The Bhagavata Purana
by G. V. Tagare | 1950 | 780,972 words | ISBN-10: 8120838203 | ISBN-13: 9788120838208
This page describes Conjectures of Yudhishthira which is chapter 14 of the English translation of the Bhagavata Purana, one of the eighteen major puranas containing roughly 18,000 metrical verses. Topics include ancient Indian history, religion, philosophy, geography, mythology, etc. The text has been interpreted by various schools of philosophy. This is the fourteenth chapter of the First Skandha of the Bhagavatapurana.
Chapter 14 - Conjectures of Yudhiṣṭhira
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
Sūta said:
1-2. When Arjuna (lit. the victorious) left for Dvārakā to see the relatives and to know the actions (and intentions) of Kṛṣṇa of holy reputation, several months elapsed, but Arjuna did not return. Then Yudhiṣṭhira (the foremost of the Kurus) saw omens of terrific nature.
3-5. (He observed):
The terrible state of Time in which the nature of the seasons was reversed, more sinful behaviour of people full of wrath, avarice, falsehood, crooked ways of the world, friendship mixed with dishonesty (fraud), quarrels among father, mother, friends, brothers and between husband and wife, advent of evil time, extremely dreadful unlucky portents, nature of the people characterised by avarice, (so) the king spoke to his younger brother (Bhīma).
Yudhiṣṭhira said:
6. Arjuna (the Victorious) has been sent to Dvārakā with a desire to see our kinsmen and to know the deeds of Kṛṣṇa of auspicious glory.
7. Oh Bhīmasena, seven months are now over, but your younger brother (Arjuna) has not returned, nor do I really understand its reason.
8. Has the period predicted by the divine sage (Nārada) arrived now when the Lord desires to quit his body, which is his instrument to play his part as man[1].
9. From whom (i.e. through the grace of Kṛṣṇa we got) wealth, kingdom, wife, life, family and subjects. Due to whose (Kṛṣṇa’s) favour we (achieved) victory over the enemies and the world.
10. Oh tiger-like man (Bhīma), look at the terribly ominous portents pertaining to the heaven, the earth and my body forboding calamity befalling (deluding) our intellect in near future.
11. Oh Bhīma, my (left) thigh, eye and arm are now and then throbbing. And tremblings in the heart portend evil happenings in near future. [These evil omens will bring evil unto me in near future.]
12. This female jackal vomit ting fire, howls (wailingly) at the rising sun. Oh Bhīma, this dog wails at me without any fear.
13. Auspicious beasts go by my left, while others (like donkeys etc.) pass me by the right side. Oh tiger among men (Bhīma), I perceive that my horses are weeping.
14. This pigeon is the messenger of death. The owl which causes my mind to tremble and the crow, both sleepless (throughout the night) desire (as it were) to annihilate (the universe) by their ominous cries.
15. The quarters (of the world are) foggy; misty halos appear round the moon and the Sun[2], the earth along with the mountains is quaking; there fell a bolt from the blue along with the thundering of the clouds.
16. The rough wind blows darkening (the world) with the dust; the clouds are showering nauseating blood all around.
17. Look, the Sun is dim (lit. bereft of its splendour); there is a mutual clash of the planets in the sky. The heaven and the earth are as if ablaze with crowds of evil spirits[3].
18. Rivers, big and small, lakes and minds as well are agitated. The fife does not burn with ghee. (I cannot comprehend) what (calamity) this period would bring.
19. The babies (or calves) are not sucking (their mothers’) breasts (or udders of cows—in the case of calves). The mothers are not yielding milk. In the cow sheds the cows weep with tearful faces and the bulls are not joyous.
20. Idols of Gods are as if weeping, perspiring and moving. What calamity to these charmless, cheerless countries, towns, villages, gardens, mines and hermitages indicates to us?
21. On account of these portentous phenomena boding great calamities, I guess that the earth, being deprived of the Lord’s feat the beauty of which is unique (lit. not found in any other person), has become luckless (now).”
22. In this way, Oh Brāhmaṇa, while the king was thinking with his mind which anticipated the befalling calamities, Arjuna (lit. the warrior with the monkey at the banner of his chariot) returned fromDvārakā (the capital city of the Yadus).
23-24. Seeing Arjuna, pale, feeble, shedding tears from his lotus-like eyes, with his head hung down, lying prostrate at his feet inan unusual manner, the king remembering the words of Nārada in the presence of his friends, spoke with a distressed heart.
Yudhiṣṭhira said:
25. Are our kinsmen Madhu, Bhoja, Daśārha, Arha, Sātvata, Andhaka and Vṛṣṇi living happily in Dvārakā (Ānartapurī)?
26. Or is our venerable maternal grandfather—Śūrasena hale and hearty? Is the maternal uncle Ānakadundubhi[4] (Vasudeva) along with his younger brothers, well?
