Haribhakti-sudhodaya

by Tridandi Sri Bhakti Prajnan Yati Maharaj | 1999 | 62,837 words

The English translation of the Haribhakti-subhodaya (part of the Naradiya-purana), which illustrates the lives of Sri Dhruva, Sri Prahlada and such others. The Hari-bhakti-subhodaya also details the glory of Tulasi (Ocimum tenuiflorum, holy basil) and Ashvattha (Ficus religiosa, Peepul tree). Finally, it expounds Prema-bhakti (loving devotion). Al...

Go directly to: Concepts.

1-2. Sri Narada said: While Lord Sri Narayana, affectionate to His devotees and Bestower of boons, observed the most austere penance of the child Dhruva as He was stationed in this unflinching heart, riding on Garuda He soon started for Madhuvana. He appeared with His Transcendental most luminous Divinity, dazzling with a diadem set with most precious gems of variegated colours. On every part of His Body there shone brilliantly ornaments beset with pearls, gems etc. He was in His Bliss-showering.impending-rain showering-cloud Hue. He appeared more shining than a thousand rising suns, that too this comparison is not at all proper.

3. His Bliss-showering Face was marvellously illumited with His dazzling ear pendants—as it were, just at the very rising of the sun the lotus is blossomed forth.

4. The most affectionate Lord with a view to make Dhruva drink deep through the cup of his eyes the Nectar that flows from His very Person appeared before Dhruva with all His Divine Splendour.

5. As the tree is enriched when its branches are laden with the fruits that brings delight to the gardener, so too Bhagavan Sri Narayana, the Wish-yielding-Tree for His devotees appeared with all His Blissful Splendour having His all the Arms bedecked with dazzlingly shining ornaments.

6. The Lotus Feet of God Which are the final Resorts for the devotees appeared more glorious with the most brilliantly shining Nails that are the very Repository of all Divine Beauty and Glories and Which are ever worshipped by the wise.

7-9. With His smiling Countenance the Lord, as it were, His snow-white Teeth were emitting the Bliss that bathed the child Dhruva, The Lord spoke to Dhruva so saying, ‘Darling Dhruva you may beg from Me the highest boon. Whatever you desire you may pray for. By your, sincere Sadhana you have brought under control your senses and made your heart unstinted therefore I am pleased with you. No doubt pilgrimage to sacred places, Tapasya, vows, yajna and truthfulness—are the different methods to approach Me, but those are the long ways. Whereas easily I am attained by one who takes recourse to contemplation upon Me.

10. O dear Dhruva, if one keeping full control over his breathing, contemplates upon Me uninteruptedly, I instantly send My Sudarsana Discus who constantly remains by his side and he is protected by all means.

11. Darling, When one, imbued with intuitive wisdom destroying the quagmire of muya fully concentrates upon Me, and knows nothing else, I, feel intent to bestow upon him My choicest Blessings. Therefore you may readily ask for any boon from Me’.

12. Sri Dhruva heard these words while he was still in deep contemplation but he soon opened his eyes and could see the very same Divinity with His Divine illustrious Transcendental Form and with four Arms standing before him.

13. He was excited with awe and reverenee at the very sight of the Lord, but unable to extol Him as He was struck with spiritual perturbations.

Joyful tears rolled down his cheeks, and hairs stood on their ends. He simply uttered, ‘Lord be gracious’ and with his trembling body soon fell in prostration at His Lotus Feet. H

15. The most affectionate God said, “Darling, You have undergone great hardship in observing the penance” and then by His Own Blissful Lotus Hands lifted him up from the ground.

16. The Lord Who is enthroned in his unstinted heart could study that Dhruva was desirous of extolling Him, Most graciously bestowed on him intuitive wisdom by touching his cheeks with His Divine Conch which is the very personification of wisdom.

17. The initation that Dhruva had from the Rishis that already made his heart unstinted and now being prompted by God Himself instantly the boy Dhruva became endowed with full wisdom of the Transcendental Reality as well as of the spiritual characteristic of jiva soul and also power of speech to extol the exalted Lord. Overwhelmed with high devotional sentiment he began to extol the Exalted Lord by recitation of glorious hymns.

18. Dhruva said: ‘O Blissful Lord with your four Arms holding conch, discuss, mace and lotus, the very symbols of grace, all glory to You. O the Refuge, Your devotees are ever content being recipient of Your Benedication. May Your Glory shine forth, You are the All-pervading and Indwelling Monitor of all. There is nothing unknown to You. O Narayana, you are only the Lord to be worshipped by all and are the Refuge of the self-surrendered souls. I make myself fully surrendered to You.

19. Lord hail to you, it is You alone having evolved the Mahat-tatva of Your maya and all these other substances like the jivas, Purusha, Time enter them as their Inner-controller. You are the Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer of the universe. The sentient beings as well as non-sentient beings—both are superintended by You only. Without Your grace how can one have full knowledge of this philosophy?

