The Bhagavata Purana 1

by Bibek Debroy

  Chapter 1(8)

  Suta said, ‘They then desired to offer water to their dead relatives. With Krishna 158 and placing the women at the forefront, they went to the Ganga. Having offered water, all of them grievously lamented again. They bathed in the waters, sanctified by the dust of Hari’s lotus feet. The lord of the Kurus 159 was seated there, along with his younger brothers, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, grieving because of her sons, Pritha 160 and Krishna. 161 Along with the sages, Madhava comforted the ones who were sorrowing because their relatives had been killed. He showed them the reaction that the progress of time has on living beings. Ajatashatru 162 had got his own kingdom back, which had been taken away from him by the deceitful ones. The wicked ones had been killed. Those who had dared to touch the queen’s hair had diminished their own lifespans. 163 Three excellent and well-prepared horse sacrifices had been performed. 164 His fame and purity had spread in all directions, like that of the one who performed one hundred. 165 He 166 took his leave from the sons of Pandu, accompanied by Shini’s son 167 and Uddhava. He was worshipped by Dvaipayana and the other brahmanas and worshipped them back in return. O brahmana! 168 Having made up his mind to go to Dvaraka, he ascended his chariot. However, he saw Uttara 169 rushing towards him, overwhelmed by fear. Uttara said, “Save me. O great yogi! Save me. O god of the gods! O lord of the universe! When people cause each other’s deaths, I do not see anyone other than you who can grant freedom from fear. My lord! O lord! A hot iron arrow is rushing towards me. O protector! If you so desire, let it burn me down. But let it not bring down my embryo.” 170 The illustrious one, devoted to his devotees, heard her words patiently. He understood that Drona’s son had released the weapon to destroy the last of the Pandavas. O best among sages! 171 On seeing that five arrows were headed in their respective directions, the Pandavas picked up their own weapons. Their souls were on him and on no one else. On seeing that a catastrophe was about to descend on them, the lord wished to protect his own and picked up his sudarshana weapon. 172 Hari, the lord of yoga, is inside the atmans of all living creatures. For the sake of the descendants of the Kuru lineage, he used his maya to cover the embryo of Virata’s daughter. 173 O descendant of the Bhrigu lineage! The brahmashira weapon is invincible and cannot be countered. However, when it faced the Vaishnava energy, it was pacified. Do not think that this is especially wonderful. Achyuta is wonderful in every possible way. He has not been born. Yet, he creates, preserves and destroys everything through his divine maya. They were freed from the energy of Brahma’s weapon. With her sons and Krishna, 174 the virtuous Pritha addressed Krishna, who was about to depart, in these words. “I bow down before the Purusha. You are the original lord. You are superior to Prakriti. Though you cannot be seen, you are inside and outside all living beings. I am ignorant and you are Adhokshaja, who is without decay. You are concealed behind this curtain of maya. You cannot be discerned by a foolish person like me, just as an actor in a play is not recognized for what he is. You have yourself had to explain bhakti yoga to enlightened ones, sages who have unblemished souls. How can women know you? I bow down to Krishna, Vasudeva, Devaki’s son, Nandagopa’s son 175 and Govinda. I bow down before the one with the lotus in his navel. I bow down before the one who is adorned in a garland made out of lotuses. I bow down before the one whose eyes are like lotuses. I bow down to you, whose feet are marked by the signs of lotuses. O Hrishikesha! 176 For a long time, Devaki was imprisoned by the deceitful Kamsa and had to suffer. 177 O lord! Just as you saved her, you are my protector and have repeatedly saved me and my sons from several difficulties. O Hari! You have protected us from poison, the great fire, sight of flesh-eaters, the wicked ones in the assembly hall, the hardships in the forest, the weapons of maharathas 178 from one battle to another battle and now, the weapon of Drona’s son. 179 O preceptor of the universe! Let those dangers occur eternally. In that way, we will see you and will no longer have to go through the cycle of rebirth. You can never be properly approached by a man who is proud of his birth, prosperity, learning and wealth, but can certainly be approached by a person to whom these are nothing. You are the wealth of someone who possesses nothing. I bow down to you. O one who has withdrawn from any attachment to the qualities! O one delighted with your own atman! O peaceful one! O lord of emancipation! I bow down. I think of you as time, the master and the lord, who is without beginning and without end. You roam around impartially in all beings and create dissension in their interactions. 