Radha Krishna - Chapter 3: Liberation from Mâyâ and Karma Knowing and Worshiping the Lord

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.'