Kindle Notes & Highlights
The point the Puranas are making is that if we listen to these stories with our minds as well as our ears—really listen to them—the divine dramas of Krishna (or Rama) will be awakened in our heart.
‘It is good for you to remember, in this country especially, that the world’s great spiritual giants have all been produced only by those religious sects which have been in possession of very rich mythology and ritual.’
The Vedas find their fulfilment in Vasudeva; the goal of all sacrifice is Vasudeva; the fruit of all yoga is Vasudeva; the end of all actions is Vasudeva. Wisdom, austerities, and holy living are all contained in Vasudeva. Vasudeva alone is the goal of all.
Ten avataras are usually spoken of, but the Bhagavatam speaks of twenty-four and of even more than that.
Purify yourself, and repeat the holy mantra ‘Om’. This sacred mantra, called Pranava, is the very essence of Brahman. By controlling your vital forces and repeating Om, your mind will become steady. Fix your steadied mind on God and meditate on him; then you will attain him.
He explained that before creation, there is just absolute Consciousness existing, nothing else. This Consciousness is identical with God. Through the power of God’s maya, the universe manifests, making that one absolute Consciousness appear as many.
‘You will be born in evil wombs and be demons!’ Hearing these words, the two gatekeepers repented and begged the sages’ forgiveness. After getting the news of his gatekeepers’ bad behaviour, Lord Vishnu hurried to the gate with his consort Lakshmi Devi. He apologized to the four rishis for their ill-treatment at the hands of his servants, and also accepted the curse on them. But Jaya and Vijaya were his beloved sentinels, so he told them: ‘Do
Jaya and Vijaya first took birth in the womb of Diti, and became the demons Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. Hiranyakashipu, the elder, was very arrogant. By performing tremendous austerities, he acquired great power and won a boon from Brahma.
Hiranyaksha, the younger brother, drove out all the devas from heaven by his prowess with a club.
with one blow Varaha killed Hiranyaksha,
the mind alone is the source of both bondage and liberation. The mind is attached to the three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas—the principles of light and balance, activity and attachment, and darkness and delusion. This attachment to the three gunas binds us. But if we can give up all sense of the ego—that is, of “I” and “mine”—then the mind will attain purity and can be fixed on the Supreme Spirit. Devotion to the Lord is the easiest way to do this.
‘When a person focuses all his sense-organs on the Lord through love, his impurities become burned up, just as fire burns up things that are put in it. This is true bhakti, or devotion. And though such devotees do not care for mukti, liberation, their devotion for the Lord leads them easily to that state which is beyond birth and death. Devotion alone takes one to the highest.’
He insulted Shiva using harsh words and then cursed him, saying, ‘From now on you will no longer receive a share of the offerings at the sacrifices!’ Mahadeva remained sitting peacefully, but his follower Nandi lost his temper and cursed Daksha in return, saying that he would lose his spiritual consciousness and become like an animal, immersed in worldly desires, and that his head would turn into a goat’s head.
‘Alas!’ she said. ‘You are insulting one whose name, even uttered casually, frees a person from all sins. You are the essence of all inauspiciousness, yet you dare insult one who is the essence of all auspiciousness, who is the epitome of fame and greatness.’ Then she said: ‘I can no longer bear to live in this body that was born from you—you who despise the noble Shiva. In order to save the three worlds, he even drank poison, and for that he is called Nilkantha. I am ashamed of my relationship with you. For this reason I shall caste off this body right now.’
The Lord said: ‘Know me to be both Brahma and Shiva. One who knows this—that we three are all one and pervade all beings—attains eternal peace.’
Sati was reborn as the daughter of Himavan and his wife Menaka. She was named Uma, or Durga, and was again married to Shiva.
‘Puranjana is the jiva, the human being, and his great friend, the brahmin, is Ishvara, the Lord. The woman who controlled Puranjana is buddhi, the intellect. Puranjana’s city had nine gates, and so do our bodies: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, a mouth, and two openings for answering the call of nature. With the help of the buddhi, the jiva enjoys sense objects. Prana, the vital energy with its five functions, is the five-headed snake. The 360 gandharvas and gandharvis are the days and nights of the year; Chandavega, the gandharva king, is time, the destroyer of all; Bhaya, the foreign
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‘The human self and the supreme Self are great friends. The supreme Self dwells beyond the reach of our physical eyes, so we cannot see him. But when someone is in dire trouble, he comes running to guide that person. The human self runs here and there in search of enjoyment. He reaps the fruits of his past actions, becoming sometimes happy, sometimes miserable. ‘I and mine’ is the demon that binds him to the world and to his work. Thus one birth leads to another. And birth is nothing but a dream of sorrow. In a bad dream, we suffer terribly. But when the dream breaks and we wake up, we are
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What happens to a person after death is determined by the thoughts that are in his mind at the time of death. King Bharata was thinking of his deer when he died, so he was soon reborn as a deer.
O King, this world is like a dense forest where people, roaming about looking for happiness, lose their way. There are six terrible thieves in this forest—the five senses, and their evil leader, the confused intellect. They attack and rob travellers of their possessions. Wandering around, lost in this forest, they become entangled in the creepers of worldly attachments, and suffer from various sorrows and afflictions. O King, you too are in this jungle. What is the way out? Love all beings, practise detachment, offer all your work to the Lord, and with the sword of knowledge, sharpened by the
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The three gunas—sattva, rajas, and tamas—belong to Prakriti; the Atman is merely their Witness.
‘Dear friends, our human life is very precious, because it is only in this life that we can realize God.
The silkworm spins its own cocoon and is then bound by it.
‘And it is not difficult to please him, for he is our very own, the nearest of the near. Just a crumb of devotion pleases him. And when he is pleased, all things are possible.’
To proceed on any path without pure love for the Lord is futile.
