Source
Texts:
S'ukadeva
Gosvâmî's Final Instructions to
Mahârâja Parîkshit
Text
1
S'rî
S'uka said: 'Already I have elaborately described the Supreme
Lord Hari, the Soul of Everyone from the satisfaction of whom
Lord Brahmâ was born [3.8]
from whose anger S'iva [3.12:
7]
took birth.
S'ukadeva
Gosvâmî said: This
S'rîmad-Bhâgavatam has elaborately described in
various narrations the Supreme Soul of all that be-the
Personality of Godhead, Hari-from whose satisfaction
Brahmâ is born and from whose anger Rudra takes
birth.
Text
2
O
King, you, thinking 'I am going to die', must give up this
animalistic mentality; you were not born in the past, nor are
you nonexistent today, nor will you, like the body is, be
destroyed [see also B.G.
2: 12
& 2:
20].
O
King, give up the animalistic mentality of thinking, "I am
going lo die." Unlike the body, you have not taken birth.
There was not a time in the past when you did not exist, and
you are not about to be destroyed.
Text
3
You will, like
a sprout from a seed, not come into being becoming your
children or assume the form of your grandchildren and so on;
you are as distinct from the body and what belomngs to it as a
fire is [from firewood
*].
You
will not take birth again in the form of your sons and
grandsons, like a sprout taking birth from a seed and then
generating a new seed. Rather, you are entirely distinct
from the material body and its paraphernalia, in the same
way that fire is distinct from its fuel.
Text
4
Because one,
alike in a dream seeing one's head cut off, is the witness of
one's own self composed of the five material elements, is
therefore the body it's soul undoubtedly unborn and immortal
[see also B.G.2:
22].
In
a dream one can see his own head being cut off and thus
understand that his actual self is standing apart from the
dream experience. Similarly, while awake one can see that
his body is a product of the five material elements.
Therefore it is to be understood that the actual self, the
soul, is distinct from the body it observes and is unborn
and immortal.
Text
5
When a pot is
broken remains the air in the pot the air as before; similarly
returns, when the body is given up, the individual soul to his
spiritual origin [brahma].
When
a pot is broken, the portion of sky within the pot remains
as the element sky, just as before. In the same way, when
the gross and subtle bodies die, the living entity within
resumes his spiritual identity.
Text
6
The mind is
causal to the bodies, the qualities and the activities of the
soul; while it is mâyâ, the illusory potency of the
Lord, that brings about the mind [through
ahankâra]
and thus the material existence of the individual living being
[see also 2.5:
25,
3.26:
31-32,
3.27:
2-5].
The
material bodies, qualities and activities of the spirit soul
are created by the material mind. That mind is itself
created by the illusory potency of the Supreme Lord, and
thus the soul assumes material existence.
Text
7
The combination
of oil, a vessel, a wick and fire is what one sees together in
the functioning of a lamp, similarly is there, developed and
destroyed by the action of the modes of passion, ignorance and
goodness, the material existence of [an individual soul
to] a functioning body.
A
lamp functions as such only by the combination of its fuel,
vessel, wick and fire. Similarly, material life, based on
the soul's identification with the body, is developed and
destroyed by the workings of material goodness, passion and
ignorance, which are the constituent elements of the
body.
Text
8
The soul, that
is not there as the gross [deha]
or the subtle [linga],
is self-luminous, and thus, as unchanging as the sky, the basis
[âdhâra] eternal and beyond
comparison.
The
soul within the body is self-luminous and is separate from
the visible gross body and invisible subtle body. It remains
as the fixed basis of changing bodily existence, just as the
ethereal sky is the unchanging background of material
transformation. Therefore the soul is endless and without
material comparison.
Text
9
O prabhu, this
way in meditation upon Vâsudeva engaging your
intelligence in logical reasoning, consider carefully your true
self and how it with your mind is situated within the bodily
covering.
My
dear King, by constantly meditating upon the Supreme Lord,
Vâsudeva, and by applying clear and logical
intelligence, you should carefully consider your true self
and how it is situated within the material body.
Text
10
Takshaka
[the snake-bird] sent by the words of the brahmin
[1.18]
will not burn you; the agents of death cannot burn [you in
the role of] the self its Controller who is the very death
of these causes of death [see also 11.31:
12].
The
snake-bird Takshaka, sent by the curse of the
brâhmana, will not burn your true self. The agents of
death will never burn such a master of the self as you, for
you have already conquered all dangers on your path back to
Godhead.
Text
11-12
'I
am the Original Spirit Supreme, the Abode of the Absolute, I am
the Supreme Destination'; with this consideration placing
yourself within the Supreme Self free from material
designations, will you, with the entire world thus separate
from the self, not even notice Takshaka and your body when he,
licking his lips and with his mouth full of poison, bites your
foot.
You
should consider, "I am nondifferent from the Absolute Truth,
the supreme abode, and that Absolute Truth, the supreme
destination, is nondifferent from me." Thus resigning
yourself to the Supreme Soul, who is free from all material
misidentifications, you will not even notice the snake-bird
Takshaka when he approaches with his poison-filled fangs and
bites your foot. Nor will you see your dying body or the
material world around you, because you will have realized
yourself to be separate from them.
Text
13
My
dear, what do you more want to hear to this what I to your
questions, o King, narrated of the pastimes of the Lord?'
Beloved
King Parîkshit, I have narrated to you the topics you
originally inquired about-the pastimes of Lord Hari, the
Supreme Soul of the universe. Now, what more do you wish to
hear?
*
In the s'ruti-mantra it is said: pitâ putrena
pitrimân yoni-yonau: "A father has a father in his
son, because he may take birth as his own grandson."
