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Maitreya turned to Parashara and said, “Holy one, there is a yoga that, once a man knows it, lets him behold the supreme Lord who upholds all that exists. I long to learn it. Describe it to me.” Parashara answered, “Listen, Maitreya. In an age long past this very yoga was taught by the great soul Keshidhvaj to King Khandikya, and it is that teaching I now set before you.” Maitreya asked, “But who were these two, Keshidhvaj and Khandikya, and what brought them to such a conversation?”
Parashara said, “There was once a Janaka named Dharmadhvaja. He had two sons, Amitadhvaja and Kritadhvaja. From Kritadhvaja came a son, Keshidhvaj, who grew expert in the science of the self; and from Amitadhvaja came Khandikya, a Janaka who mastered the path of ritual action down to its finest detail. These two cousins spent their days each striving to overcome the other. In the end Keshidhvaj stripped Khandikya of his kingdom, and Khandikya withdrew with his priest and his ministers into a forest that few could enter. Keshidhvaj, for all that he was settled in knowledge, still performed one yajna after another in his effort to pass beyond death.”
The Cow’s Death and the Enemy’s Door
“One day, while Keshidhvaj was engaged in a yajna, a lion in the deserted forest killed his sacred dharma-cow, the one whose milk supplied the oblation. The king asked his officiating priests, ‘What atonement does this call for?’ They said, ‘We do not know. Ask Kasheru.’ Kasheru said the same and sent him on to Shunaka, the son of Bhrigu. Shunaka told him, ‘At this hour no one on the whole earth knows the answer, neither I nor any other. Only one man knows it: the enemy you defeated, Khandikya.’”
“Hearing this, Keshidhvaj reasoned within himself, ‘Then I will go and put the question to my own enemy, Khandikya. If he kills me, I gain the reward of a great sacrifice; and if he tells me the atonement, my yajna is completed without obstacle.’ So he fastened on his armor of deerskin, mounted his chariot, and drove into the forest where Khandikya lived. Seeing his enemy approach, Khandikya strung his bow, his eyes reddening with anger, and said, ‘Have you buckled on this deerskin to come and kill me?’ Keshidhvaj answered, ‘Khandikya, hold. Killing you is no part of my purpose; I have come only to ask you about a doubt. Weigh that, and then turn your anger, or your arrow, on me as you will.’”
“Khandikya drew his ministers aside for counsel. They said, ‘Your enemy is in your power at last. Kill him, and the whole earth falls under your rule.’ But Khandikya weighed it differently. ‘Kill him and the earth is surely mine; spare him and I win a victory that belongs to the world beyond. The victory of the world beyond lasts for all time, and the earth endures only a few short days. So I will not kill him. Whatever he asks, I will tell him.’ Having settled this, he went to his enemy and said, ‘Ask whatever you wish.’ Keshidhvaj laid out the whole account of the sacred cow’s death, and Khandikya gave him its atonement in full, exactly as the rite required.”
The Teacher’s Fee
“With the atonement in hand, Keshidhvaj returned, reached the sacrificial ground, and carried the whole rite to its close. When the yajna ended he performed the avabhritha bath, his purpose accomplished, and then a thought came to him. ‘I have honored all my priests and the members of the assembly, I have given every supplicant the things he desired, I have discharged every duty. Why then does something in my mind still trouble me, as though one act were left undone?’ Then he remembered: he had never given his teacher Khandikya the fee that a guru is owed. Once more he mounted his chariot and rode to that same forest. Seeing him come again in arms, Khandikya rose to strike, but Keshidhvaj said, ‘Khandikya, put away your anger. I mean you no harm. I have come to pay the fee that a teacher is owed. By your instruction I brought my yajna to a proper close. Now ask whatever you please.’”
“Again Khandikya consulted his ministers. They urged him, ‘Ask him for the whole kingdom. Wise men take a kingdom back from their enemies this way, without spending their soldiers in war.’ Khandikya laughed. ‘Why would a man like me, who has already tasted a kingdom that lasts only a handful of days, ask for another? You counsel me toward my own advantage alone. What the highest good is, you do not know.’ Then he went to Keshidhvaj and said, ‘Will you truly give me a teacher’s fee?’ Keshidhvaj said, ‘Without question I will.’ At that Khandikya said, ‘You are deeply skilled in the science of the self. If you mean to give, then give me the means that can quiet every affliction at its root.’”
“Keshidhvaj asked, ‘To a Kshatriya nothing is dearer than his kingdom. Why then did you not ask for mine?’ Khandikya answered, ‘It is fools who hunger after a kingdom. The dharma of a Kshatriya is to protect his people and to strike down his enemies in a righteous war. If you took my kingdom while I was the weaker, no blame in that falls on me. The craving for a kingdom is a craving for pleasures in some life to come. Men like me have no wish for it.’”
