Chapter 5 - Śuka’s Concluding Precept Concerning Brahman

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Śrī Śuka said:

1. (This Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa inspires fear-less-ness even from death as) herein every now and then is extolled the Almighty Lord Hari, the Soul and controller of the universe, of whose gracious joy (a trait of rajas) was born god Brahmā, the creator of the world and of whose anger was created Ṛuḍra, the destroyer of the world (and both are hence subordinate to and dependent on him).

2. O King! Please do give up this brute-like (foolish) notion (identifying the Soul with one’s physical body) that you will die. Unlike (your) body (which did not exist before the moment of its birth and hence shall naturally perish), you i.e. your soul did pre-exist (your physical body), is now in existence and shall never die (irrespective of what happens to your body).

3. You are quite distinct from your body, etc., just as fire (though potentially abiding in fuel) is distinct from the fuel. Hence, on the analogy of seeds and trees, you i.e. your soul (being once a father^[1]) shall not take the form of a son, a grandson, etc.

4. Just as a person sees in his dream that he is beheaded (when factually he is the unaffected party or a witness to the scene of cutting the head of his body in the dream state), so also in a state of wakefulness he sees the death of his body. But as a matter of fact the Soul (ātman) is neither born nor dead.

5. When an earthen pot is broken, the space enclosed within the pot becomes the same as before (the creation of that pot), in the same way when (after self-realization which destroys all Karmas) the body falls off, the individual soul becomes one with Brahman).^[2]

6. It is the Māyā that creates the mind^[3]. The mind creates these bodies, objects of senses and actions of the soul. Hence it is due to the Māyā that the jīva (individual soul) is involved in transmigration of saṃsāra.

7. Just as the light (of an oil-lamp) retains its characteristic of giving light so long as the fire (the flame of the lamp) is associated with the wick soaked in oil, supply of oil to the wick, a container—a storage for this oil supply, similarly, Karma is the oil, the mind, the container of the oil, the body, the wick and its contact with fire means relation to the spirit. The body comes into existence and dies through the actions of the guṇas rajas, Sattva and tamas.^[4]

8. The soul that is embodied does not cease to exist. For He is self-illuminating, distinct from and beyond gross (physical) and subtle, unmanifest (astral) bodies. Like the sky, he is the support (of everything else), eternal, endless, unparalleled and all pervasive.

9. Fully absorbed in the meditation on Vāsudeva and by means of your logical reasoning, do you yourself ponder over the self that is abiding in your body, O great king.

10. Impelled by the imprecation of that Brāhmaṇa, Takṣaka shall not be able to burn you^[5] (i.e. your soul). All the causes of death can never burn the supreme Lord who himself is the death of such agents of death.

11-12. “I am the Brahman. I am the Supreme abode. Brahman, the highest goal (to be reached) is I myself.” Having realized this and absorbing yourself in the Supreme Self which is beyond the limits or conditions, you will see neither Takṣaka who is biting you at the foot with poisonous fangs (or licking it with his poisonous mouth) nor your body nor the world as being distinct and separate from your own Ātman.

13. Dear Parīkṣit I All this has been elucidated to you as per enquiries made by you about the sportful activities of Lord Hari, the Soul of the Universe. What more do you wish to hear from me, O king!

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Bhāvāratha Dīpikā explains: The quotations from Śrutis e.g. ātmā vai putra-nāmāsi, support physical heredity and not a continuity of one’s soul—dehād deho jāyate na ātmā. Hence in this physical continuity of the race, the soul is not involved.

[2]:

Bhāgavata Candrikā: Becomes a mukta—an emancipated soul. Viśiṣṭādvaita presumes the continuity of the distinct identity of the soul even in the Mokṣa stage and not its absorption and loss in Paramātman.

[3]:

Padaratnāvalī: Māyā is the unintelligent (jaḍa) matter. So its creation—the mind—is also Jaḍa. The use of the Ātmanepaḍa sṛjate in tanmanaḥ sṛjate māyā, in the text of this verse indicates that it is due to the mind’s contact with the intelligent being that activates it and enables it do all these (Sṛjata ityātmane- pada-prayogeṇa cin-miśram mana iti sūcayati).

[4]:

The saṃsāra continues as long as the contact or influence of guṇas is there and the false presumption of the identity of the body and the soul persists. The saṃsāra like the lamp may cease to exist but the soul persists in existence despite the non-recurrcnce of the body.

[5]:

Bhāgavata Candrikā: You will not feel the snake-bite as the causes of death cannot affect God and you who are absorbed in his contemplation

Padaratnāvalī: Due to contemplation of God, Parīkṣit would be in the proximity of God.