27. Are his wives, our aunts, the seven sisters of whom Devakī is the chief, happy themselves, along with their sons and daughters-in-law?
28-29. Is the son-less (or whose son Kaṃsa was wicked) king Ahuka (Ugrasena) and his younger brother (Devaka) alive? Are Hṛdīka along with his son (Kṛtavarman), Akrura, Jayanta, Gada and Sāraṇa (brothers of Kṛṣṇa) and others like Śatrujit doing well? Is Lord Balarāma, the head of the Sātvata clan in happiness?
30-31. Is Pradyumna, a great warrior[5] among the Vṛṣṇis, well? Are glorious Aniruddha, of terrific speed (in fighting), Suṣeṇa (Kṛṣṇa’s son), Cārudeṣṇa, Sāmba, the son of Jāmbavatī, and other prominent sons of Kṛṣṇa like Vṛṣabha along with their sons going on well (lit. living happily)?
32. Similarly, are Kṛṣṇa’s followers such as Śrutadeva, Uddhava and others, and other prominent Yādavas like Sun- anda, Nanda, Śīrṣaṇya,
33. and all (others) depending on the power of arms of Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa hale and hearty? Do the Yādavas our firm allies and friends, think of our well-being?
34. Is lord Govinda (Kṛṣṇa) who is the friend and well- wisher of the Brāhmaṇas and affectionate to his devotees, at ease in the company of his friends in his assembly-hall called Sudharmā[6] in the city (of Dvārakā)?
35. The Primeval Man, the friend of Ananta (Balarāma) lives in the ocean of the Yadu clan for the welfare, protection and prosperity of the people.
36. In their own city (Dvārakā), protected by whose (Kṛṣṇa’s) arms, the Yādavas (who are) honoured (by the citizens) sport in delight (or pass their time in great happiness) like the followers of Viṣṇu[7] (the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha).
37. By defeating gods in a battle by their pre-eminent act of serving whose (Kṛṣṇa’s) feet, sixteen thousand ladies of whom Satyabhāmā was the first, took away (for their enjoyment) blessed objects (e.g. the Pārijāta tree) worthy of Indrāṇī.
38. Yādavas, the great warriors, dependent on the success of whose (Kṛṣṇa’s) arms and free from fear from any quarter, often tread on (and occupy seats in) the assemblyhall called Sudharmā, proper for the greatest among the gods, which (i.e. the assembly hall)they(the Yādavas) brought down (on the earth) by force.[8]
39. Dear brother[9], you appear to me pale (lit. one who has lost his lustre). Are you hale and hearty? Or did you. who stayed there over-long, not receive due respect and were insulted?
40. (I presume that) you were not hit at (treated) with harsh, bitter (lit. affection-less) words etc. Or have you not kept your word to suppliants after promising them (and thus creating hopes in them)?
41. Have you, the giver of protection, abandoned (i.e. refused to extend protection to) a Brāhmaṇa, a child, a cow, an old man, a diseased person, a woman or other being who sought your shelter?
42. Have you visited (i.e had an illicit intercourse with) a woman not deserving to be approached or a woman worth going but dressed in dirty clothes (i.e during her menses)? Or were you discomfited on the way by your equals (lit. nonsuperiors) or inferiors?
43. Have you taken your meals leaving behind (hungry) children and old men deserving to be fed? Have you committed some censurable act unworthy of you?
44. Are you always brooding; “I am now a nonentity[10] (as I am) permanently bereaved of the most beloved, intimate friend and personal relative (Kṛṣṇa)?” Otherwise there is no explanation of your (mental) affliction.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
ātmano... ut-sisṛkṣati—
(i) When he desires to leave the earth (which is his body), the arena of his sports—Padaratnāvalī
(ii) When he wishes to return his portion of Divinity to Vaikuṇṭha i.e. give up his mortal frame—VC.
[2]:
I followed ASDP on paridhayaḥ but Bhāvāratha Dīpikā differs. He explains, “As the halo of light encircles the fire,, the misty quarters have covered the world.”
[4]:
Vasudeva is so called as Gods beat the drums at the time of his birth as Lord Viṣṇu was to be incarnated as a son to him.
[5]:
[6]:
Sudharmā: The assembly-hall of Indra in heaven. At Kṛṣṇa’s behest, Indra sent it to Ugrasena for the use of Yādavas. After Kṛṣṇa’s death, it returned to Indra’s heaven.—DHM. 306.
[7]:
[8]:
According to Bhāvāratha Dīpikā verses 34 to 38 form one group.