Vaishampāyana said:—On coming to the beautiful city of Dwarka, that
foremost of all sages, Nārada, saw that foremost of beings, that subduer
of his foes, Nārāyana (1) comfortably seated with Satyabhāmā in his own
mansion, and appearing highly beautiful in consequence of his charming
form that transcended all energies (2). He saw the high-souled Keshava
of firm vows engrossed in that thought (_i.e._, of the Pārijāta), and
only gratifying the lovely Satyabhāmā with empty words (3). On seeing
Nārada, the divine Adhokshaja rose (from his seat) and worshipped him
with prescribed ceremonies (4). After Nārada had been comfortably
seated, having cast off the fatigue (of the journey) the slayer of Madhu
smilingly questioned him on the subject of the Pārijāta tree (5).
Thereupon, O Janamejaya, that sage, possessed of ascetic merit, told the
younger brother of Indra all his words in full details (6). Having heard
all those words from Nārada, Krishna spoke to him thus: "Even to-morrow
shall I go to the region of the celestials, O foremost of all virtuous
sages" (7). Having spoken this much only Hari entered into the waters of
the ocean, accompanied by Nārada; and there in secret he again addressed
him thus (8):—"Going to-day to the residence of Mahendra, and offering
him my best regards, do thou, O sage, tell that foremost of immortals,
the high-souled Indra, these my very words (9). ’O Sakra, O lord I know
me determined as regards the fetching down of the Pārijāta here; and if
a fight does actually take place, thou shalt not be able to stand before
me (even for a moment.)’" (10).
Thus spoken to by Krishna, Nārada once more went to the celestial region
and spoke to the lord of the gods all the words of Krishna of
immeasurable energy (11). Thereupon that slayer of Vala, Sakra spoke
every thing to Vrihaspati; on hearing from him, O delighter of the
Karus, Vrihaspati thus spoke (12). "O fie! This nasty affair has
originated only because I was absent from the abode of Brahmā. This will
create a dissension (13). For what reason, O lord of the universe, hast
thou commenced this business, without having previously told me of it?
(14) Or, O slayer of Vritra, the world is led to act by fate born out of
previous actions; and it is beyond the power of any body to prevent it
(15). A hasty commencement of actions is not commendable; and therefore
this business, hastily begun as it is, will surely give us dishonor and
defeat" (16). Thereupon Mahendra spoke these words to the high-souled
Vrihaspati:—"It now behoves you to say what should be done under the
present circumstances (17)." Thereupon after reflecting for a while with
his countenance cast down, the virtuous-minded Vrihaspati, of liberal
understanding, the knower of all things in the past and the future, thus
replied to him (18). "Now, try your best to fight Janārddana, with the
help of your son (Jayanta). O Sakra, I shall afterwards do what shall be
more just and politic" (19). Having thus spoken, Vrihaspati went into
the milky ocean, and there he said every thing to the high-souled
Kashyapa (20). Having heard that (_i.e._, the affair of the Pārijāta,)
from Vrihaspati, Kashyapa was enraged and thus spoke to him. "That this
was sure to have taken place, there was not the slightest doubt (21).
He, of hundred Sacrifices, was inflamed with a lustful desire towards
the worthy wife of the mighty sage Devasoma; the evil of the course he
followed has now undertaken him (22). For the atonement of that sin, I
have, O sage, commenced this living in water. But still that heinous sin
has now undertaken him (23). O thou of ascetic merit, I, with Aditi,
shall go there, mediations and fate favouring, and shall prevent them
both (from splitting each other’s blood) (24)." Thereafter the
virtuous-souled Vrihaspati thus spoke to the son of Maricha. "If the
time comes, thou shalt go in good time" (25). Having said "Very well",
Kashyapa dismissed Vrihaspati; thereafter he went to worship the god
Rudra, that lord of all beings (26). There the intelligent and
illustrious Kashyapa, desirous of obtaining a boon, worshipped, in
company with Aditi, the peaceful and high-souled god, having the bull
for his emblem (27). Thereafter that son of Marichi, Kashyapa, in order
to please the god Ishāna, that preceptor of the universe, began to
eulogise him in Vedic as well as in self-composed hymns (28).
