Bhagavatapurana 2.6

English (machine translation) 2.6

Language: English

2.6.1

Brahmā said:
His mouth is the realm of speech and fire; his seven bodily tissues are the Vedic meters;
his tongue is the realm of oblations to the gods, offerings to the ancestors, nectar, foods, and all tastes.

2.6.2

His nostrils are the supreme abode of all vital breaths and of the wind;
his sense of smell is the realm of the Aśvins, of medicinal herbs, and of pleasures and delights.

2.6.3

His sight is the realm of forms and lustres; his two eyes are the realm of the heavens and the sun;
his two ears are the realm of the quarters and sacred places; his hearing is the realm of space and sound;
his body is the vessel of the essences of all things and of auspicious beauty.

2.6.4

His skin is the realm of touch, of the wind, and of all sacrifices;
his body hair is the realm of plant species, by which indeed sacrifice is furnished.

2.6.5

His hair, beard, and nails are the realm of stones, iron, clouds, and lightning;
his arms are mostly the realm of the guardians of the worlds, who work for preservation.

2.6.6

The stride of Hari is the realm of the earth, atmosphere, and sky, and of security and refuge;
his foot is the resting place of all boons and desires.

2.6.7

The male organ of the Person is the source of water, semen, generation, the rain-god, and the lord of creatures;
his generative organ is the source of procreative joy and ecstasy.

2.6.8

His excretory capacity is the realm of Yama, Mitra, and evacuation, O Nārada;
his anus is known as the realm of violence, Nirṛti, death, and hell.

2.6.9

His back is the realm of defeat, unrighteousness, and ignorance;
his channels are the realm of rivers and streams, and the mass of his bones is that of the mountains.

2.6.10

The belly of the Person is known as the realm of unmanifest fluids, oceans, and the dissolution of creatures;
his heart is the seat of the mind.

2.6.11

His self is the supreme resting place of dharma, of me, of you, of the Kumāras, and of Śiva,
as well as of wisdom, purity, and the Supreme.

2.6.12

I, you, and Śiva, and these elder sages,
gods, demons, human beings, Nāgas, birds, beasts, and reptiles,

2.6.13

Gandharvas, Apsarases, Yakṣas, Rakṣasas, ghosts, serpents,
animals, ancestors, Siddhas, Vidyādharas, Cāraṇas, and trees,

2.6.14

and other diverse living beings dwelling in water, on land, and in the sky,
planets, constellations, comets, stars, lightnings, and thunders—

2.6.15

all this is only the Puruṣa: whatever was, whatever is to be, and whatever is.
By him this universe is pervaded, yet he abides beyond it by a span.

2.6.16

Just as the vital breath, illuminating its own seat, illuminates also the exterior,
even so the Person, illuminating the cosmic form, shines within and without.

2.6.17

He is the lord of immortality and fearlessness, because he transcends mortal food.
Therefore, O brāhmaṇa, this greatness of the Puruṣa is insurmountable.

2.6.18

The wise know all beings to be in the single foot of the Person, the realm of mundane existence;
immortality, security, and fearlessness were placed in his three heads above.

2.6.19

Three of his feet were placed outside, being the stages of life for those without offspring;
while the other, the householder stage lacking the great vow [of celibacy], remained within the three worlds.

2.6.20

He traversed both paths—the one with eating and the one without eating—pervading the universe,
which are ignorance and knowledge; but the Puruṣa is the foundation of both.

2.6.21

From whom was born the cosmic egg, the universal form consisting of elements, senses, and qualities;
he transcended that substance and the universe, illuminating them like the sun with its rays.

2.6.22

When I was born from the lotus in the navel of that Great-souled One,
I did not find the materials for sacrifice apart from the limbs of the Puruṣa.

