5 - Attainment of Liberation Through Duty

Ashvashiras said:

1. Kindly clear my doubt as a result of which I may be able to get release from the bondage of worldly life.

2. Asked thus, the great sage told the king who was the best among the performers of sacrifice.

Kapila said:

3. O righteous king, tell me your doubt so that I may clear it.

The king asked:

4. O sage, be pleased to clear my doubt whether liberation is attamed by one who does righteous duties or by one who acquires spiritual knowledge.

Kapila replied:

5. O great king, this very question was formerly put to Bruhaspati by Raibhya, son of Brahma, as well as by king Vasu.

6. Long ago, in Chäkshusha Manvantara, there lived a great king Vasu, who was a scholar and liberal donor and descendant of Brahma.

7. One day, Vasu went to the abode of Brahmä to see Him. On the way he saw Chaitraratha. the Vidyädharachief. and asked him about the convenience of Brahma.

9. He said that a meeting of the gods was going on in Brahmä’s house. Hearing this, Vasu stood at the gate. 

9. Just then, the great sage Raibhya came there and king Vasu was very much pleased at this.

  10. He saluted him and asked him where he was going.

Raibhya replied:

11.“1 am returning from Bruhaspati to whom I had gone on some business”.

12. At that time the assembly of Brahma was dissolved and the hosts of gods returned to their homes.

13 Then Bruhaspati went to his home with Raibhya, followed by Vasu who worshipped them both.

14-15. Raibhya, Bruhaspati and king Vasu sat down and then Bruhaspati told Raibhya: “O great sage proficient in the Vedas and Vedäñgas, what shall I do for you?”

Raibhya said:

16. O Bruhaspati, please clear my doubt whether liberation is attamed by one who performs righteous duties or by one who acquires spiritual knowledge.

Bruhaspati said:

17. If a man does any work, be it good or bad, dedicating it to Lord Näráyana, he becomes not attached to it.

18-19. O best of Brahmins, there is the well known conversation between a Brahmin and a hunter.

There lived a descendant of sage Atri learning the Vedas intently, performing penance, bathing early in the morning, and worshipping Sandhyä all the three times. His name was Samyamana. One day he went to Dharmäranya to bathe in the auspicious river Ganges.

20. A big herd of deer was taking rest there. A clever hunter by name Nishthuraka came running there with bow and arrow, like Yama, to kill the deer.

21. Noting the aim of the hunter, sage Samyamana forbade him saying: ‘O friend, don’t kill them’.

22. Hearing this, the hunter said with a smile: “GO excellent Brahmin, I am not killing the individual souls.

23. The Supreme God plays himself by the beings. Like illusion created by mantras He works thus.

24. O Brahmin, those who wish liberation should never have ego. Everything in the world is for the sustenance and progress of life. The word ‘I’ is not good there.”

25. On hearing this, the great Brahmin Samyamana was struck with wonder and he asked the hunter Nishthuraka thus:

26. ‘‘What you say, O friend, is apparently reasonable.”

27-28. Then the hunter, who knew Dharma, made an iron net and placed fire underneath. He then asked the Brahmin to blow into the fuel to blaze the fire. He did so.

29. When the fire was thus blazing, the iron-net, with flames spreading through its holes, shone like a globe of arrows.

30. Though the fire was only on a single spot, thousands of its tongues spread through the holes of the iron-net.

31. Then the hunter told the Brahmin: “O great sage! please take a single flame within these so that I may destroy all the remaining ones”.

32. Saying this, he poured a pot of water on it and the entire fire subsided.

33. Then the hunter told the saintly Brahmin: “O lord; please give me the flame which you have just taken from the fire, so that I may roast the flesh for my food.”

34. Being told thus, the Brahmin went there and looked at the iron-net. But there was no flame since its base was fully extinguished. 

35. Then, as the Brahmin stood perplexed and silent, the hunter told him.

36. “The fire when flamed up, had numerous tongues, but all of them disappeared when the fire was extinguished. Similar is the case here.

37. The soul (Ätman) in its primordial form is the repository of all beings. When it transforms itself, the world evolves.

38. No one falls who performs the duties enjoined in accordance with the embodied nature of his soul”.

39. When the hunter told the Brahmin thus, O king, flowers were showered on him from the sky.

40. The excellent Brahmin saw many an aerial car that were divine, great and jewelled, and capable of going everywhere.

41. The Brahmin saw in all of them the hunter Nishthuraka.

42. With the yogic power to multiply himself, he had obtained the fruit of the instinct of non-duality. Pleased at this sight, the Brahmin returned to his hermitage.

43. O Raibhya, best of Brahmins, O king Vasu, he who does his duties according to his caste, will acquire spiritual knowledge and attain liberation.

44. Thus Raibhya and Vasu who had got their doubt cleared left Bruhaspati’s home and went to their hermitage.

45. Therefore, O great king, you also worship the great God Näräyana and see Him, identical with yourself in your own body.

46-47. Hearing these words of Kapila, King Ašhvašhiras called his son, Sthülašhiras, and placed him on the throne. Then he went to the forest, O beautiful lady, and there he pleased   the sacrificial Man, with penance and the hymn in his praise (Yajñamürtistava).

Earth asked:

48. How did the king present the hymn of Näräyana, the sacrificial Man? Be pleased to tell me.

Varäha replied:

49. “1 bow to Vishnu, the embodiment of sacrifice, who takes many forms like Indra, Shiva, sun, moon, fire, king and Maruts.

49. “I bow to the everlasting and extremely strong sacrificial Man possessing terrific canines, having the sun and the moon as his eyes, having year and the two ayanas as his belly and having the kušha-grass as his hairs.

51. I always prostrate before that Janärdana (Vishnu) who pervades the sky and earth and all the directions, who is worthy to be extolled, who rules over the world, and from whom the world arose.

52. I always prostrate before that Paramešhvara (Supreme God), the embodiment of sacrifice, who, though birthless and beginningless, takes birth himself first in each yuga for victory, though invincible by the gods and demons.

53. I always prostrate before the great prowessed Vishnu the embodiment of sacrifice, who bears pure and white disc (Sudarshana), the Särañga-bow and conch in his hands to achieve victory, and the abode of Mäyä.

54. I bow to the sacrificial Man, sometimes having thousand heads, sometimes having the body like a huge mountain and at other times like an atom. 

55. I always prostrate before that sacrificial God, who takes birth as Brahma, the four-faced, to create all the worlds, as Vishnu, the disc-bearer, to preserve it, and as Shiva resembling the fire in deluge to destroy the same.

56. I always prostrate before that immeasurable sacrificial God, who is meditated upon by sages, who is primordial and all-pervading, and who performs sacrifices for the systematic operation of the wheel of worldly life.

57. When in my mind I place well your ‘principle’ which is well manifest in my own body, I am of the firm view that nothing other than this is existent, then my mind attains purity.”

58. There appeared before the king who finished his prayer thus, a lustre resembling the flaming fire. With firm determination the king entered into that sacrificial God and dissolved himself in Him.