The end of Yama’s discourse
SavitrT said—О lord, I have listened enough to you and nothing more is required to be listened to by me. Therefore you bestow the devotion of the lord on me which is extremely difficult to get. Now you enlighten me also on dharma, including the ways to adore lord Krsna and the reciting of his name. He is the one who redeems all and can also help the people to cross over the ocean of the universe.
Similarly he is the bestower of salvation, the cause of salvation, the destroyer of all the evils, the destroyer of the tree of deeds am? the remover of all the sins; what is the number of types of salvation? What are their definitions? You kindly let me know the types of the devotions of the lord and the way one has to reap the harvest of their deeds. Among those who are well-versed in the Vedas, Brahma has created the female devoid of the knowledge of tattvas. What is the essence of the learning for them. You kindly tell me, because the giving of charities, fasting, taking a bath in holy places, the performing of trat as and tapas do not equal even eleven times as compared to the imparting of knowledge to others.
О lord, the glory of the mother is a hundred times more than that of the father and the glory of the one who imparts knowledge or a teacher is a hundred limes more than that of the mother.
Yama said—О daughter, whatever was desired by you has already been granted by me, but now with my boon you will surely achieve the devotion of the lord. 0 virtuous lady, you want to listen to the glory of lord Krsna which redeems all the people who recite his name as well as those who listen to his glory.
In fact the Scsa, having the thousand hoods, is unable to rccuc the glory of lord Krishna. Lord Siva who had over-powered the death, is unable to recite his glory with all his five faces.
Even Brahma, who holds the four Vedas and the creator of the world and omniscient lord Visnu. is also not able to recite the glory of lord Krishna.
The six-headed Karttikeya is unable to do so with all his six heads. Ganesha, the lord of all the ganas and who is the best of the yogis is unable in this respect.
Even the scriptures which are the essence of the Vedas cannot speak out a particle of the glory of lord Visnu. Then how can the intellectuals do so?
Even Sarasvall after making great efforts find it difficult to spell out the glory of the lord. The sages like Sanatkumara, Dharma, Sanaka, Sanatana, Sananda, Kapila, Surya, Brahma and several other intellectuals are unable to recite his glory; so what to speak of those having little wisdom.
Similarly the siddhas, sages and yogis are unable to spell out the glory of the lord. The one whose lotus-like feet are always adored by Brahma, Visnu and Siva is the one who is quite docile to his devotees and difficult to excess by others.
Who else could speak about his glory? Of course, Brahma knows much about Brahma. Besides Brahma, Ganesa is considered to be a great intellectual and is also considered to be quite knowledgeable, because in the earlier times lord Krsna had imparted divine knowledge to Ganesa in a secluded place in the forest in Goloka at the time of Rasamandala.
The glory of lord Krsna was recited by Ganesa at that point of time and the same was repeated by Siva to Dharma in his own abode.
Dharma then imparted the knowledge of the same to Slirya at Puskara; thereafter my father narrated the same to him and from him I got the same.
О chaste lady, after making many efforts in earlier times, I could not understand much about it and I was going for perfonning tapas since my mind was filled with detachment. At that point of time my father enlightened me on the qualities of lord Krishna. Therefore, I am speaking out on the subject, on the basis of my own knowledge. You please listen to me.
О beautiful one, as the sky is not aware of its dimensions, what to speak of others?
Lord Krishna resides in everyone as a soul. He is the cause of all the causes, the lord of all, the beginning of all, all knowledgeable, is the one who can take to any form, always having beautiful form, always taking to various forms, blissful, formless, independent, doubtless, devoid of virtues, devoid of Asrama, unattached, the witness of all, the base of everything and is the best. The Prakrti is his deformed image, the one who is born of that deformity is known as the nature.
He himself is having the form of Purusa and Prakrti while he is beyond Prakrti. He is formless but in order to shower his grace on his devotees, he lakes to human form.