Kashyapa said:"—To him whose foot-falls are mighty,²⁹³ who is the
nascent cause of the universe, who is the Supreme, who is the creator of
the world (potent cause), who is attained only through virtue (Dharma),
who is the Lord of grace (_i.e._, metes out grace to them who worship
and adore him), who is Self-controlled and endued with divine energy—I
bow down to that illustrious lord of the universe (29). He is the lord
of the celestials. He is the destroyer of sin. Through his
instrumentality the universe extends, He being the cause nascent and
potential. The image of His intelligence, the sacred waters hold.²⁹⁴ I
seek refuge with the Supreme ruler of the universe (30). He, who under
the semblance of a self-controlled ascetic, slew the uncontrolled who
were ignorant of the doctrines of the Vedanta and tried to do away with
the friendly qualities, He, whose semblance is delightful, and whose
origin is sacred, I seek the protection of that lord of the universe
with my (bent) head (31). That great and undisputed Master of the
universe, who takes under his benign protection the advanced (_i.e._,
that is morally and religiously) section of worldly beings, He who is
the Light of all lights. He, who is identified with the semblance of
Brahma known by the designation of Sukrita—is immutable and indomitable;
that bestower of boons on those sages who perform penances living upon
the juice of the Soma plant and the beams of the moon; may that Being
nourish me with his Eternal Energy! (32) He who is demonstrated in the
Atharva Veda; He whose heads²⁹⁵ are beautiful, He who is the origin of
the beings, who is accomplished, heroic, and destroyer of the Danavas;
He who in sacrifices is the sanctified sacrificial burnt offering;—I do
seek the refuge of that Divine Being, the Lord of the universe (33). He
in whom this illusory universal net is woven; He who is the universe and
its soul; He who discovers happiness for his votaries and travels in a
vehicle that soars high in the heavens; may that Lord of the universe be
ever graciously pleased with me, (or be the source of constant happiness
to me) (34). I do bow down to the furious Mahādeva who wanders in our
hearts, who is Absolute Intelligence whose branches (the Vedas that have
come out of Him) are all beautiful, who is the highly powerful leader of
virtue, worshipful, thousand-eyed, distributer of fruits of actions done
in a hundred different ways, and who is the creator of the worlds (35).
He that is pure (unconsorted) attainable through Yoga, praised in the
Vedas, beyond the reach of sin, the cause of destruction, the source of
the world’s weal and woe, the Lord of all creation, the upholder of the
burden of the universe, the master of the senses, and the resort of the
destructive agencies (such as time, &c.,) I do approach, with a bent
head, that god whose forehead is beautified with a crescent (36). He who
wields the trident, who gives fruition (of acts) soon, who reduces the
influence of the evil passions and increases such qualities as quietude,
&c., who is identical with such pious acts as sacrifices, &c., who is
that quality of religious merit through which sins dwindle away soon,
who is the recipient of the fruits of religious merit consequent on
deeds performed with sanctity and the principle of goodness, who is the
real essence of all, and who has taken the vow (of purity)—I do seek
protection from him (37). He who is infinite in energy, who is the
upholder of all actions, the Primary Being, who is (unlike other gods)
free from sacrificial modes, and is endowed with knowledge—He who is the
cause of the commencement of sacrifices by sacrificial priests, the
eater of sacrificial _Havis_; who is the first-born in the universe, and
the eldest of creation, and who is like a Brāhmana among the pious—I do
seek his refuge (38). He who transcends the _Gunas_ (the elements of
creation), who is like Vishnu the son of Prisni, who transcends the
illusory creation—and agitates the universe through his beatitude, whose
semblance is charming; who is of pure self, who is also—but
intelligence, who practises _Maya_ in dealing with the wicked—I bow down
to him (39). I bow down to Him who is the Omkara of half syllables of
the Yogis who is free from harmful acts and the identity of Virtue, who
is firm in vow, and in (handing) the bow, who is the act of throwing,
who is heroic, accomplished in bowmanship, beyond the reach of weapons