Brahmayoga
“Keshidhvaj, pleased, said, ‘Listen, Khandikya. The seed of the tree of worldly existence is avidya, the primal ignorance. To take the self to lie in what is not the self, and to call your own what was never yours, this is avidya. This body built of the five elements is like a house of clay, plastered over with more clay; whoever fills it with the sense of “I” and “mine” is the one who is bound. What cuts that bondage is yoga. The mind alone is the cause of bondage and of moksha, of liberation. Fixed on the objects of sense, it binds; drawn back from them and fixed on the supreme Brahman, it sets you free. As a magnet draws iron toward itself, so the supreme Self, by its very nature, absorbs into itself the sage who contemplates Brahman. That distinctive movement of a mind bent on the effort of self-knowledge is its union with Brahman, and that union is what we call yoga.’”
“‘The yogi must first keep, with no thought of reward, the five restraints: continence, non-violence, truth, non-stealing, and freedom from possessions. Alongside them he keeps the five observances: study of sacred text, purity, contentment, austerity, and the settling of the mind on the supreme Brahman. Then, seated in the bhadra posture or another like it, he checks the movement of the upward and the downward breaths. Exhalation, inhalation, and retention are the three forms of pranayama, and by the difference in what supports the mind this breath-discipline is of two kinds, one with a seed and one without. Bringing the senses under control through pranayama, and drawing the mind back from the objects of sense through pratyahara, he comes to rest in dharana, the holding of the mind on a single point.’”
“‘Dharana cannot stand without some support, so the yogi meditates first on the gross, embodied form of Lord Vishnu. He holds in his mind that divine figure: the serene face, the eyes like lotus petals, the fine cheeks and broad brow, the earrings, the neck curved like a conch, the mark of Shrivatsa on the chest, the deep navel, the long arms, the body adorned with crown and armlets and bracelets, the hands that carry the conch, the discus, the mace, the Sharnga bow, and the sword, the hands that grant boons and dispel fear, the whole form clothed in yellow silk. He holds it until, whether he is walking or standing still, rising or sitting, that image never once leaves his mind. When the concentration has grown firm, he meditates next on the same form at rest, stripped of ornament and weapon, then on a single limb of it, and at last on the formless supreme Brahman alone. He on whom the mind is fixed this way never again goes to hell; in the very remembrance of him, heaven itself becomes an obstacle. That imperishable supreme Self is the true object of knowledge, and the ending of every sense of difference from him is final liberation.’”
“Hearing this Brahmayoga, Khandikya felt his purpose complete, and he said, ‘You have washed every stain from my mind. Even when I said “mine,” the word was untrue. “I” and “mine,” all of it is only avidya.’ The two men honored each other, and Keshidhvaj returned to his city. Khandikya handed his kingdom to his son and went into the forest, fixed his mind on Govinda, brought his yoga to perfection, and dissolved into that flawless Brahman whose name is Vishnu. Keshidhvaj too, wearing away the whole store of his karma, reached the final perfection that lifts away the threefold suffering.”
The Conclusion
Parashara said, “In this way, Maitreya, I have described to you the final dissolution as well, that merging into the eternal Brahman which is moksha itself. I have told you how the world comes into being and passes away, the dynasties, the reigns of the Manus, and the lives of the royal lines. This Vaishnava Purana stands highest among all the shastras. It destroys every sin and sets forth the true ends of human life. Whoever listens to it with devotion is freed from all his sins. The reward of the Ashvamedha sacrifice, of fasting at Prayaga, Pushkara, and Kurukshetra, and of tending the sacred fire for a full year, all of it comes to the one who hears this.”
“This ancient Purana, handed down by the seers, was first recited by Brahma to Ribhu; Ribhu recited it to Priyavrata, Priyavrata to Bhaguri, Bhaguri to Stambhamitra, Stambhamitra to Dadhichi, Dadhichi to Sarasvata, and Sarasvata to Bhrigu. Then Bhrigu gave it to Purukutsa, Purukutsa to Narmada, and Narmada to Vasuki, the king of serpents; and passing on from Vasuki it reached Vatsa, Ashvatara, Kambala, and Elaputra. After that the great sage Vedashira came down into Patala, received it there, and recited it to Pramati; Pramati recited it to Jatukarna, and Jatukarna to other holy and virtuous souls. I myself heard this Purana in a former birth from the lips of Sarasvata, and by the boon of Pulastya it stayed fixed in my memory, so I have recited it to you word for word; and you in turn, at the end of the age of Kali, will recite it to Shinika.”
Hearing this, Maitreya folded his hands and said, “O my guru, by your grace every doubt of mine has fallen away and my mind is clear. I have come to know well the four kinds of matter, the three kinds of power, and the three modes of contemplation. And now I understand this too: that the whole of this universe is one with Lord Vishnu, nothing apart from him. Nothing more is left for me to know.” And so this conversation between Parashara and Maitreya, and with it this Shri Vishnu Mahapurana, comes to its close.
Source: Vishnu Purana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)