180 O illustrious one! No one knows what you desire to do. Though you behave as if you are human, you cause perplexity. There is no one you love especially and there is no one you particularly hate. It is the minds of men that take you to be partial. O atman of the universe! You have no birth or deeds. You are without birth and have no deeds to perform. However, you take life in inferior species, as men and rishis, and as aquatic creatures. That causes bewilderment. When you committed a crime, the cowherd lady tied a rope around you. 181 In that state, the tears washed away the black collyrium from your eyes. Your face was cast downwards and seemed to be overcome by fear and thoughts. This puzzled me, because even fear is terrified of you. Some say that you have been born to establish the deeds of Punyashloka and your beloved Yadu, just as a sandalwood tree grows in Mount Malaya. 182 Though you are not born, others say you took birth because Vasudeva and Devaki sought you, for welfare and to slay the enemies of the gods. Others say that the earth was like an overburdened boat in the ocean and was suffering. The self-born one 183 asked you to be born so that this burden might be reduced. There are those who are suffering from ignorance, desire and deeds. Some others say you were born so that such people could hear, remember and worship your deeds. People who hear, sing, continuously chant, remember and take delight in your beneficial deeds, are ones who will soon see your lotus feet that bring an end to this cycle of birth on earth. O lord! You have yourself performed all these beneficial deeds. You are abandoning us well-wishers today, though our lives depend on you. We are devoted to you and all the kings seek to harm us. Other than your lotus feet, we have no refuge. Without being able to see you, what will the names and the forms of the Yadus and the Pandavas be? They will be like senses, without the soul. O wielder of the mace! This place is marked by the impressions of your feet and is radiant because of your signs. It will no longer be as beautiful as it is now. This country is flourishing and prosperous with well-ripened herbs and creepers. The forests, mountains, rivers and oceans are certainly seen to flourish because of you. O lord of the universe! O atman of the universe! O one whose form is the universe! Sever the firm bondage of affection that I have towards my own relatives, the Pandus and the Vrishnis. O lord of the Madhus! 184 Let my intelligence incessantly be focused on nothing but you. Just as the flows of the Ganga head towards the ocean, let my overflowing affection be directed towards you. O Shri Krishna! O Krishna’s friend! 185 O bull among the Vrishnis! You are the one who burns down the wicked lineages of the kings. Your valour does not diminish. O Govinda! You descend to destroy the affliction of cows, brahmanas and gods. O lord of yoga! O preceptor of everyone! O illustrious one! I bow down to you.” All of his glory was completely expressed in the sweet padas articulated by Pritha. Vaikuntha 186 smiled a little, as if deluding with his maya. He accepted what she said. Taking her leave and that of the other women, he entered Gajasahvya. When he prepared to leave for his own city, he was affectionately restrained by the king. 187 Though he was comforted by Vyasa and the others and by the lord Krishna, the performer of extraordinary deeds, himself, he was afflicted by sorrow and did not comprehend the illustrations from history. The king who was Dharma’s son thought of the death of his well-wishers. O brahmanas! He was overwhelmed by affection and confusion and spoke like an ordinary person. “Alas! Behold the ignorance that exists in the heart of an evil-souled person like me. This body is meant for others, but has destroyed many akshouhinis. 188 I have killed children, brahmanas, well-wishers, friends, fathers, brothers and preceptors. Even in one hundred million years, I will n
ot be able to free myself from hell. There are words of instruction to the effect that this does not affect a king who is a master of his subjects and kills enemies in a battle full of dharma. But I do not think this applies to me. 189 I have killed the relatives of women and have reaped the consequences of that deed. I cannot think of any acts done by a householder that can counter this. Mud cannot be cleaned with muddy water. Nor can a sin caused by drinking be cleaned with drink. In that way, even a single act of killing a living being cannot be countered through sacrifices.”’

