Mahā Nārāyaṇa Upanishad | Section 66-67

Category:

SECTION 66

pṛthivyaptejovāyurākāśā me śudhyantāṁ
jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhūyāsaɱ svāhā || 1||

1. By this oblation may the five constituent elements of my body—earth, water, fire, air and ether—become purified! I pray that I become the Supreme Light, bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

śabdasparśarūparasagandhā me śudhyantāṁ
jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhūyāsaɱ svāhā || 2||

2. By this oblation may the qualities of sound, touch, colour, taste and smell (residing in the above five elements constituting my body) become purified! I pray that I become the Supreme Light, bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

manovākkāyakarmāṇi me śudhyantāṁ
jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhūyāsaɱ svāhā || 3||

3. By this oblation may the deeds accomplished by my mind, speech and body become purified! I pray that I become the Supreme Light, bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

avyaktabhāvairahaṅkārair
jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhūyāsaɱ svāhā || 4||

 4. May I have not any suppressed feelings of egoism! I pray that I become the Supreme Light, bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

ātmā me śudhyantāṁ
jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhuyāsaɱ svāhā || 5||

5. By this oblation may my body become purified! I pray that I become the Supreme Light, bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

antarātmā me śudhyantāṁ
jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhūyāsaɱ svāhā || 6||

6. By this oblation may my internal organs become purified! I pray that I become the Supreme Light, bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

paramātmā me śudhyantāṁ
jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhūyāsaɱ svāhā || 7||

7. By this oblation may my Infinite Self become purified! I pray that I become the Supreme Light, bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

Commentary:

A prayer for the purity of the Infinite Self (Paramātman) which is the highest conception of purity may appear ridiculous at the surface. The real meaning underlying the statement is this:

Though Paramātman is the one Reality and Ground of existence, the individual Soul is not cognizant of this fact, because of its accidental impurity. When ignorance and impurity are removed from the individual self the Supreme shines as its true nature.

We see for instance, the sun and the moon made dim and dark during the periods of eclipses and so they appear to us as if they are covered with impurity. After the temporary period of eclipse people say that these luminaries have now become pure. So Paramātman, the eternally pure, is here spoken of as if impure from the view-point of the ignorant man. One’s spiritual purity is no more eclipsed when the removal of his ignorance is complete.

kṣudhe svāhā | kṣutpipāsāya svāhā | viviṭyai svāhā |
ṛgvidhānāya svāhā | kaṣotkāya svāhā | auṁ svāhā || 8||

8. May this oblation be made to the deity of hunger! Hail! May this oblation be made to the conjoined deities of hunger and thirst! Hail! May this oblation be made to the all-pervasive Supreme! Hail! May this oblation be made to the Supreme who is the ordainer of Ṛig chants! Hail! May this oblation be made to the Supreme who is interested in his creation! Hail!

Commentary:

These six short formulas again are employed for the offering of oblations like the preceding ones.

For a person who aspires after the realisation of his own spiritual Reality, a complete mastery over his physical needs and propensities is absolutely necessary according to the scriptures.

The Viveka-cūdāmaṇi verse 17 says that a person becomes fit for an enquiry into Brahman only when he becomes discriminating, dispassionate, calm, self-controlled and possessing faith and concentration.

Patience (Titikṣā) according to, ibid verse 25 consists in the acceptance of pam and misery without grief and anxiety for evasion.

It is further stated at verse 86 that desiring for self- realisation and, at the same time, devoting oneself to the nourishment and enjoyment of one's own body would be like attempting to cross a river using a shark, mistaking it for a floating wood.

When a person gets himself initiated into the vows of Sannyāsa he makes oblations to the deities of hunger and thirst, so that he may no longer be over-powered by them in his new life in which he is firmly settled in the spiritual Truth.

The sixth is the mono-syllabic Prāṇava mantra which affirms the identity of the finite self and the Infinite.

kṣutpipāsāmalaṁ jyeṣṭhāmalalakṣmīrnāśayāmyaham |
abhūtimasamṛddhiṁ ca sarvānnirṇuda me pāpmānaɱ svāhā|| 9||

9. O Lord, through thy grace I remove from me that uncleanness in the form of hunger and thirst, misfortune and adversity, poverty and lack of progress, and all the like! Efface my sins! Hail!

Commentary:

This is found as the sixth stanza of the Śrī Sūkta coming in the Rigveda-khila II with slight alteration in the wording. It contains a list of disvalues which a devotee of God seeking Puruṣārthas must get over through His Grace.

The word Lakṣmī is derived from the root ‘lak - “to mark out” and hence Lakṣmī represents beauty, prosperity, charm, nobility of character and other graces which agreeably mark out a person, place or event.

Values are appreciated against their contraries - beauty against ugliness, prosperity against adversity, and so forth. Therefore Jyeṣṭhā precedes Lakṣmī as night precedes day or as poison heralded the ambrosia when the milky ocean was churned.

It is stressed here that a man should make every effort to weed out disvalues and cultivate beauty, prosperity and virtue, through the Grace of God. Such a prayer is not out of place even in the life of a Sannyasin who lives for the welfare of creatures.

annamayaprāṇamayamanomayavijñānamayamānandamayamātmā me
śudhyantāṁ jyotirahaṁ virajā vipāpmā bhūyāsaɱ svāhā || 10||

10. By this oblation may my five-fold self - comprised by the sheaths of food, breath, mind, intelligence and bliss become purified! I pray that I become the Supreme Light bereft of all obstructing sins and their cause, the passions, in me! For this end may this oblation be offered into the consecrated fire! Hail!

