Mahabharata Santi Parva Chapter 279:2

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Mahabharata Santi Parva (Mokshadharma Parva) Chapter 279:2

Passing their allotted periods in heaven and hell, and with some portion of their merits and demerits unexhausted (by enjoyment and suffering), they repeatedly take birth, impelled by Time. Chained by the bonds of Desire, creatures pass through myriads of intermediate lives and fall helplessly into hell.[1] I have seen that creatures come and go even thus. The lesson inculcated in the Scriptures is that one's acquisitions correspond with one's acts.[2] Creatures take birth as men or as intermediate animals or as gods and go to hell. Having acted in lives, that are past in such a way as to deserve them, all creatures, subject to the ordinances of the Destroyer, meet with happiness and misery, the agreeable and the disagreeable. Having enjoyed the measure of weal or woe that corresponds with their acts, creatures always come back by the old path,[3] which is measured by the measure of acts.' Then the illustrious Usanas addressed the Asura Vritra who was thus talking of the highest refuge of the creation, saying, 'O intelligent Daitya, why, O child, dost thou utter such foolish rhapsodies?'
Vritra said, 'The severe penances which I underwent from greed of victory are well-known to thee as also to other sages. Appropriating diverse scents and diverse kinds of tastes that other creatures had for enjoying, I swelled up with my own energy, afflicting the three worlds. Decked with myriads of effulgent rays I used to rove through the skies (on my celestial car), incapable of being defeated by any creature and fearing none. I achieved great prosperity through my penances and lost it again through my own acts. Relying on my fortitude, however, I do not grieve for this change. Desirous (in days of yore) of fighting the great Indra, the high-souled ruler of the heavens, I beheld in that battle the illustrious Hari, the puissant Narayana,[4] He who is called Vaikuntha, Purusha, Ananta, Sukla, Vishnu, Sanatana, Munjakesa, Harismasru, and the Grandsire of all creatures[5]
Without doubt, there is still a remnant (to be enjoyed by me) of the rewards attaching to that penance represented by a sight of the great Hari. It is in consequence of that unexhausted remnant that I have become desirous of asking thee, O illustrious one, about the fruits of action![6] Upon which order (of men) hath been established high Brahma prosperity? In what manner, again, doth high prosperity fall off? From whom do creatures spring and live? Through whom again do they act? What is that high fruit by attaining to which a creature succeeds in living eternally as Brahma? By what Act or by what Knowledge can that fruit be achieved? It behoveth thee, O learned Brahmana, to expound these to me.' Recapitulated by me, O lion among kings, listen with undivided attention, O bull of men, with all thy brothers, to what the sage Usanas then said after he had been thus addressed by that prince of Danavas.

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References

  1. ↑ [Intermediate i.e., as animals and birds and reptiles and worms, etc.]
  2. ↑ [ i.e., if righteous, one attains to happiness; if otherwise, to the reverse.]
  3. ↑ [Verse 21 and the first line of 22 are grammatically connected.]
  4. ↑ [Me in the second line is equivalent to Maya. Tatah is tatra yuddhakale. Hari had come to aid Indra, and hence Vritra had beheld him. He is called Hari because he takes away one's sins. Besides the well-known derivation of the word Narayana, the commentator here offers another, viz., the ayanam or layasthanam of Nara or Jivasangha.]
  5. ↑ .[Vaikuntha has various etymologies. The commentator inclines to explain it as 'one who brings together all creatures.' Purusha is full; as applied to Narayana, it, of course, means one who has no defect but who is the sole representative of fullness. Sukla or Suddha or pure. Vishnu is all-pervading. Sanatan is kutastha or uniform or immutable. Munjakesa, is possessed of yellow hair, or hair of the hue of Munja grass. Harismasru is having a tawny beard.]
  6. ↑ [Penances are meritorious. The very sight of Hari that I obtain was as efficacious as a course of the austerest penances. Of course, in consequence of that and my other penances great have been the rewards that I have enjoyed. It seems, however, that the full measure of rewards has not been reaped; the remnant is to be enjoyed by me now, for I am about to ask thee about the fruits of acts. Sacred and highly auspicious is my enquiry. To make it is, in itself, a reward.]