The Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Book II

0.      For Khaṭvaṅga’s story, see Bhāgavata IX.9.44ff.

0.      In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, the intelligence is analogized as the driver of the chariot of the body, with the mind as reins, the horses as senses, and the ātman as the passenger.

0.      This is a reference to the earlier ritualistic portion of the Vedic corpus, which provides provisions as to how to attain material prosperity in this life and the attainment of the celestial realm in the next. Texts such as the Bhāgavata, here and throughout, the Gītā (II.42–43), and Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (1.7–13) decry those who follow such injunctions, since they simply perpetuate their cycle of birth and death, rather than seeking the ultimate goal of liberation.

0.      Dreams are the activation of saṁskāras, the imprints of memories recorded during the waking state (see commentaries to Yoga Sūtras II.11).

0.      Ascetics in the forest sometimes wore coverings made of bark (archaeological discoveries of a type of material made from pulped bark in ancient China may possibly point to the method employed in this regard).

0.      According to the commentator Śrīdhara, the Vaitaraṇī river flows by the gate of Yama’s realm of the dead.

0.      This is drawing from the reference in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (III.13).

0.      The meditational form referred to here as “grosser” is outlined in the previous chapter (verses 23ff., which we have not included in these selections). It visualizes various natural phenomena as construing the parts of Īśvara’s body—the sky as His eyes, day and night as His eyelids, and so on.

0.      We find in this verse the exact wording of Patañjali’s verse on āsana in II.46, sthira-sukham āsanam, which here clearly refers to an actual seat, as it does throughout yoga literature.

0.    Texts such as Gītā VIII.23–27 speak of the most auspicious times to leave the body, and the advantages of dying in auspicious holy places are also promoted in numerous texts. This verse dismisses such considerations.

0.    The kṣetra-jña is the ātman still connected to the subtle body.

0.    This well-known Upaniṣadic phraseology points to one method of realizing ātman/Brahman by eliminating all temporal things that it is not—namely, the ātman is not the body, or the mind, and so forth (Bṛhadāraṇyaka II.3.6, III.9.26, IV.2.4, and IV.4.22).

0.    Here the Bhāgavata describes a praxis typically associated with the Tantra traditions. While the Bhāgavata clearly accepts this process, it is not a method emphasized throughout the text. Also, the names of the cakras, and even the term cakra itself, are not used in the text, merely the associated locations.

0.    Those with mystic powers can travel to any of the celestial (and such) realms within prakṛti, and some, such as Nārada or the four Kumāra sages, can even go beyond these and enter the Brahman realms of Vaikuṇṭha (Bhāgavata III.15). The performers of Vedic ritual also aspire to the celestial realms, based on the merit of performing sacrifices (karma) but at best can attain only one such realm in their next life.

0.    While the suṣumṇā is connected with the primary prāṇa channel through which the kuṇḍalinī śakti arises in Tantric physiology, it is also a section of the universe in Hindu cosmology.

0.    The commentator Madhva identifies this location as Mahar-loka.

0.    In the Gītā (VIII.17), a kalpa is equivalent to one day of the highest celestial being, Brahmā, a period equal to a thousand cycles of the four yuga ages, or 4.32 million human years. Brahmā lives for a hundred years in this time frame, in accordance with his superexcellent merit, but is nonetheless mortal and subject to the laws of karma. The celestial bodies, prolonged life spans, and heightened enjoyments of the celestial residents referred to in this verse are similarly attained by those with exceptional pious merit. But in actuality they are nothing but the highest expressions of jatī, āyur, and bhoga (type of birth and duration and quality of life) outlined in Yoga Sūtras II.12–13. The Bhāgavata cosmography, with all its various realms, is described in the fifth canto.

0.    We can recall that Patañjali is considered an incarnation of Śeṣa, the thousand-headed serpent expansion of Lord Viṣṇu, upon whom the latter reclines when emanating and withdrawing the unlimited universes in cycles of creative evolution and involution.

