A Study of the Bhagavata Purana or Esoteric Hinduism Part 20

"Know thou, O King, the deer, skipping in the flower-garden, in company with its sweet-heart, deeply attached to the sweets of that garden, devouring with eager ears the humming music of _bhramaras_, little caring for the wolves on its way or for the arrows of the huntsman that pierce its back.

"The flowers are but women who bloom only to droop. The fragrance and honey, the sweets of the garden, are the enjoyments brought on by the _karma_ of another birth."

"The music of _bhramaras_ is the pleasing conversation of women and others. The wolves are the days and nights. The huntsman who stealthily flings arrows at the deer is Death. The deer is thy own self."

"Consider Well the efforts of the deer. Concentrate _chitta_ into the heart and all perceptions into _chitta_. Give up the company of woman.

Turn a deaf ear to all idle talks. Be devoted to that one true Friend of Jivas - isvara. Retire, retire from all others."

King Prachina Barhis wondered why such beautiful teachings were with held by his teachers. Or forsooth, they knew not themselves. He requested Narada however to remove two doubts that were still lurking in his mind. - Purusha acquires _karma_ in one body, but he reaps the fruits of that _karma_ in another body. One body is the doer while another is the enjoyer and sufferer. To one body, the fruits of its own work are lost. To another body, there is an acquisition of fruits it did not sow. How can this be? This was the first doubt.

What is done is done. Nothing apparently remains of our _karma_. How can then the sequences be accounted for? This was the second doubt.

Narada replies: -

Purusha reaps the fruits in that very body without break in which it acquires _karma_, but that body is the Linga Sarira, inclusive of Manas.

As in dream man works out the impressions of the wakeful state without changing the body, so he enjoys the fruits of _karma_ created in one birth in the Karma-made body of another birth.

And the doer of Karma is verily the Manas and not the Sthula body.

"These are mine," "I am so and so," only such concepts of the mind produce re-birth, and not anything in the Sthula body. So the mind sows and the mind reaps. The body is merely the vehicle of birth producing thoughts.

This is in answer to the first question. Now to the second.

How do you know there is chitta or mind? All the senses are at one and the same time in contact with the objects of all the senses. But still you perceive only one thing at a time. Hence you infer the existence of the mind. Similarly by marking the tendencies of the mind their connection with a former birth is inferred. Otherwise why should there be one mental affection at a time and not another?

Then, in this life you never realise a thing which you never heard or saw or felt before. How can the mind then reproduce matters you never experienced before?

The mind by its present characteristics gives an insight into the past as well as into the future.

It sometimes happens that things are perceived in the mind with strange combinations in time, s.p.a.ce and action, as in dream.

But men are endowed with mind and the mind perceives one after another the objects of the senses in an enormous variety, and the perceptions are lost again. So (in the long run) not one experience is altogether strange.

(For instance, a man sees in dream that he is a king. He must have been a king in some birth or other. The present combination in the dream is untrue but not so the kingly experience. The experience is always true with reference to some time, some s.p.a.ce, some action or other).

When the mind is intensely Satvic (calm, pure and transparent) and becomes constantly devoted to Bhagavan, the whole universe is reflected on it.

In Jiva there is never a break in the egoistic experience as long as the Linga Sarira continues.

There is only a seeming break in sleep, swoon and-deep distress such as death and fatal illness, but such break is due to a collapse of the perceiving senses.

There is similarly a break in the ftal stage and in extreme childhood.

But such break is due to imperfection of the senses; The moon though not visible on the new moon night does still exist.

The connection with gross objects does not cease because there is a temporary absence of such objects. For, are not thoughts about objects potent in their effects in dream?

The Linga Sarira, consisting in their essence of the five pure elements (Tanmatra), subject to the three Gunas, extending over the sixteen transformations (of the Sankhya category), permeated with consciousness, is called Jiva.

It is with this Ling Sarira that Purusha enters into a body or comes out of it, and it is with this Sarira that he experiences joy, sorrow, fear, misery and happiness.

As the leech has its hold on the first blade of gra.s.s till it connects itself with another, so the Jiva identifies itself with one body till it enters another.

Manas only acquires _karma_ by its contemplation of the objects of the senses. The bondage is thus created by Avidya.

Therefore do thou meditate on Hari to free thyself from all worldly attachments and to be fixed in Him for ever.

V. THE STORY OF THE PRACHETAS BROTHERS.

*SKANDHA IV, CHAP. 30-31.*

The Prachetas brothers left home in order to discover by Tapas the best mode of enlarging the creation. They went west-ward and had not gone far when Siva rose from beneath a large lake and addressed them thus: - "Children, you are sons of Barhishad, I know your good resolve.

