॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
॥ सप्तमोऽध्यायः ॥
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Discourse VII
The story of Bharata (Preamble)
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श्रीशुक उवाच ।
भरतस्तु महाभागवतो यदा भगवतावनितल-
परिपालनाय सञ्चिन्तितस्तदनुशासनपरः
पञ्चजनीं विश्वरूपदुहितरमुपयेमे ॥ १॥
तस्यामु ह वा आत्मजान् कार्त्स्न्येनानुरूपा-
नात्मनः पञ्च जनयामास भूतादिरिव
भूतसूक्ष्माणि सुमतिं राष्ट्रभृतं सुदर्शनमावरणं
धूम्रकेतुमिति ॥ २॥
अजनाभं नामैतद्वर्षं भारतमिति यत आरभ्य
व्यपदिशन्ति ॥ ३॥
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Śrī Śuka began again : When Bharata, who was a great devotee of the Lord, was mentally appointed by Lord Rṣabhadeva (before He retired to the woods) to the rulership of the earth (the kingdom of his father), he married Pañcajanī, a daughter of Viśwarūpa, intent as he was on obeying the command of the Lord. (1)
Even as Ahaṅkāra (the source of the subtle elements) begets the five subtle elements, he (too) begot through her five sons—Sumati, Rāṣṭrabhṛt, Sudarśana, Āvaraṇa and Dhūmraketu by name—who were entirely after him. It is from his time that they call this Varṣa (subdivision of Jambūdwīpa)—(heretofore) known by the name of Ajanābha—as Bhārata. (2-3) (1-3)
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स बहुविन्महीपतिः पितृपितामहवदुरुवत्सलतया
स्वे स्वे कर्मणि वर्तमानाः प्रजाः स्वधर्ममनुवर्तमानः
पर्यपालयत् ॥ ४॥
ईजे च भगवन्तं यज्ञक्रतुरूपं क्रतुभिरुच्चावचैः
श्रद्धयाऽऽहृताग्निहोत्रदर्शपूर्णमासचातुर्मास्य-
पशुसोमानां प्रकृतिविकृतिभिरनुसवनं
चातुर्होत्रविधिना ॥ ५॥
सम्प्रचरत्सु नानायागेषु विरचिताङ्गक्रियेष्वपूर्वं
यत्तत्क्रियाफलं धर्माख्यं परे ब्रह्मणि यज्ञपुरुषे
सर्वदेवतालिङ्गानां मन्त्राणामर्थनियामकतया
साक्षात्कर्तरि परदेवतायां भगवति वासुदेव एव
भावयमान आत्मनैपुण्यमृदितकषायो
हविःष्वध्वर्युभिर्गृह्यमाणेषु स यजमानो यज्ञभाजो
देवांस्तान् पुरुषावयवेष्वभ्यध्यायत् ॥ ६॥
एवं कर्मविशुद्ध्या विशुद्धसत्त्वस्यान्तर्हृदयाकाश-
शरीरे ब्रह्मणि भगवति वासुदेवे महापुरुषरूपो-
पलक्षणे श्रीवत्सकौस्तुभवनमालादरगदादिभि-
रुपलक्षिते निजपुरुषहृल्लिखितेनात्मनि पुरुषरूपेण
विरोचमान उच्चैस्तरां भक्तिमनुदिनमेधमान-
रजयाजायत ॥ ७॥
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Remaining devoted to his duty like his father (Lord Rṣabha) and grandfather (king Nābhi), the said monarch, who possessed an extensive knowledge and was extremely fond of his subjects, duly protected the people, who (strictly) adhered each to his prescribed duty. (4)
He also worshipped, with (due) reverence at the appointed hours, the Lord appearing (both) in the form of Yajñas (sacrificial performances conducted without the Yūpa or sacrificial post) and Kratus (those distinguished by the presence of such a post) through sacred rites (both) big and small—in the form of Agnihotra, Darśa, Pūrṇamāsa, Cāturmāsya and Paśusoma of both kinds—those complete in every detail and those lacking in some particular—undertaken under proper authority and performed with the co-operation of four officiating priests (viz., a Hotā, an Adhwaryu, an Udgātā and a Brahmā*). (5)
When the various sacrificial performances were duly carried on with special attention to all supplementary rites, and when the Adhwaryus took the oblations (in their hands in order to pour them into the sacred fire), the said sacrificer (Emperor Bharata), mentally offered the reward, which was expected from a particular sacrifice, in the form of a virtue known by the name of Dharma (religious merit), entirely to Lord Vāsudeva, the transcendent Reality and the Supreme Deity, who is not only the Soul of sacrifices but their actual doer too, being the Ruler of the gods represented by the several Mantras (sacred texts) symbolic of the different deities. And his passions (in the form of likes and dislikes) having been attenuated by his sagacity (in offering the fruit to the Lord), he contemplated on the deities enjoying a share in the sacrificial offering as so many limbs of (rather than as so distinct from) the Supreme Person. (6)
When his mind was thus thoroughly purified through the extreme purity of his actions, there arose (in his heart) loving devotion—which grew exceptionally intense everyday—to Lord Vāsudeva, the transcendent Reality, appearing in the space within his heart in the form of the Supreme Person (Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa), distinguished by the mark of Śrīvatsa (the foot-print of Bhrgu), the gem known by the name of Kaustubha, a wreath of sylvan flowers, a discus, a mace and so on, nay, remaining immovable like a portrait in the heart of his devotees and shining brightly in his own mind as the Inner Controller. (7)
- The duties of all these have been mentioned in the footnote on I. iv. 19.