0.    After this period, the universe is destroyed, reduced to its matrix of pure prakṛti, and withdrawn into Lord Viṣṇu for a further two parārdhas, after which it is again manifest forth, in a never-ending cycle of creation and dissolution.

0.    This entire process involves an involution or reversal of the sequencing of the Sāṅkhya categories during the manifestation of the universe.

0.    This is a reference to the two paths mentioned in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka (and in the Gītā VIII.26ff.), one leading to liberation, the other to rebirth. The commentator Viśvanātha here also mentions the Kaṭha II.3.14 as a reference to the direct path.

0.    The inference is that if there are instruments of perception and objects of perception, there must be a perceiver, or seer, who utilizes them. Therefore, because of the existence of instruments and objects of perception, we can validly infer the existence of a seer. The basic principle of Hindu logic (nyāya) is that when making an inference about the existence of something unperceived, there must be invariable concomitance (vyāpti—that is, no known exceptions) between a perceivable “sign” or a known characteristic (liṅga) of that thing and the inferred object possessing that specific characteristic. Thus, from the characteristic, one can infer the existence of the unperceived substance or thing possessing that characteristic. So, using the standard nyāya example, wherever there is smoke, there is always fire as its cause—there are no exceptions to this (if an opponent can find an exception to the supposed vyāpti, the inference is invalid and the argument fails). So if one sees smoke, one can legitimately infer that fire must be present—even if the fire itself is not perceived (since smoke is an invariable characteristic of fire and has no other known cause). So in the inference referred to in this verse, wherever there are instruments and objects, there must be an entity using the instruments to perceive the objects. The buddhi (intelligence) and so forth are instruments of perception, therefore they must have a perceiver, the ātman.

0.    Verses 2–9, which were omitted here, outlined various worldly boons attainable from the worship of the celestial beings. The sense is that even if one’s bhakti is mixed with mundane desires, as discussed by Jīva in “Īśvara, Pure Bhakti, and Motivated Bhakti,” one should still worship Bhagavān.

0.    See Mahābhārata XII.326.65, 337.60.

0.    Nāma-rūpa refers to any perceivable object in existence, which by dint of having a form, rūpa, can be known and therefore can be assigned a name, nāma (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad I.4.7).

0.    By performing tapas, Brahmā could not be the Supreme Being, as one performs tapas to attain something, indicating that one is lacking that thing, and also that one requires powers beyond one’s natural powers to attain it.

0.    The idea here is that people bewildered by māyā (avidyā) think of themselves as their bodies and minds (asmitā), instead of ātman, and thus think in terms of “I” and their bodies, minds, families, and possessions as “my” (see Yoga Sūtras II.3–6; Gītā III.27).

0.    See Gītā VII.19.

0.    These are philosophical terms: dravya are substances like the elements of earth, water, air, fire, and ether that underpin qualities; karma is action and its reactions; kāla is Time, understood to be the glance of Viṣṇu in this text; svabhāva is one’s inherent personality, formed by saṁskāras, as also the inherent nature of material entities; and jīva refers to the ātman in saṁsāra.

0.    The guṇas underpin everything and thus are the basis of the substances noted here (that is, the elements of Sāṅkhya, an expression of the tamas aspect of prakṛti); knowledge, which is a function of the citta, is here a reference to the sattva aspect of prakṛti; and action is a reference to the rajas aspect of prakṛti. Anything enacted by these entities are causes, which produce effects. Owing to illusion, the jīva thinks that it is the agent, when in fact all action is performed by the guṇas (Gītā XIII.21).

0.    The idea, of course, is that Īśvara is everything.

0.    In the Bhāgavata, the Virāṭ is a meditational form incorporating all material entities as various aspects of the Supreme (see, for example, II.5–6). Kṛṣṇa’s cosmic manifestation in the eleventh chapter of the Gītā is also considered a type of Virāṭ-rūpa by the commentators.

