Parva 1 Chapter 50: nārāyaṇa āśrama varṇanam of the reclusion of nārāyaṇa

On receiving reverence from sages belonging to brahma’s world, god śrīhari visited brahma’s abode receiving deference from brahma, and then entered his sojourning place called - nārāyaṇa āśramam - the retreat of nārāyaṇa, that which is holy and extolled in legends, and that which is situated in brahma’s world itself… Rejoicing to enter that reclusive place śrīhari set all his weapons aside on his very entry into it, foregathered and presided over the observances of sages, while lotus-sprung brahma adored that prime-god to see him in his own seclusion that is renowned after his very name nārāyaṇa āśramam… sa tatra aṁbu pati prakhyaṁ dadarsha Alayam ātmanaḥ | svadhiṣṭhitaṁ deva-gaṇaiḥ śāśvataiḥ ca maharṣibhiḥ ||1-50-4 Enwreathed by eternal gods and sage he reckoned that his sanctuary is an omnium gatherum like ocean and himself as the lord of ocean with an unrestricted ingress and egress… saṁvartaka ambunā upetaṁ nakṣatra-sthāna-saṁkulaṁ | timira-ogha-parikṣiptam a-pradhṛṣyaṁ surāsuraiḥ ||1-50-5 na tatra viṣayo vāyoḥ na indoḥ na ca vivasvataḥ | vapuṣaḥ padmanābhasya sa deśaḥ tejasā āvṛtaḥ ||1-50-6 Then viṣṇu created a divine darkness resembling era-ending cloud and that looks like the padded singularities in the belts of stars – jyotiḥ cakram, dense with streaming darkness, impermeable either to gods or demons, or at least for air, moon, and sun, and that area is enshrouded with a blackness resemblant to the blackish glow of the body of viṣṇu… sa tatra pravishan eva jaṭā-bhāraṁ samudvahan | sahasra-śīrṣo bhūtvā tu śayanāya upacakrame ||1-50-7 As soon as he entered into that pitchy place he donned thousand headed form with matted head hair and commenced his entry into yoga nidra – yogic slumber… lokānām anta kāla-jṣā kālī nayana śālinī | upatasthe mahātmānaṁ nidrā taṁ kāla-rūpiṇī ||1-50-8 Then the goddess of sleep, nidrā devata, the well informed-entity of the end-time of worlds, very subtle one for inducement – kālī, one with visual acuity for her scapegoats, one simulative of death has come and stood in the proximity of the supreme-soul nārāyaṇa… sa sishye shayane divye samudra ambhoda śītale | hariḥ eka arṇava uktena vratena vratināṁ-varaḥ ||1-50-9 śrīhari, the foremost of those observant of vows, then went into shayanam - samādhi, imperturbable yogic concentration, on the divine superficies of cool ocenic water of Milk-ocean, undertaking the vow called eka-arṇava – one-bounding main, in which vow he will be both nirvikalpa - immutable like the deep - samudra – milky ocean; and savikalpa - mutable like fizzing ambodha, rainy cloud… taṁ śayānam mahātmānaṁ bhavāya jagataḥ prabhum | upāsān cakrire viṣṇuṁ devāḥ sa rṣi gaṇāḥ tathā ||1-50-10 The sages and gods began to worship the great omnipotent viṣṇu when he has gone into yogic slumber for creating universe afresh... tasya suptasya shuśubhe nābhi madhyāt samutthitam | ādyaṁ tasya āsanaṁ padmaṁ brahmaṇaḥ sūrya-varchasam | sahasra-patraṁ varṇa-āḍhyam su-kumāraṁ vibhūṣitam ||1-50-11 When viṣṇu is in that slumber there sprang from the centre of his navel a padmam – padma kosha ākāram - lotus like receptacle, a corolla-like inner envelope of world with thousands of whorls of petals, highly effulgent like the sun, delicate in form, beautiful in hue, well-adorned and which is the āsanam – Ashrayam – brahmāṇḍam, the matrix of the creator-brahma… brahma sūtra udyata karaḥ svapann eva mahāmuniḥ | āvartayati lokānāṁ sarveṣāṁ kāla paryayam ||1-50-12 This creator-brahma is at the position of upraised hands of viṣṇu, as if viṣṇu rolled up his sleeves to create universe anew; while this brahma, like the arms of potter or weaver, readied himself to draw yarn or clay to