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and who is without beginning and without end, and who is without birth.[45] He lives in the heart (of every creature). He is the |
prana, he is the mind, and he is Jiva (that is invested in the material case). He is the soul of Yoga, and it is that is called Yoga. |
He is the Yoga-contemplation into which Yogins enter.[46] He is the Supreme Soul. Indeed Maheswara, the purity in essence, |
is capable of being comprehended not by the senses but through only the Soul seizing his existence. He plays on diverse |
musical instruments. He is a vocalist. He has a hundred thousand eyes, he has one mouth, he has two mouths, he has three |
mouths, and he has many mouths. Devoting thyself to him, setting thy heart upon him, depending upon him, and accepting him |
as thy one refuse, do thou, O son, adore Mahadeva and then mayst thou obtain the fruition of all thy wishes. Hearing those |
words of my mother, O slayer of foes, from that day my devotion was directed to Mahadeva, having nothing else for its object. |
I then applied myself to the practice of the austerest penances for gratifying Sankara. For one thousand years I stood on my left |
toe. After that I passed one thousand years, subsisting only upon fruits. The next one thousand years I passed, subsisting upon |
the fallen leaves of trees. The next thousand years I passed, subsisting upon water only. After that I passed seven hundred |
years, subsisting on air alone. In this way, I adored Mahadeva for a full thousand years of the celestials. After this, the puissant |
Mahadeva, the Master of all the universe, became gratified with me. Desirous of ascertaining whether I was solely devoted to |
him and him alone, he appeared before me in the form of Sakra surrounded by all the deities. As the celebrated Sakra, he had a |
thousand eyes on his person and was armed with the thunderbolt. And he rode on an elephant whose complexion was of the |
purest white, with eyes red, ears folded, the temporal juice trickling down his cheeks, with trunk contracted, terrible to look at, |
and endued with four tusks. Indeed, riding on such an elephant, the illustrious chief of the deities seemed to blaze forth with his |
energy. With a beautiful crown on his head and adorned with garlands round his neck and bracelets round his arms, he |
approached the spot where I was. A white umbrella was held over his head. And he was waited upon by many Apsaras, and |
many Gandharvas sang his praise. Addressing me, he said,--O foremost of regenerate persons, I have been gratified with thee. |
Beg of me whatever boon thou desirest,--Hearing these words of Sakra I did not become glad. Verily, O Krishna, I answered |
the chief of the celestials in these words.--I do not desire any boon at thy hands, or from the hands of any other deity. O |
amiable deity, I tell thee truly, that it is Mahadeva only from whom I have boons to ask. True, true it is, O Sakra, true are these |
words that I say unto thee. No other words are at all agreeable to me save those which relate to Maheswara. At the command of |
Pashupati, that Lord of all creatures, I am ready to become a worm or a tree with many branches. If not obtained through the |
grace represented by Mahadeva's boons, the very sovereignty of the three worlds would not be acceptable to me. Let me be |
born among the very Chandalas but let me still be devoted to the feet of Hara. Without, again, being devoted to that Lord of all |
creatures, I would not like to have birth in the palace of Indra himself. If a person be wanting in devotion to that Lord of the |
universe,--that Master of the deities and the Asuras,--his misery will not end even if from want of food he has to subsist upon |
only air and water.[47] What is the need of other discourses that are even fraught with other kinds of morality and |
righteousness, unto those persons who do not like to live even a moment without thinking of feet of Mahadeva? When the |
unrighteous or sinful Kali Yuga comes, one should never pass a moment without devoting his heart upon Mahadeva. One that |
has drunk the Amrita constituted by the devotion to Hara, one becomes freed from the fear of the world. One that has not |
obtained the grace of Mahadeva can never succeed to devote oneself to Mahadeva for a single day or for half a day or for a |
Muhurta or for a Kshana or for a Lava (very small unit of time). At the command of Mahadeva I shall cheerfully become a |
worm or an insect, but I have no relish for even the sovereignty of the three worlds, if bestowed by thee, O Sakra. At the word |
of Hara I would become even a dog. In fact, that would accord with my highest wish. If not given by Maheswara, I would not |
have the sovereignty of the very deities. I do not wish to have this dominion of the Heavens. I do not wish to have the |
sovereignty of the celestials. I do not wish to have the region of Brahma. Indeed, I do not wish to have that cessation of |
individual existence which is called Emancipation and which involves a complete identification with Brahma. But I want to |
become the slave of Hara. As long as that Lord of all creatures, the illustrious Mahesa, with crown on his head and body |
possessed of the pure white complexion of the lunar disc, does not become gratified with me, so long shall I cheerfully bear all |
those afflictions, due to a hundred repetitions of decrepitude, death and birth, that befall to the lot of embodied beings. What |
person in the universe can obtain tranquillity, without gratifying Rudra that is freed from decripitude and death, that is endued |
with the effulgence of the Sun, the Moon, or the fire, that is the root or original cause of everything real and unreal in the three |
worlds, and that exists as one and indivisible entity? If in consequence of my faults, rebirths be mine, I shall, in those new |
births, devote myself solely to Bhava.'" |
"Indra said, 'What reason canst thou assign for the existence of a Supreme Being or for His being the cause of all causes?'" |
"Upamanyu said, 'I solicit boons from that great Deity named Siva whom utterers of Brahma has described as existent and non- |
