8 So Vibhrāja, the lord of his people, installed Anuha as king, took his leave of the townsfolk, got himself blessed by the brahmins, and with great satisfaction went off to the lake where those seven companions lived, to perform austerities. 9 There he also gave up food. Living on air, the great ascetic renounced objects of desire and mortified himself on the lake shore. 10 He had a plan, Bhārata: to become the son of one of the birds, and to perfect himself through yoga. 11 And having made his resolution, the great ascetic Vibhrāja the Radiant, filled with the great fire of his austerities, shone like the sun.
12 It’s because they were lit up (vibhrājita) by him that the forest was called the Vaibhrāja Forest and the lake the Vaibhrāja Lake, best of the Kurus. 13 And that’s where the birds abandoned their bodies, your majesty—the four who’d maintained their yoga, as well as the three who’d fallen away from yoga. 14 Then those noble seven were born in the town of Kāmpilya, as Brahmadatta and the others. All of them were free of faults, but now only four retained their memories, while three did not.
15 Svatantra was born from Anuha as the famous Brahmadatta, in accordance with the resolution he’d already made, when he was a bird. 16 By the same token, Chhidradarshana and Sunetra were born as the sons of learned brahmins in the Bābhravya and Vatsa families. They mastered the Vedas and their auxiliary sciences, 17 and having lived with him in their previous life, they became Brahmadatta’s friends. The fifth one (panchama) was Pānchāla,† and the one after that was Kandarīka. 18 Pānchāla was the invocatory priest and played the role of teacher, and Kandarīka knew the two other Vedas: he was the chanting priest and also the operating priest.*19 Anuha’s son Brahmadatta, who understood the language of every creature, was the king, but he was in partnership with Pānchāla and Kandarīka. 20 These three occupied themselves with vulgar habits and obeyed the whims of desire, but because of what they’d done in their earlier life, they were wise about propriety, pleasure, and profit.
21 Supreme King Anuha installed the faultless Brahmadatta as king, and attained the final state.
22 Brahmadatta’s wife was the daughter of Asita Devala. She was called Sannati—Humility. And Bhārata, when it came to yoga she couldn’t be surpassed. 23 Brahmadatta received Sannati from Devala, and she was a peerless young woman with a straightforward manner, a yoga practitioner whose creed was humility.
24 As for the rest of the brahminy-duck companions, they were born in Kāmpilya as brothers, in a family of learned but very poor brahmins. 25 They were named Dhriti the Resolute, Mahāmanas the Broadminded, Vidvas the Sapient, and Tattvadarshin the Discerner of the Truth. The four of them were accomplished in Vedic recitation, and their discernment never faltered. 26 And they remembered the arrangement that had been made during their previous life.
They were accomplished yoga devotees, and they were ready to depart, all four of them. 27 So they took their leave of their father, my boy.
Their father told them: It’s wrong of you to abandon me and leave. 28 You haven’t alleviated my poverty, and you haven’t looked after me or discharged the numerous duties of sons. So how can you be entitled to leave?
29 All the brahmins replied to their father: We’ll tell you the arrangement, as a result of which you’ll be all right. 30 You must find the faultless King Brahmadatta and recite this crucial verse to him and his ministers. 31 He’ll be pleased, and he’ll give you numerous villages and delights, and everything that you want. Off you go, sir—and don’t worry.
32 After they’d told him the verse, they all paid their respects to their venerable father, resumed their yoga practice, and attained complete salvation.
19. The Special Verse
1 Mārkandeya said:
Brahmadatta’s son was born—Vibhrāja reborn.* Known as Vishvaksena, he was the soul of yoga and keen on asceticism.
2 On one occasion, Brahmadatta was amusing himself to his heart’s content in the forest with his wife, like Indra Shatakratu with Shachī. 3 On that occasion his majesty heard the voice of an amorous ant, who was making quite a racket, courting his lady love. 4 When he heard the tiny lady-ant who was being courted lose her cool, Brahmadatta suddenly laughed a great laugh.
5 At this, Sannati became disconsolate. Ashamed and dejected, she stopped eating, thinner of your foes. 6 When her husband tried to cheer her up, she, whose smile was usually so bright, told him: Since you laughed at me, your majesty, I can’t bear to live.
