Chapter 3: Liberation from Mâyâ and
Karma Knowing and Worshiping the Lord
(1)
The honorable king [Nimi] said: 'My lords,
please tell us about the Supreme Lord Vishnu His illusory potency [or mâyâ,
see also 11.2: 48], we wish
to understand that what bewilders even the great mystics. (2) Cherishing the nectar of your words about
the topics of Hari, am I not yet satiated by that antidote for the pain
that torments a mortal experiencing the misery of samsâra.'
(3)
S'rî Antarîksha said: 'By the
elements of the greater creation evolved [conditioned] the Soul of All
Creation the creatures high and low [see B.G. 13:
22 & 14:
18], o mighty armed one, so
that for the Original One His own [parts and parcels] there was the
[choice of] accomplishing by sense-gratification and by
self-realization [see also 10.87: 2]. (4) Having entered the living beings that were
thus created with the help of the five gross elements and with having
divided Himself as the one [witness, the spirit, the mind] to the ten
[senses of perception and action], gives He them a life with the modes.
(5) The living being, that enlivened by the
Suprme Soul with the modes enjoys those modes, thinks that this created
body is the true self and that it is the master and thus becomes
entangled [see also B.G. 15:
8, compare 11.2: 37]. (6)
Because of the sense-motivated actions is the proprietor of the
body because of his desires engaged in different karmic - fruitive -
actions and reaps he the different types of fruit therefrom. And thus
moves he through this world in as well a state of happiness as the
contrary of it [see B.G. 2:
62]. (7) This way by his karma reaching destinations
that bring him a lot of things that are not so good, experiences the
living being till the end of time birth and death helplessly. (8) When the dissolution of the material
elements is at hand withdraws the [Lord in the form of] Time that is
Without a Beginning or an End, the manifest universe consisting of the
gross objects and subtle modes [back] into the unmanifest [see also 3.29: 40-45, 3.26: 51]. (9) Most assuredly will there be a terrible
drought on the earth lasting for a hundred years during which the
accumulated heat of the sun will seriously scorch the three worlds. (10) Beginning from the lower regions
[Pâtâla], will the fire from the mouth of Sankarshana with
its flames driven by the winds shooting upwards, burn all directions. (11) Great masses of clouds will rain for a
hundred years with torrents massive as elephant trunks and because of
that will everything be inundated. (12)
O King, like a fire running out of fuel, will thereafter the universe,
the Original Form of the Supreme Lord, be given up by Him [in the form
of Brahmâ] as He enters the subtle reality of the unseen [see
also B.G. 8: 19,
3.32: 12-15]. (13) The earth by
the wind deprived of its aroma changes back into water and the water by
the same process deprived of its taste becomes fire [again, see *]. (14)
Fire, by darkness deprived of its form, inevitably turns into air and
the air, losing its touch, dissolves into the ether. The ether by the
Supreme Soul of Time no longer being tangible then merges into the ego
[of not-knowing]. (15) The senses,
the mind and the intelligence along with the gods [representing the
emotions], o King, enter into the ego-element and the I-awareness along
with all its guna-qualities merges into the Supreme Self [see
also 3.6 and 3.26: 21-48]. (16) With us thus having described this illusory
energy consisting of three qualities, this agent of creation,
maintenance and dissolution of the Supreme Lord, what more would you
like to hear?'
(17) The honorable king said: 'O great sage, please
tell how persons who are dull of intelligence with ease may overcome
this material energy of the Lord that is so unsurpassable to those who
are not self-controlled.'
(18) S'rî
Prabuddha said: 'Looking at people who live as husband and wife should
one understand that their endeavoring to accomplish results in order to
lessen the distress and to gain in happiness, leads to opposite
results. (19) What happiness would be gained by the
unsteadiness of having a home, children, relatives and domestic animals
and with the hard to acquire wealth that one is in pain for but leads
to the death of the soul? (20)
One should understand that the next world [heaven or 'a higher planet']
for which one this way settles with one's fruitive action, cannot be
sustained and is characterized by the resultant [competitive] mutual
destruction of equals, superiors and those who rank lower [B.G. 8:
16]. (21) Therefore should someone eager to know about
the highest good, take shelter of a spiritual master who resides in the
supreme tranquility of the Absolute Truth and is well versed in the
brahminical word [see e.g. 5.5: 10-13, 7.11: 13, 7.12:
1-16, 7.15: 25-26, 10.86: 57 &
B.G. 4: 34].
