Parashara replied – I had heard that my father had been devoured by a Demon employed by Visvamitra, thus violent anger seized me, and I commenced a sacrifice for the destruction of the Demons: hundreds of them were reduced to ashes by the rite, when, as they- were about to be entirely extirpated, my grandfather Vasistha thus spoke to me :-
“Enough, my child; let your wrath be appeased. The Demons are not culpable. Your father’s death was the work of destiny. Anger is the passion of fools; it becomes not a wise man. By whom, it may be asked, is any one killed? Every man reaps the consequences of his own acts. Anger, my son, is the destruction of all that man obtains by arduous exertions, of fame, and of devout austerities; and prevents the attainment of heaven or of emancipation. The wise sages always shun wrath; be not you, my child, subject to its influence. Let no more of these unoffending spirits of darkness be consumed. Mercy is The Might of the Righteous.”
– Vishnu Purana 1.1.22 – 24
Parashara said – Created beings, although they are destroyed at the periods of dissolution, being affected by the good or evil acts of former births, they are never exempted from their consequences. And when Brahma the Creator creates the world anew, they are the progeny of His Will, in the fourfold condition of gods, men, animals, or inanimate things.
– Vishnu Purana 1.5.26 – 27
The infinite nature of Vishnu is pure, intelligent, perpetual, unborn, undecayable, inexhaustible, inscrutable, immutable; It is neither gross nor subtile, nor capable of being defined: to that ever-holy nature of Vishnu, I bow! To him whose faculty to create the universe abides in but a part of but the ten-millionth part of him; To him who is one with the inexhaustible supreme spirit, I bow: And to the glorious nature of the supreme Vishnu, which nor gods, nor sages, nor I, nor Sankara apprehend;
That nature which the Yogis, after incessant effort, effacing both moral merit and demerit, behold to be contemplated in the mystical monosyllable OM. The supreme glory of Vishnu, who is the first of all; of whom, One Only God, the Triple Energy is the same with Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva: oh lord of all, great soul of all, asylum of all, undecayable, have pity upon your servants; oh Vishnu, he is manifest to us!
– Vishnu Purana 1.9.50 – 56
What can I say to you? You know all that is in the heart, oh soul of all, Sovereign Lord of all creatures, origin of all things! You, who are all beings, knowest the desires of all creatures. The desire that I cherished has been gratified, Lord, by you! My devotions have been crowned with success, in that I have seen you!
– Vishnu Purana 1.12.74 – 5
Vishnu said to Dhruva: “The station that you ask you shall obtain; for I was satisfied with you of old in a prior existence. You were formerly a Brahman, whose thoughts were ever devoted to me, ever dutiful to your parents, and
observant of your duties. In course of time a prince became your friend, who was in the period of youth, indulged in all sensual pleasures, and was of handsome appearance and elegant form.Beholding, in consequence of associating with him, his affluence, you formed the desire that you might be subsequently born as the Son of a King; and, according to your wish, you obtained a princely birth in the illustrious mansion of Uttanapada.
But that which would have been thought a great boon by others, birth in the Race of Svayambhuva, you have not so considered, and therefore have satisfied me. The man who worships Me obtains speedy liberation from life. What is Heaven to one whose mind is fixed on me?
– Vishnu Purana 1.12.83 – 89
Prithu replied: When the happiness of many is secured by the destruction of one malignant being, the death of that one being is an act of virtue.
– Vishnu Purana 1.13.73
May He from whom matter and soul originate, from whom all that moves or is unconscious proceeds, He who is the cause of all this creation, Vishnu, be pleased unto us.
– Vishnu Purana 1.17.30
That the dead are born again, and that it cannot be otherwise, the sacred texts are warrant, but production, cannot be without a material cause; And as long as conception and parturition are the material causes of repeated birth, so long, be sure. Is pain inseparable from every period of existence?
The simpleton, in his inexperience, fancies that the alleviation of hunger, thirst, cold. and the like is pleasure; but of The truth truth it is pain; for suffering gives delight to those whose vision is darkened by delusion, as fatigue would be enjoyment to limbs that are incapable of motion.
– Vishnu Purana 1.17.58 – 61
Verily I say unto you, that you shall have no satisfaction in various revolutions through this treacherous world, but that you will obtain tranquility for ever by worshiping Vishnu, whose adoration is perfect calm. What here is difficult of attainment, when he is pleased?
Wealth, pleasure, virtue, are things of little moment. Precious is the fruit that you shall gather, be assured, from the Unending Store of the tree of true wisdom.
– Vishnu Purana 1.17.90 – 91
That-is active duty, which is not for our bondage, that is knowledge, which is for our liberation: all other duty is good only unto weariness; all other knowledge is only the cleverness of an artist.
Knowing this, I look upon all such acquirement as profitless. That which is really profitable hear me, oh mighty monarch, thus prostrate before you, proclaim.
He who cares not for dominion, he who cares not for wealth, shall assuredly obtain both in a life to come.
– Vishnu Purana 1.19.41 – 44
The country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains, is called Bharata, for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata.
It is nine thousand yojanas in extent, and is the Land of Karma, in consequence of which men go to Heaven or obtain emancipation.
– Vishnu Purana 2.3.1
I neither am going nor coming, nor is my dwelling in any one place; nor are you, thou; nor are others, others; nor am I, I.
If you wonder what reply I should make to your inquiry why I made any distinction between sweetened and unsweetened food, you shall hear my explanation. What is there that is really sweet or not sweet, to one eating a meal?
