Agni Purāṇa
378 - Knowledge of Brahman
Agni said:
1. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of earth, water and fire. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of wind and sky.
2. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of the primary undertaking. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light bereft of the first creation and the soul.
3. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence devoid of waking place. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre devoid of the feeling of universality.
4. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of the syllable 'a'. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence devoid of speech, hands and feet.
5. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre devoid of anus and penis. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of ears, skin and eyes.
6. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence bereft of taste and form. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre devoid of all smells.
7. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light without tongue and nose. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence bereft of touch and sound.
8. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence bereft of mind and intellect. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre devoid of consciousness and ego.
9. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence free from the vital winds) práņa and apāna (in the body). I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre bereft of (the vital winds) vyana and udana (in the body).
10. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of (the vital wind) samana (in the body). I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence devoid of old age and death.
11. I am Brahman. the Supreme Effulgence bereft of grief and ignorance. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light free from hunger and thirst.
12. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre devoid of all modifications of sound. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence bereft of the golden egg.
13. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of the dreaming state. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence devoid of luminosity etc.
14. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light free from harm etc. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre devoid of knowledge relating to an assembly.
15. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre bereft of inference. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of the qualities such as sattua (goodness) and the like.
16. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence devoid of the feeling of sat and asat (existence and non-existence). I am Brahman, the Supreme Light, bereft of all components.
17. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre devoid of difference and non-difference. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of the location of deep sleep.
18. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence free from the feeling of being learned. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light free from the syllables such as 'ma'.
19. I am Brahman, the Supreme Lustre free from the means and objects knowledge. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light free from knowledge and knower.
20. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence devoid of being a witness etc. I am Brahman, the Supreme Light devoid of effect and cause.
21. I am Brahman devoid of body, organs, mind, intellect, life-breath and ego. I am Brahman, the fourth state that is free from (the states of) waking, dreaming and deep sleep.
22. (I am) eternal, pure, wise and free, truth, bliss and without a second. I am Brahman. (I am) Brahman endowed with knowledge and absolutely free. Om. I am Brahman, the Supreme Effulgence, deep meditation and the supreme being that confers emancipation.
Summary of chapter 380 of the Agni Purāṇa is as follows:
The Advaita (non-dual) teaching is conveyed through the narrative of Bharata — the great king who, through attachment to a deer in his hermitage, was reborn as a deer, but retained his jāti-smṛti (memory of past lives) and voluntarily left that body to be reborn as a Brāhmaṇa. In this final birth, Bharata lived as a jīvanmukta, outwardly appearing as a simple laborer (jada-vat). When the king of the Sauvīra kingdom pressed him into palanquin-service, Bharata refused to hurry, and when questioned, delivered a profound teaching: the ātman carries no burden, for the body is constituted of the five elements which alone carry one another; the "I" (aham) cannot be identified with any part of the body; all apparent differences — king and servant, man and animal — are karmaja (karma-generated) designations overlaid upon the one ātman. The chapter concludes with the parallel Ṛtu-Nidāgha parable reinforcing that the entire world is the one Vāsudeva.
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