7 He explained the reason for his laughter, but she didn’t believe it. Furious, she said to him: That’s not true, your majesty. 8 Really! What human being is capable of understanding the speech of an ant—unless it’s by divine favour, of course, or because of something done in a previous life, or as a result of austerities, your majesty, or through magic, your majesty? 9 Convince me in terms I can understand, otherwise I swear to you truly I’ll give up my life, your majesty.
10 When he heard the queen’s harsh words, my lord, the king was very upset, and so he offered his devotion to the supreme god, the refuge, the ruler of all beings: Lord Nārāyana. 11 The famous king concentrated, eating nothing, and after six nights he saw the god Hari Nārāyana in a vision. 12 And the holy one, who has compassion for all beings, said to him: Brahmadatta, you’ll receive your blessing at daybreak.
After saying that, the holy god disappeared there and then.
13 As for that other character, the father of the four noble brahmins: having learned the verse from his sons, he’d gone some way towards achieving his objective. 14 He then sought out the lofty king and his ministers, but he couldn’t yet find an opportunity to tell them the verse.
15 In good spirits after having extracted a blessing from Nārāyana, the king now washed his face, mounted a golden chariot, and made his entrance into the town, 16 and Kandarīka the bull of the brahmins held the reins for him, and the Bābhravya waved the chowry and fan. 17 Then the brahmin realised that this was his opportunity, and he recited the verse to the king and his two companions:
18 We seven were hunters among the Dashārnas, and deer on Mount Kālanjara, and brahminy ducks on a sandy riverbank. But you’ve gone down in the world from there.
19 Brahmadatta fainted when he heard that, blameless Bhārata, and so did his companions Pānchāla and Kandarīka. 20 When they saw those two drop the reins, the whip, and the fan, the townsfolk and their visitors became uneasy. 21 But a moment or so later the king sitting on the chariot recovered his wits and came round, tamer of your foes, and so did the other two. 22 And having remembered the lake and rediscovered their yoga, they presented the brahmin with numerous treasures and delights.
23 Brahmadatta now installed Vishvaksena—the tamer of his foes—as king in his place, and then he went off, with his wife, to the forest. 24 When they’d gone to the forest to do yoga, Devala’s wise daughter Sannati was very happy, and she said to the king:
25 I knew you could understand the ants, your majesty. But because you were fixated upon sensual pleasures, I pretended to be angry in order to provoke you, 26 and as a result, we’ll attain the sought-after final state. It’s thanks to me that you now remember your lost yoga.
27 After hearing what his wife had said, the king was absolutely delighted. He reappropriated his yoga from the very forest in which he’d lost it, and he attained the state that’s so hard to reach.
28 Kandarīka too was the soul of yoga. He reached the yogic state—the supreme sānkhya-yoga—and attained perfection, purified by his own deeds. 29 And the great ascetic Pānchāla, once he’d finished learning the texts word by word and had mastered the entire science of pronunciation, attained supreme renown in the rank of yoga master.
30 On that previous occasion these events were visible to me, just so. Think about them, exalted son of Gangā, and you’ll be crowned with fortune. 31 And other people who think about the amazing career of those seven will never be born from any animal womb whatsoever. 32 This story is of great import, and great people seek it out. Once a person has heard it they always keep
their yoga practice in mind, Bhārata, 33 and in due course they achieve tranquillity as a direct result, and thus arrive at a state of mind that’s hard to attain on earth, even for the perfected saints.
34 Vaishampāyana said:
Wise Mārkandeya sang this story like that on that occasion, illustrating the reward for the ancestral rite. And the reason he did so was in order that the moon should continue to wax.*35 For Soma the moon is a glorious god, the supreme nourishment of the world. Hear his lineage from me now, in connection with the lineage of the Vrishnis.
The Lunar Lineage
20. The Birth of Soma
1 Vaishampāyana said:
Soma’s father was born, your majesty: Lord Atri the seer. Atri stood there, held in check by various kinds of self-discipline. In his thoughts, words, and deeds, he concerned himself only with the good of all. 2 He was peaceable towards all beings, dutiful to the core, and firm in his resolve. He stood there like a piece of wood, a wall, or a crag, his arms raised, his splendour immense. 3 We’ve heard that long ago, for three thousand years of the gods, he engaged in austerities such as have never yet been surpassed.
