Sambhava Parva — History of Yayati

Ashtaka said: O foremost man of the Krita Yuga, you having been able to assume any form at will, passed millions of years in the garden of Nandana. For what reason have you been compelled to leave that happy region and come here today?

Yayati said : As relatives and kinsmen forsake in this world a man who has lost his wealth, so in the other world Indra and the celestials forsake one who loses his righteousness.

Ashtaka said: O king, I am very curious to learn how men can lose their righteousness in the other world. Tell me also what regions are attained by what means. I know you are acquainted with all the doings and the sayings.

Yayati said : O God-like man, they that speak of their own merits are doomed to the painful hell called Bhauma, (earth). Though really lean, they appear to grow (fat on earth) to become the food for vultures, dogs and jackals.

Therefore, O king, this censurable and wicked vice should be cast off in this world. O king, I have now told you all. Tell me what more I shall speak.

Ashtaka said: When life is destroyed by age, vultures, Shitikantha, insects and worms eat up the human body, where does man then live? How does he come to life again? I have never heard of any hell called Bhauma.

Yayati said : When the body is destroyed (by death), man, according to the effects of his acts, is born again in the womb of his mother. He stays there in an indistinct form and he then gradually assumes distinct and visible form. He then reappears and walks on the earth. Thus he falls into the hell Bhauma (earth) and does not see the end of his existence.

Some thus falling live for sixty thousand years in the firmament; some again for eighty thousand years. They then fall (on this earth) and they are attacked by fearful Bhauma Rakshasas of sharp teeth.

Ashtaka said : Why are men, when thus falling from heaven, attacked by these fearful and sharpteethed Rakshasas? Why are they not annihilated? How do they again enter the womb?

Yayati said : All beings, thus fallen from heaven, become subtle substance, living in water. This water subsequently becomes the semen from which life is created. It then enters the womb of a woman in her season and develops into the embryo. It then becomes visible life like the fruit from the flower. Entering into trees, plants, vegetables, water, air, earth and space, the watery seed of life becomes quadrupeds of bipeds. This is the case with all creatures.

Ashtaka said: Does a being who has got a human form enter the womb in its own shape or in some other? How does it acquire its distinct and visible shape, its eyes, ears and consciousness? Tell me all this, I ask you, because I have my doubts.

Yayati said: The being that remains in a subtle form in the seed, when dropped into the womb, is attracted by atmospheric force for purposes of rebirth, according to the merits of one's acts.

He then develops in course of time into the embryo. He is then furnished with the visible organisation. Coming out of the womb in course of time, he becomes conscious of his existence. He then becomes sensible of sound by his ears, of colour and form by his eyes, of scent by his nose, of taste by his tongue, of touch by his whole body and of ideas by his mind. O Ashtaka, it is thus that the gross and visible body develops from the subtle essence.

Ashtaka said: The body is burnt, buried of otherwise destroyed after death. Reduced to nothing on one's death, by what principle is one again revived.

Yayati said : O lion of kings, the man who dies, assumes a subtle form, but he retains the consciousness of all his acts as if in a dream. He then assumes some other form with a quicker speed than that of air.

The virtuous attain to a superior and the vicious to an inferior form of existence. The vicious becomes worms and insects. O illustrious one, I have nothing more to say. I have told you, how beings are born by the development of their embryonic formas quadrupeds, bipeds and six-footed creatures. What more will you ask me?

Ashtaka said: O sire, how does a man attain to those higher regions whence there is no return to earthly life again? Is it by asceticism or knowledge? How does a man attain to the region of the highest bliss? As I ask you, tell me all.

Yayati said ; The wise say that there are seven gates through which admission might be gained to heaven. These are asceticism, gift, tranquility of mind, self-command, modesty, simplicity and kindness. A person loses all this in consequence of vanity.

The man who, having acquired knowledge, regards himself as learned and destroys, the reputation of others by his learning, never goes to the region of the highest bliss. It does not also give him the power of attaining to Brahma.

Study, taciturnity, worship before fire and sacrifices, these are the four means through which fear is removed. But when these four are mixed with vanity, they cause fear instead of removing it.

The wise should never feel pride in receiving honours, nor should they be sorry if insulted. For it is the wise alone that honour the wise; the wicked and vicious can never act like the virtuous. I have given so much, I have performed so many sacrifices, I have studied so much, I have observed so many vows, such vanity and pride are the roots of all fear. Therefore, it must be abandoned by all means.

Those learned men who accept as their only support the unchangeable and inconceivable Brahma, Brahma that showers blessings on persons virtuous as you are, enjoy perfect peace here in this world and hereafter in heaven.