Dasanana

Created by Jijith Nadumuri at 23 Jul 2011 10:28 and updated at 23 Jul 2011 10:28

VISHNU PURANA NOUN

vp.4.15

Parasara. When the divine author of the creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe accomplished the death of Hiranyakasipu, he assumed a body composed of the figures of a lion and a man, so that Hiranyakasipu was not aware that his destroyer was Vishnu: although therefore the quality of purity, derived from exceeding merit, had been attained, yet his mind was perplexed by the predominance of the property of passion; and the consequence of that intermixture was, that he reaped, as the result of his death by the hands of Vishnu, only unlimited power and enjoyment upon earth, as Dasanana, the sovereign of the three spheres; he did not obtain absorption into the supreme spirit, that is without beginning or end, because his mind was not wholly dedicated to that sole object. So also Dasanana being entirely subject to the passion of love, and engrossed completely by the thoughts of Janaki, could not comprehend that the son of Dasaratha whom he beheld was in reality the divine Achyuta. At the moment of his death he was impressed with the notion that his adversary was a mortal, and therefore the fruit he derived from being slain by Vishnu was confined to his birth in the illustrious family of the kings of Chedi, and the exercise of extensive dominion. In this situation many circumstances brought the names of Vishnu to his notice, and on all these occasions the enmity that had accumulated through successive births influenced his

vp.4.24

lands, or wealth, his own. The arduous penances that have been performed by heroic men obstructing fate for countless years, religious rites and sacrifices of great efficacy and virtue, have been made by time the subject only of narration. The valiant Prithu traversed the universe, every where triumphant over his foes; yet he was blown away, like the light down of the Simal tree, before the blast of time. He who was Kartaviryya subdued innumerable enemies, and conquered the seven zones of the earth; but now he is only the topic of a theme, a subject for affirmation and contradiction 85. Fie upon the empire of the sons of Raghu, who triumphed over Dasanana, and extended their sway to the ends of the earth; for was it not consumed in an instant by the frown of the destroyer? Mandhatri, the emperor of the universe, is embodied only in a legend; and what pious man who hears it will ever be so unwise as to cherish the desire of possession in his soul? Bhagiratha, Sagara, Kakutstha, Dasanana, Rama, Lakshmana, Yudhishthira, and others, have been. Is it so? Have they ever really existed? Where are they now? we know not! The powerful kings who now are, or who will be, as I have related them to you, or any others who are unspecified, are all subject to the same fate, and the present and the future will perish and be forgotten, like their predecessors. Aware of this truth, a wise man will never be influenced by the principle of individual appropriation; and regarding them as only

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