A Study of the Bhagavata Purana or Esoteric Hinduism Part 80

(2). It is subject to transformation.

(3). It consists of the transformations of the Gunas.

(4). It is various, - broadly speaking threefold, Adhyatma, Adhi-bhuta and Adhi-daiva.

(5). It is not self manifest.

atma is one, immutable and self manifest.

Ahankara is at the root of all doubt and delusion. They last as long as the mind is turned away from me.

RE-INCARNATION.

*SKANDHA XI. CHAP. 22.*

Uddhava asked: -

"Those that are turned away from Thee take on and give up bodies. Tell me something about rebirth."

Sri Krishna replied: -

"The mind of men imprinted with karma moves with the five senses from body to body. atma (under the denomination of 'I') accompanies the mind.

"The mind (after death) thinks of such seen and unseen objects as the karma of men places before it. It awakes (unto those objects, it thinks of) and fades away (in respect of previous objects). The memory (connecting the present with the past) dies away in consequence.

"When one loses all thoughts of one's body on account of close application to another object (body), through some cause or other, that utter forgetfulness is his death." (By karma, man gets after his so-called death either a deva body, or a body of inflictions. In the former case, it is through pleasure and desire and in the latter case, through fear and sorrow, that the Jiva utterly forgets his former body.

That is the death of the Jiva who used to identify himself with the former body and not the destruction of Jiva as of the body. _Sridhara_.

The Deva-body is the phenomenal basis of the Jiva in Svarga Loka. The body of inflications is the astral or Kamic body, in Bhuta, Preta and Pisacha Loka, where the Jiva undergoes inflictions. The Jiva identifies itself with these new bodies or new states in such a way as to forget completely its former physical body. The connection with the former body is thus completely cut off in the mind. This is the death of the Jiva in relation to its previous body.)

"The birth of a Jiva is the acceptance of a body as one's own self. It is even like dream or fancy. In dream or fancy, a man does not know his present self as the former self. The mind by its application to a new body causes a birth into that body, and the ideas of good, bad and indifferent crop up in self.

"Though a father may have neither friend nor enemy, he is affected by the connections formed by his vicious son, even so it is with atma.

Growth and decay are happening every moment in the body. But they are hardly perceptible owing to the extreme subtlely of time.

"The burning lamp, the flowing current, the ripening fruit, pa.s.s through stages, as all beings also pa.s.s through the stages of childhood, youth and age. We say it is the same fire, it is the same water (though the particles of fire and water are continually changing.) So we say, it is the same man. The understanding and the words of ignorant men are all confounding (for they speak and think a.s.suming that the same body continues). But even the ignorant man does not acquire birth or death, by Karma engendered by self, for the self is immortal and the notion of birth and death is itself a delusion with reference to self. Fire, as an element lasts through out the Kalpa. But it seems to come into existence or to become extinguished. Fecundation, foetal state, birth, childhood, grown up childhod, youth, ripeness, age and death are the nine states of the body. These states of the body which is other than self are only fancies of the mind (so far as self is concerned). Some accept them as their own, by contact with Gunas and some reject them to some extent (by discriminating knowledge). From the death of the body inherited from the father and the birth of another child body, one can infer the birth and death of his body only, he the knower not being affected by either birth or death. The seer of the growth and decay of the tree is different from the tree itself, so the seer of the different states of the body is different from the body itself. One is bound down to the wheel of rebirths, by want of discrimination. One becomes Deva or Ris.h.i.+ by the action of Satva, Asura or man by the action of Rajas and Bhuta or animal by the action of Tamas. As a man seeing the performance of singers and dancers involuntarily imitates them (in the mind) even so atma follows the actions of Buddhi. The tree seems to move when the water is moving.

The earth seems to roll when the eyes are rolling. Births and rebirths are as unreal to atma as are dreams but they have an existence even as objects in dream have an existence so long as the mind thinks of those objects.

"Whatever others may say or do unto you, do not care the least about that, but with single minded devotion restore self by self."

