Canto Ten - Chapter 84

Śrī Śuka said: Pṛthā, Subala's daughter Gāndhārī, Yājñasenī Draupadī, Subhadrā, the kings' wives, and the Lord's own gopīs heard of the queens' bonds of love for Kṛṣṇa, Hari, the Self of all. They were all profoundly amazed, their eyes brimming with tears.

While the women were thus conversing with the women and the men with the men, sages arrived there desiring to see Kṛṣṇa and Rāma.

They included Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, Nārada, Cyavana, Devala, Asita, Viśvāmitra, Śatānanda, Bharadvāja, and Gautama;

Lord Paraśurāma with his disciples, Vasiṣṭha, Gālava, Bhṛgu, Pulastya, Kaśyapa, Atri, Mārkaṇḍeya, and Bṛhaspati;

Dvaita, Trita, Ekata, the sons of Brahmā, Aṅgirā, Agastya, Yājñavalkya, Vāmadeva, and many others.

Seeing them, the kings and others who had been seated immediately rose. The Pāṇḍavas and Kṛṣṇa and Rāma bowed to those sages who are honored by the whole world.

Everyone worshiped them as was proper, and Acyuta together with Rāma offered them words of welcome, seats, water for washing their feet, arghya, garlands, incense, and fragrant ointments.

When they were comfortably seated, the Supreme Lord, whose form protects dharma, addressed them while the vast assembly listened in disciplined silence.

The Supreme Lord said: Ah, we who have taken birth have today obtained the full fruit of life, for we behold masters of yoga whose sight is difficult even for the gods to attain.

How much rarer must it be for people of little austerity, whose vision of divinity is confined to an image, to see you, touch you, inquire from you, bow before you, worship your feet, and render such services.

Sacred waters are not holy merely because they are made of water, nor are deities divine merely because they are made of clay or stone. They purify only after a long time, whereas saintly persons purify by their very sight.

Neither fire, the sun, the moon and stars, the earth, water, ether, air, speech, nor the mind, when worshiped as separate from the Lord, destroys sin. The wise, however, destroy it through even a moment's service.

A person who identifies the self with this corpse-like body made of three elements, considers wife and family his own, regards a form of earth as worshipable, and sees a place of pilgrimage as nothing more than water, yet never recognizes the spiritually wise, is nothing but a cow or an ass.

Śrī Śuka said: Hearing these words of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord of unfailing intelligence, the brāhmaṇas became bewildered by their difficult import and sat in silence.

After reflecting for a long time, the sages understood that the Lord had behaved like one subject to authority for the instruction of the people. Smiling, they addressed the teacher of the universe.

The sages said: How astonishing are the activities of the Supreme Lord! By Your māyā even we, foremost among knowers of truth and masters of the creators of the universe, are bewildered when You conceal Yourself through the conduct of one who appears to be governed by others.

Though actionless and one, You create, protect, and consume this universe through Your own being in many forms, yet You are never bound, just as the earth assumes many names and forms through products made of earth. Ah, how wondrous is the play of the all-pervading Lord!

Even so, when the time comes to protect Your devotees and subdue the wicked, You assume a form of pure goodness. By Your own play You preserve the eternal path of the Vedas, for You are the Supreme Person who embodies the system of varṇa and āśrama.

The Veda is Your pure heart. Through austerity, study, and self-restraint, within it one realizes being as manifest, unmanifest, and beyond both.

Therefore, O Brahman, You honor the brāhmaṇa lineage, the sacred abode of that Brahman and the source of scripture, as Your very self. You are the foremost protector of the brāhmaṇas.

Today our birth, learning, austerity, and vision have become fruitful, for we have met You, the supreme goal whose presence is the ultimate end of every blessing.

Obeisance to that Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa of unobstructed intelligence, the Supreme Self whose majesty is concealed by His own Yogamāyā.

These kings, and even the Vṛṣṇis who sport with You, do not know You as the Self, time, and the sovereign Lord, hidden behind the curtain of māyā.

A sleeping person who sees the principles of matter within a dream does not recognize the self beyond them, which appears there only through names and the senses.

In the same way, a person whose mind is confused by māyā while the senses pursue objects consisting merely of names does not know You, because his memory has been overwhelmed.

Today we have beheld Your feet, the sacred refuge that destroys floods of sin. Mature yogīs establish them within their hearts, and those whose inner coverings are subdued by overflowing devotion attain Your destination. Please now show grace to Your devotees.

Śrī Śuka said: Having thus taken leave of the Dāśārhas, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and Yudhiṣṭhira, O royal sage, the sages resolved to return to their hermitages.

Seeing this, the greatly renowned Vasudeva approached them, bowed, grasped their feet, and spoke with complete composure.

Śrī Vasudeva said: O sages, I bow to you, who embody all the gods. Please hear me and tell us how karma may be exhausted through action itself.

Śrī Nārada said: Brāhmaṇas, it is not very surprising that Vasudeva, wishing to learn, asks us about the soul's highest good, for he regards Kṛṣṇa as a mere child.

Familiarity among mortals becomes a cause of disregard, just as a person living beside the Gaṅgā may leave her and travel to another body of water for purification.

The awareness of Him is never impaired by time, which brings about this universe's dissolution and creation, nor by Himself, another, the qualities, or anything whatsoever.

His consciousness is uninterrupted by the streams of suffering, karma, its ripened results, and the qualities. He is the one, nondual Lord, yet another person may suppose Him covered by His own powers, such as life air and the senses, just as the sun seems covered by clouds, snow, or an eclipse.

The sages then addressed Ānakadundubhi, O King, while all the kings and also Acyuta and Rāma listened.

