210:11 That is, when punishment or reward in hell or heaven, proportioned to the sin or virtue of the individual, has been received, he must be born again as a stone or plant, and gradually migrate through the several inferior conditions, until he is once more born a man; his future state is then in his own power.
210:12 Manu is here especially intended, as the commentator observes.
210:13 This remembrance of Vishńu is the frequent reiteration of any or all of his names: hence the lower orders of Hindus procure a starling or parrot, that, in the act of teaching it to cry Ráma or Krishńa or Rádhá, they may themselves repeat these appellations; the simple recitation of which, even if accidentally, irreverently, or reluctantly performed, is meritorious. Thus according to the Vishńu Disarms Tantra: 'Let a man ever and every where repeat the names of the discus-armed (Vishńu); for its repetition, even by one who is impure, is a means of purification. Hari removes all sins, even when invoked by evil-minded persons, as fire burns one by whom it is unwillingly approached.'
211:14 The object of the text, according to the commentator, is to shew that the common notions of heaven and hell are erroneous; that they are only temporal pleasure and temporal pain; and virtue and vice, being the origin of transient, and therefore unreal effects, are themselves unrealities: there is nothing real but faith in Vishńu.
211:15 Text and comment are here somewhat obscure; but the purport of the former seems to be the explanation of the existence of Jnyán wisdom, both as a genus and a species: in the former case it is all that is; and in the latter, it may be either true or false wisdom: the latter being influenced by notions of self or individuality, and therefore the cause of confinement to existence; the former dissipating the belief of self, and being therefore the cause of liberation from bodily being.
Next: Chapter VII
Hinduism
« Previous: The Vishnu Purana: Book II: Chapter V
Next: The Vishnu Purana: Book II: Chapter VII »