Vyāsa Saṃśayāpanodana

The last part of the Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa (Uttarārdha, Chapter 7) answers a question put by the ṛshis at Naimishāraṇya. They had heard the manvantaras, the dynasties, the geography of the world and the dharma-śāstras. Now they ask Sūta whether anything more is left, even something Vyāsa did not say. Sūta gives the number of verses in each of the Purāṇas. He then speaks of the Akshara, the Imperishable, and of what is beyond it, Kṛshṇa of Goloka. He tells how Vyāsa stayed in doubt (saṃśaya) about the final truth, how he did tapas for three hundred years in a cave on Meru, and how the four Vedas then came before him in bodily form.

The ṛshis’ question

Śaunaka and the ṛshis spoke to Sūta after hearing all of this:

“O Sūta, great-fortuned one! You have learned through the grace of Vyāsa and through teaching others. You know all eighteen Purāṇas. But is there something beyond what you have told us? Is there something that even Vyāsa may not have known, or that you have kept hidden? You are a complete Paurāṇika. Resolve our doubt.”

The eighteen Purāṇas and their śloka counts

As a first step, Sūta gave the number of ślokas (verses) in the Mahāpurāṇas:

Sūta said that these Purāṇas together cover the dharmas of all the āśramas (brahmacārin, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa). They cover the dharmas of people who seek their wishes (sakāma) and of those free of desire (virāga), of men, women and śūdras, the great rivers and tīrthas, yajñas, vratas, tapas, dānas, yamas and niyamas, the many ways of yoga, the teachings of Sāṃkhya and Bhāgavata, the paths of bhakti, jñāna and vairāgya, six darśanas (Brāhma, Śaiva, Vaishṇava, Saura, Śākta and Arhata/Bauddha), and much more.

The teaching on Para Brahman

Sūta then spoke of the final truth that had troubled even Vyāsa.

The Vedas name the Akshara, the Imperishable, unchanging and eternal Brahman, as the highest goal:

“Akshara, the supreme Brahman, the same as Paramātmā, the highest state (pada). To reach this, great scholars keep brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and the vows of the yati. The munis practise the eight-limbed yoga (ashṭāṅga-yoga: āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi, niyama and yama) for this alone. Those who hold only to the Vedic rules perform yajña and karma for this. Those free of desire do all actions as brahma-arpaṇa (an offering to Brahma). The wise go to tīrthas such as the Gaṅgā to make themselves pure for this realisation.”

This Parabrahman is described in these words:

• Śuddha (pure), without beginning or end (anādi-anta).
• Nitya (eternal) and sarvavyāpi (all-pervading).
• Sthāṇu (the unmoving axle of creation), undisturbed even in pralaya.
• Kūṭastha (keeping one form through all time), yet kūṭa-varjita (free of all distortion).
• That which shines in all the senses, yet has no senses of its own.
• That on which the universe is laid over, as a snake on a rope or water in the desert.
• Saccidānanda, while its opposite, the world, is asat, jaḍa and duḥkha.
• “It is the eye of eyes, the ear of ears, the touch of all touch, the taste of all taste, and the Prāṇa of all prāṇas.”
• “As foam, waves and bubbles seem different from water but are not, so the universe seems different from Brahman but is not.”

Goloka, beyond the Akshara

Here comes the special teaching of this passage. The Vedas themselves speak of something beyond the Akshara:

“The Vedas say: Paramātmā, the one who lives in Goloka, is Parāt-para (beyond the Para, that is, beyond the Akshara). Who is this being sung by the Vedas? Who is pointed to by the words of the Vedas? How is this ‘beyond the Akshara’ to be understood?”

Sūta describes the Parāt-para directly:

“He who is the very self of the Akshara; who is the gathering of all paramānanda (highest bliss); whose form is bliss itself; who delights in the rasa of līlā-vilāsa (the play of the līlā); who stands in the midst of a crowd of gopikā women; whose crown holds a shining peacock feather; whose earrings gleam like lightning; whose eyes, reaching to the edge of his ears, are dark like the kāṭuka-piṭṭa bird and charming; who in every bower is lost in the rasa-vilāsa with his beloved companions; who wears the pītāmbara (yellow cloth); who is divine and anointed with sandalwood; whose lip-nectar wets the flute and whose music charms all the gopikā women into mohana (a spell); who is cidānanda; who shames the pride of Manmatha; who is full of ten million arts (koṭi-kala); who is pure as the light of ten million moons: this Kṛshṇa, who plays in the Goloka-Brahman, is the one the Vedas describe as Parāt-para.”

“He who plays in Goloka, shining on the banks of the Yamunā, on the sand banks, in the forests of kadamba, campaka, aśoka and pārijāta, running here and there as he herds the cows and calves: this Paramapurusha, who can be known through the Vedas, I heard of him from the Vedas.”

Vyāsa’s three hundred years of tapas

Vyāsa, son of Parāśara and Satyavatī, had put together the whole Purāṇa-saṃhitā, arranged all the Vedas and set up the full frame of dharma. Yet he remained uneasy in his mind. He said: “Śrī Vāsudeva is the Veda itself. Even scholars are bewildered in it.” He could not reach the final truth of what the Veda proclaims.

Vyāsa went alone to a cave on Meru. It was a shining golden cave in a forest full of divine trees and creepers, echoing with birds, free of hunger, thirst and fear, and decorated with lotus ponds on golden banks. In this cave Vyāsa gave up food, the work of the mind, and even his āsana (seat). For three hundred years he said the four Vedas again and again from memory, with his mind fixed on one point (tad-ekāgra-manas).

The four Vedas appear in bodily form

At the end of the three hundred years, the four Vedas came before Vyāsa in bodily form (sākshāt-āvirbhāva). They are described like this:

• Eyes like opening lotus petals.
• Jaṭā-mukuṭas (crowns of matted hair).
• Hands shaped like lotus flowers, holding a fistful of kuśa grass.
• Shoulders covered with deer skin.
• Faces filled with the sixteen svaras (the vowels of Sanskrit).
• Oṃkāra living in their hearts.
• Fingers formed from the ka-varga and ca-varga consonants, five each.
• Right feet made of the pa-varga letters (pa, pha, ba, bha, ma).
• Left feet made of the ta-varga letters (ta, tha, da, dha, na).
• Belly, in two sides, made of the antastha letters (ya, ra, la, va, śa, sha, sa, ha).
• Navel formed from bindu-nāda.
• Back formed from the kānta (graceful) forms.

So the whole Sanskrit alphabet makes up the divine body of the Vedas.

Sources

• Vāyu Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 7 (Vyāsa Saṃśayāpanodana)