Chapter
5: Nârada
Concludes His Teachings to Vasudeva
(1)
The
honorable king [Nimi] said: 'O you perfect in the
knowledge of the soul, what is the destination of those who, as
good as never worshiping the Supreme Personality of Hari
[see also 11.3:
*4], with their
lusts not at peace are out of control with themselves?'
(2)
S'rî
Camasa said: 'From the face, arms, thighs and feet of the
Original Person were by the modes of nature [in different
combinations *]
the four spiritual orders [or âs'ramas]
and vocations [or varnas] headed by the brahmins
generated [see also B.G. 4:
13].
(3)
Any member of them who, not of worship, has a low opinion of
the Original Person who is the very best of their soul and the
Supreme Controller, will, having strayed from his position,
fall down [see B.G. 16:
23].
(4)
There are many people who are far removed from the talks about
the Destroyer [of the sin; the Lord] and never think of
the glories of the Infallible One; they, falling in the
category of the women [compare 5.17:
15] and
s'ûdras and such, are the ones deserving the mercy
of personalities like you. (5)
Even then do also the intellectuals, the nobles and the
traders, who [by initiation] got access to the Lord His
lotus feet, get bewildered in being committed to [all kinds
of] philosophies [see also 5.6:
11, B.G.
2:
42-43].
(6)
Ignorant about the matters of karma do they who factually lack
in experience but arrogantly consider themselves very learned,
enchanted by the beauty of language express themselves in
flattering entreaties [to the demigods] by which they
get bewildered [see also B.G. 9:
3].
(7)
Full of passion and perverted in their desires are they angry
like snakes, deceitful and conceited and do they sinfully make
fun of those dear to Acyuta. (8)
As worshipers of women they speak amongst each other in their
homes encouraging and worshiping sex as the very best thing;
without any regard for the distribution of food and gifts in
gratitude [to the spiritual leaders and their
following], think they of their own livelihood only and
kill they, oblivious to the consequences, the animals [see
also B.G. 16].
(9)
With their intelligence blinded by the pride based on their
opulence, special abilities, lineage, education, renunciation,
beauty, strength and performance of rituals, do they
hard-hearted deride the saintly dear to the Lord, nor do they
respect the Controller Himself [see also e.g.
1.8:
26, 4.2:
24, 4.31:
21, 5.1:
12, 7.15:
19, 8.22:
26 and also B.G.
2:
42-43].
(10)
The Soul of the most worshipable Controller who alike the ether
is eternally situated in all embodied beings, is the Ultimate
Controller glorified by the Vedas, but the unintelligent don't
take heed; they rather go on discussing the topics of their
whimsical pleasures. (11)
The indulgence in sex and the consumption of meat and alcohol
one always finds in the conditioned living being and are verily
by no command of scripture endorsed; what in regard of these is
prescribed for [respectively] the marriage, the
sacrifice and the ritual use of wine, is there to the end of
their cessation [see also 1.17:
38-39].
(12)
The only wealth that matters is to reap the fruit of one's
dharma [the righteousness with nature, the religiosity]
from which there is the knowledge combined with the wisdom and
the subsequent liberation. But from ones family life has one no
eye for the insurmountable power of death over one's body
[see also 3.30:
7, 7.6:
8, 4.29:
52-55 but also
4.22:
10].
(13)
It is enjoined that wine should be taken by smelling it and
that likewise an animal should be killed as prescribed and not
in wanton violence [with large-scale animal slaughter];
the same way is sexual intercourse there for conquering
[the urges of procreation, like with defecating] and
not so much for the sensual pleasure
[B.G.
7: 11];
for this purest notion of one's proper duty, do they [the
unintelligent] have no understanding [see also
7.15].
(14)
Those who have no knowledge of these facts and very unholy
presumptuously consider themselves saintly, do harm to
innocently trusting animals; upon leaving their bodies will
those animals eat them [compare 5.26:
11-13 and
4.25:
7-8].
(15)
Envying their own True Self, their Lord and Controller living
[in their own body and] in the bodies of others, do
they, who in their affection are fixed on their own mortal
frame and all its relations, fall down. (16)
Those who
[thus] have not achieved the
emancipation [of
moksha] but did transcend the gross foolishness, are
dedicated to the three goals of pious living [the ritual,
an income and regulated desires], but are, not for a moment
being of reflection [working too hard], factually
[on the way of] killing themselves [see also the
purushârthas,
10.2:
32].
