Book 5 · Upaśama उपशम · chapters 44–49 · 6 chapters
Gadhi, a virtuous Brahmin ascetic of Kosala who undergoes an illusory life as an outcaste and a king; Vishnu, who grants him the vision and later explains it; a Chandala household, a Kira kingdom, and a wandering guest named Durvasa who unknowingly confirms the illusion as fact.
Vasishtha tells Rama of Gadhi, a learned, detached Brahmin of Kosala who goes to the forest and immerses himself in a lake to perform penance. After eight months Vishnu appears and offers him a boon; Gadhi asks to see Vishnu's Maya. Vishnu tells him he will see it and vanishes. Later, while bathing, Gadhi is caught in a whirlpool and loses his bearings: within it he sees himself dying among grieving relatives and being cremated. Then he finds his self reborn in the womb of an outcaste woman, growing up as a hunter named Katanjaya/Katanja, marrying, growing old, losing his wife, and wandering until an elephant selects him as king of the city of Kira, where he rules for eight years as King Gavala. When his outcaste origin is discovered, the horrified citizens burn themselves, and he throws himself into the fire too - at which point Gadhi wakes in the lake, shaken. Doubting whether this was real, he travels to verify it: a guest, Durvasa, independently recounts hearing the same story in Kira. Gadhi then visits the actual outcaste village and the city of Kira, finding both places and their inhabitants matching what he saw, in ruin years later. Bewildered, he undertakes penance again; Vishnu returns and explains that this was all Maya - mind creating and inhabiting entire lives, indistinguishable from reality, with no real death or separate world outside the mind. Gadhi performs ten more years of penance and attains self-knowledge, living afterward free and at peace.
मायामिमां त्वद्रचितां भगवन्पारमात्मिकीम् द्रष्टुमिच्छामि संसारनाम्न्यामन्ध्यैककारिणीम् || १३ ||
O Lord, I wish to see this Māyā, created by You, which is of the nature of the Supreme Self, yet causes the blindness known as saṃsāra.
हे भगवन्, मैं आप द्वारा रची गई इस माया को देखना चाहता हूँ, जो परमात्मा की प्रकृति वाली है, फिर भी संसार नामक अंधकार का कारण बनती है।
श्रीभगवानुवाच | गाधे कच्चित्त्वया दृष्टा माया मम गरीयसी | दृष्टं त्वया जगज्जालचेष्टितं दैष्टिकात्मकम् || ४० ||
The Lord said: O Gadhi, have you seen my great illusion? You have witnessed the worldly activities driven by destiny.
भगवान ने कहा: हे गाधि, क्या तुमने मेरी महान माया देखी है? तुमने भाग्य से प्रेरित संसार की गतिविधियों को देखा है।
निरस्ताशेषसंकल्पस्तपस्तत्र चकार ह | दशवर्षाणि तेनासावात्मज्ञानमवाप ह || ४६ ||
Having abandoned all desires, he performed penance there for ten years, and thus he attained self-knowledge.
सभी इच्छाओं को त्यागकर, उसने वहाँ दस वर्षों तक तपस्या की, और इस प्रकार उसने आत्मज्ञान प्राप्त किया।
The story occupies chapters 44–49 of Book 5. Each link opens that chapter complete — Sanskrit in Devanagari and IAST, with a plain English and Hindi translation of every verse. The number under each link is its verse count.