Jada Bharata Instructs King Rahugana

Verse 1 (bhagavata.5.11.1)

ब्राह्मण उवाच अकोविदः कोविदवादवादान्वदस्यथो नातिविदां वरिष्ठः । न सूरयो हि व्यवहारमेनंतत्त्वावमर्शेन सहामनन्ति ॥ १ ॥

brāhmaṇa uvāca akovidaḥ kovida-vāda-vādān vadasy atho nāti-vidāṁ variṣṭhaḥ na sūrayo hi vyavahāram enaṁ tattvāvamarśena sahāmananti

The brahmana said: Though unlearned, you speak as though versed in the talk of the learned; nor, in truth, are you the very best among the deeply wise. For the wise do not regard such talk of worldly transaction as bound up with any real reflection on Truth.

Verse 2 (bhagavata.5.11.2)

तथैव राजन्नुरुगार्हमेध-वितानविद्योरुविजृम्भितेषु । न वेदवादेषु हि तत्त्ववादःप्रायेण शुद्धो नु चकास्ति साधुः ॥ २ ॥

tathaiva rājann uru-gārhamedha- vitāna-vidyoru-vijṛmbhiteṣu na veda-vādeṣu hi tattva-vādaḥ prāyeṇa śuddho nu cakāsti sādhuḥ

Likewise, O King, amid the vast, sprawling expansions of that Vedic teaching devoted to household sacrifice and ritual works, talk of ultimate Truth generally does not shine forth pure and unsullied.

Verse 3 (bhagavata.5.11.3)

न तस्य तत्त्वग्रहणाय साक्षाद्वरीयसीरपि वाचः समासन् । स्वप्ने निरुक्त्या गृहमेधिसौख्यंन यस्य हेयानुमितं स्वयं स्यात् ॥ ३ ॥

na tasya tattva-grahaṇāya sākṣād varīyasīr api vācaḥ samāsan svapne niruktyā gṛhamedhi-saukhyaṁ na yasya heyānumitaṁ svayaṁ syāt

Even the most excellent words heard directly from scripture are not, by themselves, sufficient to grasp that Truth — just as household happiness experienced in a dream is understood, on waking, to be something to be abandoned, by mere explanation of the word, without any inference of one's own.

Verse 4 (bhagavata.5.11.4)

यावन्मनो रजसा पूरुषस्यसत्त्वेन वा तमसा वानुरुद्धम् । चेतोभिराकूतिभिरातनोतिनिरङ्कुशं कुशलं चेतरं वा ॥ ४ ॥

yāvan mano rajasā pūruṣasya sattvena vā tamasā vānuruddham cetobhir ākūtibhir ātanoti niraṅkuśaṁ kuśalaṁ cetaraṁ vā

As long as a person's mind remains bound by passion, or by goodness, or by ignorance, it extends without restraint, through its thoughts and intentions, into deeds either good or their opposite.

Verse 5 (bhagavata.5.11.5)

स वासनात्मा विषयोपरक्तोगुणप्रवाहो विकृतः षोडशात्मा । बिभ्रत्पृथङ्नामभि रूपभेद-मन्तर्बहिष्ट्वं च पुरैस्तनोति ॥ ५ ॥

sa vāsanātmā viṣayoparakto guṇa-pravāho vikṛtaḥ ṣoḍaśātmā bibhrat pṛthaṅ-nāmabhi rūpa-bhedam antar-bahiṣṭvaṁ ca purais tanoti

That mind, its very substance made of desire, tinged by the objects of sense, a flowing current of the three gunas transformed into sixteen aspects, bearing distinct names and differing forms, brings about, through the various bodies it takes on, both an inward and an outward existence.

Verse 6 (bhagavata.5.11.6)

दुःखं सुखं व्यतिरिक्तं च तीव्रंकालोपपन्नं फलमाव्यनक्ति । आलिङ्ग्य मायारचितान्तरात्मास्वदेहिनं संसृतिचक्रकूटः ॥ ६ ॥

duḥkhaṁ sukhaṁ vyatiriktaṁ ca tīvraṁ kālopapannaṁ phalam āvyanakti āliṅgya māyā-racitāntarātmā sva-dehinaṁ saṁsṛti-cakra-kūṭaḥ

Manifesting pleasure and pain, and states beyond both, intense and ripened by time into their fruit, this mind — the very hub of the wheel of samsara — embraces the embodied soul with a self fashioned wholly by maya, and keeps him bound as its own.