(17)
These murderers of their own self who miss the peace, in their
ignorance think to know but do, failing to perform their duty,
suffer the destruction of all their hopes and dreams by time.
(18)
Those who turned their face away from Vâsudeva enter, as
is arranged by the illusory energy of the Supreme Soul,
unwillingly the darkness leaving behind their homes, children,
friends and wives.'
(19)
The
honorable king said: 'In what time did the Supreme Lord have
what color and what form and by what names and what processes
is He worshiped; please speak about it in our presence.'
(20)
S'rî
Karabhâjana replied: 'In these [yugas]
named Krita [or Satya], Tretâ, Dvâpara and
Kali is the Lord, having different complexions [see also
10.26:
16], names and
forms, similarly by various processes worshiped.
(21)
In Satya-yuga is He white, has He four arms, matted locks, a
tree bark garment, a black deerskin, a sacred thread,
aksha-seed prayer beads and carries He a rod and a waterpot.
(22)
The human beings then are peaceful, free from envy, kind to
all, equipoised and as well of austerity as of mind and sense
control in their worship of the Lord. (23)
Thus is He variously celebrated as Hamsa ['the Swan'],
Suparna ['Beautiful Wings'], Vaikunthha ['the Lord
of the Kingdom of Heaven'], Dharma ['the Maintainer of
the Religion'], Yoges'vara ['the Controller of the
Yoga'], Amala ['the Immaculate One'], Îs'vara
['the Supreme Controller'], Purusha ['the Original
Person'], Avyakta ['the One Unmanifest'] and
Paramâtmâ ['the Supersoul'].
(24)
In Tretâ-yuga has He a red complexion, four arms, wears
He three belts [according the initiations for the first
three varnas], has He golden locks and has He, as
the personification of the three Vedas, the sacrificial laddles
[**]
and such as His symbols. (25)
In that time do the human beings who as seekers of the Absolute
Truth are fixed in their religiosity, worship Him, Hari, the
Godhead within all the Gods, with the rituals of sacrifice of
the three Vedas [see also 1.16:
20].
(26)
In Tretâ-yuga the Lord is glorified by the names of
Vishnu ['the All-pervading One'], Yajña
['the Lord of Sacrifice'], Pris'nigarbha [the son
of Pris'ni, 10.3:
32], Sarvadeva
['God of All Gods'], Urukrama ['He of
Transcendental Feats'], Vrishâkapi [the Memorable
One Rewarding who Dispels the Distress'], Jayanta ['the
All-victorious'] and Urugâya ['the Most
Glorified']. (27)
In Dvâpara-yuga is the Supreme Lord gray blue, wears He
yellow garments and carries He His implements [the disc,
club, lotus and conch] together with the bodily marks of
the S'rîvatsa and so on and His ornaments [like the
peacock feather and the Kaustubha gem]. (28)
In that age, o King, do the mortals who want to gain knowledge
of the Supreme worship Him, the Original Personality playing
the role of a great king, according the Vedas and Tantras
[like e.g. in 1.10:
16-18 and
10.4:
17-24 and
***]
with: (29-30)
'Our obeisances to Sankarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and You,
Vâsudeva; You Nârâyana Rishi, the Original
One and Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Greater Soul, the
Controller of the Creation, the Very Form of the Universe and
the True Self of all Living Beings [see catur-vyûha].'
(31)
O King, thus they praise in Dvâpara-yuga the Lord of the
Universe; please hear in which manner one in respect of the
scriptural regulations also is of worship in Kali-yuga [see
also 7.9:
38].
(32)
The intelligent [then] do worship [Him who]
with a bright [not-dark or golden] luster along with
[His] associates, servitors, weapons and attendants, by
the sacrifice of mainly congregational chanting [is]
praising [speaks, spreads or is colored by] Krishna
with:
(33)
'O
Supreme Personality let me praise Your lotus feet. I always
meditate upon them for they put an end to the humiliation we
suffer as a consequence of the material influence. They, amply
rewarding the true desire of the soul, are the abode and the
place of pilgrimage to which S'iva and Brahmâ bow down.
