November 3, 2026
vayaṁ kileme bhagavan varāḥ śāpāśca sarvadā
nanu saṁvinmayā eva deho ‘nyo ‘smākamasti no (29)
KUNDADANTA said:
O sage, the earth is one; how can there be seven rulers of the earth simultaneously? One who does not leave his own house, how does he become the emperor of the earth? When a person has earned both blessings (boons) and curses which contradict each other, what is his fate?
THE SAGE said to the ascetic:
You will see how all these are made possible! You will soon return home and be reunited with the family. In due course of time, you will all die. Your bodies will all be cremated by your relations. All of you will remain separately in the space of consciousness for a brief while, as if in deep sleep. In the meantime, all your karmas (the boons and the curses) will gather around you. The boons will assume their own forms and the curses will assume their forms, too. The boons will have a pleasant countenance and lotus-like palms, four arms and a mace. The curses will be fierce-looking, dark, two-armed, three-eyed and will hold a trident.
The boons will say to the curses: “Go away, you curses: our time has arrived and you cannot transgress it.” The curses will say to the boons: “Go away, you boons: it is our time and no one can transgress it.”
The boons will say: “You have been made by the sage, but we have been created by the sun.” But the curses will reply: “You have indeed been created by the sun, but we are born of a part of lord Rudra himself who is superior even to the devas or gods; the sage is a part or limb of lord Rudra.” Saying this, the curses will lift up their trident ready to strike.
The boons will thereupon say, “O curses, consider what evil flows from our quarrel here. Abandon your aggressive attitude and let us decide what is the best course of action. We have eventually to go to Brahmā the creator for a decision. Why not go there now?” The curses will agree: surely, even a fool agrees to wise counsel. They will all go to Brahmā and inform him of the dispute. Brahmā will say to them: “Whichever of you has truth within will win the dispute. Therefore, look within and see what the inner contents are.”
The curses thereupon will say, “We are defeated, O Lord, for there is nothing worthy in us. All of us, O Lord, both the boons and the curses, are in fact pure consciousness; and we do not even possess a body.”