Critical Edition
भीष्म उवाच इत्युक्तोऽभिप्रशस्यैतत्परमर्षेस्तु शासनम् मोक्षधर्मार्थसंयुक्तमिदं प्रष्टुं प्रचक्रमे
M. N. Dutt: Bhishma said Thus addressed by his father, Shuka, highly praising these instructions of the great Rishi, began to ask the following questions regarding the import of duties which brings on Liberation.
शुक उवाच प्रजावाञ्श्रोत्रियो यज्वा वृद्धः प्रज्ञोऽनसूयकः अनागतमनैतिह्यं कथं ब्रह्माधिगच्छति
M. N. Dutt: Shuka said By what means does a wise man well-read in the Vedas, observant of sacrifices, and shorn of malice attains to Brahma which is incapable of being apprehended by either direct evidence or inference, and incapable of being described by the Vedas.
तपसा ब्रह्मचर्येण सर्वत्यागेन मेधया सांख्ये वा यदि वा योगे एतत्पृष्टोऽभिधत्स्व मे
M. N. Dutt: Asked by me, tell me by what means can Brahma be known. Is it by penance, by Brahmacharya, by renunciation of everything, by intelligence, by help of the Sankhya philosophy, or by the Yoga?
मनसश्चेन्द्रियाणां चाप्यैकाग्र्यं समवाप्यते येनोपायेन पुरुषैस्तच्च व्याख्यातुमर्हसि
M. N. Dutt: What are the means and what sort of singleness of purpose may inen acquire regarding both, viz., the mind and the senses? You should explain all this to me!
व्यास उवाच नान्यत्र विद्यातपसोर्नान्यत्रेन्द्रियनिग्रहात् नान्यत्र सर्वसंत्यागात्सिद्धिं विन्दति कश्चन
M. N. Dutt: Vyasa said No man achieves success by any other means save the acquisition of knowledge, the practice of penances, the control of the senses, and renunciation of everything.
महाभूतानि सर्वाणि पूर्वसृष्टिः स्वयंभुवः भूयिष्ठं प्राणभृद्ग्रामे निविष्टानि शरीरिषु
M. N. Dutt: The great elements (five in number) represent the first creation of the Self-create. They have been very largely put in embodied creatures living in the world of life.
भूमेर्देहो जलात्सारो ज्योतिषश्चक्षुषी स्मृते प्राणापानाश्रयो वायुः खेष्वाकाशं शरीरिणाम्
M. N. Dutt: The bodies of all embodied creatures are originated from earth. Their humours originate from water. Their eyes originate from light. Prana, Apana (and other vital breaths), depend on the wind. And, lastly, all unoccupied apertures within them originate from Space.
क्रान्ते विष्णुर्बले शक्रः कोष्ठेऽग्निर्भुक्तमर्छति कर्णयोः प्रदिशः श्रोत्रे जिह्वायां वाक्सरस्वती
M. N. Dutt: Vishnu is in the feet (of living creatures). Indra is in their arms. Within the stomach lies Agni, desirous of eating. The points of the horizon are in the ears, the organ of hearing. Speech, which is the goddess of learning, is in the tongue.
कर्णौ त्वक्चक्षुषी जिह्वा नासिका चैव पञ्चमी दर्शनानीन्द्रियोक्तानि द्वाराण्याहारसिद्धये
M. N. Dutt: The ears, skin, eyes, tongue, and nose forming the fifth, are the senses of knowledge. These exist for apprehending their respective objects.
शब्दं स्पर्शं तथा रूपं रसं गन्धं च पञ्चमम् इन्द्रियाणि पृथक्त्वर्थान्मनसो दर्शयन्त्युत
AI Translation: Sound, touch, form, taste, and smell as the fifth, The senses clearly show the separate objects of the mind.
