Linga Purana — Purva Bhaga, Shloka 15

Adhyaya 70: आदिसर्गः—महत्-अहङ्कार-तन्मात्रा-भूतसृष्टिः, ब्रह्माण्डावरणम्, प्रजासर्गः, त्रिमूर्ति-शैवाधिष्ठानम्

Devanagari script

बिभर्ति मानं मनुते विभागं मन्यते ऽपि च पुरुषो भोगसंबन्धात् तेन चासौ मतिः स्मृतः

Transliteration

bibharti mānaṃ manute vibhāgaṃ manyate 'pi ca puruṣo bhogasaṃbandhāt tena cāsau matiḥ smṛtaḥ

Translation

ဘောဂ (ခံစားမှု/အပျော်အပါး) နှင့် ဆက်နွယ်မှုကြောင့် ချည်နှောင်ခံရသော ပုရုရှ (ဇီဝ) သည် ကိုယ်တန်ဖိုးကို ထမ်းဆောင်ကာ ခွဲခြားမှုများကို စဉ်းစား၍ အမြင်အယူများကို ကပ်လျက်နေသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် ထိုအခြေအနေကို “မတိ” (စိတ်/ဉာဏ်) ဟု ခေါ်ကြသည်။

Word by Word

• बिभर्ति (bibharti): bears/maintains

• मानं (mānaṃ): self-regard, egoic pride

• मनुते (manute): thinks, conceives

• विभागं (vibhāgaṃ): division, differentiation

• मन्यते (manyate): imagines, believes

• अपि (api): also

• च (ca): and

• पुरुषः (puruṣaḥ): the individual soul/experiencer (pashu in bondage)

• भोग-संबन्धात् (bhoga-saṃbandhāt): due to connection with enjoyment/experience

• तेन (tena): therefore/by that

• च (ca): and

• असौ (asau): this (state/principle)

• मतिः (matiḥ): mind, cognition, conditioned intellect

• स्मृतः (smṛtaḥ): is called/remembered as

Speaker

Suta Goswami (narrating to the Sages of Naimisharanya)

FAQs

What is the importance of this verse in the context of Linga worship?

It points to the inner impurity (pāśa) behind outward ritual: bhoga-driven cognition (mati) generates ego and division; Linga worship is meant to purify this mind so the pashu turns toward Pati (Shiva) with steadiness and surrender.

How does this verse describe the nature of Shiva (Shiva-tattva)?

By contrast: Shiva-tattva is the Pati beyond bhoga and mental constructions; the verse diagnoses the pashu’s bondage (mati shaped by enjoyment), implying liberation arises when cognition is no longer ruled by bhoga but aligned to Shiva through grace and discipline.

What ritualistic or Yogic practice is highlighted here?

A core Pashupata-Yoga takeaway: cultivate vairāgya (dispassion) and mental restraint so bhoga no longer conditions mati; this supports steadiness in japa, dhyāna on the Linga, and self-offering (ātma-nivedana) to Mahadeva.