They, relieving the distress of Your servants, are the most
worthy shelter, they are the boat for the ocean of birth and
death. (34)
O Supreme Personality let me pay homage to the lotus feet of
You who upon the words of a brahmin [like Akrûra,
S'rî Advaita
or John the Babtist], as the Most Religious One abandoning
the so hard to forsake opulence of S'rî that is so
anxiously desired by the godly, being of mercy for the ones who
are caught in animal nature, [as Râma, Krishna, the
Buddha, as Jesus, as Caitanya etc.] went to the distant
land [India, the wilderness, the forest, the desert, into
sannyâsa] in pursuance of the object of Your
desire [Your mission, Your dharma, Your presence as the
Lord of the devotees, 4*].'
(35)
O King, thus is the Supreme Lord Hari, the Controller of All
Felicity, with His names and forms as belonging to each
yuga worshiped by the people of that age.
(36)
The faithful ones [of spiritual progress] knowing of
the value of the age of Kali praise it by pointing out that
it's essence implies that by [mere] congregational
chanting [sankîrtana] as good as all one's
goals can be attained. (37)
Indeed, for the embodied wandering around in this universe,
there is no greater gain than this
[sankîrtana] from which one obtains the
Supreme Peace and of which the cycle of birth and death is
broken [see also 2.1:
11, 3.33:
7, 8.23:
16 and
8.23*].
(38-40)
The inhabitants of Satya- and the other yugas, o King,
want to take birth in Kali-yuga because one in that time o
great monarch, in various places finds the devotees who are
dedicated to Nârâyana. Especially finds one them in
great numbers in the provinces of South India. The human beings
there who drink from the water of the rivers the
Tâmraparnî, the Kritamâlâ, the
Payasvinî, the extremely pious Kâverî, the
Mahânadî and the Pratîcî, o lord of
men, are mostly pure-hearted devotees of the Supreme Lord
Vâsudeva. (41)
O King, a person who, giving up on the material duties, in full
surrender approached the shelter of Mukunda, the One Affording
Shelter, is not the servant nor the debtor of the gods, the
sages, the ordinary living beings, of friends and relatives or
of the forefathers [see also B.G. 3:
9].
(42)
From the one who fixed at His feet is engaged in worship and
thus is dear to Lord Hari, the Supreme Controller who entered
the heart the moment one gave up on other engagements, are
whatever irregularities that somehow occurred all removed
[see 8.23:
16 and B.G.
9:
22, 9:
30, 18:
56].'
(43)
S'rî
Nârada said: 'After he thus had heard about the science
of devotional service felt the master of Mithilâ
satisfied indeed and offered he next together with the priests
the sagacious sons of Jayantî [the Yogendras
5.4:
8] worship.
(44)
Next, with all present watching, disappeared the ones of
perfection. The king, faithfully following this dharma,
achieved the supreme destination. (45)
You [Vasudeva], o most fortunate soul, will also,
endowed with faith in these principles of devotional service
that you heard of, after having abandoned all material
concerns, go to the Supreme. (46)
The earth was fulfilled indeed by the glories of the two of you
being husband and wife, because the Supreme Lord, the
Controller Hari assumed the position of your son.
(47)
When you for Krishna proved your love of seeing, embracing and
conversing, taking rest, sitting and eating with Him as a son,
have the hearts of the two of you become purified.
(48)
Kings like S'is'upâla,
Paundraka
and S'âlva
who in competition enviously related to His movements, glances
and so on, and thus meditating fixed their minds upon Him as
they layed down, sat etc., have achieved a position at the same
level; what then may one expect from those who were favorably
minded [see mukti
and also Jaya
& Vijaya]?
(49)
Do not deign to impose upon Krishna, the Supreme Soul and
Controller of All, the idea that He would be your son; by the
power of His illusory potency He appeared as a normal human
being in concealing His opulence as the Supreme One Infallible
[see also B.G. 4:
6].
(50)
Of Him who descended in order to kill the asura members
of the noble class who burdened the earth and to award [the
devotees] liberation, has the fame spread wide in the world
[see also B.G. 4:
7].'
(51)
S'rî
S'uka said: 'Having heard this were the greatly fortunate
Vasudeva and Devakî most amazed and gave they up the
folly they had cherished. (52)
He who one-pointed of attention meditates upon this pious,
historical account, will in this very life cleanse away the
contamination and achieve spiritual
perfection.'