0.    Kha-ga could also be a reference to the realm of birds, but given the context here (and that birds are mentioned later in the list), it is more likely a reference to those who have attained the mystic power of transporting themselves through the ether (referenced in Yoga Sūtras III.42).

0.    These are all various types of celestials, expert in song and dance—and, with the gandhārvas, martiality (see Mahābhārata 3.130).

0.    These are all subterranean but nonetheless powerful beings. The yakṣas and especially the rākṣasas play significant roles in the Mahabhārata epic.

0.    See discussion in “Definition of Īśvara in Vedānta.”

0.    In the Sāṅkhya system, there are five karmendriyas (instruments of action)—the hands, feet, organ of evacuation, organ of procreation, and tongue; and five jñānendriyas (instruments for acquiring knowledge)—the eye, ear, nose, and senses of taste and touch.

0.    Among the features characterizing Viṣṇu is the śrīvatsa, a tuft of hair on his chest.

0.    These are identified variously in the commentaries.

0.    The term for opulence here is bhaga, an old Vedic term that once referred to the portion of the sacrifice that was reserved for a deity but, by the classical period, refers in Vaiṣṇava sources to the six opulences. They are supremacy, righteousness, fame, opulence, knowledge, and detachment. As discussed in “Definition of Īśvara, Bhagavān, and Brahman,” the term Bhagavān refers to the one who possesses these in full, eternally and unlimitedly—and this indeed is one definition of God Almighty in Vaiṣṇavism, since, as noted in this verse, all other beings may only partially manifest some of these opulences temporarily and sporadically.

0.    Paramahaṁsa, literally “great swan,” refers to the most fully realized saints. The line refers to the path of bhakti, often summarized by worship of the lotus feet of Viṣṇu.

0.    While the Bhāgavata Purāṇa deals with yogī exemplars, Hindu literature is replete with references to those who perform tapas so as to attain supernormal powers for materialistic or even demoniac purposes—Rāvaṇa, who kidnapped Sītā, in the Rāmāyaṇa comes to mind, as does Hiraṇyakaśipu in the Bhāgavata (see the Tale of Child Prahlāda in this volume). Hence, although Patañjali discusses them, he takes pain to note that real yogīs are not interested in them (Yoga Sūtras III.37).

0.    The metaphor of the ātman being seated in the cave goes back to the Upaniṣads (Kaṭha I.14, II.12, III.1, and IV.6–7; Muṇḍaka II.1.8 and 10, II.2.1, and III.1.7).

0.    For Vaiṣṇava and Bhāgavata theology, this indicates that Viṣṇu has no form made of dull matter prakṛti. As this narrative establishes, he does, however, possess form (and unlimited forms) made of Brahman, pure consciousness, as discussed in part 1.

0.    The metaphor of the spider spinning its web goes back to the Upaniṣads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka II.1.20; Śvetāśvatara VI.10; Muṇḍaka I.1.7).

0.    Under normal circumstances, all actions performed out of desire generate reactions—the law of karma (see Yoga Sūtras II.12–14). But actions performed for Īśvara are free of karma (Gītā IX.27–28).

0.    As Yoga has its aṅgas, limbs (aṣṭāṅga), so too does bhakti. The notion goes back to the six aṅgas of the Vedas that were ancillary to the performance of Vedic ritual.

0.    Compare with Gītā IX.4–5. The idea in this simile is that the elements preexisted as independent elements prior to becoming ingredients in the forms of created beings. So they both enter creation by being constitutive of all created objects and also do not, as their own existence predates the things created by them.

0.    Anvaya-vyatireka is a process of logic that establishes the existence of something through positive and negative concomitance. For example: “Wherever there is consciousness (ātman) there is life (positive concomitance), and wherever there is no consciousness there is no life (negative concomitance).”

0.    See Yoga Sūtras II.30–45 and earlier note.

0.    See “Introduction to the Volume,” “The Bhāgavata as Text.”