12.321
Yudhiṣṭhira said.
Whether a householder, celibate student, forest-dweller, or mendicant—whoever wishes to attain perfection, he should worship whichever deity he desires. (3-321-1)
How can there be certain heaven for him? How can there be the highest supreme good? By what ordinance and by whom should one perform the divine and ancestral offerings likewise? (3-321-2)
What state does a liberated person attain, and what is the nature of liberation? What should one who has reached heaven do so that he does not fall from heaven? (3-321-3)
O grandsire, tell me who is the god of the gods and likewise the father of the ancestors, and what is higher than that. (3-321-4)
Bhishma said.
O sinless one, here you ask me a hidden question, a question for the question-knower. Indeed, this cannot be explained by reasoning, even in hundreds of years. (3-321-5)
O king, without divine grace or the acquisition of knowledge, this profound narrative is indeed to be explained to you, O destroyer of enemies. (3-321-6)
Here too, they recount this ancient story, the conversation between Nārada and the sage Nārāyaṇa. (3-321-7)
Nārāyaṇa, indeed the eternal soul of the universe with four forms, was born as the son of Dharma; my father thus spoke to me. (3-321-8)
O great king, in the Kṛta age, during the interval of Svāyambhuva Manu, Nara and Nārāyaṇa, as well as Hari and Kṛṣṇa, indeed appeared. (3-321-9)
Nārāyaṇa and Nara, the imperishable ones, performed austerities for them, having reached the Badarī hermitage in a golden cart. (3-321-10)
That vehicle, indeed, was eight-wheeled, endowed with beings and pleasing. There, the first two, the lords of the world, those two thin ones, were continuous with arteries. (3-321-11)
By austerity and brilliance, the two are difficult to behold even for the gods; only he whom they favor is worthy to see the two gods. (3-321-12)
Indeed, with the consent of those two, impelled in the heart by desire, Gandhamādana has fallen from the peak of the mountain Mahāmeru. (3-321-13)
Nārada, having wandered through all the worlds as a very great wonder, swiftly went to that region, O king, to the hermitage of Badarī. (3-321-14)
During the daily time, one of the two became curious. This is the very abode in which all the worlds are established. (3-321-15)
Together with the gods, demons, gandharvas, sages, kinnaras, and serpents, this one form that arose formerly has now become fourfold. (3-321-16)
The lineage of dharma has been increased by great ones. Indeed, today dharma has surely been favored here by these gods—by Nara and Nārāyaṇa, and also by Kṛṣṇa and Hari. (3-321-17)
There, Kṛṣṇa and Hari, for some other reason, remained; these two, superior in dharma, likewise engaged in austerity. (3-321-18)
These two are truly the supreme abode, whose daily rites are performed; they are the fathers of all beings, divine and glorious. O great-minded one, which deity does one worship, or which ancestors? (3-321-19)
Having thus contemplated with devotion on Nārāyaṇa in his mind, suddenly he appeared near the two gods at that moment. (3-321-20)
After the divine and ancestral rites have been performed, and after being examined by both, he is honored according to the procedure as stated in the śāstra. (3-321-21)
Having seen him and the great, unprecedented wonder and the detailed procedure, the venerable sage Nārada, being well-pleased, sat nearby. (3-321-22)
After gazing at Nārāyaṇa with a joyful heart and bowing to Mahādeva, he spoke these words. (3-321-23)
You are sung in the Vedas, the Purāṇas, and their limbs and sub-limbs. You are the unborn, the eternal, the supporter, regarded as immortal and unsurpassed. All this world, established in you, consists of the past and the future. (3-321-24)
O divine one, all four āśramas, which are rooted in householdership, worship you every day in your various forms. (3-321-25)
The father, mother, and the eternal teacher of all the world; whom do you worship today as god, as father, whom we do not know. (3-321-26)
The holy Lord said:
O Brahman, this eternal self-secret is not to be spoken, but I shall tell it to you, the devoted one, just as it is. (3-321-27)
That which is subtle, unknowable, unmanifest, immovable, and constant, is devoid of the senses, sense objects, and all beings. (3-321-28)
He, the inner self of beings, is called the knower of the field; he is conceived as the person distinct from the three guṇas. Therefore, O best of the twice-born, the unmanifest has arisen as the threefold guṇa. (3-321-29)
That imperishable nature, which is unmanifest and yet assumes the state of manifestation, know her as the source of both of us; he who is of the nature of both existence and non-existence is indeed worshipped by us two in the rites established for the gods and the ancestors. (3-321-30)
There is no one superior to him, not even the father, god, or Brahmin; the self alone is to be known by us, therefore let us worship him. (3-321-31)
O Brāhmaṇa, by him this boundary, which sustains the world, has been established. The performance of both divine and ancestral rites is to be done—such is his instruction. (3-321-32)
Brahmā, Sthāṇu (Śiva), Manu, Dakṣa, Bhṛgu, Dharma, austerity, self-control, Marīci, Aṅgirāḥ, Atri, Pulastya, Pulaha, and Kratu. (3-321-33)
Vasiṣṭha, Parameṣṭhī, Vivasvān, Soma, and also Kardama, who is mentioned, as well as Krodha and Vikrīta, are indeed (included). (3-321-34)
The twenty-one lords of creatures who have arisen are remembered. They honor the eternal boundary of that god. (3-321-35)
The best of the twice-born, having truly understood what is divine, ancestral, and always pertaining to him, also know what is self-acquired from that. (3-321-36)
Even those who dwell in heaven, among the embodied beings who bow to him, by his grace, attain the state of the fruit ordained by him. (3-321-37)
Those who are deprived of the seventeen qualities and actions, having abandoned the fifteen parts, are certainly liberated. (3-321-38)
But, O Brahman, the goal of the liberated is considered to be the knower of the field. He is indeed described as all-pervading and certainly without qualities. (3-321-39)
He is perceived through the path of knowledge; we two have also arisen from that. Thus, knowing that self, we both should worship the eternal. (3-321-40)
The Vedas and the āśramas, established in various forms, worship him with devotion as the original goal, and he grants them their objective. (3-321-41)
But those who are devoted to that, who have established themselves in solitude in the world, they enter that which is superior among these, indeed. (3-321-42)
Thus, O Nārada, your secret instruction has been declared. Through devotion, through love, and also through my own devotion, O best of Brāhmaṇas, it has been revealed to you. (3-321-43)
