Post by Jagannāth Miśra Dās on May 29, 2023 14:23:16 GMT -6
Having just enjoyed reading through an English translation of the Bhagavatam translated by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1895, I thought to share a few passages here, mainly to show case the rhetorical force of his Victorian English. The diction is entirely his, I have just arranged it a little.
“We reply that still this world is not real. It is superimposed on the reality called Brahmān, the absolute existence, and thus it appears real. The world is like a figment of the imagination with no basis in reality; as that which did not exist before the creation, and does not survive after it, has no existence in the middle period except in name. But yet, people whose intellect is deluded by being steeped in lust and greed, presume that houses and other objects of the senses are real, and wander in samsara. It is a false attachment to look upon and speak of the products of the gunas, such as progeny, property, prosperity and popularity or celebrity, as real. Like our fanciful desires and dreams, all sense experience is unreal. Hence the knower's of reality do not grieve for what is eternal (the soul) or for what is transient (body, sense organs, objects of pleasure) but the nature of those who are given to grieving cannot be changed, as they have not imbibed the nature of reality. Thus one should welcome neither death, which is inevitable, nor life which is transitory. Even the happiness of kingship, contingent as it is on so many conditions, is an empty dream. Only a miserly fool looks upon the objects of the senses as real. Perceiving, through the extroverted senses the unreal objects of māyā, with its gunas, which are prompted into action by the time spirit through the gracious approval of the supreme one, and participating in impressions created by the material attributes, they carry on the burden of family life in the hope of securing pleasures caused by the objects of the senses, which again are illusory. Lost in a boundless infatuation for the illusory energy, which leads astray the judgement of man, they hold pleasures relating to sex and palate in high estimation, and he transforms into a tool for the amusement of lascivious women, and forges fetters for himself in the form of family and progeny. Engaged in actions he is tied by them being proud of himself as the agent, he then falls into the stream of qualities and with a spoiled understanding goes downward. It is however the outflow of his energy called māyā manifest in meritorious and sinful acts, that becomes the source of pleasure and pain, good and bad, and causes transmigration. This world, created by the framer of the cosmos, is surcharged with the principles of the three gunas. He creates in the mighty frollicsomeness of his nature. He is the withdrawer, and the withdrawn. He initially rested in singleness in his unphenomenonilized essence. The almighty lord of incomprehensible excellences, the brahmān of infinite power, devoid of all attributes and immutable. Absolutely faultless, eternal and endowed with everlasting excellences, the supreme sovereign who revels in his own soul in serene abstraction; and whose form or true nature is invisible to those who look upon the gunas or sense objects as real. Lift yourself above the seduction of the senses by devotion to him. Do not come under the stupor that springs from sorrow, banish all vain anxiety. Seek shelter in him, the great conjurer, who has kindled the brilliant lamp of his glory by sportively assuming various avatāras. Yet how may persons cherishing no regard for hari, with their minds wandering externally in consequence of the force of unrighteous longings, who crave worthless worldly enjoyments capable of being enjoyed by this carcass like body, and induced to do various actions by powerful desire which is never satiated by enjoyment of ephemeral objects, ever become self controlled righteous persons of impartial and unruffled minds? How many of the ignorant wrought up with desire exercised by the mirage of the world, and looking upon their bodies and their families as their sole care will succeed in attaining his feet? Their understanding becomes so greatly sullied that they being so attached to the trivial pleasure of seeing one another, become forgetful of death; and fall into the terrible jaws of time, as they hopelessly peruse a course of impiety for satisfying their thirst for profitless pleasure. Ask not for transitory vanities, which are in reality the bonds of infatuation forged for the soul. Develop reluctance of associating with those who has been possessed by the desire of acquiring wealth and satisfying sensual appetites. In the bhāgavata-dharma men do not cherish crooked, differential notions such as “I and mine,” or ever think of pleasures of worldly objects. Become instead a contemplationist, or a house-less recluse, freed from the fetters forged by the proprieties of matter.”
“We reply that still this world is not real. It is superimposed on the reality called Brahmān, the absolute existence, and thus it appears real. The world is like a figment of the imagination with no basis in reality; as that which did not exist before the creation, and does not survive after it, has no existence in the middle period except in name. But yet, people whose intellect is deluded by being steeped in lust and greed, presume that houses and other objects of the senses are real, and wander in samsara. It is a false attachment to look upon and speak of the products of the gunas, such as progeny, property, prosperity and popularity or celebrity, as real. Like our fanciful desires and dreams, all sense experience is unreal. Hence the knower's of reality do not grieve for what is eternal (the soul) or for what is transient (body, sense organs, objects of pleasure) but the nature of those who are given to grieving cannot be changed, as they have not imbibed the nature of reality. Thus one should welcome neither death, which is inevitable, nor life which is transitory. Even the happiness of kingship, contingent as it is on so many conditions, is an empty dream. Only a miserly fool looks upon the objects of the senses as real. Perceiving, through the extroverted senses the unreal objects of māyā, with its gunas, which are prompted into action by the time spirit through the gracious approval of the supreme one, and participating in impressions created by the material attributes, they carry on the burden of family life in the hope of securing pleasures caused by the objects of the senses, which again are illusory. Lost in a boundless infatuation for the illusory energy, which leads astray the judgement of man, they hold pleasures relating to sex and palate in high estimation, and he transforms into a tool for the amusement of lascivious women, and forges fetters for himself in the form of family and progeny. Engaged in actions he is tied by them being proud of himself as the agent, he then falls into the stream of qualities and with a spoiled understanding goes downward. It is however the outflow of his energy called māyā manifest in meritorious and sinful acts, that becomes the source of pleasure and pain, good and bad, and causes transmigration. This world, created by the framer of the cosmos, is surcharged with the principles of the three gunas. He creates in the mighty frollicsomeness of his nature. He is the withdrawer, and the withdrawn. He initially rested in singleness in his unphenomenonilized essence. The almighty lord of incomprehensible excellences, the brahmān of infinite power, devoid of all attributes and immutable. Absolutely faultless, eternal and endowed with everlasting excellences, the supreme sovereign who revels in his own soul in serene abstraction; and whose form or true nature is invisible to those who look upon the gunas or sense objects as real. Lift yourself above the seduction of the senses by devotion to him. Do not come under the stupor that springs from sorrow, banish all vain anxiety. Seek shelter in him, the great conjurer, who has kindled the brilliant lamp of his glory by sportively assuming various avatāras. Yet how may persons cherishing no regard for hari, with their minds wandering externally in consequence of the force of unrighteous longings, who crave worthless worldly enjoyments capable of being enjoyed by this carcass like body, and induced to do various actions by powerful desire which is never satiated by enjoyment of ephemeral objects, ever become self controlled righteous persons of impartial and unruffled minds? How many of the ignorant wrought up with desire exercised by the mirage of the world, and looking upon their bodies and their families as their sole care will succeed in attaining his feet? Their understanding becomes so greatly sullied that they being so attached to the trivial pleasure of seeing one another, become forgetful of death; and fall into the terrible jaws of time, as they hopelessly peruse a course of impiety for satisfying their thirst for profitless pleasure. Ask not for transitory vanities, which are in reality the bonds of infatuation forged for the soul. Develop reluctance of associating with those who has been possessed by the desire of acquiring wealth and satisfying sensual appetites. In the bhāgavata-dharma men do not cherish crooked, differential notions such as “I and mine,” or ever think of pleasures of worldly objects. Become instead a contemplationist, or a house-less recluse, freed from the fetters forged by the proprieties of matter.”