The Mahabharata

by Bibek Debroy

  Chapter 1633(305)

  ‘“Yajnavalkya said, ‘O king! Now listen attentively to the places that they go to. If it902 emerges through the feet, the person is said to go to Vishnu’s region. If it emerges through the calves, we have heard that he obtains the gods known as the Vasus. If it emerges through the knees, he obtains the immensely fortunate gods known as the Sadhyas. If it emerges through the anus, he obtains Mitra’s region. If it emerges through the loins, it is the earth’s region.903 If it is through the thighs, it is Prajapati’s. Through the flanks, it is the gods Maruts. Through the nose, it is the region of the moon. Through the arms, it is Indra’s. Through the chest, it is Rudra’s. Through the neck, he obtains the supreme region of the best of rishis, Nara. Through the mouth, he obtains the Vishvadevas and through the ears, the directions. Through the nose, he obtains the wind god and through the eyes, Surya. Through the brows, it is the region of the gods, the Ashvins. Through the forehead, it is the ancestors. Through the crown of the head, it is the region of the lord Brahma, the foremost among the gods. O lord of Mithila! I have thus told you about the different places that can be obtained through emerging. I will now tell you about the signs described by learned ones, signifying that an embodied being only has one year of lifespan left. If a person fails to see Arundhati, although he has seen it earlier, or if it is the same with Dhruva, or if the moon appears like a lamp, with the radiance broken towards the south, it is said that he only has one year of lifespan left.904 O lord of the earth! Those who can no longer see their own selves reflected in the eyes of others only have one year of lifespan left. If a person has been extremely radiant, but loses that radiance, or if a person has been extremely wise, but loses that wisdom, or if there are changes in his inner or outer nature, those are signs that he will die within six months. If a person disrespects the gods, if he acts against brahmanas, if his dark complexion turns pale—those are signs that he will die within six months. If the lunar disc is seen to have holes, like a spider’s web, or if this is the case with the one with one thousand rays905—such a person will confront death within seven nights. If the fragrant scents in temples of the gods appear to a man to be like the putrid scent from corpses, he will confront death within six nights. A depression in the ears or the nose, a discolouring of the teeth or the eye, the loss of consciousness and the loss of heat from the body—these are the signs of imminent death. O lord of men! If there is a sudden flow of tears from the left eye, or if vapour rises from the crown of the head—these are the signs of imminent death. Knowing these signs, a man with a cleansed atman should spend day and night in uniting the atman with the paramatman. That is the way he should spend his time, until the time for setting arrives. Even if he doesn’t wish to die, he should establish himself in all the rites. He should control himself and discard all fragrances and tastes. By fixing his atman on the supreme, he can conquer death. O bull among men! He knows the practice of those who follow sankhya. By using yoga to fix his atman on the supreme, he can conquer death. He goes to the place that is completely indestructible, without birth and death. It is auspicious and without decay. It is the eternal and immutable region, difficult for those with unclean souls to obtain.’”’

  Chapter 1634(306)

  ‘“Yajnavalkya said, ‘O lord of men! You asked me about the supreme, established in the unmanifest. This question is about a great secret. O king! Listen attentively. O lord of Mithila! Having conducted myself in accordance with the precepts of the rishis, I obtained the yajus from Aditya.906 I gratified the god of heat through great austerities. O unblemished one! Pleased with me, the lord Surya said, “O brahmana rishi! Ask for the boon you desire, even if it is very difficult to obtain. I am pleased and will give it to you. It is extremely difficult to obtain my favours.” I bowed my head down before that supreme of heat-givers and said, “I do not know the yajus. I wish to know them quickly.” The illustrious one replied, “O brahmana! I will give it to you. Sarasvati, speech personified, will enter your body.” The illustrious one then asked me to open my mouth. When I opened my mouth, Sarasvati entered through the mouth. O unblemished one! When she entered, I began to burn and plunged into the water. Not understanding what the great-souled Bhaskara907 intended, I became angry. However, while I was burning, the illustrious Ravi told me, “Tolerate this burning for an instant. You will be cooled down.” When he saw that I had cooled down, the illustrious Bhaskara said, “O brahmana! All the Vedas and Vedanta will be established in you. O bull among brahmanas! You will compile all the Shatapathas.908 When that has been done, your intelligence will turn towards the question of rebirth. You will obtain the objective desired by those who practise sankhya and yoga.” Having said this, the illustrious one disappeared. On hearing these words and on seeing that the god Vibhavasu had departed, I happily returned home and thought of Sarasvati. The auspicious goddess Sarasvati instantly appeared. She was adorned with the vowels and the consonants and she gave me the syllable “Om”. As is prescribed, I offered Sarasvati an arghya and another to the best of heat-givers,909 the refuge of the distressed. To my great delight, all the Shatapathas, with their mysteries, compilations and appendices, appeared before me. I taught them to one hundred supreme disciples and caused displeasure to my maternal uncle and his disciples.910 O great king! With my disciples, like the sun with its rays, I was engaged in performing a sacrifice for your great-souled father. There was a dispute about who should get the dakshina. In Devala’s presence, I took half of the dakshina and gave the other half to my maternal uncle. Sumantu, Paila, Jaimini, your father and the other sages agreed to this. O unblemished one! I thus obtained fifty yajus. I then studied the Puranas from Lomaharshana.911

