Srimadbhagavatham- end of skandha 4

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Chapter 29 –Bhakthi as the antidote of

the ills of samsara

 

Purusha , That is the jeeva without knowing at he

is identical with pramathman who is his innerself, gets attached to the gunas

of prkrthi. According to the karma which is done inflennced by the three gunas

he is born in different bodies, deava, human, man, woman or even animal. Like a dog which wanders from house

to house .seeking food or water and gets fed or beaten, the jeeva roams around for

several births experiencing joy and sorrow without rest continuously and any

measure undertaken for relief is like shifting the burden to shoulders from

head, that is , nothing except resorting to the Lord gives permanent relief.

Karma cannot destroy another karma as both are under the realm of avidhya. Only

jnana can destroy karma. That will arise from Bhakthi.

 

Narada said that the Lord can be attained only

through bhakthi and not by any other means sucha s thapas etc. the sanga or

attachment that causes samsara can only be removed by devotion to Vasudeva and

lostening to the nectar of stories about

Him by which one becomes pure.

 

Narada advised Barhishman, who believed in

karmakanda and hence was performing yajnas continuously that karma even

directed by Vedas is not the final goal as they are under the realm of the

three gunas.

 

The parallel idea is also found in the Bhagavatgita

where Krishna says, `thraiguNya vishayaa vedhaaH

nisthraiguNyo bhava arjuna ,' "the Vedas pertain to the three gunas and

hence transcend the gunas, Arjuna." Thus Narada showed Barhishad the

limitations of vedic karma and hearing that the king wanted to go to forest and

do penance and said that he will wait till his sons who had gone to do penance

return. Narada then told him an allegory of a deer roaming in a forest eating

grass with his female and listening to the music of the bees quite oblivious of

the hunter and the wolves who were fast approaching. The deer is the man of the

world enjoying the pleasures and the wolves

are the time and the hunter is the death. Barhishad got vairagya on

hearing this and and asked the sage to

instruct him about the nature of jeeva

 

Narada spoke thus:

The physical body is only an instrument of the

subtle body comprising of mind and intellect which continues even after the

physical body falls. The subtle body keeps awake when the physical body is

asleep which is why we get dreams. All the impressions of earlier lives are

embedded in the subtle body and the event that happen in our dreams are the

indication of this because nothing not experienced could be seen in the dream.

Like a carterpillar which holds on to a blade of grass until it moves to

another, the jiva also holds on to the identification of the former body until

it acquires another. Then Narada left him and the king went to forest to do

paenace And attained siddhi.

 

Chapter30 and 31- Narada advises

the sons of Prachethas

 

The sons of Barhishad , also known as Rrachethas

did penance as instructed by their father chanting the japa instructed by Lord

Siva on Lord hari who appeared in front of them in all His glory on Garuda like

a cloud on Mount Meru and blessed them. The Lord told them that they will marry the

daughter of an Apsaras who was left in the care of the trees and when she cried

as an infant the Moon himself came and fed her with nectar.He also said that

she will get a son who will be illustrious as a prajapathi. Then they praised

Lord Hari and went to their country. There they saw that the trees were

overgrown and covered the whole earth and grown very tall so as to obstruct the

planets. When the princes treid to burn

all the trees emitting fir from their mouth and nostrils due to their power of

penance lord Brahma came and pacified them and the trees gave their daughter

Marisha in marriage t them. She gave birth to Dhaksha who was the son of Brahma

in his previous birth and incurred the anger of Siva. Later the sons of

Prachethas were instructed by Narada on bhakthi an attained the feet of Lord

Hari.

 

Thus describing the clan of Utthanpadha to Vidura,

who took leave of him and t to see his people on Hasthinapura.

 

Thus the skandha four of Srimadbhagavatham ends.