srimadbhagavatham skandha 5-chapters 1 to 6

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Srimadbhagavatham- skandha5

 

Chapter1to 4- The story of Priyavratha and his descendents.

 

Priyavratha, the brother of Utthaanapaadha and the son of Svayambhuvamanu, was a great devotee of the Lord and wanted to do only Bagavath dhyana. But he was asked to rule the earth by his father and though he did not want to disobey his father he was afraid of accepting the worldly life because he thought that it may obstruct his spiritual progress, by inducing anaathma vishaya pravrtthi, activity towards non-self, resulting in miThyaa prapancha aasakthi, attachment to the illusory world. So he did penance and Brahma appeared in front of him and told him that even a realized soul will have to go on with the work started with his body though detached. For one who has no attachment the life of householder could not do any harm. Priyavratha , he said, has already conquered his internal foes and he should discharge his duties without attachment and should attain moksha in the end.

 

Obeying the command of Brahma, Priyavratha married two wives and the first one had ten sons and one daughter who married Sukracharya. The second wife had three sons who later became Manus.

 

He made seven of his sons kings of the seven dveepas while the remaining three led a life of celibacy. To his first son Agnidhara, the king of ajanahavarsha, Nabhi was born. He performed a yaga in which Lord Vishnu manifested and Nabhi prayed to Him for a son like Him. Since there is no one like Him the Lord said that He Himself would be born as a son to Nabhi.

 

The Lord was born as Rshabha and married Jayanthidevi, given by Indra and begot 100 sons. Among them the first one was Bharatha , after whom India was named Bharatha varsha.

 

Chapter5 and 6- Rshabhadeva'advce to his sons.

 

Out of the 100 sons of Rshabha , nine became great devotees and spread bhakthi. Among the others 81 were learned and became brahmanas instructed by their father.

 

Rshabha advised his sons thus:

 

Men are deluded by the concept of `I `and `Mine.' The knots of the heart which stand as obstacles to spiritual evolvement are attachment towards wife, son, house, wealth etc. All these are the evil effects of ego and Rshabha outlined 25 disciplines to discard the ego.

 

1, Devotion towards him their guru.

2.Desirelessness

3.Endurance of the pairs of opposites like heat and cold, joy and sorrow etc.

4.Awareness of sorrow everywhere.

5.Longing for knowledge

6.Penance

7. Relinquishing desire-motivated activities

8. Engaging in the activities of the Lord

9. Ever relishing the stories of the Lord

10. Attachment to the Lord alone

11. Singing the glory of the Lord

12.Absence of enmity

13.Equianimity

14.Control of anger

15.Giving up identification with body and material possessions

16.Practice of the precepts of the scriptures

17. Exclusive worship

18. Conquest of senses and vital airs by Self.

19.Good faith

20.Celibacy

21. Non relinquishment of duties

22. Control of speech

23. The knowledge that the Lord is everywhere

24. Practice of bhakthiyoga

25.Patience, endurance and right knowledge

 

Rshabha also told them that they should respect their elder brother Bharatha who inherited the throne and after crowning Bharatha Rshabhadeva renounced the world and went on wandering all over the earth like a madman. He was censured and treated badly by people who did not recognize his worth but he never worried about it. Finally when he was wandering in the forests of Coorg chewing stones, he was enveloped with the forest fire. All mystic powers came to him but he did not use these siddhis. Being the incarnation of the Lord he was beautiful to look at though he never took care of his body and traveled with disheveled hair and with body covered with dust.

 

Suka further told Parikshith that the king of Kutaka, Konka and venkata, named Arhath, who happened to hear about the conduct pf Rshabha, which transcended all asramas interpreted it as atheism and propagated a religion abandoning Vedas and this later became Jainism. But actually what Rshabha showed by his beahaviour is the importance of renunciation which is more conducive to salvation than the vedic rituals induced by rajas.