(4-7)
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एवं वर्षायुतसहस्रपर्यन्तावसितकर्मनिर्वाणावसरो-
ऽधिभुज्यमानं स्वतनयेभ्यो रिक्थं पितृपैतामहं
यथादायं विभज्य स्वयं सकलसम्पन्निकेतात्पुलहाश्रमं
प्रवव्राज ॥ ८॥
यत्र ह वाव भगवान् हरिरद्यापि तत्रत्यानां निजजनानां
वात्सल्येन सन्निधाप्यत इच्छारूपेण ॥ ९॥
यत्राश्रमपदान्युभयतो नाभिभिर्दृषच्चक्रैश्चक्रनदी
नाम सरित्प्रवरा सर्वतः पवित्रीकरोति ॥ १०॥
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Having concluded at the end of ten million years that the store of merit responsible for his royal fortune must have thus been exhausted by that time, he proportionately divided among his own sons the hereditary fortune he had been legitimately enjoying (till then), and himself retired as a recluse from his own residence, which was the abode of all prosperity, to the hermitage of the sage Pulaha (situated on the bank of the river Gaṇḍaki and known as the Śālagrāmakṣetra*). (8)
Impelled by His paternal affection for His own devotees residing in that hermitage, it is said, Lord Śrī Hari reveals Himself there in their desired form even today. (9)
The holy river Cakranadi (Gaṇḍaki or Gaṇḍaka) hallows on all sides the (various) places of this hermitage through contact with circular (wheel-like) pebbles having nave-like marks on both sides (above as well as below). (10) (8-10)
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तस्मिन् वाव किल स एकलः पुलहाश्रमोपवने
विविधकुसुमकिसलयतुलसिकाम्बुभिः कन्दमूल-
फलोपहारैश्च समीहमानो भगवत आराधनं विविक्त
उपरतविषयाभिलाष उपभृतोपशमः परां
निर्वृतिमवाप ॥ ११॥
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Duly performing all alone the worship of the Lord through flowers and tender leaves of various kinds, particularly the leaves of the holy basil plant, and water as well as through edibles such as bulbs, roots and fruits, in a lonely retreat in the grove of the said hermitage, Bharata was rid of all craving for the pleasures of sense and, developing (great) tranquillity of mind, derived supreme gratification. (11)
- So-called because it abounds in Śālagrāma-Śīlās or sacred stones symbolic of Lord Viṣṇu and found rolling in the bed of the river Gaṇḍaki.
(11)
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तयेत्थमविरतपुरुषपरिचर्यया भगवति प्रवर्धमाना-
नुरागभरद्रुतहृदयशैथिल्यः प्रहर्षवेगेनात्मन्युद्भिद्य-
मानरोमपुलककुलकौत्कण्ठ्यप्रवृत्तप्रणयबाष्पनिरुद्धा-
वलोकनयन एवं निजरमणारुणचरणारविन्दानुध्यान-
परिचितभक्तियोगेन परिप्लुतपरमाह्लादगम्भीरहृदय-
ह्रदावगाढधिषणस्तामपि क्रियमाणां भगवत्सपर्यां
न सस्मार ॥ १२॥
इत्थं धृतभगवद्व्रत ऐणेयाजिनवाससानुसवनाभिषेकार्द्र-
कपिशकुटिलजटाकलापेन च विरोचमानः सूर्यर्चा
भगवन्तं हिरण्मयं पुरुषमुज्जिहाने सूर्यमण्डलेऽभ्युपतिष्ठ-
न्नेतदु होवाच ॥ १३॥
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His heart melted and was benumbed (as it were) under the pressure of exceptionally increasing love for the Lord, occasioned by incessant worship of the Supreme Person carried on in the aforesaid manner. The hair stood on their end all over his body as a result of intense delight; his eyes were bedimmed by tears of love proceeding from an ardent longing (to meet the Lord); and his consciousness being drowned in the deep lake of his heart, brimming over with supreme felicity flowing from devotion—which was enriched by constant thought of the feet of his beloved Lord, red as a lotus—he forgot even the worship that was being done by him as aforesaid. (12)
Having thus undertaken vows of propitiating the Lord and looking very bright in his covering of deerskin and with his head of tawny, curly and matted hair wet through ablutions performed thrice (everyday), he waited upon the all-effulgent Lord Nārāyaṇa (the Supreme Person)—as manifested in the orb of the rising sun—with hymns addressed to the sun-god and prayed as follows :— (13) (12-13)
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परो रजः सवितुर्जातवेदो
देवस्य भर्गो मनसेदं जजान ।
सुरेतसादः पुनराविश्य चष्टे
हंसं गृध्राणं नृषद्रिङ्गिरामिमः ॥ १४॥
इति श्रीमद्भागवते महापुराणे पारमहंस्यां संहितायां
पञ्चमस्कन्धे भरतचरिते भगवत्परिचर्यायां सप्तमोऽध्यायः ॥ ७॥
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The Light (constituting the very essence) of the sun-god, which lies beyond the material plane (is made up of Sattva unmixed with Rajas and Tamas), dispenses the fruit of our actions, it is the same Light which evolved this (phenomenal) universe by Its mere thought and again, entering it (as Its Inner Controller), protects the Jīva, seeking Its protection, with Its power of consciousness. We resort to that Light, which propels our intellect.* (14)
This explains the meaning of the holy Gāyatri-Mantra.
Thus ends the seventh discourse, forming part of the story of Emperor Bharata, dealing (mainly) with the worship of the Lord, in Book Five of the great and glorious Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, otherwise known as the Paramahārṣa-Sarhhitā.* (14)
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