Mahārāja Pṛthu's Going Back Home

ātmajeṣv ātmajāṁ nyasya

virahād rudatīm iva

prajāsu vimanaḥsv ekaḥ

sa-dāro 'gāt tapo-vanam

Maitreya said: Once, seeing his body age, Pṛthu, protector of the people, maintainer of all moving and non-moving beings, who was in control of his mind, who had by himself increased the wealth of the state, and who was the upholder of dharma for the devotees, after having fulfilled the order of the Lord, having appeared on earth for that purpose, handed over to his sons the earth, who was lamenting out of separation from him, and went to the forest alone with his wife, while the citizens grieved.

In the Twenty-third Chapter, Pṛthu goes to the forest, practices austerities, worships the Lord, and giving up the planet of humans, goes along with his wife to Vaikuṇṭha.

Pṛthu thought, “The Lord will not bring me to his side for service. I have not done that much worship and have not been fully purified. Taking vānaprastha, going to the forest and engaging in chanting and remembering the Lord twenty-four hours a day, like our ancestor Dhruva, I will perform austerities to attain the Lord quickly. I will make vānaprastha āśrama famous with the people.” Thinking like this, he went to the forest for austerities. Three verses are connected as one sentence. Ātmanā vardhitāśeṣa-svānusargaḥ means “he who by himself increased villages, cities and food.” Ātmajām means the earth.

Just as Pṛthu performed karmas in household life to show karmīs how to act, so as a vānaprastha he performed austerities to show the vānaprasthas how to act. He engaged in severe austerities as approved by the Vaikhānasas (vānaprasthas). He was strict in his vows (adābhya-niyamaḥ). Adābhya (not deceptive) comes from the root dabh, to deceive. He did this with the same effort that he conquered the earth (sva).

Pañcatapā means he places four fires around himself while the sun shone overhead. Āsāraśāṭ means he tolerated the showers. Sthaṇòile śayaḥ means sleeping on the earth.

“Though his purpose was to show people the vānaprastha life, what was his intention in performing such severe austerities?” Desiring to worship Kṛṣṇa directly in the spiritual world I will do these austerities. This was his vow. It is also seen that perfect rāgātmaka-bhaktas such as Viśākha and other gopīs performed austerities to attain Kṛṣṇa, according to Vāmana Purāṇa and the śrutis.

By gradually perfecting that austerity (tena), his mind became joyful (amala āśayaḥ). He destroyed his karmas. Previously he had already accomplished this by controlling the breath through repeating mantras concerning the Lord as part of bhakti-mārga.

Ādhyātmikam means “engaged in the self.” It is formed like the word vainayika from vinaya. This yoga concerning the self is final (param). Ādhyātmika-yoga in this verse refers to bhakti-yoga. Previously SB 4.32.39-40 indicated that śuddha-bhakti was the highest process. It was not stated anywhere else that jñāna-yoga, also called ādhyātmika-yoga, was the best and final process. It is also impossible to worship the Supreme Lord as the primary object in jñāna-yoga. There will also be a contradiction to the next verse if jñāna-yoga as adhyātmika-yoga is considered the highest process. Bhakti-yoga is here called adhyātmika-yoga to keep it secret.

Nārada-pañcarātra says:

hari-bhakti-mahā-devyāḥ sarvā mukty-ādi-siddhayaḥ |

bhuktyaś cādbhutās tasyāś ceṭikāvad anuvratāḥ ||

All the siddhis headed by liberation and all astonishing material pleasures follow after the great goddess Hari-bhakti like fearful maidservants.

Though the devotee practicing pure bhakti does not want them, on their own, brahmavidyā (impersonal jñāna) and the eight siddhis of yoga personified appear before the devotee and say, “We have been sent by the Lord for your service. Please accept us.” Two verses explain this. Pṛthu’s mind became śuddha-sattva by service to the Lord (parikarma). By bhakti, jñāna (brahma-vidyā) endowed with detachment appeared spontaneously. What was that bhakti? It was filled with remembrance of the Lord at every moment. Even though the person practicing śuddha-bhakti, like cātaka bird, tastes the sweetness of bhakti alone, and does not accept brahma-vidyā, though it comes to him on its own, the destruction of his subtle body, a result of brahma-vidyā, takes place by bhakti alone, without seeking it. It has been said:

jarayaty āśu yā kośaṁ nigīrṇam analo yathā

Bhakti quickly destroys the subtle body, just as the digestive fire consumes food. SB 3.25.33

Just as a person sometimes takes some medicine to help quickly digest food, even though the digestive fire will digest food, Pṛthu, being anxious to attain direct service to the Lord in his abode, and unable to tolerate the delay, performed brahma-jñāna to destroy his subtle body. By that very sharp jñāna he cut the subtle body or covering (jīva-koṣam), a source of doubt. Pṛthu’s doubt was “I have not seen the Lord directly by my bhakti. Do I have a subtle body or not?” Actually, Pṛthu did not have a subtle body. He was an avatāra of the Lord.