  ‘“‘O lord of men! Placing the original mantra912 and the goddess Sarasvati at the forefront, and with the resolution obtained from Surya, I comprehended and compiled the Shatapatha, not done by anyone earlier. I thus accomplished the path I wished to follow. I instructed that entire and complete compilation to my disciples. All those disciples were purified and became supremely delighted. The knowledge instructed by Bhaskara had fifty branches913 and I established it. As I desired, I then began to think about knowledge. O king! The gandharva Vishvavasu was accomplished in the knowledge of Vedanta. While I was contemplating, he came there and asked me, “What is the immortal brahman? What is supreme knowledge?” O lord of the earth! He thus asked me twenty-four questions about knowledge. He then asked me a twenty-fifth question about metaphysics. What is the universe? What is the negation of the universe? What is Ashva and what is the negation of Ashva?914 What is Mitra? What is Varuna? What is knowledge? What is the object of knowledge? Who is ignorant? Who is not ignorant? Who possesses heat? Who is without heat? Who devours Surya? Who is Surya? What is knowledge? What is ignorance? O king! What exists? What does not exist? What is mobile? What is immobile? What has no beginning? What is without destruction? What can be destroyed? O king! These were the excellent questions that the supreme king of the gandharvas asked me. One after another, he asked me these questions, which were full of meaning. I told him to wait for an instant, while I thought about it. When I had restrained him in this way, the gandharva was silent and remained there. In my mind, I thought again about the goddess Sarasvati and the answers to the questions arose, like clarified butter from curds. O lord of the earth! O son! I churned the Upanishads and their annexures in my mind and saw the supreme objective of metaphysics. O tiger among kings! This is the fourth kind of knowledge, concerning the next world.915 I have already spoken to you about this, which is based on the twenty-fifth. O king! I spoke about it to King Vishvavasu then. I told him, “O illustrious one! I have heard the questions that you asked me. O gandharva! You asked me, ‘What is the universe and what is the negation of the universe?’ Know that the supreme and unmanifest one916 is the universe. She has the terrible aspects of creation and destruction. She possesses the three qualities917 and invests everything with these. The one without these is said to be the negation of the universe.918 In t
hat way, Ashva and the negation of Ashva are said to be the couple.919 The unmanifest is said to be prakriti and the one without qualities is purusha. Mitra is purusha and Varuna is prakriti. Knowledge is said to be prakriti and the object of knowledge is purusha. The ignorant and the not ignorant are said to be purusha, since both are without qualities. The one with heat is prakriti and the one without heat is said to be purusha. In that way, ignorance is the unmanifest one920 and knowledge is said to be purusha. You asked me about the mobile and the immobile. Listen to me. Prakriti is said to be mobile. It undertakes transformations and is the reason behind creation and destruction. The immobile one, who has lordship, but does not undertake transformations for creation and destruction, is said to be purusha. Those who have determined the nature of adhyatma speak of both of them as without beginning, without sentiments, without offspring, without destruction, without decay, without creation and eternal.921 Though it922 leads to creation, it is said to be without decay, without beginning and without change. Purusha is said to be without destruction. There is no decay in it. The learned say that the qualities created by prakriti are destructible, but not she herself. This is the fourth knowledge of metaphysics, that concerning the next world. O Vishvavasu! It has been said that one’s duty is to obtain riches through knowledge and always perform the ordained tasks, studying all the Vedas attentively. O supreme among gandharvas! This923 is not dislodged. Everything is born from it and merges into it after death. Those who do not understand this purport of the Vedas know nothing. Even if they study the five Vedas,924 with the Vedangas and the subsequent branches, they do not understand the knowledge of the Vedas. The Vedas are like a burden to such a person. O supreme among gandharvas! This is like a person who desires clarified butter by churning the milk of a she-ass. He only sees the excrement there. There is no cream from the milk, nor any clarified butter. In that way, despite studying the Vedas, one does not obtain the knowledge in the Vedas. Such a person is said to be foolish in his intelligence and only bears a burden. In one’s atman, one must always single-mindedly think about the supreme objective, so that one does not have to repeatedly go through birth and death. One must abandon what is indestructible in this world and resort to the dharma of the indestructible. O Kashyapa!925 Day and night, if one only contemplates the absolute, then one sees oneself as devoid of qualities, united with the absolute. Those virtuous ones see the two as one.926 They get to know the undecaying nature of the twenty-fifth. Desiring the supreme, those practitioners of sankhya are beyond birth, death, fear and enterprise.”