(22) At his feet should one, with the guru as
one's soul and deity, learn to be of respect for the bhâgavata
dharma [or emancipation process, see 11.2: 34] by which without deceit being faithfully of
service the Supreme Soul, the Lord bestowing His own Self, can be
satisfied [**]. (23)
On the basis of a mind that in every way is of detachment should one
properly, with mercy, friendship and reverence for all living beings,
cultivate association with the saintly and the saints [compare 11.2: 46]. (24)
One should be of [inner and outer] cleanliness, penance, tolerance and
silence; scriptural study, simplicity, celibacy, nonviolence and of
equanimity when confronted with the duality [see also yama & niyama and
B.G. 12: 13-20]. (25) In solitude
without a fixed residence, wearing old rags and satisfied with
anything, should one with the Controller constantly kept in mind,
meditate upon the True Self that is Omnipresent [see also 2.2:
5, 7.13:
1-10]. (26) With faith in the scriptures that relate to
the Supreme Lord and not blaspheming other scriptures, should one with
respect for the truth, being of strict control with the mind, one's
speech and one's activities, be of inner peace and sense control as
well [see also B.G. 15: 15]. (27-28) Hearing,
chanting and meditating the pastimes and transcendental qualities of
the Lord, of whose incarnations the activities are all wonderful, must
one do everything for His sake. Whatever worship one performs, of
whatever charity, penance, japa,
piety, one is, including whatever one holds dear, one's wife, one's
sons, home and very life air, should one all dedicate to the Supreme
[see also B.G. 9: 27].
(29) With rendering service to both [the moving
and nonmoving] must one be of friendship for as well the [normal] human
beings as for the ones who are of a saintly respect, for the purest
souls, such as those who accept Krishna as the Lord of their heart. (30) In mutual discussions, in being mutually
attracted and pleasing one another, is there thanks to the glories of
the Lord, in the joint cessation of material activities, the
purification of [one's relation to] the soul [see also B.G. 3:
38]. (31) Remembering and reminding one another is one
by the bhakti unto the Lord who puts an end to the chain of sins,
awakened and has one of the devotion a body that is moved by ecstasy
[see also 11.2: 40]. (32) Sometimes one cries by the thought of
Acyuta, sometimes one laughs, takes one great pleasure and speaks one,
acts one wondrously, dances and sings one and sometimes is one, after
the example of the Unborn One getting silent, freed from distress and
attains one the Supreme [see also 10.35]. (33)
Thus learning about the bhâgavata dharma and by the
resulting bhakti completely being devoted to Nârâyana,
crosses one easily over the mâyâ that is so
difficult to overcome [see also 1.1:
2].'
(34) The honorable king [Nimi] said: 'Please, all
of you expert knowers of the spiritual, be so kind as to describe to us
the transcendental situation of the Supersoul of the Absolute Truth
that is associated with the name of Nârâyana [see also 1.2:
11].'
(35) S'rî Pippalâyana said: 'Please o
King, know the Supreme [Personality of Godhead] to encompass the
following: the Causeless Cause of the creation, maintenance and
destruction of this universe, which in wakefulness, in the dream state
and in deep sleep, as well as external to these states exists and by
which the bodies, the senses, the life airs and the minds of each being
separately are enlivened and acting. (36)
This can nor by the mind, by the faculties of speech, sight,
intelligence, the life air or the senses be covered, just as a fire
cannot be covered by its own sparks. Not even the vedic word may
express it. For the Vedas deny that the Supreme Self can be expressed
in words - that can only be achieved by indirect expressions, words
that refer to that without which the scriptural restrictions would have
no ultimate purpose [compare 10.87].
(37) In the beginning being One became the
goodness, passion and ignorance thereafter known as the threefold that
associated with the power to act, the power of consciousness and the
I-awareness is called the individual living being [the jîva].