इन्द्रियाणि मनो युङ्क्ते वश्यान्यन्तेव वाजिनः मनश्चापि सदा युङ्क्ते भूतात्मा हृदयाश्रितः
M. N. Dutt: Like the charioteer driving his well trained horses along the paths he likes, the mind, imoves the senses. The mind, in its turn, is inoved by the Understanding sitting in the heart.
इन्द्रियाणां तथैवेषां सर्वेषामीश्वरं मनः नियमे च विसर्गे च भूतात्मा मनसस्तथा
M. N. Dutt: The mind is the lord of all these senses employing them in their functions and guiding controlling them. Likewise, the Understanding is the lord of the mind.
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थाश्च स्वभावश्चेतना मनः प्राणापानौ च जीवश्च नित्यं देहेषु देहिनाम्
M. N. Dutt: The senses, the objects of the senses, the attributes of the objects of Nature, understanding, mind, the vital our and individual soul dwell in the bodies of all embodied creatures.
आश्रयो नास्ति सत्त्वस्य गुणशब्दो न चेतना सत्त्वं हि तेजः सृजति न गुणान्वै कदाचन
M. N. Dutt: The body within which the Understanding lives, has no real existence. The body, therefore, is not the seat of the Understanding. Nature (Prakriti), endued with three qualities, is the refuge of the Understanding which exists only in the form of a sound. The Soul also is not the refuge of the Understanding. It is Desire which creates the Understanding. Desire, however, never creates the three qualities.
एवं सप्तदशं देहे वृतं षोडशभिर्गुणैः मनीषी मनसा विप्रः पश्यत्यात्मानमात्मनि
M. N. Dutt: The wise man, capable of controlling his senses, sees the seventeenth, viz., the Soul as surrounded by six and ten qualities, in his own Understanding by the help of the mind.
न ह्ययं चक्षुषा दृश्यो न च सर्वैरपीन्द्रियैः मनसा संप्रदीप्तेन महानात्मा प्रकाशते
M. N. Dutt: The Soul cannot be seen with the help of the eye, or with that of all the senses. Getting over all, the Soul can be seen by only the light of the mind's lamp.
अशब्दस्पर्शरूपं तदरसागन्धमव्ययम् अशरीरं शरीरे स्वे निरीक्षेत निरिन्द्रियम्
M. N. Dutt: Shorn of the properties of sound and touch and form, without taste and smell, indestructible and without a body and without senses, it is nevertheless seen within the body.
अव्यक्तं व्यक्तदेहेषु मर्त्येष्वमरमाश्रितम् योऽनुपश्यति स प्रेत्य कल्पते ब्रह्मभूयसे
M. N. Dutt: Unmanifest and supreme, it lives in all mortal frames, Guided by the preceptor and the Vedas, he who sees it hereafter becomes Brahma's self.
विद्याभिजनसंपन्ने ब्राह्मणे गवि हस्तिनि शुनि चैव श्वपाके च पण्डिताः समदर्शिनः
M. N. Dutt: The wise see impartially a Brahmana gifted with knowledge and disciples, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a Chandala.
स हि सर्वेषु भूतेषु जङ्गमेषु ध्रुवेषु च वसत्येको महानात्मा येन सर्वमिदं ततम्
M. N. Dutt: Transcending all things, the Soul lives in all creatures, mobile and immobile.
सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं सर्वभूतानि चात्मनि यदा पश्यति भूतात्मा ब्रह्म संपद्यते तदा
M. N. Dutt: When a living creature sees his own Soul in all things, and all things in his own Soul, he is said to attain to Brahma.
यावानात्मनि वेदात्मा तावानात्मा परात्मनि य एवं सततं वेद सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते
M. N. Dutt: One occupies the Supreme Soul proportionate to what is occupied in one's own soul by Vedic sound. He who can always realise the identity of all things with his own self, forsooth, acquires immortality.
