Bhṛgu-Bharadvāja Sṛshṭi Saṃvāda

Bhṛgu Maharshi is a great ṛshi (seer). Bharadvāja Maharshi is another. In this long teaching in the Mahābhārata, Bharadvāja asks about the world, and Bhṛgu answers. He tells how creation arose, what the ātmā (the self) is, how the four varṇas are known, how the four āśramas are lived, how a person should act each day, and how a person reaches moksha (liberation).

Where the teaching is told

Bhīshma tells this teaching to Yudhishṭhira at Kurukshetra. It is part of the Mokshadharma Parva, in the Śānti Parva. Before it come the vairāgya (non-attachment) narratives of Chapters 174 to 181. This teaching then goes deeper into sṛshṭi (creation) and adhyātma (the inner science of the self).

The scene is Kailāsa. Bhṛgu sits there, shining with the glow of his tapas (austerity). Bharadvāja comes to him and asks the great questions. How did this world arise? Who made it? How are the bhūtas (elements) arranged? What is the nature of the jīva (the living being)? What is moksha? (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 182)

The order of creation (Chapters 182 to 186)

Bhṛgu begins with this statement: “In the beginning there was the unmanifest. From the unmanifest arose manas (mind). From manas arose Prajāpati. Prajāpati created all beings. And all of this rests on manas alone.”

Bhṛgu then gives the steps of creation.

1. Mānasa Deva (Avyakta). The first and original reality is called Mānasa, the Unmanifest. It is the undivided ground of consciousness from which all else comes. It is the Self of Prajāpati in its subtlest form.
2. Mahat. From the avyakta (unmanifest) arises Mahat, the cosmic intelligence. It is the first change in the unmanifest.
3. Ahaṃkāra. From Mahat arises ahaṃkāra, the principle of “I” and separateness.
4. Ākāśa. From ahaṃkāra arises ākāśa (space). Its quality is śabda (sound).
5. Vāyu. From ākāśa arises vāyu (air). Its quality is sparśa (touch).
6. Agni. From vāyu arises agni (fire). Its quality is rūpa (form and light).
7. Jala. From agni arises jala (water). Its quality is rasa (taste).
8. Pṛthivī. From jala arises pṛthivī (earth). Its quality is gandha (smell).

Each element carries the qualities of the one before it and adds its own. All of creation is made from these five bhūtas. This includes the sthāvara (beings that do not move, such as plants and mountains) and the jaṅgama (beings that move, such as animals, humans and devas). (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 182)

The five prāṇas and the body

Bhṛgu teaches that the body of every living being is pāñcabhautika, made of the five great elements. Inside the body the five prāṇas (vital forces) keep it alive. They are prāṇa, apāna, samāna, udāna and vyāna. They support life, digestion, circulation, speech and the passing of waste.

Plants also have a jīva. They feel pleasure and pain through touch, smell and taste, and through the prāṇa that moves in them. (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapters 183 to 185)

The objection and the answer (Chapters 186 and 187)

Bharadvāja’s question

In Chapters 186 and 187 Bharadvāja puts forward the materialist objection of the Lokāyata view. He asks: if vāyu alone moves the body as prāṇa, and the fire inside alone digests food, why speak of a jīva apart from the bhūtas? Is consciousness not simply a result of the elements coming together, as the power to intoxicate comes from the mixing of ingredients? The body works by natural processes. When it dies and the elements separate, what separate being goes on?

Bhṛgu’s reply

The inner witness. The ātmā is the antaryāmin, the inner witness. It lives in the body but is not made of the five bhūtas. The body is the kshetra (the field). The ātmā is the kshetrajña (the knower of the field). The five bhūtas are dull matter by their nature. They cannot give self-awareness, the sense of “I am”, or the thread of experience that runs through waking, dreaming and deep sleep. What changes cannot be the witness of change.

The thread of experience. The body wears out and is renewed all the time. Yet the sense “I was the same person yesterday” stays. The elements, which are always changing, cannot explain this.

The magnet. A magnet (ayaskānta) moves iron through an unseen force without touching it. In the same way the jīva moves the body through a principle that is not matter. The body’s movement is real, but its cause is not only matter.

Paramātmā. When the jīva lets go of all the guṇas of prakṛti (the three qualities of nature), and no longer takes itself to be sattva, rajas or tamas, what remains is the Paramātmā. This is pure cit (consciousness), which lies under all that appears. To know the kshetrajña as apart from the whole kshetra, including the subtle kshetra of the guṇas, and as its witness, is moksha. (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapters 186 and 187)

Varṇa and its true basis (Chapters 188 to 190)

One in the beginning

Bhṛgu teaches that in the beginning all creation was brāhmic. It was not divided, and all was equally pure. The four varṇas are not divisions of creation by birth-line alone. They are the four ways in which the guṇas of prakṛti show in the character and conduct of people.