and the Lord of the living creation, and its destroyer (40). He who is
without a second (sole matchless) the friend of all, the past and the
future, the discoverer of _Havi_, (sacrificial burnt offerings), in the
shape of fire, the destroyer of all passions as lust, &c., the slayer of
Rākshasas, who is undivisible, and the divider,—may that illustrious God
protect me (41). That one Lord of the worlds, who though one—enters into
every thing of the universe, that one who gave the vital breaths
(Maruts) their life, breath, (i.e., he who is the life of life), he who,
out of his innate harmlessness, is ever attended upon by friendliness
and amiability, may that god of good actions lead me to-day to blessings
and happiness (42). He, who in the shape of Brahmā, created the
Satyaloka together with the essence of goodness, and the entire illusory
universe, who is all-cognizant and the knower of Brahma and is endowed
with six excellences, whose semblance is numerous, in his different
enemy-destroying incarnations, may that god protect me! (43) He who is
the revealer of the supersensuous and the sensuous objects, who is
increate and self-sufficient, who is entire and undivided who is in
contact with the sense-objects, the granter of prosperities, the giver
of life, the wearer of deer-skin, who is Supreme Ecstacy, the life of
the blowing winds, the receptacle of conception, the creator of
happiness—may that Lord bless me accompanied by his two wives (44). He
who posseses three eyes, who gives nourishment, who, to inculcate
religion to the twice-born ones, accords boons to the sacrificers, He
who is the most excellent of the excellent the winner of victory in
battles, the Lord, the God of the gods,—I resort to the protection of
that Rudra (45). He that is the mouth of the gods in the shape of fire,
the destroyer of the evil doers, who is the _Soma_ sacrifice, the
annihilator of the tree of Mundane Existence, the witness of all the
actions, the source of dissolution of all things,—I seek refuge with
that Lord of Beings, Rudra, the knower of the _Gunas_ and their
repository (46). He who is prideless, the performer of sacrifices, the
beginning, the middle and the end of the worlds, the condition of peace
and unification,—he who is sung in the sacrifices prescribed in the
Vedas as numerous different gods, and He who is the regulator even of
the celestial world, I seek refuge with that Rudra (47). He who is the
wearer of the elephant-skin, the performer of vows and observances, who
is decorated with a zone, who is easily pleasable, the controller of
anger free from sin, ever-existent, and the Supreme Soul, who is
immanent in Nature, the wearer of matted locks, I bow, down to that
Lord, the adorable of the adorable (48). The god of gods, the holy of
holies, the sacrifice of sacrifices, the greatest of the great, He of
hundred (infinite) semblances, the Master of all the masters of the
senses, (i.e., eye of eyes, ear of ears, &c.,) the ever-praised one, I
seek refuge with him. (49). He who is the wonder of all hearts, the
Purusha of mysterious appellation, the self-manifest _Pranava_, who is
revealed even in the absence of such revealing agencies as light and the
eyes, &c., and He, who is the potent cause of the divine image known as
_Jiva_, I bow down to that god endued with the qualities and the
repository of all bliss (50). He who is the producer of the both (matter
and mind) but is himself unproduced, (or He from whom matter and mind
have been born but who did not produce them, He transcending all causes)
who is subtle (inconceivable) and simultaneously the same with and
different from all created beings (unified and differentiated) who is
self-existent, the place of dissolution of existence, the benign Giver
who is sweetness, ecstacy and beatitude, may He protect me (51). He who
is near to every body, and revealed to those who are possessed of
_Sadhana_, who is the bestower of such knowledge as ’I am absolute’, to
those who reverentially believe in Him, the presiding Deity of the great
and the good actions, He who is fulfiller of the desires and the
fulfillment of the Six Excellences, may that Lord protect me (52). He
who is destroyer of the mental and physical sources of pain, the
efficient as well as the material cause, the evolver (of the passions)
may that God of gods, that one possessed of Supreme Energy, cut off the
cause of pain of me and of the pious, wielding his potent weapons (53).