make a new object of his trade… thus, with this arms-like motor organ called brahma, viṣṇu indirectly started to spin a new world, by taking new thread, all of which is subjected to time factor… all this is done when he is in slumber… vivṛtāttasya vadanāt niḥśvāsa pavana īritāḥ | prajānāṁ paṣktayo hi ucchair niṣpatanti utpatanti ca ||1-50-13 With a yawning face brahma suspired with which exhale life is breathed into living beings, mainly ptrajāpati-s, from which prajāpati-s a series of living beings have come inversely or correspondingly… te sṛṣṭāḥ prāṇino medhyā vibhaktā brahmaṇā svayaṁ | caturdhā svāṁ gatiṁ jagmuḥ kṛtānta uktena karmaṇā ||1-50-14 brahma divided the created human beings into four social orders in step with veda-s and their rituals, where each of those four by performing works laid down in the Vedas reach their respective goals of salvation… na tam veda svayaṁ brahmā na api brahmarṣayo avyayāḥ | viṣṇor nidrāmayaṁ yogaṁ praviṣṭaṁ tamasā āvṛtam ||1-50-15 Neither brahma nor the sages could perceive viṣṇu when he is in yogic slumber because he covered himself with an impenetrable darkness – yoga māya… te tu brahmarṣayaḥ sarve pitāmaha purogamāḥ | na viduḥ taṁ kvachit suptaṁ kvachit āsīnam āsane ||1-50-16 jāgarti kaḥ atra kaḥ shete kaḥ ca śaktaḥ ca neṅgate | kaḥ bhogavān kaḥ dyutimān kṛṣṇāt kṛṣṇa taraḥ ca kaḥ ||1-50-17 vimṛśanti sma taṁ devā divyābhiḥ upapattibhiḥ | na ca enaṁ śekuḥ anveṣṭuṁ karmato janmato'pi vā ||1-50-18 When the sages including brahma could not find out nārāyaṇa who at times is asleep and at times seated, they remained deliberating on textual sayings and inferences like, ‘who sleeps, and who doesn’t… who is omnipotent… who is non-performer of deeds yet gets results – whether he is karta, or a-karta… who is enjoyer bhoktā without being kartā… who is luminous minus wick, oil and receptacle… who is obscure than the most obscure…’ even then, they could not fathom him by his theogony, or by deductive or by inductive logic… or anything… gāthābhiḥ tat pradiṣṭābhiḥ ye tasya caritaṁ viduḥ | purāṇāḥ taṁ purāṇeṣu ṛṣayaḥ saṁprachakṣate ||1-50-19 The saga of viṣṇu’s can be inferrred only with the help of implications and intimations of legends, together with the hypotheses put forward by ancients… not otherwise… śrūyate ca asya caritaṁ deveṣu api purātanam | mahāpurāṇāt prabhṛti paraṁ tasya na vidyate ||1-50-20 We hear that viṣṇu’s grounding is more ancient than that of gods… other than what is contained in great purāṇā-s and allied literature that are handed down to us, any other account of this god in another manner is unbeknown to us… yat ca asya deva-devasya caritaṁ sva-prabhāva-jam | tena imāḥ shrutayo vyāptā vaidikyo laukikāḥ ca yāḥ ||1-50-21 As such all the scriptures, whether vaidic or traditional, are filled with accounts resulting from the self-perpetuating prowess of that god of gods… bhava-kāle bhavati eṣa lokānāṁ loka-bhāvanaḥ | dānavānām a-bhāvāya jāgarti madhusūdanaḥ ||1-50-22 When the moment of the birth of the worlds is immanent, then he who is the immortal source of the nature, that madhusūdana awakens for the neutralisation of demons… yatra enaṁ vīkṣituṁ devā na śekuḥ suptam avyayam | tataḥ svapiti gharma ante jāgarti jalada-kṣaye ||1-50-23 When this immortal nārāyaṇa goes to sleep even the gods cannot trace him. He goes to sleep at the end of the summer and gets up at the end rains… sa hi vedāḥ ca yajṣāḥ ca yajṣa aṅgāni ca sarvaśaḥ | yā tu yajṣa-gatiḥ proktā sa eṣa puruṣottamaḥ ||1-50-24 tasmin supte na vartante mantra-pūtāḥ kratu-kriyāḥ | sharat pravṛtta yajṣo ayaṁ jāgarti madhusūdanaḥ ||1-50-25 Because he is identical with the Vedas, vedic-rituals and various other ancillary rites, this foremost one is the ultimate course of all the