4 Then, Bhārata, as that great awakened one stood there, celibate and unblinking, his body took on a lunar character. 5 The holy man’s lunar character rose upwards. Liquid flowed from his eyes, and lit up the ten directions.
6 The ten direction goddesses saw it, and they conceived a tenfold child. They came together and carried it, but they couldn’t manage it, 7 and all of a sudden the radiant child fell from all directions, brightening up the worlds with its cool rays, beneficial to all. 8 When the directions were unable to retain the child it immediately tumbled towards the jewel-bearing earth, and they did too.
9 Brahmā, the worlds’ Grandfather, saw that Soma had fallen, and wanting what was best for the worlds, he mounted him on a chariot. 10 It was built of the Veda, my boy. It was the soul of duty, true to its promise, and we’ve heard that it was harnessed to a thousand white horses.
11 When that lofty character, Atri’s son, had fallen, the celestials sang his praises—the seven famous mind-born sons of Brahmā, 12 together with the sons of Angiras and Bhrigu, and the verses, chants, and formulae, and the spells as well. 13 And as he was praised, the brilliance of that shining Soma gave refreshment to all parts, nourishing the three worlds.
14 In surpassing splendour on his superb chariot, he did twenty-one circuits around the ocean-edged earth. 15 The light that he shed fell upon the broad earth, and the herbs grow and gleam in it. 16 They have to sustain the world and the four kinds of creature.* Lord Soma is surely the nurturer of the world, lord of the world.
17 The glorious one obtained his lustre through the praises that were sung for him, and also through his own deeds. He performed austerities for a trillion years, your eminence. 18 That god was acclaimed for what he’d done, and he became the treasure of the golden goddesses,* who sustain the world with their bodies. 19 Brahmā, the supreme knower of the Veda, gave him sovereignty over seeds, plants, brahmins, and waters, Janamejaya.†20 Installed as sovereign over the kings, that glorious king of kings, supreme among the splendid, nourished the three worlds with his own splendour. 21 And Daksha Prāchetasa gave the moon twenty-seven of his disciplined daughters, who are known as the lunar mansions.
22 After obtaining that great empire, Soma, supreme among those who partake of soma, performed a rājasūya ritual, with gifts in the hundreds and thousands. 23 Its invocatory priest was Lord Atri, its operating priest was Lord Bhrigu, its chanting priest was Hiranyagarbha, Brahmā played the role of supervising priest, 24 and the holy master Hari Nārāyana was a superintending priest at that rite, surrounded by the main brahmin seers led by Sanatkumāra. 25 Soma gave the ritual gift to the eminent brahmin seers and the superintending priests, Bhārata, and we’ve heard that that gift was the three worlds. 26 Nine goddesses were in attendance: the new-moon goddesses Sinīvālī and Kuhū, as well as Dyuti, Pushti, Prabhā, Vasu, Kīrti, Dhriti, and Lakshmī—Splendour, Prosperity, Radiance, Wealth, Fame, Resolve, and Fortune. 27 After taking the purifying bath, the cool king of kings was honoured by all the gods and seers, and then he shone and shone, refreshing the ten directions.
28 His sovereignty had been hard-won, and the sages respected it. But once he’d obtained it his judgement wavered, my boy, taken away from its former discipline by lack of vigilance. 29 He showed disrespect to all of Angiras’s sons, and soon he went so far as to steal Brihaspati’s wife, a magnificent woman by the name of Tārakā.‡30 He wouldn’t give Tārakā back to the son of Angiras, even when he was petitioned by all the gods and the divine seers.
31–32 Then Ushanas attacked Brihaspati the son of Angiras from behind.§ The holy god Rudra, who was formerly a brilliant student of Brihaspati’s father, grabbed his Ājagava bow and became Brihaspati’s rearguard, because of his affection for him.
33 Illustrious Ushanas took aim at the gods and launched a supreme missile by the name of the Brahmashiras, destroying their glory. 34 So then there was the famous war over Tārakā, which involved great loss of life for the gods and for the Dānavas. 35 But then, Bhārata, the remaining gods and Tushitas sought refuge with Grandfather Brahmā, the first god, 36 and the Grandfather restrained Ushanas and Rudra Shankara all by himself, and gave Tārakā back to Angiras’s son.
