Chapter 16

“Upamanyu said, ‘There was in the Krita age, O sire, a Rishi celebratedunder the name of Tandi. With great devotion of heart he adored, with theaid of Yoga-meditation, the great God for ten thousand years. Listen tome as I tell thee fruit or reward he reaped of such extraordinarydevotion. He succeeded in beholding Mahadeva and praised him by utteringsome hymns. Thinking, with the aid of his penances, of Him who is thesupreme Soul and who is immutable and undeteriorating, Tandi becamefilled with wonder, and said these words,–I seek the protection of Himwhom the Sankhyas describe and the Yogins think of as the Supreme, theForemost, the Purusha, the pervader of all things, and the Master of allexistent objects, of him who, the learned say, is the cause of both thecreation and the destruction of the universe; of him who is superior toall the celestials, the Asuras, and the Munis, of him who has nothinghigher, who is unborn, who is the Lord of all things, who has neitherbeginning nor end, and who is endued with supreme puissance, who ispossessed of the highest felicity, and who is effulgent andsinless.–After he had said these words, Tandi beheld before him thatocean of penances, that great Deity who is immutable and undeteriorating,who is without compare, who is inconceivable, who is eternal, and who iswithout any change, who is indivisible, who is whole, who is Brahma, whotranscends all attributes, and who is endued with attributes, who is thehighest delight of Yogins, who is without deterioration, who is calledEmancipation, who is the refuge of the Mind, of Indra, of Agni, of thegod of wind, of the entire universe, and of the Grandsire Brahma; who isincapable of being conceived by the Mind, who is without mutation of anykind, who is pure, who is capable of being apprehended by understandingonly and who is immaterial as the Mind; who is difficult ofcomprehension, who is incapable of being measured, who is difficult ofbeing attained by persons of uncleansed souls, who is the origin of theuniverse, and who transcends both the universe and the attribute ofdarkness; who is ancient, who is Purusha, who is possessed of effulgence,and who is higher than the highest. The Rishi Tandin, desirous ofbeholding Him who making himself endued with life-breaths, resides inwhat results from it viz., Jiva, in the form of that effulgence which iscalled the Mind, passed many years in the practice of the severestausterities, and having succeeded in beholding Him as the reward of thosepenances, he praised the great God in the following terms.’