sacrifices… as such all the vedic-hymn-oriented Vedic rituals and rites are paused during the period of yogic sleep – i.e., in dakśiṇa ayana, southern solstice –according to śaradi vājapeye na yajeta etc prohibitions; the rainy season passes while he is still in slumber… during such blank periods nominal worships – archanā-s - to viṣṇu are taken up… again with the arrival of autumn madhusūdana rises up, and then the autumnal sacrifices are undertaken afresh… tat idaṁ vārṣikaṁ cakraṁ kārayati aṁbuda-īśvaraḥ | vaiṣṇavaṁ karma kurvānaḥ supte viṣṇau puraṁdaraḥ ||1-50-26 When viṣṇu goes into yogic sleep and vedic rituals are to be paused, then the lord of clouds purandara, aka indra, causes the cycles of rain performing all the other duties of viṣṇu… yā hi eṣā gahvarā māyā nidra iti jagati sthitā | sā akasmāt dveṣiṇī ghorā kāla-rātriḥ mahīkṣitām ||1-50-27 That which is the abysmal māya of viṣṇu, it exists in the worlds in the name of sleep, nidra… as to how kings perish in ceaseless and causeless tussles – akasmāt, nirnimittam – this sleep-like illusionistic darkness of viṣṇu – viṣṇu māya, yoga nidra – will be deadly like the night of D-day, if only someone slips into it unawares… tasyāḥ tanuḥ tamo-dvārā niśā divasa-nāśinī | jīvita ardha harā ghorā sarva prāṇa bhṛtāṁ bhuvi ||1-50-28 na etayā kaśchiṭ āviṣṭo jṛṁbhamāṇo muhurmuhuḥ | śaktaḥ prasahituṁ vegaṁ majjann iva mahārṇave ||1-50-29 This viṣṇu māya, tenebriousness of viṣṇu, has multiple black holes as its doors for easy quagmiring… it is a killer of daylight like discernment, and a pilferer of half of the life of all living beings in the world, while its entry into living beings in through repeated yawing by which they will sink as if they are almost sunk in a vast ocean… anna-jā bhuvi martyānāṁ śrama-jā vā kathaṁchana | sa eṣā bhavati lokasya nidrā sarvasya laukikī ||1-50-30 Triggered off by the excessive food or undue toil of mortals this sleep does not conduce to the well-being of any in this world… svapna ante kṣīyate hi eṣā prāyaśaḥ bhuvi dehinam | mṛtyu-kāle ca bhūtānāṁ prāṇān nāśayate bhṛśam ||1-50-31 Although this soporific effect fizzles with fizzling dreams of mortals, the very same sleep-like darkness destroys the lives of mortals at their death-time… deveṣu api dadhāra enāṁ na anyo nārāyaṇāt ṛte | sakhī sarva harasya eṣā māyā viṣṇu śarīra-jā ||1-50-32 This dark goddess of sleep who appears as a companion of one and all is a rob-all of everybody that has emerged from the body of nārāyaṇa only for the involution process of universe… even gods have to put up with this sleep, excepting nārāyaṇa… sa eṣā nārāyaṇa-mukhe dṛṣṭā kamalalochanā | lokān alpena kālena grasate loka-mohinī ||1-50-33 This lotus-eyed lady called the mystic sleep of nārāyaṇa has emerged under the aegis of nārāyaṇa himself… and this bewitching beauty called the tenebrosity of nārāyaṇa is thus capable of gulping the universe in no time… evam eṣā hita arthāya lokānāṁ kṛṣṇa-vartmanā | dhriyate sevanīyā hi pati eva ca pativratā ||1-50-34 She who is a subtle-courser - kṛṣṇa-vartma – imponderable imbuing of digested food into the vigour of body – hitam – is born by viṣṇu, why because he wants to accord rest to all the worlds ever active in his viscera, at some time or the other… and she courses around the worlds for that purpose, along with nārāyaṇa, which peregrination is for the behoof of worlds, like a chaste lady pivots on her husband alone… sa tayā nidrayā cchannaḥ tasmin nārāyaṇa-āṣrame | svapiti sma tadā viṣṇur moha-yaṣja-gad avyayam ||1-50-35 Concealed in that yogic sleep that infallible viṣṇu remained in a self-blessed state – svapiti – sva= himself; apīta= went into – he went into himself; self- absorbedly; pleasuring himself; while conducting yajṣa for