The sages said: The approved means of exhausting karma through action is to worship Viṣṇu, the Lord of all sacrifices, with sacrificial rites performed in faith.

The seers, whose eyes are scripture, have shown this to be an easily practiced yoga and dharma that calms the mind and brings joy to the self.

For a twice-born householder, this is the auspicious path: with faith he should worship the Supreme Person using wealth honestly obtained.

O lord, a wise person should relinquish the desire for wealth through sacrifice and charity, the desire for wife and children through household life, and the desire for a higher world as time passes. All steadfast sages abandoned their desires in the village and went to the forest of austerity.

A twice-born person is born indebted in three ways, lord: to the gods, sages, and ancestors. If he renounces without discharging those debts through sacrifice, Vedic study, and children, he falls.

Great-minded one, you have already been freed from two debts, those to the sages and ancestors. Discharge your debt to the gods through sacrifices; then, free of debt, relinquish all shelter.

Vasudeva, you surely worshiped Hari, Lord of the worlds, with supreme devotion, since He became the son of you and your wife.

Śrī Śuka said: Hearing their words, the great-minded Vasudeva bowed his head, pleased the sages, and chose them as his sacrificial priests.

Chosen according to sacred rule, those sages then had the righteous Vasudeva perform, in that holy field, sacrifices arranged according to the highest prescriptions.

When the consecration for the sacrifice began, the Vṛṣṇis bathed, dressed in fine garments, and wore lotus garlands, O King, while the kings were beautifully adorned.

Vasudeva's joyful queens, wearing golden necklaces and fine garments, their bodies anointed and offerings in their hands, entered the consecration hall.

Mṛdaṅgas, paṭahas, conches, kettledrums, and other instruments resounded. Actors and dancers danced, Sūtas and Māgadhas offered praise, and sweet-voiced Gandharva women sang together with their husbands.

The priests anointed and bathed Vasudeva according to rule together with his eighteen wives, as the moon-god is surrounded by the stars.

Consecrated and clad in deerskin, he shone beside his wives, who were beautifully adorned with silk garments, bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and earrings.

Great King, his priests, wearing jeweled ornaments and silk garments, shone together with the members of the assembly like the priests in Indra's sacrifice.

At that time Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, each accompanied by His own relatives, sons, and wives, shone like the Lords of all living beings surrounded by Their divine powers.

Following the prescribed rites, Vasudeva worshiped the Lord of material resources, knowledge, and action through the successive sacrifices beginning with Agnihotra, both the primary rites and their adaptations.

At the proper time he gave the priests the prescribed fees. After adorning those already beautifully ornamented, he presented them with cows, land, maidens, and immense wealth.

After performing the rites involving the sponsors' wives and the concluding avabhṛtha ceremony, the great sages and brāhmaṇas, led by the sacrificer, bathed in Paraśurāma's lakes.

After bathing, Vasudeva gave garments and ornaments to the bards and likewise to the women. Then, splendidly adorned himself, he honored all social orders with food, extending even to the dogs.

With abundant gifts he honored his relatives together with their wives and children: the people of Vidarbha, Kośala, Kuru, Kāśī, Kekaya, and Sṛñjaya.

He also honored the assembly members, priests, gods, human beings, other creatures, ancestors, and Cāraṇas. Taking leave of Vasudeva, the abode of Śrī, they departed while praising the sacrifice.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra and his younger brother Vidura, the Pāṇḍavas, Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Pṛthā, Nakula and Sahadeva, Nārada, Lord Vyāsa, friends, relations, and kinsmen

embraced their Yadu relatives, their hearts softened by affection, and with the pain of separation returned to their own lands, as did the others.

Nanda, however, who cherished his relatives, remained for some time with the cowherds, honored with magnificent worship by Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Ugrasena, and the others.

Having easily crossed the great ocean of his cherished purpose, Vasudeva, surrounded by friends and joyful at heart, touched Nanda's hand and addressed him.

Śrī Vasudeva said: Brother, the Lord has fashioned for human beings a bond called affection. I consider it difficult to abandon even for heroes and yogīs.

You saintly persons bestowed upon us, who could not repay you and failed to remember your kindness, a friendship that bears no expectation of reward and can never cease.

Brother, formerly we could not serve your welfare because we were helpless. Now our eyes are blinded by the intoxication of opulence, and though you stand before us, we fail to see you.

Honored one, may royal opulence never come to a person who seeks the highest good, for it blinds his sight so that he cannot see even his own people and relatives.

Śrī Śuka said: Speaking in this way, Ānakadundubhi's heart melted with affection. Remembering the friendship Nanda had shown him, he wept, his eyes filled with tears.

Because of his friendship with Vasudeva and his love for Govinda and Rāma, Nanda kept saying, 'I will leave today; I will leave tomorrow.' Honored by the Yadus, he remained for three months.

Then Nanda, together with the people of Vraja and his relatives, was abundantly supplied with everything he desired: priceless ornaments, fine linen, and many other costly articles.

Accepting the gifts presented by Vasudeva, Ugrasena, Kṛṣṇa, Uddhava, Balarāma, and the others, Nanda was escorted on his way by the Yadus and departed.

Nanda, the cowherd men, and the gopīs had cast their minds upon Govinda's lotus feet and were unable to draw them back. They therefore returned to Mathurā without their minds.

When their relatives had returned home, the Vṛṣṇis, whose deity was Kṛṣṇa, saw that the rainy season was approaching and went back to Dvāravatī.

They recounted to the people the great festival of the Lord of the Yadus: the pilgrimage, the meetings with friends and relatives, and all that had occurred there.