Shloka 1
Adhyaya 43 — Portents of Death (Ariṣṭa-lakṣaṇas) and the Yogin’s Response; Alarka Renounces Kingship
इति श्रीमार्कण्डेयपुराणे योगधर्मे ओङ्कारध्यायो नाम द्विचत्वारिंशोऽध्यायः ।
त्रिचत्वारिंशोऽध्यायः ।
दत्तात्रेय उवाच ।
अरिष्टानि महाराज ! शृणु वक्ष्यामि तानि ते ।
येषामालोकनान्मृत्युं निजं जानाति योगवित् ॥
iti śrī-mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇe yoga-dharme oṅkāra-dhyāyo nāma dvi-catvāriṃśo 'dhyāyaḥ /
tri-catvāriṃśo 'dhyāyaḥ /
dattātreya uvāca /
ariṣṭāni mahārāja! śṛṇu vakṣyāmi tāni te /
yeṣām ālokanān mṛtyuṃ nijaṃ jānāti yoga-vit //
Thus ends, in the Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, within the section on Yoga-dharma, the forty-second chapter called ‘The Chapter on Meditation on Oṃkāra’. Now the forty-third chapter begins. Dattātreya said: ‘O great king, listen—I shall tell you the portents by seeing which the knower of yoga understands his own impending death.’
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FAQs
The text treats death as a knowable transition with observable markers; the ethical aim is composure and spiritual readiness, not superstition—knowledge is offered to support steadiness at life’s end.
This is neither sarga nor vaṃśa; it is a didactic appendix within the Purāṇa’s broader encyclopedic scope, showing how Purāṇas function as manuals of dharma and mokṣa alongside cosmology and genealogy.
‘Seeing’ portents can also be read as inner yogic perception: changes in prāṇa, perception, and subtle-body functioning that herald utkrānti. The yogin converts bodily signals into contemplative preparedness.