  ‘“Vishvavasu replied, ‘O supreme among brahmanas! O illustrious one! You have spoken about the twenty-fifth. But this is not easy to comprehend and you should explain it. I have heard about this earlier from Jaigishavya, Asita, Devala, the brahmana rishi Parashara, the intelligent Varshaganya, Bhikshu, Panchashikha, Kapila, Shuka, Goutama, Arshtishena, the great-souled Garga, Narada, Asuri, the intelligent Pulastya, Sanatkumara, the great-souled Shukra and my father, Kashyapa. Later, I heard about this from Rudra and the intelligent Vishvarupa, and also the gods, the ancestors and the daityas. I have obtained the knowledge that they always speak about. O brahmana! However, using my intelligence, I wish to hear about this from you. O illustrious one! You are foremost among those who know the sacred texts. You are eloquent and extremely intelligent. There is nothing that is not known to you. O brahmana! In the world of the gods and in the world of the ancestors, you are said to be an ocean of learning. The great rishis who dwell in Brahma’s abode say that Aditya, the eternal lord of all those who give heat, taught you about this. O brahmana! O Yajnavalkya! You have obtained the entire knowledge of sankhya and in particular, the knowledge of yoga. There is no doubt that you are learned and know about the mobile and the immobile. I wish to hear about that knowledge, which is like clarified butter inside cream.’

  ‘“Yajnvalkya said, ‘O supreme among gandharvas! I think that you are capable of bearing all of it. O king! You have asked me. Listen to what I have learned. Prakriti cannot be comprehended, but can be realized by the twenty-fifth.927 O gandharva! But the twenty-fifth cannot be comprehended by prakriti. Because it cannot be realized in this way, those who know the truth about sankhya and yoga and about the instructions of the sacred texts refer to it as Pradhana.928 But though it cannot be seen, it can see itself. It can see the twenty-fourth, the twenty-fifth and the twenty-sixth.929 Even when it does not see,930 it is capable of seeing. The twenty-fifth thinks that there is nothing superior to itself. The twenty-fourth is incapable of being grasped by those who do not possess the sight of knowledge. The fish dwells in water. But though they are together, they are distinct. Like the fish, those who are learned know that it is different.931 There is always consciousness from the attachment that results from dwelling together. However, those who do not understand the unity932 are submerged in time. Enveloped by a sense of ego, they are submerged in time. A person who thinks that he is no different from the other one is a true brahmana. He becomes one with the absolute and sees the twenty-sixth. O king! The other one and the twenty-fifth are perceived to be different. But those who see them as one are virtuous. They do not find delight in the indestructible twenty-fifth alone. O Kashyapa! Those practitioners of sankhya and yoga are terrified because of their fear of birth and death. They are devoted to purity and see the twenty-sixth. They are learned in every way and do not enjoy rebirth. O unblemished one! I have thus told you about what is to be known. Following the indications of the sacred texts, I have told you about true knowledge. O Kashyapa! I have told you about what is seen and what is not seen, about seeing what is indestructible, about what is absolute and what is not absolute and about what is superior to the twenty-fifth.’

  ‘“Vishvavasu replied, ‘O lord! You have spoken auspicious words to me and told me properly about what is indestructible and is the origin of divinity. May you always be fortunate and without decay. I bow down before you. May you always be vested with intelligence.’

  ‘“Yajnavalkya said,933 ‘Having said this, he left for heaven, radiant in his handsome appearance. Having been satisfied, the great-souled one circumambulated me first and I was exceedingly pleased with him. O Indra among men! He passed on the knowledge that he obtained from me to those who live in Brahma’s world and those who dwell in the sky and on earth and they appropriately chose the path that leads to the indestructible. Those who follow sankhya are devoted to the dharma of sankhya. Those who follow yoga are devoted to the dharma of yoga. There are other men who desire emancipation. To all those who desire insight, this brings knowledge. Among men, emancipation results from knowledge. O Indra among men! It is said that it cannot be obtained through ignorance. Therefore, one must search for the truth about knowledge, so that one can free oneself from birth and death. With faith and devotion, one must always obtain knowledge from a brahmana, a kshatriya, a vaishya or even a shudra who is of low birth. A person who has faith is not assailed by birth and death. Since they are born from Brahma, all the varnas are brahmanas. All of them always speak about Brahma. I have spoken to you the truth about the sacred texts and about knowledge of Brahma. The entire universe is completely pervaded by Brahma. Brahmanas were generated from Brahma’s mouth. Kshatriyas were generated from his arms. Vaishyas were generated from his navel and shudras from his feet. All the varnas should not be thought of in any other way. O king! It is because of ignorance that one suffers from birth and deeds and the pangs of existence. Devoid of knowledge, all the varnas fall down in this way. They are immersed in terrible ignorance and enveloped in prakriti’s net of birth. Therefore, one must seek every means to stick to the path of knowledge. I have spoken to you about this. A person who is established in the supreme brahman is always said to obtain emancipation and is an Indra among brahmanas. I have instructed you about what you had asked me. I have told you the truth. Be bereft of grief. O king! Cross over to the other side. You have spoken properly. May you always be fortunate.’”