  Chapter 1(9)

  Suta said, ‘He 190 was terrified at having caused harm to all the subjects and wished to understand dharma. He therefore went to the place of destruction, where Devavrata had fallen down. 191 All his brothers followed him on chariots yoked to well-trained horses with golden harnesses. So did the brahmanas, Vyasa, Dhoumya 192 and the others. O brahmana rishi! The illustrious one 193 also followed on a chariot, along with Dhananjaya. The king was as resplendent as Kubera with the guhyakas. 194 They saw Bhishma lying down on the ground, like a god who had been dislodged from the firmament. The Pandavas and their followers, and the wielder of the chakra, bowed down before him. O excellent one! Desiring to see the bull among the Bharatas, the brahmana rishis, the devarshis and the rajarshis assembled there—Parvata, Narada, Dhoumya, the illustrious Badarayana, Brihadashva, Bharadvaja, Renuka’s son 195 and his disciples, Vasishtha, Indrapramada, Trita, Gritasmada, Asita, Kakshivat, Goutama, Koushika and Sudarshana. O brahmana! There were other unblemished sages, Brahmarata 196 and others, Kashyapa, Angiras and others. They arrived there, along with their disciples. The supreme among the Vasus 197 knew about dharma and knew about what should be done at the right time and place. On seeing that those immensely fortunate ones had assembled, he welcomed and worshipped them. He knew the powers of Krishna, the lord of the universe who is in every heart and who had used his maya to assume this embodied form. On seeing him seated there, he worshipped him. Pandu’s sons were seated there, overwhelmed by their love and affection. Tears flowed down his eyes and he was overwhelmed by his love and affection for them. He said, “Alas! O sons of Dharma! 198 You have suffered what is unjust. You sought refuge in brahmanas, dharma and Achyuta. You did not deserve to live amidst this hardship. When the atiratha 199 Pandu departed, my daughter-in-law Pritha’s sons were young. She suffered many hardships on account of you and again suffered them when you grew up. I think all these disagreeable things have been inflicted on you because of destiny, which is like a guardian that has the entire world under its subjugation, just as dense clouds are controlled by the wind. The king is Dharma’s son. Vrikodara wields the club in his hand. Krishna 200 knows about weapons and wields the Gandiva bow, with Krishna as his well-wisher. How could calamity have resulted? O king! No man is capable of knowing what destiny desires. When one tries to ascertain this, even wise people are confounded. O bull among the Bharata lineage! Therefore, everything that has happened is because of destiny. O lord! The subjects are without a protector. Following destiny, be a protector and save them. This illustrious one is the original man, Narayana himself. Confounding the world with his maya, he is secretly roaming around amidst the Vrishnis. O king! The illustrious Shiva, devarshi Narada and the illustrious Kapila know his fame and mysteries and that he is the illustrious lord himself. You think that he is your maternal uncle’s son, 201 that he is your beloved friend and the best among well-wishers. Because of affection, he has performed the tasks of an adviser, a messenger and a charioteer. He is in everyone’s atman. He is impartial towards everyone. He has no second and he is without any sense of ego. He does not do anything out of attachment, nor does his intelligence have any partiality. O lord of the earth! However, behold his compassion towards devotees who are devoted to him. Since I am giving up my life, Krishna has himself come here to see me. If a yogi gives up his body when his mind is full of affection and when he meditates, chanting his name with words, he is freed from all desire and action. He is the illustrious god of the gods and he is waiting for me to give up this body. He is smiling pleasantly. His eyes are like the rising sun and are delightful. Chaturbhuja’s face is like a lotus and he is the object of my meditation.” He was lying down on that bed of arrows and Yudhishthira heard him. While the rishis heard, he asked him about many kinds of dharma. He 202 enumerated the varna and ashrama of a person, as determined by his natural traits. He then systematically described the attributes of both non-attachment and attachment. He explicitly described the different divisions and modes of the dharma of donations, the dharma of kings, the dharma of liberation, 203 the dharma for women and Bhagavata dharma. O sage! He explained the modes for attaining dharma, artha, kama and moksha. The one who knew about the truth also expounded many accounts and Itihasa. Yogis who can die at will desire the time of uttarayana. 