Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 40, Shloka 26
Adhyaya 40 — The Yogin’s Impediments (Upasargas), Subtle Concentrations, and the Eight Siddhis
गन्धादिषु समासक्तिं सम्प्राप्य स विनश्यति ।
पुनरावर्तते भूप स ब्रह्मापरमानुषम् ॥
gandhādiṣu samāsaktiṃ samprāpya sa vinaśyati /
punarāvartate bhūpa sa brahmāparamānuṣam
Having fallen into strong attachment to smell and the other sense-objects, one is ruined spiritually and returns again—O king—into the range from Brahmā down to the human state, that is, the cycle of rebirth across high and low conditions.
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FAQs
Attachment to sensory pleasure perpetuates saṃsāra regardless of how exalted a birth one may gain. The verse warns that even ‘high’ states are still within return, so the wise cultivate detachment.
It touches the Purāṇic worldview of cosmic hierarchy (Brahmā to humans) but functions chiefly as mokṣa-śāstra instruction rather than genealogical/cosmogonic enumeration.
‘Smell and the rest’ signals the entire viṣaya-spectrum; bondage is traced to tanmātra-level attraction. Liberation requires severing the subtle ‘taste’ for experience, not merely gross restraint.