Commentary:

This mantra by its sense goes along with the preceding formulas of oblation. Here such a prayer is made again for attaining the purity of pañca-Koṣas or the 5 sheaths which nest the finite individual self.

SECTION 67

1.

agnaye svāhā . - oblation to Fire

viśvebhyo devebhyaḥ svāhā .  - oblation to sum total of deities or All-gods

dhruvāya bhūmāya svāhā . - oblation to the permanent plenitude.

dhruvakṣitaye svāhā . - oblation to the permanent ground.
acyutakṣitaye svāhā . - oblation to the unchanging abode.

agnaye sviṣṭakṛte svāhā .. - oblation to the maker of the right sacrifice.
dharmāya svāhā . - oblation to the religious duty.

adharmāya svāhā . - oblation to the ir-religious duty

adbhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the waters.
oṣadhivanaspatibhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the herbs and trees

rakṣo-devajanebhyaḥ svāhā .- oblation to the demons and gods
gṛhyābhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the household deities.

avasānebhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the deities dwelling in the outskirts of the house.

avasānapatibhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the leaders of such deities

sarvabhūtebhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to all spirits or the deities of the five primordial elements.

kāmāya svāhā . - oblation to the god of love.

antarikṣāya svāhā . - oblation to the wind blowing in the sky

yadejati jagati yacca ceṣṭati nāmno bhāgo'yaṁ nāmne svāhā . - oblation to the Supreme Being who is the totality of words in the Veda and also whatever there is in this world moving as insentient and whatever that acts as sentient.

pṛthivyai svāhā . - oblation to the earth.

antarikṣāya svāhā . - oblation to the spirits dwelling in the sky.

dive svāhā . - oblation to the heaven

sūryāya svāhā . - oblation to the sun

candramase svāhā . - oblation to the moon

nakṣatrebhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the asterisms

indrāya svāhā . - oblation to the chief of gods

bṛhaspataye svāhā . - oblation to the preceptor of gods

prajāpataye svāhā . - oblation to the lord of creatures

brahmaṇe svāhā . - oblation to the four-faced creator

svadhā pitṛbhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the departed ancestors

namo rudrāya paśupataye svāhā . - Salutation and oblation to Rudra, the lord of living beings

devebhyaḥ svāhā . - oblation to the gods

pitṛbhyaḥ svadhāstu . - oblation to the manes

bhūtebhyo namaḥ . - salutations to variety of gods

manuṣyebhyo hantā . - oblation to men

prajāpataye svāhā . - oblation to the lord of creatures

parameṣṭhine svāhā .. - oblation to the four-faced creator dwelling in Brahmaloka  1..

Commentary:

The above paragraph contains thirty-six short mantras used in worship and oblation. They are original to the longer version.

Of these the first six ending in svāhā are employed for offering oblations connected with the Vaiśvadeva rite. In this rite the Supreme Being is worshipped 1 as Fire, 2 as the sum total of deities or All-gods, 3 as the permanent plenitude, 4 as the permanent ground, 5 as the unchanging abode, and 6 as the maker of the right sacrifice.

Whenever offerings are made to the manes, the deities and men, the terms employed for oblations are svadhā, namaḥ and hanta respectively. These special words of address give them pleasure.

Gods, like guests, are made happy by sweet words of courtesy. The word Pitṛi denotes two types of super-human beings—those who are permanent dwellers of the Pitṛi loka and those who are translated to that region from the earth when they depart from the body.

yathā kūpaḥ śatadhāraḥ sahasradhāro akṣitaḥ |
evā me astu dhānyaɱ sahasradhāramakṣitam || dhanadhānyai svāhā || 2||

2. Just as a perennial well is supplied with water by hundreds and thousands of springs, so may I have an inexhaustible supply of grain from a thousand sources! For that end, I offer oblations to the wealth-holding deity! Hail!

Commentary:

This mantra is an invocation addressed to the Supreme through the deity Dhanadhānī, the supplier of man's subsistence.

There is a whole group of passages in the Taittirīya Saṁhitā laying down food rules and praising Anna-devatā. Life depends upon food So nothing is more fundamental than the supply of food which sustains life.

The Taittirīya Upaniṣad III 8-9 also emphasises the necessity of acquiring much food through the worship of Anna-Brāhman and sharing it with the needy.

ye bhūtāḥ pracaranti divānaktaṁ balimicchanto vitudasya preṣyāḥ |
tebhyo baliṁ puṣṭikāmo harāmi mayi puṣṭiṁ puṣṭipatirdadhātu svāhā || 3||

3. With the intention of acquiring prosperity, I present offering of food to those spirits who are the servants of Rudra (dwelling on the cremation ground) causing pain to creatures by death and bereavement, and who wander about day and night in search of tribute! May the lord of prosperity grant me all prosperity! Hail!

Commentary:

The Rudra-anuvāka of the Yajurveda speaks of the various forms of Rudra dwelling in the sky, on the earth, in the firmament, as leaders of creatures, as agencies that hurt men through food and wander about with weapons. Wind, rain and other causes of destruction are also attributed to these agents of Rudra.

This prayer here is, therefore, addressed to Rudra, after proper offerings to his destructive emissaries, so that the obstacles in the way to the attainment of prosperity are removed through his grace.

The word vituda comes from the root tud to prick or to pierce, and so vituda here is Kālāgni- Rudra, who pierces the creatures with various kinds of sorrows caused by the acts of Nature — various diseases, pestilence, inclemency of weather and climate. According to the lot of each one, the creatures are exposed to them.