204 While he was describing, this time arrived. The one who was the leader of thousands stopped speaking. Freed from attachment, he fixed his mind on the original Purusha. Chaturbhuja Krishna, dazzling in yellow garments, was standing in front of him and he closed his eyes and fixed his sight on him. He was purified and his inauspicious sentiments were destroyed. Through looking at him, the wounds from the weapons and his exhaustion were swiftly removed. His senses were withdrawn and the confusion of his intelligence disappeared. Ready to quit the physical body, he praised Janardana. “Let my intelligence be freed of all thirst and let it be fixed on the illustrious lord who is a bull among the Satvatas. He obtains pleasure from within himself. All creation and destruction flows from him. However, he sometimes playfully unites with Prakriti. 205 He is desired by the three worlds. His complexion is like that of a tamala tree. He wears excellent yellow garments that are like the rays of the sun. His body is etched with sandalwood paste and his face is like a lotus. He is Vijaya’s 206 friend. Let my devotion to him be unparalleled. On the field of battle, the dust raised by the horses made his hair turn grey and it flowed around and decorated his face, together with the perspiration from the exhaustion. My sharp arrows pierced his skin and his armour, but he enjoyed it. Let my atman be in Krishna. He heard his friend’s request and placed the chariot in between the forces of his side and that of the enemy. Placing it there, Partha’s friend took away the lifespans of the enemy soldiers with his glance. Let my devotion be in him. Polluted in his intelligence, standing in front of the leaders of the armies, he 207 was reluctant to kill his own relatives. However, he 208 used knowledge of the atman to dispel that evil intelligence. Let my devotion be fixed on his supreme feet. For the sake of making my pledge come true, he abandoned his own pledge and leapt down from the chariot. Wielding the wheel of a chariot in his hand, he quickly advanced to kill me, like an elephant against a lion, and his upper garment fell down. 209 He was pierced by sharp arrows and his armour was shattered. He was covered by wounds and I was trying to kill him. For the sake of killing me, he advanced angrily. Let the illustrious Mukunda 210 be my objective. He protected Vijaya’s chariot like a relative and held the whip and held the reins of the horses. 211 He was beautiful to behold. I am about to die. Let my devotion be fixed on the illustrious one. In this world, those who are killed after seeing him get their own forms back after death. The cowherd ladies saw his attractive gait, his sports and his sweet smiles and were stricken by love. Mad with infatuation, they mentally sought to copy his extensive movements and merged into his nature. Large numbers of sages and the best among kings assembled at the gathering on the occasion of Yudhishthira’s royal sacrifice. He was a sight to behold and received the honours. He has appeared before my atman. He is without birth. He is in the heart of every living being, whom he has himself created. He can be seen like the sun, which though it is one, appears in different forms. I have been cleansed of all differences and confusion and am meditating on him.” In this way, he merged his atman into the atman of the illustrious Krishna, in thoughts, words, sight and conduct. He ceased to breathe. Everyone understood that Bhishma was completely immersed in the brahman. Like birds, when the day is ove
r, they became silent. The gods and men sounded their drums. Virtuous kings praised him and flowers showered down from the sky. O Bhargava! For some time, Yudhishthira was miserable. After that, he arranged for all the funeral rites to be performed for the dead body. Using all kinds of secret names, the cheerful sages praised Krishna. With Krishna in their hearts, they again returned to their own hermitages. With Krishna, Yudhishthira went to Gajasahvya and comforted his father 212 and the ascetic Gandhari. With the permission of his father and with Vasudeva’s sanction, the lord and king followed dharma and ruled over the kingdom of his fathers and grandfathers.’