Blessings be on you. By the performance of one's duty in life, one attains the state of Brahma after many births. My abode is still further, inaccessible even to the virtuous. But the votary of Vishnu attains His holy state, only when this life is ended. I and the Devas shall also attain that state after the final break up of our Linga Sarira. Learn therefore this prayer to Vishnu. (Siva then recited the prayer to Vishnu, known as Rudra Gita). Concentrate your mind on this prayer, meditate on it and recite it constantly."

The Prachetas brothers entered the waters of the deep and there prayed to Vishnu for a thousand years. Vishnu appeared and asked them to chose a boon and without waiting for a reply addressed them thus: - "You are dutiful sons and shall ever be known as such. You shall have a son in no way inferior to Brahma. All the three Lokas shall be filled with his progeny. Indra had sent Pramlocha to decoy Kandu Ris.h.i.+ in his penances and the Apsara succeeded in winning the heart of the Ris.h.i.+. She had by him one daughter whom she brought forth from her pores as she brushed against the tops of the trees. She left her child there and ascended to heaven. The moon nourished the child by putting his nectar-bearing forefinger into her mouth. Have that daughter of the trees for your wife. You are all alike in your virtues and she is like to you all. So she shall be the wife of all the brothers."

The brothers then rose up from the waters. They found the earth overgrown with innumerable plants, so high that they almost reached the high heavens. The Prachetas brothers were angry to find such growth in plants and they resolved to destroy them. They emitted fire and air from their mouths, which caused havoc in the vegetable kingdom. Brahma came and pacified the sons of Barhishad. He advised the surviving plants to give their adopted daughter Marisha in marriage to the Prachetas brothers. The offspring of this marriage was Daksha. He is the same as Praj.a.pati Daksha, son of Brahma. His degradation was owing to his former disregard of Siva. The Chakshusa Manvantara witnessed his work of creation.

The Prachetas brothers reigned for 1000 Deva years. They were succeeded by Daksha.

THOUGHTS ON THE ABOVE.

Consciousness in organic life had appeared with Prithu. The table of further evolution may be here reproduced for facility of reference.

Prithu.

-+-------------+---+--------+---------+---------+-- Vijitasva Haryyaksha Dhumraksha Vrika Dravinas or Antardhana. (East) (South) (West) (North) m. Sikhandini m. Nabhasvati.

Havirdhana --+--+------+--------+-- Pavaka Pavamana Suchi -+----------+-------+---+-----+---------+----------+-- Barhishad Gaya Sukla Krishna Satya Jitavrata _alias_ Prachina Barhis m. Satadruti.

10 Prachetases m. Marisha Daksha.

Vijitasva could make himself invisible. This may have reference to the state of the body at that stage of evolution. The fires appeared as it is they that give forms. The object corresponding to elemental fire is Rupa or form. Barhishad, the name of one cla.s.s of Pitris, was the progenitor of the form-producing Linga Sarira with all its potentialities.

We find the senses developed in his sons the Prachetas brothers. "Pra"

Means perfect and "Chetas" is the perceiving mind. But the mind perceives through the Indriyas, which are ten in number. Therefore they are ten brothers all alike; but they are wedded to one girl Marisha.

There is some occult connection between water and sense perception.

Barhishad was married to the daughter of the Ocean-G.o.d. The Prachetas brothers remained submerged for a thousand years in the waters. The protozoa and protophytes must of necessity be aquatic, as it were, for the development in them of sense perceptions.

It is in Touch that the sense perceptions find a common basis. Touch underlies all other perceptions. It is touch of the object by one sense or other that gives rise to one perception or the other. "Kandu" is primarily scratching or itching, secondarily touch. Marisha was nourished by the moon and brought up by the plants.

The period refers to the stage of evolution when the vegetables formed the predominant creation. It corresponds somewhat to the geological period of tree-ferns and lycopods in our Manvantara.

The development of sense perceptions is the result of a communion with Vishnu, under the auspices of Rudra. This means a further infusion of Satva by Vishnu, which was made possible by the Dissolving influence of Siva. And the son of the Prachetas brothers is verily Daksha, the Praj.a.pati of procreation, reincarnated under better auspices for the purpose of extending the creation. So we find the Trinity acting as three in one in the creative process.

With the appearance of Daksha Jiva evolution comes to an end in the first Manvantara.

TABLE V.