He is extremely beautiful and chaiming having the complexion of new clouds. He is of tender age, having the form of a cowherd; is the abode of crores of gods of love, quite pleasant, is like the lotus flower of the noon of the summer season, having lotus-like eyes and possesses the lustre of crores of moons of the winter season; he is adorned with innumerable valuable gems and the ornaments studded with gems, he wears a srene smile on his face and is always clad in a lower yellow garment, is the form of eternal Brahman, the lustre of Brahman, pleasant to look at, quite peaceful, lord of Radha and is immeasurable. The cowherdesses wearing smiles on their faces surround him always.
He is seated on the gem-studded throne in the Rcisamandala playing on the flute a tune. He has two amis and wears a long garland of forest flowers. He has a kaustubha gem adorning his chest and all his limbs are plastered with saffron, agaru, kasturl and sandal-paste.
He is adorned with a beautiful garland of jasmine flowers, besides those of lotus and Malatl and several other flowers. His hair is curly.
His devotees with their mind filled with devotion always adore him in this form. The terrified Brahma engages himself in creation at the command of lord Krsna. He also writes the fortune of all human beings on their forehead according to their deeds. He also gives the reward for the tapas and other deeds performed by the people.
By the fear from him, lord Visnu protects the world constantly and also dreadful Rudra destroys the universe.
With the knowledge imparled by Krsna to lord Siva he happens to be the teacher of the intellectuals, besides being yoglsvara, all blissful and filled with devotion and detachment. With the pride of whom, the wind moves with great speed.
By whose fear, the sun bums throughout the day, by whose command Indra causes the rain, by whose command the death roams about everywhere, by whose command the fire bums, the water becomes cool, the Dikpalas protect the directions, by whose command the constellations move, by whose command the fruits become ripe and the trees are timely deprived of the fruits, by whose command, the creatures of the earth cannot live in water, by whose command the aquatic animals cannot survive on earth, by whose command I decide about dharma and adharma, by whose command the god of death roams about on earth, by whose command the death does not kill anyone before time, by whose command the death is unable to kill a person who falls in burning flames, falls in the deep water of the ocean or from the top of a tree, on the edge of a sharp sword, falling as a prey to the wild animals, in the terrific battle field getting wounded with many types of weapons or the one who sleeps on a comfortable bed of roses. The god is death does not harm them. At whose command the water carries the tortoise, the tortoise carries the serpent Sesa and the serpent Ananta carries the earth while the earth carries all the oceans, seven continents, the seven mountains and all the people in all the forms.
And ultimately in whom all the elements get merged. The life of Indra is as long as Seventy yugas, the period of twenty eight Indras equates with a day and night for Brahma. Indra’s age has been measured as being of twenty five thousand, five hundred and sixty yugas. This has been ordained by the knowledgeable people. Accordingly each month has thirty days, two months form a season and six seasons form a year. Brahma lives a hundred years. The period of Brahma’s age is equivalent to the fall of the eye-lid of Visnu. Therefore the very shutting of the eyes of Visnu results in dissolution. This has been ordained by the intellectuals. At the time of dissolution all the gods, moveable and immovable nature merge in Brahma and Brahma in turn merges into the navel of lord Krsna through the lotus. Lord Visnu sleeps in the ocean of milk and remains four-armed in Vaikuntha. He gets merged into the body of lord Krsna. All the Rudras, Bhairvas or followers of lord Siva ultimately merge in him. They are all blissful and eternal. All the learnings of lord Krsna and Mahadeva merge into the knowledge of lord Hari. All the Saklis merge in Visnumaya and other forms of Durga. The same goddess Durga dwells in the intelligence of lord Krsna. She happens to be the supreme goddess of intelligence. Similarly Skanda who appeared from the ray of Narayana ultimately merges into his chest.
Lord Ganesha merges into the anus of lord Krs па. О chaste lady, the amsa of Padrna merges into Kamala and Kamala merges into Radhika together with all the cowherdesscs and the goddesses. The same Radha happens to be the goddess of lord Krishna and as such Radha always resides in his heart.
Savitrl and all the Vedas merge in Sarasvatl and the goddess Sarasvatl merges into the tip of the tongue of the lord Krsna. All the residents of Goloka including the cowherds, merge into lord Krsna. The fire is bom out of his Jatharagni, water in the tip of the tongue and all the devotees who always adore lord Krsna besides the Vais navas merge into his feet. Thereafter, the pure Virat and Mahavirat merge into Krisna.