By whom in the days of yore the guileful Danavas who used to give much
pain to the gods, were cut with dreadful arrows and eradicated as so
many thorns, may that upholder of the water of the universe, that
Supreme Lord, protect me! (54)
"The destroyer with whom, when he was desirous of abolishing the portion
of the sacrificial offerings of the God, the sacrificer Daksha sought
refuge,—may that Lord of sacrifices, the beginning and the end of all
things, the destroyer of Daksha’s sacrifice—the all-intelligent one,
protect me (55). He that creates and annihilates the world, that mystery
of mysteries, that one possessed of primary notions, who although
different from all things in the shape of Vishnu is present in the
sacrifices and is the principal resort of the Six Excellences, may that
God Narayana, protect my son Indra (56). The three conditions of the
_Gunas_, _viz._, creation, existence, and annihilation, eternally live
in him, the principle of Excellence (Sattwa) proceeds from his nature;
He is the protector of the protectors of the world, the destroyer of the
wicked doers, in the shape of Rudra, the Beginning of the universe and
the annihilator of the oppressors of the world (57). He whose very small
part is Vishnu of Infinite Forms, He, into whose residence Brahmā and
his sons and the Brāhmanas headed by Marichi although born from him, are
incapable of entering, may that protector of the pious, together with
the goddess Umā be pleased with me (58). He, from whom the elements²⁹⁶
have sprung, who maintains them, and in whom they become merged (in the
form of destruction) He, that is the power of retention, the prosperity,
and the revelation of mysteries to that high-souled person who devoutly
seeks the Supreme Being—surely that God will put an end to all our
miseries (59). The whole male creation, of the universe, is identical
with the three-eyed God, and the female portion—is the goddess Umā, the
holder of all. There does not in the universe exist any one who may be
their third. Mahādeva only is the supreme Brahma, and he is the every
thing and the lord of every thing" (60)
Thus eulogised the almighty God, of the emblem of the bull, that soul of
virtue, revealed Himself to Kashyapa that foremost of the upholders of
virtue (61). With a pleased heart, that lord of the gods then thus spoke
to Kashyapa:—"O Creator of the worlds (Prajāpati), I know the reason why
you are praying to me (62). The high-souled gods Indra and Upendra will
both be tranquilized; but the illustrious Janārddana will carry off the
Pārijāta tree (63). O Kashyapa! Mahendra was cursed by the sage Devasomā
(Goutoma) of high-penance—for having desired connexion with his wife;
(this present calamity is the result of that curse) (64). O virtuous
one!—Now do you go accompanied by Aditi to the daughter of Daksha, at
the residence of Sakra; surely your two sons will be attended with
blessings" (65). Having heard those words of the God Hara, that son of
the son of the lotus-born one, that incomparable one—the blessed
Kashyapa went to the abode of the gods, with a delighted heart and bowed
down to that preceptor of celestials Mahādeva (66).
²⁹³ Reference is to the story of the occupation of the three
worlds,—the heaven, the earth, and the nether regions by the three
feet of Krishna, in his dwarf incarnation-shorn of metaphor, it
refers to the doctrine of universal _maya_ inculcated in the
Upanishads.
²⁹⁴ The reference is to the text of Sruti.
²⁹⁵ Refers to the five Koshas or "Sheaths" of the self, mentioned in
the Upanishadas, vis, the Corporeal (Dehamaya), the Vital
(Pranamaya), the Sensorial (Manomaya), the Conceptual
(Vijnanmaya), and the Blissful (Anandamaya).
²⁹⁶ These according to the Hindu philosophy are five namely-Earth,
water, fire, wind and the sky.