Varaha Purana 190.2: Adhyaya 190, Shloka 2
Determinative Exposition on Śrāddha and the Pitṛyajña
Ancestral Offering
Uttara Bhāga · Śrāddha-Pitṛ-yajña Determination (Niścaya-prakaraṇa)
स्वप्नोपममिमं लोकं ह्यात्मकर्म शुभाशुभम् ॥ वर्तते तिष्ठते देव तव मायाबलैर्जगत्
svapnopamam imaṃ lokaṃ hy ātmakarma śubhāśubham || vartate tiṣṭhate deva tava māyābalair jagat
svapnopamamimaM lokaM hyAtmakarma shubhAshubham || varttate tiShThate deva tava mAyAbalairjagat
यह दुनिया सपने जैसी है। अपने-अपने करम, अच्छे या बुरे, यहाँ चलते हैं। देव, तुम्हारी माया की ताकत से यह सारा जग चल रहा है, टिक रहा है।
Sandhi Notes
- svapnopamam → svapna-upamam
- hyātmakarma → hi ātma-karma
- māyābalair → māyā-balaiḥ
Pṛthivī/Dharaṇī (continuation of Dharaṇī’s inquiry address to Deva, within Varāha dialogue frame)
Philosophically reflective, seeking clarity
If the world is dream-like and driven by one’s own good/bad karma, how does your māyā sustain it and how should beings understand responsibility and ritual efficacy?
The world is dream-like in ontological status, yet karma is operative; divine māyā sustains the field in which moral causality unfolds.
Cultivate detachment from appearances while remaining meticulous in dharma; perform rites (like śrāddha) with clarity of intention, seeing them as actions within māyā that still bear karmic results.
Bhu Devi addresses Deva within Varāha dialogue, acknowledging his māyā as the sustaining power behind the world.
Varāha/Vişṇu as the māyā-adhiṣṭhātṛ: the avatāra is the immanent support of jagat while remaining transcendent, aligning ritual order (yajña) with cosmic order.
Implicit (not anatomical): the Deva’s sustaining power functions like yajña that upholds worlds—māyā as the operative ‘ritual power’ of manifestation.
Dream-analogy (svapnopama) echoes Advaita/Vedānta epistemology (jagat as appearance) while retaining karmic accountability; aligns with Vaiṣṇava theism where māyā is Bhagavat-śakti.
Varāha Purāṇa 190.3 (karma-governed fivefold gati)
FAQs
It shows Purāṇic synthesis of ritual discourse with philosophical language about māyā and karma, reflecting cross-pollination with broader Sanskrit intellectual traditions.
No geographic location is mentioned; the verse is metaphysical in scope.
Human experience is framed as conditioned by one’s own good and bad actions, situating responsibility within a larger cosmological order.
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