That individuality assumed the forms of spiritual knowledge [the gods],
the actions [the senses] and the fruits [of good and bad results]. Thus
possessing great varieties of energy is it the Supreme alone beyond
both the gross and the subtle that is manifest [as the Absolute Truth
or Brahman, see also mahat-tattva, pradhâna, 4.29: 79, B.G. 10:
42, 13:
13 & 7:
14]. (38) This Soul, never born and never dying, grows
nor decays; it is the knower of the times of living of the living
beings subjected to change, and that Soul, omnipresent and everlasting,
is pure consciousness the same way as the [one] life air [prâna]
within that by the power of the senses manifested itself as being
divided [see also B.G. 2: 23-30 and ***]. (39) [With beings] from eggs, from embryos, from
plants and from the indistinct of moisture [micro-organisms]
accompanies the vital air the individual soul [see also linga] from one [life form] to the other. The same
way as the soul, apart from the thought process invariably stays the
same when remembrance restores from a deep sleep in which the ego and
the senses together had merged [see B.G. 2:
22]. (40) When one desires the feet of the One With
the Lotus-navel is the dirt of the heart, which sprouted from the
fruitive action according the modes of nature, cleansed away by the
power of bhakti and is, when one is fully purified, directly the truth
of the soul realized, about the same way as one with the naked eye can
see the sunshine [B.G. 2:
55 & 6: 20-23 and nyâyika].'
(41) The honorable king said: 'Please explain to us
the karma yoga by which being refined a person in this life quickly
gets rid of his fruitive actions and, freed from karmic reactions,
enjoys the transcendental [see also B.G. 1-6 or 3:
5]. (42) In front of my father [Ikshvâku see
also 9.6: 4] I asked the sages [the Kumâras] a similar question in the past, but the sons of
Brahmâ didn't answer, please, for that reason, speak about it.'
(43) S'rî Âvirhotra replied: 'Karma, akarma
and vikarma are, because they originating from the
Controller not being worldly, are subject matter understood through the
Vedas, something about which even the great scholars are confused [see
also B.G. 4: 16-17 and 4.29: 26-27]. (44) In covert
terms do the Vedas, offering guidance for the childlike human beings to
be freed from their karma, indeed prescribe material activities just as
one prescribes a medicine [see also B.G. 3:
26, see 5.5:
17 , 10.24: 17-18]. (45) The one, who not having subdued his senses,
ignorantly not performs what the Vedas prescribe, will, by his
irreligion defying the duty, achieve death time and again [see also
B.G. 3: 8,
16: 23-24, 17: 5-6, 18: 7].
(46) Certainly will one, when one according to
what the Vedas prescribe without attachment performs and sacrifices for
the sake of the Supreme Controller, achieve the perfection that, to
raise the interest, is put in terms of fruitive results [karma-kânda & B.G. 4:
17-23]. (47) One who swiftly wants to cut through the
knot [of attachment] in the heart should worship Lord Kes'ava and as
well study the divinity as described in the supplementary vedic
literatures [the tantras,
see also B.G. 12: 6-7]. (48) Having
obtained the mercy [the initiation] of the teacher of example who shows
him what is handed down by tradition, should the devotee be of worship
for the Supreme Personality in the particular form he prefers [see also
B.G. 3: 35,
7: 20].
(49) Clean in front of it seated controlling the
breath and so on [see ashthânga-yoga] should he, purifying the body with the in
renunciation invoked protection, worship the Lord [assigning the
different parts of his body to Him by marking them with mantras, see
also B.G. 5: 27-28 and 6.8: 4-6]. (50-51) With
preparing oneself in one's mind and heart with all available
ingredients, with the deity and everything belonging to it, the items
to be offered, and with sprinkling the floor and the place to sit,
should one, preparing the water for the sacrifice, with a concentrated
mind put the deity in its proper place having drawn sacred marks on its
heart and other parts and next be of worship with the appropriate
mantra [4*]. (52-53) With the mantras belonging to Him should one be of worship
for each particular deity and its limbs, His special features [like His
cakra] and His associates [like the pañca-tattva, see the S'is'umâra-mantra or the
Ambaris'a prayers for the cakra mentioned in 5.23:
8 and 9.5]. With all respect complementing the worship
as enjoined with water for its feet, scented water to welcome, fine
clothing, ornaments, fragrances, necklaces, unbroken barleycorns [meant
for applying tilaka] and with garlands, incense, lamps and such
offerings, should one with reverence and prayer bow down to the Lord. (54) Absorbing oneself in that [as a servant and
not falsely identifying oneself] should one thus meditating fully be of
worship for the mûrti of the Lord and, taking the
remnants on one's head, put Him respectfully back where He belongs. (55) He who thus worships the Controller, the
Supreme Soul, present in the fire, the sun, the water and so on, as
also in the guest and in one's own heart [see also 2.2:
8], becomes without delay
liberated indeed.'