“Tandi said, ‘Thou art the holiest of holies[77] and the refuge of all, Oforemost of all beings endued with intelligence. Thou art the fiercestenergy of all kinds of energy. Thou art the austerest penance of allpenances. Thou, O puissant one, art the liberal giver of blessings. Thouart the supreme Truth. Salutations to thee, O thou of a thousand rays,and, O refuge of all felicity. Thou art the giver of that Nirvana which,O puissant one, Yatis, standing in fear of birth and death, strive for sohard. The Grandsire Brahma, he of a hundred sacrifices, (viz., Indra)Vishnu, the Viswadevas, the great Rishis, are incapable of comprehendingthee and thy real nature. How then can persons like ourselves hope tocomprehend thee? From thee flows everything. Upon thee rests everything.Thou art called Kala, thou art called Purusha, thou art called Brahma.Celestial Rishis conversant with the Puranas, say that thou hast threebodies viz., those pertaining to Kalas, those pertaining to Purusha andthose pertaining to Brahma or the three forms namely Brahma, Vishnu andRudra. Thou art Adhi-Purusha, (occupying the physical flame from head tofoot) thou art Adhyatma, thou art Adhibhuta, and Adhi-Daivata, thou artAdhi-loka, Adhi-Vijnanam and Adhi-Yajna.[78] Men of wisdom, when theysucceed in knowing thee that residest in themselves and that artincapable of being known by the very gods, become freed from all bondsand pass into a state of existence that transcends all sorrow.[79] Theythat do not wish to know thee, O thou of great puissance, have to undergoinnumerable births and deaths. Thou art the door of heaven and ofEmancipation. Thou art he that projectest all beings into existence andwithdrawest them again into thyself. Thou art the great giver. Thou artheaven, thou art Emancipation, thou art desire (the seed of action). Thouart wrath that inspires creatures. Thou art Sattwa, thou art Rajas, thouart Tamas, thou art the nether regions, and thou art the upper regions.Thou art the Grandsire Brahma, thou art Bhava, thou art Vishnu, thou artSkanda, thou art Indra, thou art Savitri, thou art Yama, thou art Varuna,Soma, thou art Dhatri, thou art Manu, thou art Vidhatri and thou artKuvera, the Lord of treasures. Thou art Earth, thou art Wind, thou artWater, thou art Agni, thou art Space, thou art Speech, thou art theUnderstanding, thou art Steadiness, thou art Intelligence, thou art theacts that creatures do, thou art Truth, thou art Falsehood, thou artexistent and thou art non-existent. Thou art the senses, thou art thatwhich transcends Prakriti, thou art immutable. Thou art superior to theuniverse of existent objects, thou art superior to the universe ofnon-existent objects, thou art capable of being conceived, thou artincapable of being conceived. That which is supreme Brahman, that whichis the highest entity, that which is the end of both the Sankhyas and theYogins, is, without doubt, identical with thee. Verily, rewarded have Ibeen today by thee in consequence of thy granting me a sight of thy form.I have attained the end which the righteous alone attain to. I have beenrewarded with that end which is solicited by persons whose understandingshave been cleansed by Knowledge. Alas, so long I was steeped inIgnorance; for this long period I was a senseless fool, since I had noknowledge of thee that art the Supreme Deity, thee that art the onlyeternal Entity as can be only known by all persons endued with wisdom. Incourse of innumerable lives have I at last succeeded in acquiring thatDevotion towards thee in consequence of which thou hast shown thyself tome. O thou that art ever inclined to extend thy grace to those that aredevoted to thee. He that succeeds in knowing thee is enable to enjoyimmortality. Thou art that which is ever a mystery with the gods, theAsuras, and the ascetics. Brahman is concealed in the cave of the heart.The very ascetics are unable to behold or know Him.[80] Thou art thatpuissant deity who is the doer of everything and whose face is turnedtowards every direction. Thou art the Soul of all things, thou seest allthings, thou pervadest all things, and thou knowest all things. Thoumakest a body for thyself, and bearest that body. Thou art an embodiedBeing. Thou enjoyest a body, and thou art the refuge of all embodiedcreatures. Thou art the creator of the life-breaths, thou possessest thelife-breaths, thou art one that is endued with life-breaths, thou art thegiver of the life-breaths, and thou art the refuge of all beings enduedwith life-breaths. Thou art that Adhyatma which is the refuge of allrighteous persons that are devoted to Yoga-meditation and conversant withthe Soul and that are solicitous of avoiding rebirth. Verily, thou artthat Supreme Lord who is identical with that refuge. Thou art the giverunto all creatures of whatever ends become theirs, fraught with happinessor misery. Thou art he that ordains all created beings to birth anddeath. Thou art the puissant Lord who grants success to Rishis crownedwith success in respect of the fruition of their wishes. Having createdall the worlds beginning with Bhu, together with all the denizens ofheaven, that upholdest and cherishest them all, distributing thyself intothy well-known forms numbering Eight.[81] From thee flows everything.Upon thee rests all things. All things, again, disappear in thee. Thouart the sole object that is Eternal. Thou art that region of Truth whichis sought by the righteous and regarded by them as the highest. Thou artthat cessation of individual existence which Yogins seek. Thou art thatOneness which is sought by persons conversant with the soul. Brahma andthe Siddhas expounding the mantras have concealed thee in a cave forpreventing the deities and Asuras and human beings from beholdingthee.[82] Although thou residest in the heart, yet thou are concealed.Hence, stupefied by thee, deities and Asuras and human beings are allunable to understand thee, O Bhava, truly and in all thy details. Untothose persons that succeed in attaining to thee after having cleansedthemselves by devotion, thou showest thyself of thy own accord, O thouthat residest in all hearts.[83] By knowing thee one can avoid both deathand rebirth. Thou art the highest object of knowledge. By knowing thee nohigher object remains for one to know. Thou art the greatest object ofacquisition. The person that is truly wise, by acquiring thee, thinksthat there is no higher object to acquire. By attaining to thee that artexceedingly subtile and that art the highest object of acquisition, theman of wisdom becomes immortal and immutable. The followers of theSankhya system, well conversant with their own philosophy and possessinga knowledge of the attributes (of Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas) and of thosecalled the topics of enquiry,–those learned men who transcend thedestructible by attaining to a knowledge of the subtile orindestructible–succeed, by knowing thee, in freeing themselves from allbonds. Persons conversant with the Vedas regard thee as the one object ofknowledge, which has been expounded in the Vedantas. These men, devotedto the regulation of the breaths, always meditate on thee and at lastenter into thee as their highest end. Riding on the car made of Om, thosemen enter into Maheswara. Of that which is called the Devayana (the pathof the deities) thou art the door called Aditya. Thou art again, thedoor, called Chandramas, of that which is called the Pitriyana (the pathof the Pitris).[84] Thou art Kashtha, thou art the points of the horizon,thou art the year, and thou art the Yugas. Thine is the sovereignty ofthe heavens, thine is the sovereignty of the Earth, thou art the Northernand the Southern declensions. The Grandsire Brahma in days of yoreuttered thy praises, O thou that art called Nilarohita (blue and red), byreciting diverse hymns and urged thee to create living creatures.Brahmanas conversant with Richs praise thee by uttering Richs, regardingthee as unattached to all things and as divested of all forms. Adhyaryus,in sacrifices, pour libations, uttering Yajushes the while, in honour ofthee that art the sole object of knowledge, according to the threewell-known ways.[85] Persons of cleansed understandings, that areconversant with Samans, sing thee with the aid of Samans. Thoseregenerate persons, again, that are conversant with the Atharvans, hymnthee as Rita, as Truth, as the Highest, and as Brahma. Thou art thehighest cause, whence Sacrifice has flowed. Thou art the Lord, and thouart Supreme. The night and day are thy sense of hearing and sense ofsight. The fortnights and months are thy head and arms. The seasons arethy energy, penances are thy patience, and the year is thy anus, thighsand feet. Thou art Mrityu. thou art Yama, thou art Hutasana, thou artKala, thou art endued with speed in respect of destruction, thou art theoriginal cause of Time, and thou art eternal Time. Thou art Chandramasand Aditya. with all the stars and planets and the atmosphere that fillsspace. Thou art the pole-star, thou art constellation called the sevenRishis, thou art the seven regions beginning with Bhu. Thou art Pradhanaand Mahat, thou art Unmanifest, and thou art this world. Thou art theuniverse beginning with Brahman and ending with the lowest forms ofvegetation. Thou art the beginning or original cause of all creatures.Thou art the eight Prakritis.[86] Thou art, again, above the eightPrakritis. Everything that exists, represents a portion of thy divineSelf. Thou art that supreme Felicity which is also Eternal. Thou art theend which is attained to by all things. Thou art that highest existencewhich is sought for by the Righteous. Thou art that state which is freedfrom every anxiety. Thou art eternal Brahman! Thou art that highest statewhich constitutes the meditation of persons learned in the scriptures andthe Vedangas. Thou art the highest Kashtha, thou art the highest Kala.Thou art the highest Success, and thou art the highest Refuge. Thou artthe highest Tranquillity. Thou art the highest cessation of Existence. Byattaining to thee, Yogins think that they attain to the highest successthat is open to them. Thou art Contentment, thou art Success, thou artthe Sruti, and thou art the Smriti. Thou art that Refuge of the Soulafter which Yogins strive, and thou art that indestructible Prapti whichmen of Knowledge pursue. Thou art, without doubt, that End which thosepersons have in view that are habituated to sacrifices and that poursacrificial libations, impelled by specific desires, and that make largepresents on such occasions. Thou art that high End which is sought for bypersons that waste and scorch their bodies with severe penances withceaseless recitations, with those rigid vows and fasts that appertain totheir tranquil lives, and with other means of self-affliction. O Eternalone, thou art that End which is theirs that are unattached to all thingsand that have relinquished all acts. Thou, O Eternal one, art that Endwhich is theirs that are desirous of achieving Emancipation from rebirth,that live in dissociation from all enjoyments, and that desire theannihilation of the Prakriti elements. Thou art that high End, Oillustrious one, which is indescribable, which is stainless, which is theimmutable one, and which is theirs that are devoted to knowledge andscience. These are the live Ends that have been declared in the Vedas andthe Scriptures and the Puranas. It is through thy grace that personsattain to those Ends, or, if they fail to attain to them, it is throughthy grace being denied to them.–It was thus Tandi, who was a vast heapof penances, praised Isana. And he sang also that high Brahman which inancient days was sung by the Creator himself (in honour of Mahadeva).