Varṇa by karma and guṇa

• Brāhmaṇa. Sāttvika by nature. The brāhmaṇa has satya (truthfulness), śauca (purity), dama (self-control), compassion, study of the Veda, and tapas. Bhṛgu says it plainly. Even a person born in a śūdra family who has seven qualities is a true brāhmaṇa. The seven are satya, dāna (giving), akrodha (freedom from anger), ahiṃsā (non-harm), ārjava (straightforwardness), karuṇā (compassion) and tapas.
• Kshatriya. Rājasika. The kshatriya has courage, rule, firmness in battle, and government based on dharma.
• Vaiśya. A mix of rājasa and tāmasa. The vaiśya lives by trade, farming and keeping cattle.
• Śūdra. Mostly tāmasika. The śūdra gives service and does not seek knowledge.

The teaching repeated through Chapters 188 to 190 is that varṇa is fixed by karma (action) and guṇa-pravṛtti (the pull of the guṇas), not by birth-family alone. A brāhmaṇa by birth who acts as a śūdra should be counted as a śūdra. A person of any birth who has the seven brāhmaṇa qualities is a true brāhmaṇa. (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapters 188 to 190)

The four āśramas (Chapters 191 and 192)

Bhṛgu then describes the dharma of each of the four āśramas (stages of life).

Brahmacarya (the student). The student lives in the guru’s household. He studies the Vedas, serves the guru, keeps celibacy, gathers fuel and tends the sacred fire. Slowly the teaching of the śāstra becomes part of him. The bond with the guru is the base of everything, for here the person of dharma is formed.

Gārhasthya (the householder). The householder keeps the three fires. He does the five great sacrifices (mahāyajñas). He honours guests (atithi-pūjā). He seeks dharma, artha (wealth) and kāma (desire) in balance. He provides for his family and those who depend on him. He raises children so that the line continues and the pitṛ-tarpaṇa (water offering to the ancestors) goes on.

Vānaprastha (the forest dweller). The forest dweller leaves the household and performs tapas. He lives on roots and fruits. He offers homas (fire offerings) with forest materials and keeps his fires in the forest. Step by step he depends less on prepared food and goes deeper into contemplation.

Sannyāsa (the wandering renouncer). The wandering renouncer owns nothing. He harms no being in mind, speech or body. He accepts bhikshā (alms) without attachment and wanders with no fixed home. He sees the ātmā in all beings and all beings in the ātmā. He is free from moha (delusion) and lobha (greed). He moves through the world untouched, like a fish in water or a bird in the sky. (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapters 191 and 192)

Daily conduct, Ācāra-Vidhi (Chapter 193)

Chapter 193 sets out the daily rules of conduct.

• Ācamana (sipping purified water) and snāna (bathing) at the proper times.
• Sandhyā, the observance at the three junctures of the day: dawn, midday and dusk.
• The right direction for meals: facing east for the morning meal, north for the evening meal.
• Respect for elders and teachers.
• Non-harm in mind, speech and body as the base of all ācāra (conduct).
• One who harms no being in mind, speech or body is safe even from beasts of prey. They will not harm such a person, because they have no nimitta (cause) to do so.

(Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 193)

Adhyātma, the inner science (Chapter 194)

Chapter 194 is the most exact part of the teaching. Bhṛgu links each element to its sense organ, its sense object and its work in the body.

Beyond the five bhūtas and their pairs of sense organs, Bhṛgu names three more levels.

• Manas (mind) is the sixth. It joins and coordinates the five streams of sense.
• Buddhi (intelligence) is the seventh. It tells things apart, decides and wills.
• Kshetrajña (the knower of the field) is the eighth. It is the pure witness-consciousness. It sees all the others and is not tied to them.

The three guṇas show themselves differently in buddhi.

• Sattva in buddhi brings prahṛsha (joy), prīti (love) and ease.
• Rajas in buddhi brings śoka (grief), duḥkha (pain) and restlessness.
• Tamas in buddhi brings moha (delusion), confusion and dullness.

The path to moksha. The jīva is freed by cutting the hṛdaya-granthi, the knot at the heart. This knot ties the kshetrajña to the guṇas. It is cut through viveka, steady discernment between sattva (the finest form of buddhi) and the kshetrajña (who is beyond even sattva). When this viveka is firm and whole, the kshetrajña knows itself as wholly apart from every change of prakṛti. That knowing is moksha. (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 194)

A related dialogue in the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa (Pūrvārdha, Chapters 43 and 44) has a related dialogue between Bhṛgu and Bharadvāja. It speaks of the five kośas (sheaths, pañcakośa) and of the ātmā as the antaryāmin in the body of five bhūtas. It shows the continuity of the ātmā through rebirth. It answers the objection of the nāstikas (those who deny the ātmā) and describes the five sheaths. The Mahābhārata teaching also covers creation, the division of varṇa, the dharma of the āśramas, the rules of conduct and the whole system of adhyātma.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 182 to 194
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Pūrvārdha, Chapters 43 and 44