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2024-03-29, 6:52 PM |
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Chapter 5: Lord
Rishabhadeva's
Teachings
to
His
Sons
(1) Lord Rishabha said: 'My dear sons, this
body you carry along within this material world, does not deserve it to
suffer under the difficulties of a sense gratification of dogs and
hogs. It is rather worth the trouble of undergoing the divine austerity
by which the heart finds
its purification and one thus achieves infinite spiritual happiness. (2) Serving
the
great
souls,
so
one
says,
is
the
way
of
liberation and to seek the
association of those who are attached to women is the gateway to
darkness. Truly
advanced are they who [in their spirituality] have an equal regard for
all, are peaceful, take no offense, wish all the
best and know how to behave. (3) They
who are eager to live in a loving relationship with Me*, and who are not so attached to people only
interested in the physical aspect of life consisting of a
home, spouse, children, wealth, friends and making money, engage only
in the world insofar it is necessary. (4) I
consider the madly being
engaged in unwanted activities for the sake of this material
satisfaction as not befitting the soul who therefrom arrived at this
temporary body
despite of the misery associated with it. (5)
As long as one doesn't want to know about the reality of the soul, as
long as one's mind is absorbed in fruitive activities, one is
factually defeated by one's own
ignorance, for being entangled in
one's karma one is bound to this material body. (6) For
as long as unto Me, Vâsudeva, there is no love, a soul thus being ruled by ignorance will have a mind following the lead of fruitive activities, and as long as that
is the case one will not be free from the [miseries of the] body
one is identified with. (7) When
one even properly educated
doesn't see how inefficient [and inappropriate] the endeavor of
gratifying the senses [in an unregulated manner] is,
one will, not thinking properly about [defending] one's self-interest, very
soon be crazy about it and as a fool find nothing but material miseries
in a homely existence ruled by sexual intercourse. (8) Because
of
the
sexual
attraction
between
man
and
woman
both
their
hearts are tied
to
together
and
therefrom they call for a home, a territory, children,
wealth and relatives. This now is the illusion of the living being
known as 'I' and 'mine'. (9) The
moment
the
tight
mental
knot
in
the heart
of such a person bound by the consequences of his karma is slackened, the conditioned soul turns away
from this [false conception of] 'us' and then, forsaking that cause [of egoism], being liberated returns to the
transcendental world. (10-13) With
the
use
of
one's
intelligence
one
can give up the false identification
with the material world, the cause of material bondage by
following a spiritually advanced person, a guru as also by devotional
service unto Me, by not desiring, by exercising tolerance with the dual
world and by inquiries; by realizing the truth of the miseries of
the
living beings everywhere; by practicing austerities and penances and by
giving up on sensual pleasures; by working for Me, listening to stories
about Me as also by always keeping company with the ones devoted; by
singing about My qualities, by freedom from enmity, by being equal to
all, by subduing one's emotions oh sons; by trying to forsake the
identification with one's home and body, by studying yoga literatures;
by living alone, by entirely controlling the breath, the senses and
the mind; by developing faith, by continually observing celibacy, by
constant vigilance, by restraint of speech; by thinking of Me, seeing
Me everywhere, by developing knowledge and through wisdom in being
illumined by the practice of yoga;
and by being endowed with
determination, enthusiasm and goodness. (14) When
one by means of this
yoga practice completely being liberated from desiring results, as I've told you, has untied the knot of the bondage in one's heart that was
caused by
ignorance, one [finally also] must desist from this method of
detachment [this yoga] itself. (15) The king or guru who desiring My abode considers
reaching Me to be the goal of life, should in this manner relating to his sons or disciples, be of instruction not to engage in fruitive activities and not
get angry with them when they
lacking in spiritual knowledge want to. For what can one achieve
[spiritually] when one engages someone simply in laboring for the profit? In
fact such a king or guru would cause the ones whose vision
is clouded [by material motives] to fall down in the pit [of falsehood.
Compare B.G.
3:
26]. (16) People
who
obsessed
in their desire for
material goods have lost sight
of their real welfare, live with their efforts for the sake
of temporary happiness in enmity
with each other and run,
foolish as they are, without having a clue, into all kinds of
trouble [see also B.G.
7:
25]. (17) What
man of learning and mercy well
versed in spiritual knowledge would facing someone with such bad intelligence engage him again in that ignorance? That would be like leading a blind man on
the wrong path. (18) Someone
not
capable
of
delivering
his
dependants from the cycle of rebirth must not evolve into a father, a
mother, a spouse, a spiritual teacher or a worshipable
godhead. (19) I who
am inconceivable have a
heart of pure goodness filled
with dharma [devotional service]. Because I left adharma [the
non-devotional] far behind Me the faithful ones truthfully call me The
Best One or Rishabha. (20) You
are all born from My
heart, therefore try with a pure intelligence to be of service to your
brother Bharata, he who rules the people as the most exalted one.
