- the king Parîksit was staying on the upper story of the palace; and
- the palace had been preserved by various
- gems,
- mantras,
- herbs and
- plant.
- “How shall I now enter the palace?
- How can I cheat this stupid hypocrite vicious king, cursed by the Brâhmana, who causes troubles to the Brâhmanas. Not a single man has taken birth in the Pandava family ever since that he coiled a dead serpent round the neck of an ascetic Brâhmin.
- committed a very heinous crime and
- knowing the course of time to be in fallible, has placed sentries on all sides of the palace and
- has ascended to the top-most story of the building, thinking thereby to deceive Death and is staying in a peaceful mind.
- How can then he be smitten, in accordance with the Brâhmana's word? The king, of dull intellect, knows not that death cannot be prevented; for that reason he has placed guards and sentinels round the building, and himself has got up the house and is happily whiling away his time; but he is quite ignorant that when Fate who can never be violated, ordains the death, how can it be prevented though thousands of attempts are made to thwart it? This scion of Pandu family knows that his death is at hand and yet wants to live and therefore is staying in his own place with a tranquil mind.
- to make charities and
- other meritorious works;
- it is only by acts of Dharma that disease is destroyed and life is prolonged.And
- if that be not the object then a dying man ought to take bath, to make charities and to await his time of death; he thereby attains heaven; otherwise hell is inevitable.
68. O King! Do this sacrifice duly and deliver your father from hell by the merits that you will acquire thereby.
69. O Sinless One! The sin incurred on account of insulting a Brâhmin is serious and leads the sinner to hell. Your father committed that sin and incurred the curse from a Brâhmin. Therefore he has gone to the hell.
70. Your father died also out of a snake bite which is not a meritorious one. The death occurred also in a palace built high up in the air (on a pillar), instead of taking place on the ground on a bed of Kus'a grass.
71. O best of the Kurus! The death did not occur in any battle nor on the banks of the Ganges. Void of proper bathing and charities, etc., he died in a palace.
72. O best of Kings! All the ugly causes, leading to hell, were present in the case of your father. See, again, there is also one thing which done will lead to one’s liberation; but that was absent too with your father.
73-76. That is this :-- Let a man remain, wherever he may, whenever he comes to learn that his end is approaching, even if he had not practised before any good practices or meritorious deeds, and even if he becomes senseless in the trial time of death, when dispassion comes to an individual whose mind gets, for the time being, clear and free from any worldly thoughts, then he should think thus :-- “This my body, composed of five elements, will soon be destroyed; there is no cause whatsoever in having any remorse for it; let whatever come, that it may; I am free, void of qualities; and I am the Eternal Purusa; death is not capable to do any harm to me. All the elements are liable to decay and destruction; what remorse can overtake me? I am not a man of the world, I am always free, Eternal Brahmâ; I have got no connection with this body that is merely the outcome of actions.
77. Before I did meritorious or unmeritorious acts, leading to happiness and pain; therefore I have got this mortal coil and am enjoying the fruits of my past auspicious or inauspicious Karma.”
78. Whoever thinks thus and dies, even if he does not take proper purificatory bath or make any charity, he gets himself freed from the awful Samsâra and never comes to see himself again born in this world.
79. O King! This method of parting from one’s body is rarely attained even by the Yogins; this is the acme, the highest height of all the human efforts towards liberation.
80. But your father, hearing even the curse from a Brâhmin, retained his attachment towards his body; therefore he did not attain dispassion.
81. He thought thus :-- “My body is now free from any disease; my kingdom is free from enemies or any other source of danger; how can I now get myself saved from this untimely death.” Thinking thus, he ordered to call the Brâhmans, who know the mantrams.
82. Then that king ascended to the palace, with medicines, many mantras and many other instruments.
83-84. He considered his fate to be the strongest and therefore did not take his bath in any holy place; he did not perform any charities, did not sleep on the ground or remember any mantram of the Devî. Due to Kali entering into his body, he committed the sin of insulting an ascetic and plunged himself in the ocean of delusion and died bitten by the Taksaka snake on the top of a palace.
85. The King has now fallen undoubtedly to the hell, on account of those vicious deeds. Therefore, O King! dost Thou deliver your father from the sin.
86. Sûta said, O Risis! Hearing these words from the fiery Vyâsa, the king Janamejaya became very sad and tears came from his eyes and flowed down his cheeks and throat.He then exclaimed in a suffocating voice “Fie on me! my father is still in the hell. I will now do at once whatever leads my father to heaven.”
Thus ends the twelfth chapter on the Ambâ Yajña rules in the 3rd Adhyâya of S’rî Mad Devî Bhâgavatam, the Mahâ Purânam of 18,000 verses composed by Mahârsi Veda Vyâsa.
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