to or recounts this authoritative, spiritual
discourse as narrated by Nârada, will be delivered from the
physical concept of life. (84) Taken from the mouth of the leading divinity of
wisdom, this
story once it is uttered, will purify anyone's heart, for it sanctifies
this
world with the fame of the Lord of Liberation, Mukunda. He who chants
it will return to the spiritual world and freed from all bondage
being liberated no longer wander around in this material world. (85) This
wonderful spiritual mystery [this allegory] you've now heard from me, about a person
[Purañjana] who took shelter of his wife, puts an
end to all doubts about [the matter of] life after death.'
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