existent, manifest and unmanifest, eternal or immutable, one and many. I solicit boons from Him who is without beginning and |
middle and end, who is Knowledge and Puissance, who is inconceivable and who is the Supreme Soul. I solicit boons from |
Him whence comes all Puissance, who has not been produced by any one, who is immutable, and who, though himself |
unsprung from any seed, is the seed of all things in the universe. I solicit boons from Him who is blazing Effulgence, (beyond |
Darkness) who is the essence of all penances, who transcends all faculties of which we are possessed and which we may devote |
for the purpose of comprehending him, and by knowing whom every one becomes freed from grief or sorrow. I worship him, O |
Purandara, who is conversant with the creation of all elements and the thought of all living creatures, and who is the original |
cause of the existence or creation of all creatures, who is omnipresent, and who has the puissance to give everything.[48] I |
solicit boons from Him who cannot be comprehended by argument, who represents the object of the Sankhya and the Yoga |
systems of philosophy, and who transcends all things, and whom all persons conversant with the topics of enquiry worship and |
adore.[49] I solicit boons from Him, O Maghavat, who is the soul of Maghavat himself, who is said to be the God of the gods, |
and who is the Master of all creatures. I solicit boons from Him who it is that first created Brahma, that creator of all the |
worlds, having filled Space (with His energy) and evoked into existence the primeval egg.[50] Who else than that Supreme |
Lord could be creator of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Space, Mind, and that which is called Mahat? Tell me, O Sakra, who else |
than Siva could create Mind, Understanding, Consciousness or Ego, the Tanmatras, and the senses? Who is there higher than |
Siva?[51] The wise say that the Grandsire Brahma is the creator of this universe. Brahma, however, acquired his high |
puissance and prosperity by adoring and gratifying Mahadeva, that God of gods. That high puissance (consisting of all the |
three attributes of creation, protection, and destruction), which dwells in that illustrious Being who is endowed with the quality |
of being one, who created Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra, was derived from Mahadeva. Tell me who is there that is superior to |
the Supreme Lord?[52] Who else than that God of gods is competent to unite the sons of Diti with lordship and puissance, |
judging by the sovereignty and the power of oppressing conferred upon the foremost of the Daityas and Danavas?[53] The |
different points of the horizon, Time, the Sun, all fiery entities, planets, wind, water, and the stars and constellations,--these, |
know thou, are from Mahadeva. Tell us who is higher than the Supreme Lord? Who else is there, except Mahadeva, in the |
matter of the creation of Sacrifice and the destruction of Tripura? Who else except Mahadeva, the grinder of the foes, has |
offered lordship to the principal?[54] What need, O Purandara, of many well-sounding statements fraught with spacious |
sophisms, when I behold thee of a thousand eyes, O best of the deities,--thee that art worshipped by Siddhas and Gandharvas |
and the deities and the Rishis? O best of the Kusikas, all this is due to the grace of that God of gods viz., Mahadeva. Know, O |
Kesava, that this all, consisting of animate and inanimate existences with heaven and other unseen entities, which occur in this |
world, and which has the all-pervading Lord for their soul, has flowed from Maheswara and has been created (by him) for |
enjoyment by Jiva.[55] In the worlds that are known by the names of Bhu, Bhuva, Swah, and Maha, in the midst of the |
mountains of Lokaloka, in the islands, in the mountains of Meru, in all things that yield happiness, and in the hearts of all |
creatures, O illustrious Maghavat, resides Mahadeva, as persons conversant with all the topics of enquiry say. If, O Sakra, the |
Devas (deities) and the Asuras could see any other puissant form than Bhava's, would not both of them, especially the former, |
when opposed and afflicted by the latter, have sought the protection of that form? In all hostile encounters of the deities, the |
Yakshas, the Uragas and the Rakshasas, that terminating in mutual destruction, it is Bhava that gives unto those that meet with |
destruction, puissance commensurate with their respective locations as dependent upon their acts. Tell me, who else than |
Maheswara is there for bestowing boons upon, and once more chastising the Andhaka and Sukra and Dundubhi and Maharshi |
and many foremost of Yakshas, Indra and Vala and Rakshasas and the Nivatakavachas? Was not the vital seed of Mahadeva, |
that Master of both the deities and the Asuras, poured as a libation upon the fire? From that seed sprung a mountain of gold. |
Who else is there whose seed can be said to be possessed of such virtue.[56] Who else in this world is praised as having the |
horizon only for his garments? Who else can be said to be a Brahmacharin with his vital seed drawn up? Who else is there that |
has half his body occupied by his dear spouse?[57] Who else is there that has been able to subjugate Kama, the god of desire? |
Tell me, O Indra, what other Being possesses that high region of supreme felicity that is applauded by all the deities? Who else |
has the crematorium as his sporting ground? Who else is there that is so praised for his dancing? Whose puissance and worship |
remain immutable? Who else is there that sports with spirits and ghosts? Tell me, O deity, who else has associate that are |
possessed of strength like his own and that are, therefore, proud of that strength or puissance?[58] Who else is there whose |
status is applauded as unchangeable and worshipped with reverence by the three worlds? Who else is there that pours rain, |
gives heat, and blazes forth in Energy? From whom else do we derive our wealth of herbs? Who else upholds all kinds of |
wealth? Who else sports as much as he pleases in the three worlds of mobile and immobile things? O Indra, know Maheswara |
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