yac cānyad api kṛṣṇasya

bhavān bhagavataḥ prabhoḥ

śravaḥ suśravasaḥ puṇyaṁ

pūrva-deha-kathāśrayam

bhaktāya me 'nuraktāya

tava cādhokṣajasya ca

vaktum arhasi yo 'duhyad

vainya-rūpeṇa gām imām

You should speak to me, your devotee and a devotee of the Lord and you, attached to hearing, about he who milked the earth in the form of Pṛthu, and other pure, famous topics related to the previous birth of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. SB 4.19.6-7

naivātmane mahendrāya roṣam āhartum arhasi

ubhāv api hi bhadraṁ te uttamaśloka-vigrahau

You should not show anger to Indra, since he is non-different from you. Good fortune to both of you, who are forms of the Supreme Lord! SB 4.19.33

Pṛthu’s desire to give up his body by yoga is only showing the greatness of his devotion, in which he thinks of himself as an ordinary person. Mention of giving up his body is only for letting the materialists preserve their mentality. This appearance is handled by māyā in the case of both the avatāras and the devotees. Among the forms of the Lord, Rāma does not give up his body, and among the devotees, Dhruva does not up his body. These examples indicate the truth for all forms of the Lord and perfected devotees. This conclusion is given for the devotees.

He destroyed the concept of being the body (chinna anya-dhiḥ). He realized the form of Paramātmā (adhigata atma-gatiḥ). He had no desire for siddhis (nirīhaḥ). “How could he give up all desires, since he accepted the process of vidyā or jñāna?” By jñāna (vayunena) he destroyed the subtle body (idam), and then rejected jñāna. He accepted jñāna to destroy the subtle body, and then rejected jñāna. Thus actually he was without desire. The meaning is this. There are two types of results from śuddha-bhakti: the primary, desired result and the secondary, unsought results. The desired result is prema-bhakti. The unsought result is jñāna, siddhis and other things. If a devotee has a desire for these secondary results that arrive on their own, his bhakti becomes restricted.

antarāyān vadanty etā yuñjato yogam uttamam

mayā sampadyamānasya kāla-kṣapaṇa-hetavaḥ

Learned experts state that the mystic perfections of yoga are actually impediments. For one who is practicing the supreme yoga, who is absorbed in my by having attained me, the siddhis are a waste of time. SB 11.15.33

However, the ability to reject these secondary results depends on the strength of one’s practice of śuddha-bhakti. Śrīdhara Svāmī says “Pṛthu did not have attraction to these secondary results because he was attracted to talks concerning Kṛṣṇa.”

Seeing that one of the siddhis--dying at will--had arrived, Pṛthu developed a desire to accept that, just as he had accepted jñāna, since he desired to go quickly to the side of the Lord. Being taught the method of leaving the body by that siddhi, who was like an expert in karma rituals, Pṛthu easily prepared to leave his body by his will. That is described in six verses. He was the best of the courageous. Giving up the body at this time, becoming a pure spiritual form, immediately let me go to Vaikuṇṭha and serve the feet of the Lord! This was his great eagerness. Fixing his mind (ātmānam) on his form as an associate of the Lord (ātmani), becoming a pure spiritual form (brahma-bhūtaḥ), he left his body.

The method of leaving the body appeared spontaneously. The āsana for leaving the body is described:

saṁpīòya sīraṇīṁ sūkṣmāṁ gulphenaiva tu madhyataḥ

savye dakṣiṇa-gulphena muktāsanam itīritam

Pressing the fine passageway near the anus with the left ankle, with the right ankle pressing the left, is called muktāsana.

Leading the air from the mūlādhāra-cakra upwards to the svādhiṣṭhāna-cakra one should fix it at the navel in the maṇipūraka-cakra, then at the anāhata-cakra (koṣṭheṣu) in the heart, and above that, at the viśuddhi-cakra below the throat. The throat is situated above the viśuddhi-cakra. Then one should fix the air between the brows (śīrṣaṇi) at the ājñā-cakra. The sentence is continued in the next verse. Instead of vāyum the word asūn which means prāṇa is also seen.

At the top of the head he fixed the air at the brahma-randhra. He then merged the air in the body with totality of air (vayau), and merged the other four elements of the body--earth, water, fire and ether—with the totality of those elements.

Khāni means the holes in the body (ether). Dravam means water in the body. After destroying the body, one meditates on destroying the five elements to achieve the ātmā separate from the body. One merges earth into water etc.