The one is whose hair-pits the entire universe in accommodated, by shutting whose eyes, the dissolution overtakes, by whose opening of the eyes, the creation starts; similarly at the time of closing of the eyes, whatever universe is saved, at the time of opening of his eyes, the same universe emerges out of them.
The universe continues up to the hundred years of Brahma. Thereafter it merges into him. Therefore, О chaste lady, there is no counting of the universes of Brahma, in the same way as one cannot count the particles of dust.
Because the all-pervading lord by whose closing of the eyes, the universe is dissolved and with the opening of whose eye-lids, the creation starts, who could be competent enough to describe his glory?
Thus whatever I had heard from the mouth of my father, according to the scriptures, has been narrated by me. In all the four Vedas the salvation has been spelt out to be of four types, out of all of them the devotion of lord is considered to be more glorious than salvation. Out of these four types of salvation, one is called the Salokya salvation, the second is known as Sarupya salvation, the third is called Samipya salvation and the fourth is called Sayujya which is also called complete redemption but the devotees of the lord do not prefer anyone of the four salvations.
Not only this, the devotees of the lord are not desirous of eternalship or Brahman in preference to the devotion of the lord. Therefore the devotion removing the birth, death, old age, disease, fear, grief takes to the divine form and grants salvation. The salvation is without service while the adoration increases the sense of devotion.
This is the difference between the devotion and the salvation. Now I tell you the definition of niseka (impregnation). You listen to me. Praising the result of the deeds performed by the intellectual is called, niseka (impregnation) О chaste lady, the deeds vanish only with the adoration of lord Krsna because it always bestows welfare. Thus the knowledge of tattva and the essence of the Vedas.
It removes all obstructions and grants welfare. О daughter, thus I have spoken to you everything; therefore now you proceed to your abode comfortably. Thus speaking Yama the son of Surya brought back her husband to life and showering all the blessings, asked them to go. Thereafter Savitn bowed in reverence to Yama. When she found him returning, she held his feet and started crying because the separation from noble people is always painful. О Narada, finding Savitn so sobbing the compassionate Yama was extremely satisfied. He then assured her variously and tears started flowing from his eyes.
Yama said—О chaste lady, in the sacred land of Bharata you will pleasantly spend a lakh of years and ultimately you will achieve Goloka, the abode of Lord Krishna.
Therefore, О noble lady, you revert to your abode and perform vratas of banyan tree for fourteen years. It redeems the woman from all sins.
Thus the adoration of Savitrl (banyan tree) is to be performed in the month of the Jyestha on the fourteenth day of bright fortnight. On the bright fifth day of the month of Bhadrapada, the sacred vrata for MahalaksmI is performed for sixteen years with great devotion by the ladies which entitles them to proceed to Vishnuloka.
Similarly on Tuesday the Mangalacandika is to be adored. Everyone on the sixth day of the bright fortnight Sasthl-devJ, the bestower of welfare has to be adored. On the first day of the month of Asadha, Manasa-devI has to be adored who always grants welfare. On the first day of Kartika and on full moon day of the same month, Radha the beloved of lord Krsna has to be adored. On the eighth day of the bright fortnight of every month, one should keep a fast and then adore goddess Durga the illusion of Lord Vishnu who bestows boons. She protects from misfortune, is the mother of the universe and is the foremost of the chaste women having her own husband and sons. The woman who adores her with great devotion for seeking progeny, surely gets the same in this birth and thereafter she achieves the abode of lord Vishnu.
Thus speaking, lord Yama returned to his abode and Savitrl too accompanied by her husband Satyavan went back to her abode.
O Narada, on reaching home Savitrl narrated all the happenings to Satyavan and all other relatives.
She narrated the entire story to her husband. She then got sons and her father-in-law got back his eye-sight. Thus the chaste lady with the boon of Yama enjoyed all the worldly pleasures in the sacred land of Bharata for a lakh of years and thereafter she proceeded to Goloka with her husband.
She is called Savitri because she is the supreme goddess of them, the supreme goddess of the mantra and the Vedas.
О son, thus this is the sacred story of Savitrl which I have narrated to you. What else do you want to listen to from me?
