Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 4 Chapter 29:66-77

Book 4: Chapter 29

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 4: Chapter 29: Verses 66-77 The Dialogue between king Pracinabarhi and the sage Narada (continued) The very mind of a man, God bless you, reveals (the nature of) his former existences as well as the future ones in the case of the man who is going to be reborn and even so (indicates) the liberation of the man who is not going to be so reborn. Sometimes (in a dream) a thing (altogether) unseen and unheard of in this world in relation to a particular place, time or action (such as a sprout of barley on a burning flame, the sun shining at dead of night or the flying of a creature living on dry land) is seen flashing on (one's) mind. How this happens should be inferred (from the attendant circumstances, e.g., a disturbed sleep) and does not disprove in any way the proposition enunciated in verse 65 above. Such objects alone as are perceptible by the senses flash on the mind in groups in order of succession and disappear (when they have been enjoyed). (For) all embodied beings are (invariably) endowed with a mind (full of impressions of past experiences). (As a rule, things appear before the mind only successively; but) on a mind established in the quality of Sattva unmixed with Rajas and Tamas and staying by the side (in the presence) of the Lord (during meditation) the whole of this universe flashes (simultaneously sometimes), being united as it were with the Lord, just as Rahu (which has been recognized as a planet in Hindu astronomy and is nothing but a mass of darkness) appears (before our eyes) in conjunction with the moon (during a lunar eclipse). The feeling of 'I' and 'mine' (with regard to the physical body), inhering in the Jiva, does not cease so long as the subtle body-which has existed from time without beginning and which is a product of the three Gunas and a conglomerate of the intellect, the mind, the lndriyas, (the five senses of perception and the five organs of action) and the five subtle elements-persists. During sleep, in the unconscious state and in agony as well as at the time of death and high fever the (-consciousness (though persisting) does not manifest itself due to the suspension of sense-activity. The senses being not fully developed during gestation and infancy too, the conditioning ego appearing in the form of the ten lndriyas and the mind in a young man is not (distinctly) perceived in those periods any more than the orb of the moon on the last night of a lunar month. Even though the world of senses does not (really) exist, (the cycle of) birth and death does not cease, for the Jiva who is (ever) engrossed in the thought of the pleasures of senses, any more than the reverses experienced in a dream (until one wakes up). In this way the subtle body, made up of the five subtle elements, and (further) developed into sixteen modifications (in the form of the five vital airs, the mind and the ten lndriyas), and which is a product of the three Gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas), is spoken of as the Jiva when the same is endowed with consciousness. It is through this (subtle body) that the Jiva assumes and casts off (physical) bodies and (again) it is through this that he experiences joy and sorrow, fear, pleasure and pain. Just as a caterpillar does not leave its foothold (until it has caught at another) and leaves it (only) after it has firmly set its foot on another, the Jiva does not give up (its) identification with the previous body (the one he casts off) even while dying until it takes another body (earthly or aerial and so on) with the exhaustion of Karma (responsible for the existence of the previous body). It is the mind alone. O ruler of men, that brings about the birth (and death) of living beings.