12.185

Bhṛgu said.

Forest-dwellers, indeed, following the duties of sages, wander practicing austerities at holy fords and river-springs, in solitary forests filled with deer, buffalo, boar, antelope, and elephants. Having renounced worldly clothes, food, and enjoyments, they subsist on limited and regulated foods of forest herbs, roots, fruits, and leaves. They sit in fixed places, lie on earth, stone, sand, gravel, fine sand, or ashes, their bodies covered with kāśa grass, kuśa grass, skin, or bark, bearing hair, beard, nails, and body hair. At fixed times they perform ritual touchings, uninterrupted sacrificial fires and offerings, and rest after offering twigs, kuśa grass, and flowers, and cleaning for sacrifice. Their skin, scorched and split by cold, heat, and wind, is worn away by various rules, yogic practices, and prescribed duties, so that their flesh and blood are gone and only bone remains. Steadfast in fortitude, by union with sattva, they bear their bodies.

But whoever practices this regulated conduct established by the brahmarṣis, he burns away faults like fire and conquers even those worlds that are difficult to conquer.

The conduct of wandering ascetics is as follows: They abandon fire, wealth, wife, household goods, and all attachments, casting off the bonds of affection. They wander, remaining equal towards clod, stone, and gold, with unattached minds in all undertakings, and behave equally towards enemy, friend, and neutral. They do not harm any beings—whether born from womb, egg, sweat, or sprouting—by speech, mind, or actions. Homeless, they wander among mountains, sandbanks, tree roots, and shrines of deities, and for the sake of shelter, may approach a city or village, staying five nights in a city or one night in a village. Entering only to sustain life, they approach the houses of the twice-born who are not engaged in mixed actions, accepting alms that have fallen into the vessel or have been begged, having renounced desire, anger, pride, delusion, greed, miserliness, hypocrisy, slander, arrogance, and violence. Thus.

Here is a verse: The sage who grants fearlessness to all beings moves about; from all beings, no fear arises to him anywhere.

Having performed the Agnihotra within his own body, offering the bodily fire in his own mouth, he who uses offerings gained through alms surpasses the worlds of the funeral pyres.

He who establishes the abode of liberation as instructed, who is pure and endowed with a well-determined intellect, tranquil like a flame without fuel, that twice-born attains the world of Brahman.

Bharadvāja said.

It is said that there is a world higher than this one, but it cannot be perceived. I wish to know about that; you should tell me about it.

Bhṛgu said.

On the northern side of the Himalayas, in the sacred and virtuous land, that region which is holy, secure, and desirable is called the excellent world.

There, indeed, the humans whose actions are not evil, who are pure and utterly spotless, having abandoned greed and delusion, are free from disturbance.

That region is like heaven; there, indeed, auspicious qualities are said to exist. In due time, death occurs, but diseases do not touch (the people) there.

There is no greed for others' wives, people are devoted to their own spouses; there is no mutual killing, nor is there amazement regarding possessions. There is no hidden virtue, and no doubt ever arises.

But there, the results of actions are directly experienced. Some, endowed with beds, vehicles, and seats, residing in palaces and mansions, are surrounded by every pleasure and adorned with golden ornaments.

For some, merely sustaining life is possible; some, by great effort, manage to sustain their lives.

Here, some men are devoted to dharma, some are honest; some are happy, some are unhappy; some are poor, others are wealthy.

Here, fatigue, fear, delusion, and intense hunger arise; and greed caused by wealth, by which even the wise are deluded.

Here, there are many kinds of concerns about actions that are righteous and unrighteous. The wise person who knows both is not tainted by sin.

Deceit, fraud, theft, slander, envy, harming others, violence, malicious gossip, and falsehood are also included.

He who does not practice these, his austerity diminishes; but the wise man who practices these, his austerity increases.

This world is a field of action; here, by performing good or evil deeds, one attains good results through good actions, and otherwise by performing evil actions.

Here, in earlier times, Prajāpati, the gods, and the groups of ṛṣis, having performed sacrifices and austerities, became purified and attained the world of Brahma.

The northern part of the earth is the most virtuous and auspicious; here, those people are born who have indeed performed meritorious deeds.

Those who perform unrighteous deeds are born in animal wombs; others, whose lifespan is diminished, likewise perish on the surface of the earth.

Those who are attached to eating one another, filled with greed and delusion, keep revolving here itself; they do not attain the higher realms.

The wise, self-restrained celibates who serve their teachers know the path to all worlds.

Thus, this dharma, created by Brahma, has been stated by me in brief. He who truly knows dharma and adharma of the world is wise.

Bhīṣma said.

O king, when Bhṛgu spoke thus, the powerful and supremely righteous Bharadvāja, astonished, honored Bhṛgu in return.

O king, the origin of the world has now been fully declared to you. O greatly wise one, is there anything else you wish to hear?