Uddhava said: -

"Human nature is human nature, O Lord. Hew can one bear all that is said or done by the impious?"

FORBEARANCE.

*SKANDHA XI. CHAP, 23.*

Sri Krishna said: -

"In days of yore, there was a wealthy Brahmana in the Malava regions. He earned money by the evil ways of the world, but did not spend any thing on charity. In time the wealth was all gone. He repented and felt disgust for wealth. He renounced the world and became a wandering Bhikshu. He went to villages for alms. People called him all sorts of names - thief, hypocrite and so on. Some pelted him, others abused him, others put him to chains and confined him.

"He bore all this with perfect calm. This is how he used to reason within himself: -

"These men, the Devas, self, the planets, Karma and Kala (periodicity) none of them is the cause of my happiness or misery. Mind is the one cause, which causes the wheel of births to move. They make friends and enemies, who do not conquer the mind. The connection with the body is only an act of the mind. Deluded men however think, this is my body and they go astray.

"One man can not be the cause of grief and joy to another. atma in all men is not the doer. All acts proceed from the gross and the subtle body. If the tooth bites the tongue, who should you be angry at?

"If the Devas (the Adhidevas) be the cause of sorrow, it is not their atma that is so but their bodily transformations. And the Devas (who guide the senses) are the same in all beings. If one limb causes pain to another limb, who should be the object of anger?

"If self is the cause of joy and sorrow, then you have not to look to the outside world. But every thing else besides atma is only a seeming existence. Therefore there is no real existence of any cause of joy or grief and there is no joy or grief.

"If the planets by their position at birth bring about joys and sorrows, then no body is to blame for that. And the planetary Purusha is separate from the bodies of the planets. There is none to be angry at. Karma can not be the cause of Joy and sorrow. Karma has its sphere in which there is both a conscious and an unconscious element. The unconscious element undergoes transformation and the conscious element in search for the desired object leads to action. But the body is absolutely unconscious.

And Purusha (or Self) in man is absolutely conscious. There is no root of Karma either in body or in Purusha.

"_Kala_ is part of atma, for Kala is an aspect of ishvara. Fire does not destroy its spark, snow does not destroy its flakes.

"One who is awakened to his real self has fear from no one else. Purusha has no connection with the pairs of opposites." (Cold and heat, happiness and misery &c.)

SANKHYA.

*SKANDHA XI. CHAP. 24.*

"There is only one perception and one undivided object of perception, when there are no Yugas (i.e. in Pralaya), in Satya Yuga, as well as for men skilful in discrimination, that object of perception is Brahman, the absolute Truth, beyond the reach of worlds and of mind. I became two fold, by means of Maya. Of the two one is Prakriti consisting of causes and effects. And the other is Purusha.

"Following the Karmic record of Jivas, I disturbed Prakriti, and Satva, Rajas and Tamas became manifest. The Gunas gave rise to Sutra or Thread (which represents Kriya Sakti). Mahat (Jnana Sakti) is not separate from Sutra (Sutra and Mahat form one Tatva. It is two-fold, on account of its double aspect of Jnana and Kriya or knowledge and action).

"Ahankara is the transformation of Mahat. It is three-fold, Satvic or Vaikaric, Rajasic or Taijasa and Tamasic.

"The Adhi-daivas and Manas came from Satvic Ahankara, and the 5 Tanmatras from Tamasic Ahankara.. The five Maha bhutas came from the five Tanmatras.

"Prompted by Me, all these principles united together to form the Egg which was My own abode. I incarnated in that Egg which was immersed in the (Pralayic) water (as Sri Narayana or Virat Purusha).

"Out of my navel grew the Lotus called the Universe. Brahma was manifested in that Lotus.

"He brought into manifestation the Lokas (Bhur, Bhuvar &c.,) and the Lokapalas.

"Svar was the abode of the Devas, Bhuvar of the Bhutas, Bhur of men, the higher Lokas of the Siddhas and the Lower Lokas of the Asuras and Nagas.