सर्वभूतात्मभूतस्य सर्वभूतहितस्य च देवापि मार्गे मुह्यन्ति अपदस्य पदैषिणः
M. N. Dutt: Even the gods are stupefied in the path of that trackless man who forms the soul of all creatures, who is engaged in the well being of all creatures and who wishes to attain to the final refuge (of all things).
शकुनीनामिवाकाशे जले वारिचरस्य वा यथा गतिर्न दृश्येत तथैव सुमहात्मनः
AI Translation: As the flight of birds in the sky or of aquatic creatures in water is not seen, so also the great soul.
कालः पचति भूतानि सर्वाण्येवात्मनात्मनि यस्मिंस्तु पच्यते कालस्तं न वेदेह कश्चन
M. N. Dutt: Time, by its own power, cooks all entities within itself. No one, however, knows That in which Time, again, is itself cooked.
न तदूर्ध्वं न तिर्यक्च नाधो न च तिरः पुनः न मध्ये प्रतिगृह्णीते नैव कश्चित्कुतश्चन
M. N. Dutt: That does not take place above, or in the middle or below, or in transverse or in any Other direction. That is no tangible thing and cannot be found in any placc.
Supplementary Passages:
12.231.26 After 26ab, M1.6.7 ins.: *681 इन्द्रियैरपि बुद्ध्या वा गृह्यते न कदाचन
सर्वेऽन्तःस्था इमे लोका बाह्यमेषां न किंचन यः सहस्रं समागच्छेद्यथा बाणो गुणच्युतः
AI Translation: All these worlds are internal; there is nothing external to them. He who comes to the thousand, like an arrow that has lost its feathers,
नैवान्तं कारणस्येयाद्यद्यपि स्यान्मनोजवः तस्मात्सूक्ष्मात्सूक्ष्मतरं नास्ति स्थूलतरं ततः
AI Translation: Even if one were to have the speed of mind, one would not reach the end of the cause. Therefore, there is nothing subtler than that subtle one, and nothing grosser than that gross one.
सर्वतःपाणिपादान्तं सर्वतोक्षिशिरोमुखम् सर्वतःश्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति
M. N. Dutt: His hands and feet are everywhere. His cyes, head, and face are everywhere. His ears are everywhere in the universe. He exists Occupying all things.
तदेवाणोरणुतरं तन्महद्भ्यो महत्तरम् तदन्तः सर्वभूतानां ध्रुवं तिष्ठन्न दृश्यते
M. N. Dutt: That is minuter than the minutest, and is the heart of all things. Though existing, that is still imperceptible.
अक्षरं च क्षरं चैव द्वैधीभावोऽयमात्मनः क्षरः सर्वेषु भूतेषु दिव्यं ह्यमृतमक्षरम्
M. N. Dutt: Indestructible and destructible,-these are the dual forms of the (Supreme) Self. The existence it shows in all mobile and immobile entities is destructible; while the existence in shows in Chaitanya is celestial, immortal, and indestructible.
नवद्वारं पुरं गत्वा हंसो हि नियतो वशी ईशः सर्वस्य भूतस्य स्थावरस्य चरस्य च
M. N. Dutt: Though the master of all existent beings both mobile and immobile, though inactive and shorn of attributes, it enters nevertheless the well-known house of nine doors and becomes engaged in action.
हानिभङ्गविकल्पानां नवानां संश्रयेण च शरीराणामजस्याहुर्हंसत्वं पारदर्शिनः
M. N. Dutt: Wise men who can see the other shore hold that the Supreme Soul becomes endued with the attribute of action on account of motion, pleasure and pain, variety of form, and the nine well-known possessions.
हंसोक्तं चाक्षरं चैव कूटस्थं यत्तदक्षरम् तद्विद्वानक्षरं प्राप्य जहाति प्राणजन्मनी
M. N. Dutt: That indestructible Soul which is said to be endued with the attribute or action is nothing else than the indestructible Soul which is said to be inactive. A learned person, by attaining to that indestructible essence, gives up for ever both life and birth.