Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 7 Chapter 2:17-32

Book 7: Chapter 2

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 7: Chapter 2: Verses 17-32 Hiranyakasipu rids his mother (Diti) of her grief (caused by the death of his younger brother, Hiranyaksa) Having offered water and other oblations to (the spirit of) his deceased (younger) brother (Hiranyaksa), Hiranyakasipu, who felt (very) miserable (himself), comforted his brothers sons-Sakuni, Sambara, Dhrsta, Bhutasantapana, Vrka, Kalanabha, Mahanabha, Harismasru and Utkaca. Knowing as he did what was appropriate to a particular time and place, word and interpreted as he addressed the following to (them as also to) their mother (and his own sister-in-law), Rusabhanu, as well as to Diti, his (own) mother, in soft words, 0 lord of men ! Hiranyakasipu said : Mother, O mother, sister-in-law and sons ! You ought not to lament the hero (Hiranyaksa). The death of the brave in front of their enemy is praiseworthy and (as such) coveted (by them). The dwelling together in this world of created beings (first) collected at one place (under one roof) and (then) separated by Providence on account of their (past) actions, is (just) like the gathering of men in a shed (on the roadside) containing a reservoir of water (for the wayfarers), O virtuous mother ! The soul is eternal (deathless) free from decay, taintless, omnipresent, all-knowing and transcendent. It assumes bodies (of various kinds), procuring the (numerous) objects of senses by its own Maya (ignorance). (Just) as due to (proximity to) a running stream the trees (standing motionless on its edge and reflected in it) appear as though moving and (even) as due to one's rotating eyes the earth (around) appears to revolve, so when the mind is agitated by the (three) Gunas (modes of Prakrti), the soul, which is really unagitated (free from the morbid feelings of grief etc.), acquires homogeneity indeed with the mind, O blessed one, so that, though (really) detached from body etc,. it appears as if endowed with a body and so. on. To identify with the body the self, which has no connection (whatsoever) with a body-this is the perversion of the soul. (And) it is from such identification that there ensues its union with agreeable objects and separation from disagreeable ones and vice versa, (egoistic) action and (consequent) transition from one embodied state to another, birth and death, grief of various kinds, mentioned in the scriptures, want of discrimination between matter and spirit and so on, anxiety and forgetting the aforementioned distinction (even though having known it once). On this subject the wise narrate the following ancient legend too in the form of a dialogue between Yama (the god of retribution) and the relations of a deceased person. (Please) listen to it. In the Usinara territory there lived an illustrious king Suyajna by name. He was killed by the enemies in a battle and his kith and kin sat around him even as he lay on the field of battle, stained with blood and biting his lips in anger, his jewelled armour smashed, his ornaments and wreaths of flowers fallen off (from his person), his heart pierced through with an arrow, his hair thrown about (in disorder), his eyes sunk deep, his lotus face covered with dust and his weapons and arms cut into pieces. Closely observing their husband, the lord of the Usinaras, reduced to such a (pitiable) plight by Providence, the queens felt (much) distressed. Violently beating their breast with their hands again and again and exclaiming "We are lost. O lord !" they dropped down beside his feet. Weeping loudly and bathing the lotus-feet of their beloved husbend with their tears, tinted reddish with the saffron paste on their breasts, and causing grief in the heart of men, the ladies wailed piteously, their locks and jewels loosened and displaced :