Having described destruction of the elements up to ether, which are all produces of ahaḍkāra in tamas, the destruction of the products of ahaḍkāra in sattva and rajas are described. He merged (sandadhe) the mind into the senses, along with the sense devatās. He merged the senses and their devatās into the tan-mātras. Because the mind is dependent on the senses, he merged it into the senses. Since senses are dependent on the sense objects, he merged the senses into the sense objects. Indriyair viṣayākṛṣṭair ākṣiptaṁ dhyāyatāṁ manaḥ: the mind of a person thinking of sense objects is bewildered by the senses attracted to those objects. (SB 4.22.30) They were merged according to the order in which they appeared. The mind and sense devatās merge into the senses, because mind and the sense devatās do not have their own svarūpas without the senses. But even the senses depend on the tan-mātras. This is the conception. He then merged the tan-mātras (amūni) into ahaḍkāra (bhūtādi), and merged the ahaḍkāra into the mahat-tattva (ātmani).

Instead of manaḥ sometimes nabhaḥ (ether) is seen and instead of yathobhūtam the phrase yathā sthānam is seen. Then the meaning is “they are merged into their shelter.” Earth merges into its shelter, water. Ether resides in the senses and thus merges with them. The mind is considered one of the senses. The senses reside in the sense objects (their shelter) since they direct themselves to sense objects, and thus they merge into the sense objects. In this way the words yathodbhūtam and yathā-sthānam are explained without contradiction.

He placed the shelter of all the guṇas (mahat-tattva) in māyā, the covering (māyāmaye) on the jīva. Jīva here means the covering on the jīva. It is found similarly in the following verse:

taḥ paraṁ yad avyaktam avyūòha-guṇa- vyūhitam |

adṛṣṭāśruta-vastutvāt sa jīvo yat punar-bhavaḥ ||

Superior to the gross universal form is that form which is invisible, devoid of the specific bodily parts, since it cannot be seen or heard. This is like the subtle body of the jīva, which in the instrument of rebirth for the jīva. SB 1.3.32

He who is the jīva, (anuśayī pumān), previous to the covering (anuśayam), Pṛthu, then gave up that covering by the power of vidyā-śakti in the form of jñāna and vairāgya, while being situated in this body as an associate of the Lord, which was obtained through bhakti (svarūpa-sthāh). He is called prabhuḥ because he was capable of giving up the covering. Previously in verse 11, it was said that he destroyed his subtle body, a cause of doubt. He again underwent the process as described here, like grinding what is already ground (piṣṭa-peṣaṇa-nyāya), when he cast off the gross body. Then, boarding a vehicle sent by the Lord, he went to Vaikuṇṭha. That should be understood later in the chapter.

Four verses describe his wife Arci, from the time he went to the forest.

The vows consisted of sleeping on the earth as well as hearing and chanting. Living like a sage means living off forest roots. She was blissful by the respect he gave her and the touch of his hand while doing service.

Ātmanaḥ patyuḥ means “of her husband.” He had been merciful (dayitasya), treating the earth as his daughter. She only lamented a little because she was anxious to finish the funeral rites.

The devatās had come to see Pṛthu and she could see them in the sky. She went around the fire three times.

Gṛṇanti sma means “they spoke.”

They pointed at her with their fingers. There she goes, up in the sky. Why look at the fire? Nūnam indicates conjecture. Of those flying in airplanes, the person shining must be her. She is following Pṛthu. They saw Pṛthu in front and saw her following in another vehicle. She has surpassed us. Though we are devatās, we have become situated at her feet.

We should become such humans if we can get such good fortune! What else, such as Brahmaloka, is difficult to achieve for those like Pṛthu and Arci who certainly (vai) achieved Vaikuṇṭha, the abode of the Lord, the very form of non-material action (naiṣkarmyam).

.

They lament for those who are not devotees.

“Will she go to the material Pati-loka the pious act of dying with her husband?” No, not at all! Pṛthu attained a planet worthy of the best knowers of the ātmā. He did not attain a material planet. He did not attain merging in Brahman, but rather took shelter of the Lord (acyutāśrayaḥ), for Pṛthu had prayed:

na kāmaye nātha tad apy ahaṁ kvacin

na yatra yuṣmac-caraṇāmbujāsavaḥ

mahattamāntar-hṛdayān mukha-cyuto

vidhatsva karṇāyutam eṣa me varaḥ

I do not desire anything, and especially I do not want liberation, in which there is no nectar of your lotus feet, coming from the hearts of great devotees and falling from their mouths. Give me millions of ears. That is my request. SB 4.20.24

Śrīdhara Svāmī has explained that Pṛthu went to Vaikuṇṭha: in the twenty-third chapter, Pṛthu along with his wife practices spiritual life daily and boarding an airplane, goes to Vaikuṇṭha. Those who are not devotees will more likely go to the material Pati-loka.

Viṭ-patiḥ means master of cows or master of other vaiśyas.

Amalām-bhaktim means śuddha-bhakti. One should hear the story with faith, giving up all other results, in order to possess śuddha-bhakti.

O son of Vicitravīrya! I have explained the story of Pṛthu which indicates the greatness of the great devotees. One will attain the goal related to Pṛthu. (pārthavīm).

Thus ends the commentary on the Twenty-third Chapter of the Fourth Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.