(21-22) Among the manifested forms of existence the
living ones are superior to the ones without life and among them the ones who move around are far superior to the plants. Of those the
ones who developed intelligence
are better and the best ones among them are the human beings. The spiritual beings [the meditators of
S'iva] are the better ones among the humans and the singers of heaven
[the
Gandharvas] are superior to them
again. Next one finds
the perfected ones [the Siddhas]
above whom the superhuman beings [the Kinnaras] are situated. The
unenlightened ones [the Asuras who can master the ones before
mentioned] are dominated by the
gods lead by Indra and above them the sons of Brahmâ like Daksha
are
situated. Lord S'iva is the best of them and above
him we find Lord Brahmâ from whom he originated. He on his turn
is a
devotee of Mine, I [Vishnu] the
god of the gods of [spiritual] rebirth [the brahmins]. (23) No other entity compares to the brahmin. I
do not know oh learned ones, anyone who is superior to him. With him I
eat with more satisfaction from the food that by the people with faith
and love in
proper ceremony was offered [to the mouth of Me and those belonging to
Me], than from the food which [without them] was offered in [the
mouth of]
the fire. (24) It is the
brahmin who maintains my eternal
and shining body
[in the form of the Vedas] in this world. In him one finds the belief
and authority of the [eight
brahminical] qualities of
supreme goodness [sattva], purification [pavitra],
control over the mind [s'ama] and the senses [dama],
truthfulness
[satya], mercy [anugraha], penance [tapasya] and
tolerance [titikshâ].
(25) From
Me, the One of
unlimited prowess who higher
than the highest is capable of redemption and bestowing all the
heavenly happiness, they want nothing at all. To whom else would they
who perform their devotional service without claiming worldly
possessions turn to then? (26) My
dear sons, with
your vision cleared be at all
times of
respect for all living beings that move and not move, for I reside in
all of them. That is the way you should respect Me.
(27) Engage all of your mind, your words and the
perception of all your active and receptive senses directly in My
worship, for without doing so a person will not be able to free himself
from the great illusion which
is Yama's deathtrap.'
(28) S'rî S'uka said: 'After
for the sake of mankind personally thus having instructed His sons in
spite of their high spiritual standard of living, the great
personality, the
well-wisher and Supreme Lord of all who was celebrated as The Best One
or
Rishabha, placed Bharata, the eldest of His hundred sons, a topmost
devotee and follower of the divine order, on the throne to rule the
planet. This instruction describes the dharma of those who free from
material desires no longer engage for the profit and as great
sages,
as the best of the human beings [paramahamsas]
are
characterized by
devotional service, spiritual insight and detachment. While Rishabha
[at first] remained home, He [in the course of time, in order to set an
example for His teachings] like a madman with His hair
dishevelled,
accepted nothing but the sky for His dress [nakedness thus] and then,
keeping the Vedic fire burning inside, left Brahmâvarta to
wander around. (29) Even
though He to the people appeared as idle,
blind, deaf and dumb as a ghost or a madman, He as someone unconcerned
about the world [an avadhûta]
having taken the vow of
silence kept Himself from speaking.
(30) Passing through cities,
villages, mines, lands, gardens, valley communities, military
encampments, cowsheds, farms, resting places for pilgrims, hills and
forests, hermitages and so on, He was here and there surrounded by bad
people like flies and was, just like an elephant appearing from the
forest, beaten
away and threatened, urinated and spit upon, pelted with stones, stool
and dirt, farted at and abused, but He didn't
care about it because He, from His understanding how the body relates
to the soul, knew that this dwelling place of the body that is called
real, was just an illusory covering. He instead in negation of the 'I' and 'mine' remained
situated in His personal glory and
wandered unperturbed alone all over the earth. (31) With His very delicate hands, feet, chest,
long arms, shoulders, neck and face etc., with the lovely nature of His
well proportioned limbs, His natural smile, beautiful lotus petal like
graceful mouth, the marvel of His reddish widespread eyes and the great
beauty of His forehead, ears, neckline, nose and expressive lip,
because of
which His face was like a festival to all household women in whose
hearts He would have aroused Cupid everywhere, He, with His great
abundance of
curly brown hair which was matted, dirty and neglected, made his body
appear as
of someone haunted by a ghost. (32) When
He, the Supreme Lord, saw
that the common people directly opposed His yoga practice,
He, in order to counteract that negativity [that karma], resorted to
the
abominable behavior of lying down as a python. Smearing His body with
the food He chewed and the drink He drank, He rolled Himself in
the
stool and urine that He passed. (33) The
smell of His stool was that pleasant that the fragrance penetrated the
air of the countryside for ten yojanas around with a pleasant aroma. (34) Thus with His actions moving, standing,
sitting and lying down with the cows, the crows and the deer, He,
exactly like the cows, crows and deer do, ate, drank and passed
urine. (35) Thus
practicing the various
ways of mystical yoga Rishabha, the Supreme Lord, the Master of
Enlightenment, incessantly enjoyed the
Supreme
in
great
bliss.
He
experienced the symptoms
of loving emotions unto Vâsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is situated in the heart of all living beings and achieved by His
fundamental indifference the
complete
perfection in the Supreme Self.
But oh King Parîkchit, the
fullness of the mystical powers of yoga He thus accidentally achieved -
like
traveling through the air, moving with lightening speed,
the ability to stay unseen, the ability to enter the bodies of others,
the power to see without difficulty things from afar and other
perfections [the siddhis, see also 2.2:
22; 2.9:
17; 3.15: 45; 3.25: 37]
-, He
could never fully accept in His heart.'
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