37 Brihaspati the seer noticed that she was pregnant, and he said to her: Under no circumstances is your child to be raised in my home.
38 So, once it was out of the womb, she set it down in a clump of reeds and abandoned it. It was a boy, and he was like a blazing fire: the supreme destroyer of brigands.
39 Though he’d only just been born, the glorious boy eclipsed the beauty of the gods. So the gods became anxious, and they said to Tārakā: 40 Tell the truth. Whose son is he? Soma’s, or Brihaspati’s?
While the gods were questioning her, she spoke neither the truth nor a lie. Then the boy—the supreme destroyer of brigands—started to curse her. 41 So Brahmā stopped him, and asked Tārakā about the matter himself. Brahmā said: Whatever the truth is here, you must reveal it. So, Tārakā, whose son is this?
42–43 She put her palms together in respect, and to Brahmā the wish-granting master she said: Soma’s.
So Soma, the placer and patriarch, kissed that noble boy, the supreme destroyer of brigands, on the head, and he gave his wise son the name Budha the Wise. And Budha rises opposite him in the sky.*
44 Then, of course, a princess had a son sired by Budha. He became the great King Purūravas, son of Ilā,† and that august king had seven sons by Urvashī. 45 Soma was completely helpless in that business. He was overpowered by royal consumption. So, humbled by consumption, his powers on the wane, he sought help from his father Atri. 46 Glorious Atri managed to ease his misfortune, and when he’d been freed from royal consumption he shone fully, with splendour.‡
47 This chapter is called the Birth of Soma. It was celebrated for you, and it’ll enhance your celebrity. So listen now, your majesty, as his lineage is celebrated. 48 The Birth of Soma bestows wealth, health, long life, good fortune, and the achievement of ambitions. Merely by hearing it, a person is freed from all ills.
21. Indra’s Expulsion and Restoration
1 Vaishampāyana said:
Your majesty. Budha’s son Purūravas was wise, splendid, and habitually charitable. He was a ritual patron who gave generously to the priests. 2 He was a teacher of the Veda. He was enterprising, and his enemies found it difficult to conquer him in battle. He made offerings into the fire, and the sky made offerings onto the broad earth. 3 He was truthful in speech and pure in thought, he was desirable, but discreet in his sex life, and nowhere in the three worlds was there ever anyone with a reputation to match his.
4 Urvashī was a lady of legend,* but she put her pride aside and chose that man, for he was patient, knew his duty, spoke the truth, and recited the Veda. 5 The king lived with her for ten years, and then five, and then five and six and seven, and then eight and
ten and eight, Bhārata— 6 in Kubera’s delightful pleasure-grove, on the bank of the Celestial Gangā, in Alakā, in Vishālā, in Indra’s superb pleasure-grove, 7 among the Northern Kurus where the trees bear whatever fruit one desires, in the foothills of Mount Gandhamādana, and on the highest peak of Mount Meru, respectively. 8 In those supreme glades frequented by the gods, the king enjoyed himself with Urvashī in transports of delight. 9 And he also built a kingdom at Prayāga, which the great seers praise as the holiest place, and ruled the earth.
10 He had six mighty sons, whose majesty matched Indra’s. Sons of Urvashī, they were born in heaven: Āyus, Dhīmat, Amāvasu, Dridhāyus, Vanāyus, and Shatāyus. 11 And Āyus had five sons, all of them famous across the three worlds as great warrior-heroes: Nahusha was born first, and then came Vriddhasharman, Dambha, Raji, and Anenas.
12 Raji had five hundred sons: a body of warriors, named after him. And they struck fear into Indra.
13 When the terrible war between the gods and the demons began, both the gods and the demons said to the Grandfather: 14 Which of our two sides will win the war, your holiness? Tell us, lord of all creatures. We’d like to hear a prediction.
15 Brahmā said:
Those in whose cause the mighty Raji has taken up arms and fought will win the three worlds in battle, no doubt about it. 16 Where there’s Raji there’s fortitude, where there’s fortitude there’s fortune, and where there’s both fortitude and fortune, there’s virtue and victory too.
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