This doubt seems to be eternal and is
connected with a great mystery. Thou hast heard all discourses on
Narayana, discourses that are consistent with the (other)
scriptures.[1843]
Sauti said, O excellent Saunaka, I shall recite to thee what
Vaisampayana, the disciple of the intelligent Vyasa, said when questioned
on these very topics by king Janamejaya. Having heard the discourse on
the glory of Narayana who is the Soul of all embodied creatures,
Janamejaya, endued with great intelligence and wisdom, questioned
Vaisampayana on these very subjects.
Janamejaya said, "The whole world of Beings, with Brahma, the deities,
the Asuras and human beings, are seen to be deeply attached to actions
which have been said to be productive of prosperity. Emancipation has, O
regenerate one, been said by thee to be the highest felicity and to
consist of the cessation of existence. They who, being divested of both
merit and demerit, become emancipate, succeed, we hear, in entering the
great God of a thousand rays. It seems to be, O Brahmana, that the
eternal religion of Emancipation is exceedingly difficult of observance.
Turning away from it, all the deities have become enjoyers of the
libations of clarified butter poured with mantras on sacrificial fires
and other offerings presented to them by the same or similar means. Then,
again, Brahman, and Rudra, the puissant Sakra the slayer of Vala, Surya,
Chandramas (the Lord of the stars), the Wind-god, the Deity of fire, the
Deity of the Waters, Infinite Space (as living Being), the Universe too
(as a conscious agent), and the rest of the denizens of heaven,--they, it
seems, are ignorant of the way of securing annihilation of conscious
existence, that is capable of being brought about by
self-realisation.
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