Purāṇa / Bhāgavata / Catuḥślokī

Catuḥślokī (चतुःश्लोकी)

Four verses the Lord speaks to Brahmā, at the start of a creation, when Brahmā cannot see how the world is to be built. They are the seed the rest of the Bhāgavata is said to unfold. Śuka tells them to Parīkṣit as what Brahmā heard. In one numbering they are Bhāgavata 2.9.32–35. In another widely printed numbering they are 2.9.33–36, with two verses of address before them. The words of the four are the same. Two verses around them, an offering of the knowledge and a charge to stand in it, are the frame. This page sits the four the tradition calls the seed. It does not sit the frame.

One printed reading of the first line has eko 'gre (एकोऽग्रे), "one, in the beginning," where this page recites evāgre (एवाग्रे), "indeed, in the beginning." The page recites evāgre. The other reading is a real variant, not a mistake this shelf is correcting. Śrīdhara's Bhāvārtha-dīpikā (भावार्थदीपिका) is the commentary a reader meets first. The English here is this shelf's own.

Seed 1

अहमेवासमेवाग्रे नान्यद् यत् सदसत् परम् ।
पश्चादहं यदेतच्च योऽवशिष्येत सोऽस्म्यहम् ॥ aham evāsam evāgre nānyad yat sad-asat param |
paścād ahaṃ yad etac ca yo 'vaśiṣyeta so 'smy aham ||

The line

I alone was, in the beginning. There was nothing else, nothing that is sat (सत्), nothing that is asat (असत्), nothing beyond them. Afterwards I am this as well. Whatever would remain, that I am.

नेपालीमा

सुरुमा म मात्र थिएँ। सत् पनि थिएन, असत् पनि थिएन, त्यसभन्दा पर पनि केही थिएन। पछि यो पनि म हुँ। जे बाँकी रहन्छ, त्यो म हुँ।

The commentaries often take sat (सत्) as the effect and asat (असत्) as the cause. On that reading the line says that before the world there was not some other cause standing beside this "I." The grammar also allows the plainer hearing: nothing existent, nothing nonexistent, nothing beyond. This page keeps both, and does not collapse them.

The words

Seed 2

ऋतेऽर्थं यत्प्रतीयेत न प्रतीयेत चात्मनि ।
तद्विद्यादात्मनो मायां यथाभासो यथा तमः ॥ ṛte 'rthaṃ yat pratīyeta na pratīyeta cātmani |
tad vidyād ātmano māyāṃ yathābhāso yathā tamaḥ ||

The line

What would appear when a real thing is left out of account, and would not appear in the self, know that to be the self's māyā (माया). It is as a reflection is, and as darkness is.

नेपालीमा

वास्तविक वस्तु छोडेर जुन कुरा देखिन्छ, र आत्मामा देखिँदैन, त्यसलाई आत्माको माया जान। त्यो आभास र अन्धकारजस्तै हुन्छ।

A reflection seems to stand in a mirror and is not a second sun. Darkness seems to be something laid over the eye, and it is the light not arriving. Appearance that depends on a thing not being seen as it is, is what this verse calls māyā (माया). The word is the power of appearing otherwise. It is not a second substance set beside the self.

The words

Seed 3

यथा महान्ति भूतानि भूतेषूच्चावचेष्वनु ।
प्रविष्टान्यप्रविष्टानि तथा तेषु न तेष्वहम् ॥ yathā mahānti bhūtāni bhūteṣūccāvaceṣv anu |
praviṣṭāny apraviṣṭāni tathā teṣu na teṣv aham ||

The line

As the great elements have entered into beings, the high and the low, and still have not entered, so I am in them, and I am not in them.

नेपालीमा

जसरी महाभूतहरू उच्च र नीच प्राणीमा पसेका छन्, र पसेका छैनन्, त्यसरी म तिनीहरूमा छु, र छैन।

An element makes up a body and remains an element. It is in the body, and the body does not use it up. The "I" of the verse pervades, and is not contained. Presence and uncontainedness are said in one line.

The words

Seed 4

एतावदेव जिज्ञास्यं तत्त्वजिज्ञासुनात्मनः ।
अन्वयव्यतिरेकाभ्यां यत् स्यात् सर्वत्र सर्वदा ॥ etāvad eva jijñāsyaṃ tattva-jijñāsunātmanaḥ |
anvaya-vyatirekābhyāṃ yat syāt sarvatra sarvadā ||

The line

This much alone is to be inquired by the one who wants to know the truth of the self. What, by concurrence and by exclusion, would remain everywhere and always.

नेपालीमा

आत्माको तत्त्व जान चाहनेले यति मात्र खोज्नुपर्छ। अन्वय र व्यतिरेकले हेर्दा जे सर्वत्र र सधैँ बाँकी रहन्छ, त्यही खोज्नुपर्छ।

Anvaya (अन्वय) is what stays present with a thing in every case. Vyatireka (व्यतिरेक) is the other move: remove it, and the thing is removed. The verse says the inquiry is those two moves, aimed at whatever would still be there when every particular is gone. The pramāṇas are where this library sits the question of what counts as knowing. This verse names the two moves and does not build the manual.

The words

Where it sits

Second skandha of the Bhāgavata, the chapter of Brahmā's vision. The same "I" is what the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha teaches Rāma by stories, and what the Upadeśasāhasrī teaches in verses. The Uddhava Gītā is the late teaching, when the world those four verses allowed has been lived through.