“Upamanyu continued, ‘Thus praised by that utterer of Brahma, Viz.,Tandi, Mahadeva that illustrious and puissant Deity, who was accompaniedby his spouse lima, said these words. Tandi had further said,–NeitherBrahma, nor Indra nor Vishnu, nor the Viswedevas, nor the great Rishis,know thee. Gratified at this, Siva said the following words.’

“The holy one said, ‘Thou shalt be indestructible and eternal. Thou shaltbe freed from all sorrow. Great fame shall be thine. Thou shalt be enduedwith energy. Spiritual knowledge shall be thine. All the Rishis shallseek thee, and thy son, through my grace, shall become the author ofSutras, O foremost of regenerate persons. What wishes of thine shall Igrant today? Tell me, O son, what those objects are which thoudesirest.–At this, Tandi joined his hands and said–O Lord, let mydevotion to thee be steady.’

“Upamanyu continued, ‘Having given unto Tandi these boons and havingreceived the adorations of both the deities and the Rishis, the greatDeity disappeared there and then. When the illustrious deity, O lord ofthe Yadavas, thus, disappeared with all his followers, the Rishi came tomy asylum and said unto me all that had happened to him. Do thou hear, Oforemost of men, all those celebrated names (of Mahadeva) that Tandi saidunto me for thy spiritual success. The Grandsire had at one time recitedten thousand names that apply to Mahadeva. In the scriptures, a thousandnames occur of that illustrious deity. These names are not known to all.O thou that transcendest destruction, in days of yore, the GrandsireBrahma uttered these names for adoring the high-souled Deity. Havingacquired them through the grace of the Grandsire, Tandi communicated themto me!'”[87]