Verse 7 (bhagavata.5.11.7)

तावानयं व्यवहारः सदाविःक्षेत्रज्ञसाक्ष्यो भवति स्थूलसूक्ष्मः । तस्मान्मनो लिङ्गमदो वदन्तिगुणागुणत्वस्य परावरस्य ॥ ७ ॥

tāvān ayaṁ vyavahāraḥ sadāviḥ kṣetrajña-sākṣyo bhavati sthūla-sūkṣmaḥ tasmān mano liṅgam ado vadanti guṇāguṇatvasya parāvarasya

This entire realm of transaction — gross and subtle, ever manifest, with the field-knower as its mere witness — extends only so far as the mind itself; hence the wise call the mind the very sign of this being, of the higher self appearing bound by qualities and the lower self appearing free of them.

Verse 8 (bhagavata.5.11.8)

गुणानुरक्तं व्यसनाय जन्तोः क्षेमाय नैर्गुण्यमथो मनः स्यात् । यथा प्रदीपो घृतवर्तिमश्नन् शिखाः सधूमा भजति ह्यन्यदा स्वम् । पदं तथा गुणकर्मानुबद्धं वृत्तीर्मनः श्रयतेऽन्यत्र तत्त्वम् ॥ ८ ॥

guṇānuraktaṁ vyasanāya jantoḥ kṣemāya nairguṇyam atho manaḥ syāt yathā pradīpo ghṛta-vartim aśnan śikhāḥ sadhūmā bhajati hy anyadā svam padaṁ tathā guṇa-karmānubaddhaṁ vṛttīr manaḥ śrayate ’nyatra tattvam

A mind attached to the modes of nature leads a living being to misfortune, while freedom from those modes brings about his true good. Just as a lamp, fed by a wick soaked in ghee, at times burns with flames mixed with smoke, and at other times burns in its own pure brightness, so too the mind — bound, at one time, to functions arising from the modes and their resulting deeds — may, at another time, take shelter in Truth itself, apart from all of that.

Verse 9 (bhagavata.5.11.9)

एकादशासन्मनसो हि वृत्तय आकूतयः पञ्च धियोऽभिमानः । मात्राणि कर्माणि पुरं च तासां वदन्ति हैकादश वीर भूमीः ॥ ९ ॥

ekādaśāsan manaso hi vṛttaya ākūtayaḥ pañca dhiyo ’bhimānaḥ mātrāṇi karmāṇi puraṁ ca tāsāṁ vadanti haikādaśa vīra bhūmīḥ

The functions of the mind are eleven in number: the five organs of action, the five of knowledge, and the sense of false ego. O hero, the wise speak of the objects of the senses, the bodily activities, and the body itself as the eleven fields of these functions.

Verse 10 (bhagavata.5.11.10)

गन्धाकृतिस्पर्शरसश्रवांसि विसर्गरत्यर्त्यभिजल्पशिल्पाः । एकादशं स्वीकरणं ममेति शय्यामहं द्वादशमेक आहुः ॥ १० ॥

gandhākṛti-sparśa-rasa-śravāṁsi visarga-raty-arty-abhijalpa-śilpāḥ ekādaśaṁ svīkaraṇaṁ mameti śayyām ahaṁ dvādaśam eka āhuḥ

Smell, form, touch, taste and sound; excretion, sexual pleasure, movement, speech, and skilled action — these, together with the eleventh, the sense of 'mine,' and, as some hold, a twelfth, the sense of 'I' — all rest upon this one bed, the body.

Verse 11 (bhagavata.5.11.11)

द्रव्यस्वभावाशयकर्मकालै- रेकादशामी मनसो विकाराः । सहस्रशः शतशः कोटिशश्च क्षेत्रज्ञतो न मिथो न स्वतः स्युः ॥ ११ ॥

dravya-svabhāvāśaya-karma-kālair ekādaśāmī manaso vikārāḥ sahasraśaḥ śataśaḥ koṭiśaś ca kṣetrajñato na mitho na svataḥ syuḥ

These eleven modifications of the mind, compounded by substance, innate disposition, prior impressions, action and time, multiply into hundreds, thousands, even millions — yet they do not arise from the field-knower acting in concert with them, nor do they arise of themselves.