That which is sweet, is no longer so when it occasions the sense of repletion; and that which is not sweet, becomes sweet when a man fancies that it is so. What food is there that everyone is equally grateful to?
As a house built of clay is strengthened by fresh plaster, so is this earthly body supported by earthly particles; and barley, wheat, pulse, butter, oil, milk, curds, fruits, and the like, are composed of atoms of earth.
This therefore is to be understood by you, that the mind which properly judges of what is or is not sweet is impressed with the notion of identity, and that this effect of identity, tends to liberation.
– Vishnu Purana 2.16.25 – 31
Yajniavalkya exclaimed — Glory to The Sun, who is the gate of liberation, the fountain of bright radiance, the triple source of splendor, as the Rig, Yajur and Sama Veda. Glory to him, who, as fire and the moon, is one with the cause of the universe; to the sun, that is charged with radiant heat and with the rays; to him who is one with the notion of time and all its divisions of hours, minutes and seconds; to him who is to be meditated upon as the visible form of Vishnu, as the impersonation of the mystic OM!
To him who nourishes the troops of the gods, having filled the moon with his rays; who feeds the Pitrs (Ancestors) with nectar and ambrosia and who nourishes mankind with rain; who pours down or absorbs the waters in the time of the rains, of cold and of heat. Glory be to Brahma, the sun, in the form of the three seasons; he who alone is the dispeller of the darkness of this earth, of which he is the sovereign lord; to the god who is clad in the raiment of purity be adoration!
– Vishnu Purana 3.5.15 – 20
We glorify that Vasudeva, the sovereign lord of all, who is without soil, the seed of all things, exempt from dissolution, unborn, eternal, being in essence the supreme condition of spirit and in substance the whole of this universe!
– Vishnu Purana 3.18.34
My intellect has been a prey to the desire of married happiness; but I will now so exert myself for the salvation of my soul, that, exempt from human imperfections, I may be exonerated from human sufferings.
To that end I will propitiate, by arduous penance, Vishnu, the creator of the universe, whose form is inscrutable, who is smaller than the smallest, large than the largest, the source of darkness and of light, the sovereign god of gods.
On his everlasting body, which both discrete and indiscreet substance, illimitably mighty and identical with the universe may my mind, wholly free from sin, be ever steadily intent, so that I may be born no more.
To him I fly for refuge; to that Vishnu, who is the teacher of teachers, who is one with all beings, the pure eternal lord of all, without beginning, middle or end and besides whom is nothing.
– Vishnu Purana 4.2.53 – 56
Wealth and piety will decrease day by day, until the world will be wholly depraved. Then property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; lust will be the sole bond of union between the sexes; Falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and women will be goals merely of sensual gratification. Earth will be venerated but for its mineral treasures;’ the thread will constitute a Brahmana; external types will be the only distinctions of the several orders of life; dishonesty will be the universal means of subsistence; weakness will be the cause of dependence;
Menace and presumption will be substituted for learning; liberality will be devotion; simple ablution will be purification; mutual assent will be marriage; fine clothes will be dignity; and water afar off will be esteemed a holy spring. Amidst all classes he who is the strongest will reign over a principality thus vitiated by many faults.
The people, unable to bear the heavy burdens imposed upon them by their avaricious sovereigns, will take refuge amongst the valleys of the mountains and will be glad to feed upon wild honey, herbs, roots, fruits, flowers and leaves. Their only covering will be the bark of trees and they will be exposed to the cold and wind and sun and rain. No man’s life will exceed three twenty years. Thus in the Kali Yuga shall decay constantly proceed, until the human race approaches its annihilation.
– Vishnu Purana 4.24.21 – 25
When the practices taught by the Vedas and the institutes of law shall nearly have ceased and the close of the Kali age shall be nigh, a portion of that divine being who exists of his own spiritual nature in the character of Brahma and who is the beginning and the end and who comprehends all things, shall descend upon earth. He will be born in the family of Vishnuyas, an eminent Brahmana of Sambhala Village, as Kalki, endowed with the eight superhuman faculties. By his irresistible might he will destroy all those Mlechhas (Barbarians) and Thieves!
He will then re-establish righteousness upon earth; and the minds of those who live at the end of the Kali Age shall be Awakened and shall be as pellucid as crystal.
The men who are thus changed by virtue of that peculiar time shall be as the seeds of human beings and shall give birth to a race who shall follow the laws of the Krita Yuga (Golden Age).
– Vishnu Purana 4.24.26 – 28
When I hear a king sending word to another by his ambassador, ‘This Earth is mine; immediately resign your pretensions to it;’ I am moved to hard laughter at first, but it soon subsides in pity for the infatuated fool.
These were the verses, Maitreya, which The Earth itself recited and by listening to which ambition fades away like snow before the Sun. I have now told you the account of the descendants of the Manu, amongst whom have flourished kings endowed with a portion of Vishnu, engaged in the Preservation of the Earth!
– Vishnu Purana 4.24.63 – 65
Thus man, like a brute barbarian, addicted only to animal gratifications, suffers the pain that his own ignorance occasions to him. Ignorance, darkness, inactivity, influence those devoid of knowledge, so that pious works are neglected;
But Hell is the consequence of neglect of religious acts, according to the great sages, and the Ignorant therefore suffer affliction both in this world and in the next.
– Vishnu Purana 6.5.24 – 26
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