Bhagavatapurana 2.4

English (machine translation) 2.4

Language: English

2.4.1

Sūta said: / Having understood the son of Vyāsa's words to be the ascertainment of the truth of the Self, / the son of Uttarā fixed his pure mind on Kṛṣṇa.

2.4.2

He gave up the sense of possessiveness that had continuously taken deep root / in his body, wife, sons, home, cattle, wealth, kin, and his undisputed kingdom.

2.4.3

And he inquired into this very subject which you ask me, O best of the virtuous, / having full faith in hearing the majesty of Kṛṣṇa, being noble-minded.

2.4.4

Having understood his death, and having renounced all action pertaining to the three ends of life, / he reached a firm state of contemplation on the Lord Vāsudeva.

2.4.5

The king said: / Right are your words, O sinless, omniscient sage; / as you tell the story of Hari, my ignorance is dispelled.

2.4.6

I desire to know further how the Lord, by his own creative power, / creates this universe, incomprehensible even to the great rulers.

How the all-pervading Lord protects it, and how He withdraws it again; / resorting to whatever power, He, the Supreme Person of manifold powers, / sporting and making Himself sport, creates and transforms.

2.4.8

Indeed, O brāhmaṇa, the activity of the Lord, of Hari of wondrous deeds, / appears difficult to comprehend even by the wise.

2.4.9

How, indeed, as one alone, He assumes the strands of material nature simultaneously or in succession, / performing deeds through many births.

2.4.10

Let your venerable self explain this doubt of mine properly, / for you are indeed fully versed in the Vedic Brahman and in the Supreme.

2.4.11

Sūta said: / Thus addressed by the king concerning the recounting of the qualities of Hari, / he meditated on Hṛṣīkeśa and began to reply.

2.4.12

Śrī Śuka said: / Homage to the Supreme, the greatest Person, who through the divine play of the creation, maintenance, and destruction of the world / assumes the triad of powers, who dwells within embodied beings, and whose path is imperceptible.

2.4.13

Again, homage to Him who destroys the suffering of virtuous devotees, who is unmanifest to the wicked, who is the embodiment of all purity, / and who bestows Himself upon men established in the state of the supreme ascetic, who seek after Him.

2.4.14

Homage, homage to You, the foremost of the Sātvatas, far removed from bad yogins; / homage to Him who delights in His own abode, in Brahman, with splendour that rejects all equality or superiority.

2.4.15

Whose glorification, whose remembrance, whose vision, whose veneration, whose listening to, and whose worship / immediately shakes off the impurity of the world—to Him of auspicious fame, homage, homage!

2.4.16

By taking refuge at whose feet the wise cast away attachment on both sides of the inner self / and, freed from weariness, attain the state of Brahman—to Him of auspicious fame, homage, homage!

2.4.17

Ascetics, the generous, the renowned, the thoughtful, knowers of mantras, and the highly auspicious / do not attain well-being without offering [their works] to Him—to Him of auspicious fame, homage, homage!

2.4.18

Kirātas, Hūṇas, Andhras, Pulindas, Pulkaśas, Ābhīras, Śumbhas, Yavanas, Khasas, and others, / and whoever else is sinful, become purified by taking refuge in those who have taken refuge in Him—homage to Him of supreme power!

2.4.19

He who is the Self and the sovereign Lord of those who possess the self, composed of the three Vedas, composed of dharma, composed of austerity, / whose mark is contemplated by the unborn [Brahmā], Śaṅkara, and others free from deceit—may that Lord be pleased!

2.4.20

The husband of Śrī, the lord of sacrifice, the lord of creatures, the lord of thought, the lord of worlds, the lord of the earth, / the protector and refuge of the Andhakas, Vṛṣṇis, and Sātvatas—may that Lord, the master of virtuous devotees, be pleased with me!

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit