Mahabharata: Volume 8 (33 page)

Janamejaya asked, ‘The grandfather of the Bharatas was lying down on a bed of arrows. How did he give up his body? What kind of yoga did he resort to?’

Vaishampayana replied, ‘O king! O tiger of the Kuru lineage! Purify yourself and listen attentively to how the great-souled Bhishma gave up his body. Pierced by hundreds of arrows, Bhishma was stretched out, like the sun with its rays. As soon as the sun turned towards uttarayana, he controlled himself and immersed himself in his atman. In his supreme prosperity, he was surrounded by the best of brahmanas—Vyasa, known for his learning in the Vedas, Narada, the rishi of the gods, Devasthana, Vatsya, Ashmaka and Sumantu. These, and large numbers of other immensely fortunate and great-souled sages surrounded him. With faith and self-control, they surrounded him, like the moon by the planets. Bhishma was a tiger among men, in his deeds, thoughts and words.

‘Lying down on that bed of arrows, he joined his hands in salutation and worshipped Krishna. In a loud voice, he praised Madhusudana, the lord of yoga, Padmanabha,
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Vishnu, Jishnu, the lord of the universe. He joined his hands in salutation and purified himself. Bhishma was supreme among eloquent ones and had great dharma in his soul. He praised the lord Vasudeva. “O Krishna! I wish to worship you. O Purushottama! May you be pleased with my words, which will be both brief and extensive. You are pure. You
are the essence of purity. You are the swan.
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You are supreme. You are the supreme creator. You are in all atmans and you are the lord of beings. You enter and are established in all beings in the universe. You are the qualities in beings. You are the lord of qualities, like a string which holds gems together. Your limbs constitute the universe. You perform deeds in the universe. Everything in the universe is strung together in you, like a garland strung together by a firm thread. You are Hari. You are the one with one thousand heads. You are the one with one thousand feet and one thousand eyes. You are known as the god Narayana. You are the refuge of the universe. You are finer than the finest. You are larger than the largest. You are heavier than the heaviest. You are better than the best. In the
vaka
s, the
anuvaka
s, the
nishad
s and the Upanishads, you are the one who is praised as the performer of truthful deeds.
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You are truth. You are in the truth of the samas. There are four parts to your atman.
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You are in all understanding and you are the lord of the Satvatas. Your supreme and secret names are worshipped by the celestial gods. You are the god who was born to the goddess Devaki and Vasudeva, for the sake of protecting brahmanas on earth and they were like two sticks rubbed together to kindle a blazing fire. When one cleanses oneself, controls and withdraws from all desire, desiring the infinite, one sees the unblemished atman of Govinda in one’s own atman. In the Puranas, you have been spoken of as Purusha. At the beginning of a yuga, you are Brahma. When the time for destruction has arrived, you are known by the name of Samkarshana. I am worshipping the one who should be worshipped. Your deeds surpass those of Vayu and Agni. You surpass the sun and the fire in your energy.

Your
atman is beyond the reach of intelligence and the senses. I am seeking refuge with that Prajapati. You are the creator of the universe. You are the lord of everything in the universe. That is how the universe speaks of you. You are the supervisor. You are without decay. You are the supreme state. Your complexion is like that of gold. Though you are one, for the sake of destroying the daityas, Aditi bore twelve different parts in her womb.
⁴³²
I am bowing down to the one whose atman is the sun. I bow down before the one whose atman is the moon. He is the king of the brahmanas and gratifies the gods in shuklapaksha and the ancestors in krishnapaksha.
⁴³³
You are the blazing and resplendent being who is beyond the great darkness. Knowing you, one goes beyond death. I am bowing down to the one who is everything that there is to be known. In the great ukthas,
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the large number of brahmanas chants of you as the great one and as the fire in the great sacrifice. You are the soul of the Vedas and I bow down before you. Your abode is in the Rig, Yajur and Sama hymns. You are the five kinds of oblations.
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You are the seven strands.
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You are the soul of a sacrifice and I bow down before you. You are the bird named Yajur. The metres are your limbs and the three forms of chanting
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constitute your head. The
brihat
and
rathamtara
⁴³⁸
are the eyes. You are the hymns and I bow down before you. When the creators performed a sacrifice with one thousand flows,
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you were the rishi who appeared. You are the bird with a golden complexion. Your atman is the swan and I bow down before you. I bow down to the one whose atman is speech. He is said to be the eternal akshara.
⁴⁴⁰

The words
⁴⁴¹
are his limbs. The joints are
sandhi
.
⁴⁴²
The vowels and the consonants are the manifestations. For the sake of the virtuous, you build a bridge from the false to the truth. Your limbs are the use of dharma and artha. I bow down to the one who is the truth. There are those who follow different dharmas. They desire fruits through the pursuit of these different kinds of dharma. They worship you through these different kinds of dharma. I bow down to the one who has dharma in his soul. The maharshis think of you as the unmanifest within the manifest. You are the kshetrajna in the
kshetra
.
⁴⁴³
I bow down to the one who has his atman in the kshetra. I bow down to the one who is the atman of samkhya, who is spoken of in samkhya as the seventeenth and who, firm with the atman in the self, is surrounded by the sixteen qualities.
⁴⁴⁴
Without sleep, controlling the breath, established in the self and restraining the senses, those who are engaged in yoga see a light. You are the atman of that and I bow down before you. Without any fear of rebirth, peaceful sannyasis obtain the supreme you, beyond the good and the bad. You are the atman of salvation and I bow down before you. At the end of one thousand yugas, you are the blazing flames of fire and devour all beings. You are the atman of the terrible and I bow down before you. Having consumed all beings and having rendered the entire universe into a single ocean, you sleep alone, like a child. You are the atman of maya and I bow down before you. You are the thousand-headed being and your atman is infinite. I bow down before the one who is the atman of this yoga of sleep, in each of the four oceans in turn.
⁴⁴⁵
You are the lotus in the navel of the one who has not been
born. The entire universe is established in you. You are Pushkara and Pushkaraksha. I bow down before the one who is the atman of the lotus. The clouds are your hair. The rivers flow through all the joints of your body. The four oceans are in your stomach. I bow down before the one who is the atman of water. You flow through the yugas in the form of days, seasons,
ayana
s
⁴⁴⁶
and years. You are the cause of creation and destruction. I bow down before the one who is the atman of time. The brahmanas are your mouth, the kshatriyas are your arms, the vaishyas are your thighs and stomach and the shudras find refuge in your feet. I bow down before the one who is the atman of the varnas. The fire is your face. The firmament is the crown of your head. The sky is your navel and the earth constitutes your feet. Your eyes are the sun. The directions are your ears. I bow down before the one whose atman is in the worlds. You are present in objects in the form of
vaisheshika
qualities.
⁴⁴⁷
You are spoken of as the protector of objects. I bow down before the one whose atman is in all protection. You are the one who sustains beings through food, drink and riches and extends their juice and breaths of life. I bow down before the one whose atman is in the breath of life. You are beyond time. You are beyond sacrifices. You are beyond notions of truth and falsehood. You have no beginning. You are the origin of the universe. I bow down before the one whose atman is in the universe. He is the one who confounds beings through the bonds of affection and hatred. This is for the sake of preserving creation. I bow down before the one whose atman is in confusion. Knowledge about the atman is knowledge one can obtain while still remaining established in the five.
⁴⁴⁸
Those who obtain that knowledge go to him. I bow down before the one whose atman is in knowledge. His body cannot be measured. His infinite eyes see everything. He is infinite and cannot be measured. I bow down before the one whose atman is in thought. He is matted and always carries a staff.

His
body has an elongated stomach. The water pot is his quiver.
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I bow down before the one whose atman is in Brahma. He wields a trident and is the lord of the gods. He is great-souled and three-eyed. His body is smeared in ashes and his linga is turned up.
⁴⁵⁰
I bow down before the one whose atman is in Rudra. He is the embodiment of the five elements. He is the creator and destroyer of all beings. He is without anger, without malice and without confusion. I bow down before the one whose atman is in peace. Everything is in him. He is in everything. He is everything. Everything comes from him. He is always made up of everything. I bow down before the one whose atman is in everything. I bow down before the one whose deeds are the universe. You are the soul of the universe. The universe originates in you. Etablished beyond the five,
⁴⁵¹
you are the fulfilment of all beings. In the three worlds, I bow down before you. I bow down before you in everything that is beyond those three. I bow down before you in all the directions. You are the refuge of everything. I bow down before the illustrious Vishnu, the origin of the worlds. O Hrishikesha! You are the unvanquished creator and destroyer. I see your divine form in the three paths.
⁴⁵²
I can see the truth about your eternal form. The heaven is pervaded with your head and the goddess earth with your feet. You are the eternal being whose valour is in the three worlds. Your complexion is like the
atasi
flower.
⁴⁵³
You are Achyuta in your yellow garments. Those who bow down before Govinda have no fear. Just as truth is full of Vishnu, oblations are full of Vishnu. Since everything is full of Vishnu, the wicked deeds that I have done will be destroyed. Faithfully, I am seeking refuge with you. I wish to attain the best objective. O Pundarikaksha! O supreme among gods! You will think of what is best. You are the source of learning and austerities. You are Vishnu, who has no origin. I have worshipped the god with my words. May Janardana be pleased
with me.” With devotion in his mind, Bhishma spoke these words. Having said this, he bowed down before Krishna.

‘Through his powers of yoga, Madhava got to know about Bhishma’s devotion and went there.
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Hari gave him divine knowledge and sight about the three kinds of time.
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When the immensely wise Bhishma’s words ended, those who were knowledgeable about the brahman applauded him loudly, their voices choking with tears. The foremost among brahmanas praised Keshava Purushottama. Then, in gentle words, all of them again praised Bhishma. On discerning Bhishma’s yoga of devotion, Purushottma was joyful. He suddenly arose and ascended his vehicle. Keshava and Satyaki advanced on a single chariot. The great-souled Yudhishthira and Dhananjaya were on another one. Bhima and the two twins were on a single chariot. Kripa, Yuyutsu and the suta Sanjaya went on another chariot. Those bulls among men went on chariots that were like cities. These made the earth tremble with the roar of their axles. As he
⁴⁵⁶
advanced along the road, the best of men was extremely joyful on hearing the words of praise spoken by the brahmanas. There were other men who bowed down before him, hands joined in salutation. The slayer of Keshi
⁴⁵⁷
was delighted and greeted them.’

Vaishampayana said, ‘Hrishikesha, King Yudhishthira, Kripa and the others and the four Pandavas rode on chariots that were like cities, adorned with standards and flags. On horses
that were swift, they quickly went to Kurukshetra. They got down in Kurukshetra, full of hair, marrow and bones. That was where the great-souled kshatriyas had given up their bodies. The bodies and bones of elephants and horses were piled up in heaps, like mountains. The heads and skulls of men were strewn around like conch shells. Thousands of funeral pyres had been lit, with armour and weapons piled on. It looked like a drinking ground that had been used by Death and had just been abandoned. Large numbers of demons wandered around and large numbers of rakshasas frequented it. The maharathas quickly went and saw Kurukshetra.

‘While they were going there, the mighty-armed one, the delight of all the Yadavas, spoke to Yudhishthira about the valour of Jamadagni’s son. “O Partha! There, in the distance, you can see the five lakes created by Rama.
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Earlier, he used the blood of kshatriyas to offer oblations to his ancestors. On twenty-one occasions, the lord emptied the earth of kshatriyas. It is only now that Rama has refrained from that task.” Yudhishthira replied, “You have told me that Rama emptied the world of kshatriyas twenty-one times. I have a great doubt about this. O bull among the Yadu lineage! O infinitely valorous one! If the seed of the kshatriyas was burnt, how were the kshatriyas generated again? O bull among the Yadu lineage! How were the kshatriyas exterminated by the illustrious and great-souled Rama? How did they prosper again? O supreme among eloquent ones! In the Mahabharata war, crores of kshatriyas have been slain. The earth is strewn with kshatriyas. O Varshneya! O one with Tarkshya
⁴⁵⁹
on your standard! Sever my doubt. O Vasava’s younger brother! O Krishna! Our supreme knowledge comes from you.” As they proceeded, the lord who was Gada’s elder brother
⁴⁶⁰
told the infinitely energetic Yudhishthira the complete truth about that account and about how the earth again became full of kshatriyas.’