2.6.23

Among those [limbs] were the sacrificial animals, sacrificial posts, kuśa grass,
this sacrificial ground of the gods, and time endowed with vast qualities,

2.6.24

the ritual vessels, herbs, clarified butter, juices, metals, earths, water,
the Ṛg, Yajur, and Sāma verses, and the functions of the four priests, O best of the virtuous,

2.6.25

the names [of rites], mantras, sacrificial fees, vows,
the sequence of deities, ritual manuals, intention, and ritual procedure,

2.6.26

the stages of movement, mental recitations, atonement, and final offering—
all these materials were gathered by me from the limbs of the Puruṣa.

2.6.27

Having thus assembled the provisions from the limbs of the Puruṣa, / I worshipped with that very [material] that Puruṣa, the sacrifice, the Lord.

2.6.28

Then these nine brothers of yours, the lords of created beings, / deeply concentrated, sacrificed to the Puruṣa who is both manifest and unmanifest.

2.6.29

Thereafter, the Manus in due time worshipped the all-pervading Lord with sacrifices, / as did other ṛṣis, ancestors, gods, Daityas, and men.

2.6.30

This entire universe rests in the Lord, Nārāyaṇa; / He assumed the great qualities of His creative power in the beginning of creation, though He is inherently devoid of qualities.

2.6.31

Appointed by Him, I create; Hara destroys under His control; / and wielding the three powers, He protects the universe in the form of the Puruṣa.

2.6.32

Thus, dear child, have I explained what you asked me; / there is nothing that can be conceived, whether existent or non-existent, apart from the Lord.

2.6.33

My speech, dear one, is never perceived to be false; the movement of my mind is indeed nowhere untrue; / nor do my senses fall into the path of falsehood, because Hari is held within my heart with intense yearning.

2.6.34

Though composed of the Vedas and formed of austerity, revered as lord by the lords of creatures, / having engaged in yoga with meticulous concentration, I still did not fathom Him from whom my own origin sprang.

2.6.35

I bow to His feet, which cut through the cycle of rebirth for those who approach them, bestowing welfare and all-auspiciousness; / for He alone knows the reach of the power of His own creative power, as the sky alone knows its own end—how then could others know?

2.6.36

Neither I nor you, nor Vāmadeva know His true course; how much less the other gods? / With our intellects deluded by His creative power, we perceive this created world only according to our own capacity.

2.6.37

Obeisance to that Lord whose deeds of incarnation / beings such as we sing, but whom they do not know in truth.

2.6.38

He, this unborn primal Puruṣa, creates in kalpa after kalpa / Himself in Himself by Himself; He withdraws Himself and protects Himself.

2.6.39

He is pure, undivided consciousness, directly perceived and perfectly established, / real, complete, without beginning or end, free from qualities, eternal, and non-dual.

2.6.40

O sage, the ascetics whose minds and senses have been thoroughly stilled come to know this; / but when it is shaken by false logic, it is concealed from them.

2.6.41

The first incarnation of the Supreme is the Puruṣa; time, inherent nature, existence and non-existence, mind, / the elements, their modifications, the qualities, the senses, the cosmic body, the independent ruler, the stationary, and the moving—all belong to the Infinite.

2.6.42

I, Bhava, and Yajña; these lords of creatures like Dakṣa and others; those such as yourself; / the guardians of the heavenly world, of the sky, of the mortal realm, and of the subterranean realms;

2.6.43

the lords of Gandharvas, Vidyādharas, and Cāraṇas; the chiefs of Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, and serpents; / the best of sages, the ancestors, the lords of Daityas, masters of Siddhas, and kings of Dānavas; / and others who are masters of Pretas, Piśācas, Bhūtas, Kūṣmāṇḍas, aquatic creatures, beasts, and birds—

2.6.44

whatever in the world, O blessed one, is possessed of power, vigor, strength, might, forbearance, / fortune, modesty, majesty, or consciousness, or is an ocean of wonder, is the Supreme Truth, possessing forms though inherently formless.

2.6.45

Those playful incarnations of the infinite Puruṣa that sages proclaim as foremost— / drink in these enchanting forms, which dry up the impurities in the ear, as I enumerate them.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit