Parva 1 Chapter 51: viṣṇu-deva-saṁvādaḥ - dialog of viṣṇu

with gods vaiśaṁpāyana uvāca : vaiśampāyana continued tat śrutvā viṣṇu gaditaṁ brahmā lokapitāmahaḥ | uvāca paramaṁ vākyaṁ hitaṁ sarva divaukasām ||1-51-1 nāsti kiṁchit bhayaṁ viṣṇo surāṇām asura-antaka | yeṣāṁ bhavān abhaya-daḥ karṇa-dhāro raṇe raṇe ||1-51-2 On hearing the words of viṣṇu, then brahma the grandparent of all, gave vent to words fraught with the well-being of gods… “Oh annihilator of demons, there is no fear for gods from asurā-s, because you are protecting gods, from battle to battle, like a many sided weapon – karṇa dhāra… shakre jayati deveshe tvayi ca asura sūdane | dharme prayatamānānāṁ mānavānāṁ kuto bhayam ||1-51-3 satye dharme ca niratān mānavān vigata jvarān | na akāle dharmiṇo mṛtyuḥ shaknoti pra-sam-īkṣitum ||1-51-4 mānavānāṁ ca patayaḥ pārthivāścha parasparam | ṣad-bhāgam upabhuṣjānā na bhayaṁ kurvate mithaḥ ||1-51-5 te prajānāṁ śubhakarāḥ karadairavagarhitāḥ | sukarairviprayuktarthāḥ kośamāpūrayantyuta ||1-51-6 sphītāṣjanapadānsarvānpālayantaḥ kṣamāparāḥ | atīkṣṇadaṇḍāṁścaturo varṇāṣjugupuraṣjasā ||1-51-7 O slayer of enemies, when you and indra are regularly crowned with victory, what fear do men engaged in religious observances can have? Men with truthfulness and piety are always freed from ills, and Death cannot prematurely visit them… enjoying one-sixth portion they receive as cess from the total produce of their province, the kings, the foremost of men, do not fear mutually, and by doing good to their subjects and realizing duly tributes from their tributary kings, without being blamed by them, kings are filling up their treasur1es with wealth... Meting out mild punishment and being forbearing they govern their respective prosperous provinces and protect the four varṇās… ṣad-bhāgam: The political acts of a king, in their military / political character, that are sāma, dāna, bheda, daṇḍa, sandhi, vigraham - peace, appeasement, sowing dissension, punishment, peace making, or battling. That being so, here, it is taken to mean one-sixth part levied on total produce, as sages say to rāma in vālmīki rāmāyaṇam – opening chapters of araṇya. na udvejanīyā bhūtānāṁ sachivaiḥ sādhu-pūjitāḥ | catur-aṣga-balaiḥ guptāḥ ṣad-guṇān upabhuṣjate ||1-51-8 Without creating disturbance amongst their subjects, ministers adoring them well, four divisions of army, footsoldiers, cavalry, chariot-fleet, elephant division protecting tem, those kings are implementing the six-fold political manoeuvring… dhanur veda parāḥ sarve sarve vedeṣu niṣṭhitāḥ | yajante ca yathā kālaṁ yajṣaiḥ vipula dakṣiṇaiḥ ||1-51-9 All are well-versed in the science of archery, observant of the Vedic rites and all worship gods with vedic-rituals that are accompanied with profuse gifts… vedān adhītya dīkṣābhir maharṣīn brahmacaryayā | śrāddhaiḥ ca medhyaiḥ śataśaḥ tarpayanti pitāmahān ||1-5-10 On undergoing the ceremony of initiation and on studying Vedas they propitiate great saints with chastity in thought, words and deeds… with offertories and oblations they variously beatify their ancestral manes –in śrāddha rituals… na eṣām a-viditaṁ kiṣchit tri-vidhaṁ bhuvi dṛśyate | vaidikaṁ laukikaṁ caiva dharma-śāstra-uktam eva ca ||1-51-11 There is no such object in the world, Vedic, customary, or scriptural that is unknown to them te parāvara dṛṣṭa-artha maharṣi sama tejasaḥ | bhūyaḥ kṛta yugaṁ kartum utsahante narādhipāḥ ||1-51-12 All those kings with an effulgence akin to that of great sages are the believers of Almighty endeavouring to bring back the golden age, kṛta yugaṁ… teṣām eva prabhāveṇa śivaṁ varṣati vāsavaḥ | yathārthaṁ ca vavur vātā virajaskā disho daśa ||1-51-13 Owing to their congenial nature indra is showering rains seasonably, and wind is whiffing dustless winds everywhere, at need… nir-ut-pātā ca vasudhā su-pra-cārāḥ ca khe grahāḥ | candramāḥ ca sa nakṣatraḥ saumyaṁ charati yogataḥ ||1-51-14 Earth is devoid of upheavals, planets are gliding smoothly on the sky, and the moon with his constellations is orbiting sedulously… anuloma-karaḥ sūryaḥ tu ayane dve cacāra ha | havyaiḥ ca vividhaiḥ triptaḥ śubha-gandho hutāśanaḥ ||1-51-15 The sun with his rays in a natural direction is moving in his two solstitial paths, and the fire being regularly propitiated with various fire-oblations is aromatised… evaṁ saṁyak pravṛtteṣu vivṛddheṣu makhādiṣu | tarpayatsu mahīṁ kṛtsnāṁ nṛṇāṁ kāla bhayaṁ kutaḥ ||1-51-16 When the entire earth is propitiated, as it were, where Vedic rituals are regular and multiple, then where is the question of fear for people in such an auspicious environment… teṣāṁ jvalita-kīrtīnām anyonya vaśa-vartinām | rājṣāṁ balaiḥ balavatāṁ pīḍyate vasudhā-talam ||1-51-17 sa iyaṁ bhāra pariśrāntā pīḍyamānā narādhipaiḥ | pṛthivī samanuprāptā nauḥ iva Asanna viplavā ||1-51-18 Even then, some powerful kings whose fame is blazing are oppressing the earth, one following the other, with their oppressive tendency… whereby earth, exhausted with this weight and assailed by the kings, has come before us like a rocking boat on the verge of drowning… yugānta sadṛśai rūpaiḥ shaila ucchalita bandhanā | jala utpīḍākulā svedaṁ dhārayantī muhurmuhuḥ ||1-51-19 Earth at end of eras will perspire when her seven-guarding mountains – sapta-kula-parvatā-s - are forcibly extricated and underground water spouts on her surface in spates… now she is wearing that look when oppressed by the kings resembling the fire of dissolution… Or As with an anchored ship perspiring tidewaters and rocking on them when hit by cross currents of winds… kṣatriyāṇāṁ vapurbhish ca tejasā ca balena ca | nṛṇāṁ ca rāṣṭraiḥ vistīrṇaiḥ śrāmyati iva vasundharā ||1-51-20 The earth is labouring under the body, energy, strength, population and the extensive territories of the kshatriya kings… pure pure narapatiḥ koṭi saṁkhyaiḥ balaiḥ vṛtaḥ | rāśṭre rāṣṭre ca bahavo grāmāḥ shata sahasraśaḥ ||1-51-21 bhūmi-pānāṁ sahasraiḥ ca teṣāṁ ca balināṁ balaiḥ | grāma āyuta āḍhyai rāṣṭraiḥ ca bhūmiḥ nir-vivarā kṛtā ||1-51-22 Each and every city is ruled by a king surrounded with millions of soldiers; that too with a mightier-than-thou concept; hundreds and thousands of villages are coming up compounded with those many provinces, and many rulers; and this inflation is covering the earth without an elbow-room… sa iyaṁ nirāmayaṁ kṛtvā niśceṣṭā kālam agrataḥ | prāptā mama ālayaṁ viṣṇo bhavān ca asyāḥ parā gatiḥ ||1-51-23 Thus she who is otherwise untroubled, now troubled with the burden of people has come to my abode driven by time… oh, viṣṇu, you are her most excellent refuge now… karma-bhūmiḥ manuṣyāṇāṁ bhūmiḥ eṣā vyathāṁ gatā | yathā na sīdet tat kāryaṁ jagati eṣā hi śāśvatī ||1-51-24 This earth, the land of human actions, has been greatly assailed. It behoves thee to do that by which the eternal earth, the stay of the universe, may not suffer deterioration… asyā hi pīḍane doṣo mahān syāt madhusūdana | kriyā lopaḥ ca lokānāṁ pīḍitaṁ ca jagat bhavet ||1-51-25 Oppressing her is a great iniquity, O mdhusūdana; any inaction in preventing it will further deteriorate the situation… śrāmyate vyaktam eva iyaṁ pārthiva ogha prapīḍitā| sahajāṁ yā kṣamām tyaktvā calatvam achalā gatā ||1-51-26 Oppressed by a series of kings the earth has become evidently exhausted. Renouncing her natural forbearance and dynamism she has become static… tat asyāḥ śrutavantaḥ sma tat cāpi bhavatā shrutam | bhāra avataraṇa arthaṁ hi mantrayāma saha tvayā ||1-51-27 We on our part heard her history, and you too are aware of it… as such we wished to discuss this with you as to how her burden can be offloaded… sat-pathe hi sthitāḥ sarve rājāno rāṣṭra-vardhanāḥ | narāṇāṁ ca trayo varṇā brāhmaṇān anuyāyinaḥ ||1-51-28 Wending righteous ways many of these kings are enhancing their territories. Amongst men the three other social orders are following brāhmaṇa-s… sarvaṁ satyaparaṁ vākyaṁ varṇā dharma parāḥ tathā | sarve veda-parā viprāḥ sarve vipra-parā narāḥ ||1-51-29 All are biding by truthful words, all social orders are observing their respective duties, all the brāhmaṇa-s are well-read in Vedas and all other men are devoted to brāhmaṇa-s… evaṁ jagati vartante manuṣyā dharma kāraṇāt | yathā dharma vadho na syāt tathā mantraḥ pravartyatām ||1-51-30 When world is functional where men are the instruments of righteousness, we have to think of a system with which dharma does not suffer deterioration at the hands of some wrongdoers… satāṁ gatiḥ iyaṁ na anyā dharmaḥ ca asyāḥ su-sādhanam | rājṣāṁ caiva vadhaḥ kāryo dharaṇyā bhāra nirṇaye ||1-51-31 'This earth is the goal of the pious and none else. Virtue is the most cxceilent object they should endeavour to secure, wherefore, to relieve the earth of her burden it is meet to destroy the kings, for they are a very froward generation… tat āgaccha mahābhāga saha vai mantra-kāraṇāt | vrajāmo meru-śikharaṁ puraskṛtya vasuṁdharām ||1-51-32 Therefore, O great one, come with us to hold a consultation… with the earth before us let us go to the summit of the mount… etāvat uktvā rājendra brahmā lokapitāmahaḥ | pṛthivyā saha viśvātmā virarāma mahādyutiḥ ||1-51-33 Having said this much, O foremost of kings janamejaya, the self-controlled grandparent of great effulgence, brahma, paused and awaited along with the earth for the consent of viṣṇu… iti śrīmahābhārate khileṣu harivaṁśe harivaṁśaparvaṇi bhārāvataraṇe ekapaṣcāśattamo'dhyāyaḥ Thus, this is the fifty-first chapter of first canto called harivamsha-parva, in harivamśa-purāṇa, the sequel of mahābhārata, narrating the dialog between viṣṇu and gods regarding the lessening of burden of mother earth.