Bhoga
Bhoga, “enjoyment, experience”
Grammar: masculine noun, from the root bhuj (to enjoy, to eat, to make use of): “enjoyment”, “use”.
Meaning: enjoyment: the tasting of the fruits of karma, in this world and in svarga; the aim of the bubhukshu, the one who seeks enjoyment, set beside moksha or mukti, the aim of the one who seeks release. In law, bhoga is the use and holding of a property. The kośa of the Agni Purāṇa gives it two meanings: pleasure, and the fee given to veśyās and others (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 362).
In the scriptures: in the dīkshā which Bhagavān Śiva teaches, the disciples are seated in three maṇḍalas: those who desire mukti face north, and those who desire bhoga face east. Each drinks three palmfuls of pañcagavya and is given mouthfuls of caru, the mukti-seeker in a cup of palāśa leaves and the bhukti-seeker in a cup of aśvattha leaves (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 83). In the purification of the kalās, the guru brings about for the disciple’s jīva, one after another, birth, the body, office, bhoga and laya (dissolution): bhoga is given with the kavaca-mantra and laya with the astra-mantra; laya is in prakṛti, and bhoga, the experience, is in the buddhi (Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 84–86).
Bhoga and moksha are asked for together in the vratas. In the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata one prays to Bhagavān Vishṇu as Vāmana, “Give me bhoga, moksha, offspring, fame and supreme lordship” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 189), and in the Śivarātri vrata one invokes “Śiva, who grants bhoga and moksha” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 193). The perfected yogī gives jñāna to a disciple, enjoys bhogas as he wishes, and then gives up the body by laya-yoga and abides in his own ātmā (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 376). In the Yama-gītā, Kapila says that non-attachment to bhogas, and always seeing the ātmā, is the highest śreyas (good) for men (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 382).
In vyavahāra (the law), which Agnideva teaches Vasishṭha Maharshi, bhukti or bhoga, the enjoyment of a property, is one of the three human proofs with the document and the witness. If a man enjoys land while its owner looks on and says nothing, after twenty years the land belongs to the one who enjoys it; movable wealth after ten years. This does not hold for a pledge, a boundary, a deposit and the like. The cause of ownership, such as a gift received or a purchase, is the āgama (title). Āgama is stronger than bhoga, but bhoga received by succession from father and grandfather is stronger even than āgama, and āgama with no enjoyment at all has no force. Bhoga gains authority from a pure āgama; when the āgama is not right, bhoga is no proof. The sons and grandsons of the one who acquired the land need not prove the āgama, for there hereditary bhoga is the proof (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 253).
In the Bhavishya Purāṇa: the account of the lakshaṇas of women uses the word often. Feet with the glow of the red lotus, resting evenly on the ground, increase bhoga. Fingers round and even-jointed, a lower lip shining like copper, a forehead like the half moon and a voice like the haṃsa, the kokila or the vīṇā are named among the signs of one who enjoys bhogas (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 5).
Related terms: Bhukti · Mukti · Bubhukshu · Mumukshu · Āgama · Karma
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 83–86, 189, 193, 253, 362, 376, 382
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 5