Verse 12 (bhagavata.5.11.12)

क्षेत्रज्ञ एता मनसो विभूती- र्जीवस्य मायारचितस्य नित्याः । आविर्हिताः क्वापि तिरोहिताश्च शुद्धो विचष्टे ह्यविशुद्धकर्तुः ॥ १२ ॥

kṣetrajña etā manaso vibhūtīr jīvasya māyā-racitasya nityāḥ āvirhitāḥ kvāpi tirohitāś ca śuddho vicaṣṭe hy aviśuddha-kartuḥ

O knower of the field, these powers of the mind belong, from time without beginning, to the jiva fashioned by maya — at times manifest, at times concealed. He who is himself pure perceives them clearly, though they belong to one whose very agency as doer is impure.

Verse 13 (bhagavata.5.11.13)

क्षेत्रज्ञ आत्मा पुरुषः पुराणः साक्षात्स्वयंज्योतिरजः परेशः । नारायणो भगवान् वासुदेवः स्वमाययाऽऽत्मन्यवधीयमानः ॥ १३ ॥

kṣetrajña ātmā puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ sākṣāt svayaṁ jyotir ajaḥ pareśaḥ nārāyaṇo bhagavān vāsudevaḥ sva-māyayātmany avadhīyamānaḥ

The other Field-Knower is the very Self, the Person, the Ancient One, directly self-luminous, unborn, the Supreme Controller — Narayana, Bhagavan Vasudeva — who, through His own divine potency, appears as though seated and confined within each individual self.

Verse 14 (bhagavata.5.11.14)

यथानिलः स्थावरजङ्गमाना- मात्मस्वरूपेण निविष्ट ईशेत् । एवं परो भगवान् वासुदेवः क्षेत्रज्ञ आत्मेदमनुप्रविष्टः ॥ १४ ॥

yathānilaḥ sthāvara-jaṅgamānām ātma-svarūpeṇa niviṣṭa īśet evaṁ paro bhagavān vāsudevaḥ kṣetrajña ātmedam anupraviṣṭaḥ

Just as the wind, entering all things moving and unmoving in its own subtle form, governs them from within, so too the Supreme Lord Vasudeva, the Field-Knower, having entered as the very Self, pervades and governs this entire creation.

Verse 15 (bhagavata.5.11.15)

न यावदेतां तनुभृन्नरेन्द्र विधूय मायां वयुनोदयेन । विमुक्तसङ्गो जितषट्सपत्नो वेदात्मतत्त्वं भ्रमतीह तावत् ॥ १५ ॥

na yāvad etāṁ tanu-bhṛn narendra vidhūya māyāṁ vayunodayena vimukta-saṅgo jita-ṣaṭ-sapatno vedātma-tattvaṁ bhramatīha tāvat

O lord of men, as long as this embodied being fails, through the dawning of true knowledge, to shake off this maya, remains unfreed from attachment, and has not conquered his six enemies, he continues to wander here, bewildered about the truth of the self.

Verse 16 (bhagavata.5.11.16)

न यावदेतन्मन आत्मलिङ्गं संसारतापावपनं जनस्य । यच्छोकमोहामयरागलोभ- वैरानुबन्धं ममतां विधत्ते ॥ १६ ॥

na yāvad etan mana ātma-liṅgaṁ saṁsāra-tāpāvapanaṁ janasya yac choka-mohāmaya-rāga-lobha- vairānubandhaṁ mamatāṁ vidhatte

As long as this mind — the false mark taken for the self, the very source of samsara's torment for a person — remains unrecognized for what it is, it goes on establishing a sense of 'mine' bound up with grief, delusion, sickness, attachment, greed and enmity.

Verse 17 (bhagavata.5.11.17)

भ्रातृव्यमेनं तददभ्रवीर्य- मुपेक्षयाध्येधितमप्रमत्तः । गुरोर्हरेश्चरणोपासनास्त्रो जहि व्यलीकं स्वयमात्ममोषम् ॥ १७ ॥

bhrātṛvyam enaṁ tad adabhra-vīryam upekṣayādhyedhitam apramattaḥ guror hareś caraṇopāsanāstro jahi vyalīkaṁ svayam ātma-moṣam

This enemy, though possessed of formidable strength, only grows stronger still if left unwatched through carelessness. Therefore, remaining ever vigilant, slay it with the weapon of devoted service at the feet of your guru and of Hari — for it is a deceiver, a thief that steals the very self, false though it is.