moha, a sacrament for illusive effect; tasya varṣa sahasrāṇi shayanasya mahātmanaḥ | jagmuḥ kṛta-yugaṁ caiva tretā caiva yuga uttamam ||1-50-36 sa tu dvāpara paryante jṣātvā lokān suduḥkhitān | prābudhyata mahātejāḥ stūyamāno maharṣibhiḥ ||1-50-37 Thousands of years rolled by when that high-souled viṣṇu is in yogic sleep, even eras like kṛta and tretā have gone by, and at the close of dvāpara era perceiving that worlds are put to distress for his hibernation for his alternate activity, he got up while being extolled by sages… ṛṣayaḥ ūcuḥ : sages extolled jahīhi nidrāṁ sahajāṁ bhukta pūrvām iva srajam | ime te brahmaṇā sārdhaṁ devā darshana kāṅkṣiṇaḥ ||1-50-38 ime tvāṁ brahma vidvāṁso brahma saṁstava vādinaḥ | vardhayanti hṛṣīkeśa ṛṣayaḥ saṁśita-vratāḥ ||1-50-39 eteṣām ātma-bhūtānāṁ bhūtānām ātmabhāvanaḥ | śṛṇu viṣṇo śubhā vāco bhū vyoma agni anila ambhasām ||1-50-40 ime tvāṁ sapta munayaḥ sahitā muni-maṇḍalaiḥ | stuvanti devā divyābhir geyābhir gīrbhir aṣjasā |1-50-41 uttiṣṭha śata-patrākṣa padmanābha mahādyute | kāraṇaṁ kimchit utpannaṁ devānāṁ kārya gauravāt ||1-50-42 “Do thou cast off this sleep, O lord, begotten of thy own self, as you would discard a used garland… here are the brahma-sages came along with gods waiting to see thee… O hṛṣīkeśa, all these self-controlled sages, well-versed in the knowledge of brahman, and in singing his glories, are welcoming thee… O viṣṇu, hear the auspicious words of these sages who are identical with the five elements, namely, the earth, ether, fire, air and water… O god, the seven sages, along with all these saints, are chanting thy glories with celestial and becoming hymns… rise up, O thou of great effulgence, O thou having a lotus of a hundred petals from thy navel, some important work of the gods requires thee… vaiśaṁpāyana uvāca : vaiśampāyana continued sa saṁkṣipya jalaṁ sarvaṁ timira oghaṁ vidārayan | udatiṣṭhat hṛṣīkeśaḥ śriyā paramayā jvalan ||1-50-43 sa dadarsha surān sarvān sametān sa pitāmahān | vivakṣataḥ pra-kṣubhitāṣ jagat arthe samāgatān ||1-50-44 tān uvāca harir devo nidrā viśrānta locanaḥ | tattva dṛṣṭa arthayā vācā dharma hetu artha yuktayā ||1-50-45 On lessening the quantity of water with which the universe is recently deluged under a single sheet of water; on dispelling illusionistic darkness p yoga māya - that has so far enshrouded the universe; hṛṣīkeśa rose up shinning charmingly… seeing all the gods assembled there along with creator-brahma, who are now greatly aggrieved for the world and desirous of speaking something to him, nārāyaṇa, with eyes relieved of exhaustion by sleep, addressed them with words fraught with sound reasoning and far-sightedness… śrībhagavān uvāca : god said kṛtaḥ vaḥ vigrahaḥ devāḥ kutaḥ vaḥ bhayam Agatam | kasya vā kena vā kāryaṁ kiṁ vā mayi na vartate ||1-50-46 kiṁ khalu a-kuśalaṁ loke vartate dānava utthitam | nṛṇām āyāsa jananaṁ śīghram icchāmi vedituṁ ||1-50-47 eṣa brahma vidāṁ madhye vihāya shayana uttamaṁ | śivāya bhavatām arthe sthitaḥ kiṁ karavāṇī vaḥ ||1-50-48 How is that you are again scared when your confrontation with demons is over recently… who needs me and for what? And how can I help you... has any calamity befallen the world through the demons, or men panting for their own misventures… let me know without any delay… here I stand before you brahma-advocators renouncing my most excellent bed for a peaceable well-being of yours… what can I do for you…" so said viṣṇu to gods and sages… --o)0(o-- iti śrīmahābhārate khileṣu harivaṁśe harivaṁśaparvaṇi viṣṇoḥ yoga shayana utthāne paṣcāśattamo'dhyāyaḥ Thus, this is the fiftieth chapter of first canto called harivamsha-parva, in harivamśa-purāṇa, the sequel of mahābhārata, narrating an account of the reclusion of nārāyaṇa. --o)0(o--