20. O Lord, You are the Embodiment of Transcendental wisdom and never Your wisdom is eclipsed. Though You are Transcendental but people steeped in maya consider You otherwise. Even the wise are puzzled to realise Your True Divine Charasteristic. O Lord, being devoid of devotion to Your Lotus Feet even men who are proud of their Vedic learnings cannot meet the end of their cycling of life of transmigration.

21. O Lord of the universe, through Your maya You create the universe and it is Your maya who illusions the jivas but maya cannot create any influence over You even when You make Your Descents on earth in Your variegated Forms. Sun shines over the barren lands and also through its rays it evaporates the water of the sea, but by all these acts sun itself never is polluted; accordingly Your stay within the universe or in Your Transcendental Sphere matters nothing to You. Everywhere Your Supermundane characteristic is maintained.

23. We have heard that the gods of the heaven worship You out of fear because they know You as the Punisher and Protector of the world whereas the sages and seers take their final Refuge knowing You, the Blissful Supreme, God head, the Bestower of beatitude of life, the eternal Bliss. I make my obeisance to You as immanent and Transcendent God.

23. O Bestower of boons, You are Anantadeva, You make Yourself present anywhere and everywhere and You can hear anything and everything and see anything and everything because You have got thousands of Heads, thousand of Eyes and thousands of Feet. But abstruse Jnanis say that You are Attributeless Brahman viz. You have got no Leg, no Hand, no Form etc. No doubt the Shruti says so, whereas Shruti thereby only makes us understand that You are devoids of any corporeal or celestial body but You ever have got most illustrious Transcendental Supramundane Form.

24. O Lord, as the bubbles on the sheets of water of the sea look different from the sea, in the same way this created universe is appearing within Your cosmic form. The universe cannot exist without Your substratum, when it enters into dissolution it rests in You.

25. Time to time You incarnate Yourself in Your variegated Forms, like Yuga-avataras, Guna-Avataras. Manvantara-avataras, Lila-Avataras, Shaktavesha Avataras, Naimittika Avataras so and so forth for protecting the world. Your potencies are innumerable and Your Process is endless. Through your supralogical Power (Yogamaya) You descent and destroy the wicked and protect the righteous ones. You bestow intuitive wisdom to Your supplicants and help them to attain final beatitude in their lives, whereas those who are averse to You are provided by You with the ephemeral world possessions such as wife, children, wealth etc.

26. O Lord of Lakshmi, when by Your mere Will the creation aud destruction of the entire world takes place then Your bestowing the boons to Your devotees in their fulfilment of desires or to destroy the wicked—these Acts of Yours are not to be so glorious. It has got too little value to extol You by referring to Your these Acts but I see splendid Glories of Your Transcendental Pastimes. Therefore I am immersed in that Ocean of Bliss of Your Divine Exploits.

27. O the Lord of the three worlds viz. Who rules over Chit- jagat and mayic-jagat You hold Panchajanya conch which is white like jasmine flower. Your Countenance is like Blissshowering full-moon. You hold in Your beautiful Hand the Sudarsana Discus, and a dazzling gemset necklace hangs from Your Neck. The wise like honey drinking bees have taken shelter at Your Lotus Feet, so I too surrender myself at Your Lotus Feet.

29. O Lord, desiring to gain the celestial world I commenced My Tapasya. But by the unreserved grace of the holy ones I have been given the rarest chance to have the gracious Vision of Your Transcendental illustrious Blissful Divinity Which rarely can be had even by the seers and sages. What a foot I was, alas, I was merely searching for a piece of glass but due to the Providence that acted upon my fortune I now could find inexhaustible mine of gems. O Lord I owing to my stupidity and misfortune, have begged for fulfilment of worldly desires from You, the Blissful Lord, Who readily desired to grant me the summum bonum of all my ambitions. I do not crave for anything else. O Lord of Trancendence, the Beauty of Your Lotus Feet are now the Supreme Object of my attraction, therefore ever pray that, I should not forget Them. My cups are full, I have got no want to be fulfilled. Should 1 be such a fool that when I possess a wish-yielding tree should beg for empty husk?

33. O Lord, You alone can bestow the final emancipation and none else. I take refuge at Your Blissful Lotus Feet, My heart is now completely cleansed. There is absolutely no desire in my heart for any enjoyment either mundane or celestial. O Lord, when gems are dazzling before my eyes how can my eyes have any attraction for any glass-piece.

31. O Lord, I do not pray for anything else but I crave that I should have unflinching devotion to Your Lotus Feet. O the Bestower of immortality, I fervently pray that nothing more should I beg for, except unswerving devotion at Your Lotus Feet!’

32. When thus with his spiritual enlightenment he supplicated to the Blissful Lord, the Lord wanted to show to the world how submissive are His devotees. So the Lord said, ‘Darling, yes, what you have said everything is perfect but I shall tell you some secret.

33. Nobody of the mundane and of the celestial world will be able to know about your spiritual achievement, therefore they may speculate that what is the achievement for one who worships Vishnu? So for the time being, I grant you the place viz. throne of your father, for which you first supplicated to Me but finally you will be attaining My Transcendental Abode.

34. The Place that finally you will attain will be Dhruvaloka, an Abode of Eternal Bliss and all the planets will shine being illumined by the effulgence of that Dhruva-loka. Your that Abode Dhruva-loka will not meet any dissolution even during the dissolution of the entire universe. All the celestials will pay their homage to you. Not only that, for ever your blessed mother Suniti also will attain that abode of peace and eternally will stay with you.’

35. After granting the boons and making him understand that even worldly possessions when granted by God Himself to His devotee becomes conducive to his spiritual attainment He left for His eternal Abode Vaikuntha with His Transcendental Form while Dhruva looked on.

36. Just then the celestials appeared in the sky and they could see Lord Sri Narayana ascending towards His Abode. They showered flowers on Dhruva knowing him a crest jewel devotee of the Lord and sang his glories.

37. Now Dhruva, the worthy son of Suniti became shining with his spiritual splendour. One who saw him and one who sings his praises attains longevity, fame and wealth beside spiritual merit.

38. It is no wonder that by supplicating to Sri Hari, Dhruva could attain such rare spiritual achievement. O Brahmin, when Almighty Lord Sri Hari is pleased there remains nothing more to be achieved? Therefore there remains nothing unattainable when Almighty Lord Sri Hari is in favour of one.

39. It is also a fact that although Lord Sri Hari is always graceful yet the means of attaining Him is most difficult and there are insurmountable obstacles. Those who take recourse to the path of devotion to Sri Hari generally are met with untimely sleep, lust, indolence and fear.

40. Ah. although Sri Hari is ever graceful, yet people are illusioned by the quagmire of maya which creates thousand and one obstacles and make them averse to Him. As the gem from the hood of the king of the serpent may rarely come to the possession of a most lucky one so too to attain God is the rare of the rarest fortune. Among the crores of the yogis rarely one can have that glorious chance to attain Him by dint of his unalloyed devotion to Him.

41. It is not possible for one to surmount the infatuation of lust, anger etc. It is only by the grace of Sri Hari one can overcome them. These lust, anger and thirst always try to deviate the mind of the aspirants from the concentration of Sri Hari. Most fortunate one who is always alert and keeps constant watch against the scrupulous movement of these enemies of the heart and by keeping himself fully engaged in steadfast devotion to Sri Hari only he achieves the final beatitude by conquering the invincible God.

42. The lust etc, six worst enemies of the heart ever prevent one to approach Sri Hari, as the proverb goes, the most mighty serpents prevent one to take possession of the hidden treasure. Only those who feast upon the remnants of the exalted crest jewel Paramabhagavata devotees of Sri Hari and thereby become spiritually illumined and forthwith root out from the heart the nescience the very seed of those propensities can easily attain Sri Hari. Therefore I pay my salutation to them and I crave their blessings.

43. Considering that the path of devotion to Sri Hari which is so hard to follow if one becomes indifferent to it, he is indeed most unfortunate and he ever misses the bus. Whereas who meeting all obstracles in life when endeavours with steadfast devotion to Sri Hari he is given all helping hand by God Himself noticing his sincerity and earnestness. And his achievment is hundred percent assured.

44. One who with faith and unstinted heart worships Sri Hari with steadfast devotion all the obstacles that stand on his path of progress are forthwith removed by God Himself. As the darkness cannot prevail where light burns, so too he whose heart is illumined with the effulgence of the spiritual wisdom how can the nescience of maya envelope him.

45. One being endowed with spiritual wisdom when hears this illustrious spiritual life of Sri Dhruva he will surely attain an eternal Abode as Sri Dhruva had, where from there will be no return and therefore he will be ever free from the quagmire of maya that creates all sufferings. He shall be a devotee of Sri Narayana like Sri Prahlada who was although born in the Asura clan.

Other Vaishnavism Concepts:

[back to top]

Discover the significance of concepts within the article: ‘Chapter 7’. Further sources in the context of Vaishnavism might help you critically compare this page with similair documents:

Sadhana, Maya, Madhuvana, Dhruvaloka, Yugavatara, Spiritual life, Lotus feet, Spiritual attainment, Sacred place, Emancipation, Eternal bliss, Eternal abode, Spiritual merit, Cosmic form, Divine grace, Spiritual path, Spiritual achievement, Divine beauty, Unflinching devotion, Mystical experience, Divine splendour, Surrendered soul, Ocean of bliss, Transcendental form, Spiritual enlightenment, Power of speech, Wish-yielding tree, Blissful Lord, Celestial world, Cosmic creation, Ultimate refuge, Transcendental abode, Divine splendor, Variegated form, Exalted Lord, Spiritual obstacles, Transcendental reality, Bestower of boon, Affectionate Lord, Divine exploits, Three-world, Glorious hymns, Spiritual perturbation.

Concepts being referred within the main category of Hinduism context and sources.

Transmigration, Vedic learning, Final beatitude, Spiritual wisdom, Steadfast devotion, Human condition, Spiritual soul.

Let's grow together!

I humbly request your help to keep doing what I do best: provide the world with unbiased sources, definitions and images. Your donation direclty influences the quality and quantity of knowledge, wisdom and spiritual insight the world is exposed to.

Let's make the world a better place together!

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: