Bhagavatapurana 3.13

English (machine translation) 3.13

Language: English

3.13.1

Śrī Śuka said:
Having heard the most holy speech spoken by the sage, O king,
the descendant of Kuru, devoted to narrations of Vāsudeva, questioned him further.

3.13.2

Vidura said:
That Svāyambhuva, the sovereign and beloved son of Svayambhū,
having obtained his dear wife, what did he do then, O sage?

3.13.3

Tell me, who am full of faith, the deeds of that royal sage,
the first king, O best of men; for he took refuge in Viṣvaksena.

3.13.4

Indeed, the goal of men's hearing, practiced with long labor, is readily praised by the wise
as the hearing of the qualities of Him whose lotus feet are Mukunda's, in whose hearts they dwell.

3.13.5

Śrī Śuka said:
To Vidura who spoke thus with humility, a pillow for the feet of the thousand-headed Lord,
the sage, with hairs standing on end as he was drawn into narrations of the Lord, replied.

3.13.6

Maitreya said:
When Svāyambhuva Manu was born together with his wife,
he bowed with folded hands and spoke this to the one who holds the Veda in his womb:

3.13.7

“You alone are the progenitor, the giver of livelihood, and the father of all beings;
yet by what [service] may there be service to you from us, your offspring?”

[Vidura said:]
“Therefore ordain for me, who offer reverence to you, those works worthy of praise through one's own faculties,
by performing which renown is won everywhere in this world, and a higher destination in the next.”

3.13.9

Brahmā said:
“I am pleased with you, dear one; may there be welfare for you both, O lord of the earth,
since you surrendered yourself with a sincere heart, saying, ‘Direct me!’

3.13.10

This much respect should indeed be shown to a father by his sons, O hero;
his command should be accepted with devotion and without envy, according to one's capability and without negligence.”

3.13.11

Therefore, having begotten in her offspring equal to yourself in virtues, / rule the earth in accordance with dharma, and worship the Supreme Person through sacrifices.

3.13.12

By protecting your subjects, O king, the highest service will be rendered to me; / and the Lord, Hṛṣīkeśa, will be pleased with you as protector of the people.

3.13.13

For those with whom the Lord Janārdana, whose symbol is sacrifice, is not pleased, / their toil is indeed in vain, since the self itself has not been honored.

3.13.14

Manu said: / I shall abide by the order of the Lord, O destroyer of sins; / yet grant, O master, a dwelling place here for the subjects and for me.

3.13.15

For the earth, the dwelling place of all living beings, has sunk into the great waters; / O god, let an effort be made to raise this goddess.

3.13.16

Maitreya said: / But seeing the earth thus sunk down in the midst of the waters, / the Creator pondered long in his mind: 'How shall I lift her up?'

3.13.17

'While I was creating, the earth, flooded by the waters, reached the nether world; / what then is to be done here by us, who are appointed to creation? / May that Lord, from whose heart I was born, ordain for me.'

3.13.18

While he was thus meditating, O sinless one, suddenly from the cavity of his nostril / there emerged a baby boar, the size of a thumb.

3.13.19

As he looked on, O descendant of Bharata, staying in the sky it grew in an instant / to the size of an elephant; that was a great wonder.

3.13.20

Together with the brāhmaṇas headed by Marīci, with the Kumāras, and with Manu, / seeing that boar-form, he deliberated in various ways:

3.13.21

'What is this divine being standing here in the guise of a boar? / Ah, how wonderful this is, having come forth from my nostril!

3.13.22

Seen as merely the size of the tip of a thumb, in an instant it has become like a massive boulder! / Can this be the Lord Sacrifice, perplexing my mind?'

3.13.23

While Brahmā was thus deliberating together with his sons, / the Lord, the sacrificial Person, roared like a king of mountains.

3.13.24

Hari, the all-pervading Lord, delighted Brahmā and those foremost brāhmaṇas, / causing the directions to resound with his roar.

3.13.25

Hearing that grunting of the boar of creative power, which destroyed their distress, / those sages residing in Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka praised [him] with the three pure [Vedas].

3.13.26

Ascertaining the praise of his own virtues, being the manifestation of the Vedic rituals / recited by those virtuous devotees, roaring again for the prosperity of the gods, he entered the water with the play of a lordly elephant.

3.13.27

With tail raised, moving through the air, fierce, shaking his mane, with coarse, bristly skin, / with hooves striking the clouds, white-tusked, his eyes blazing with light, the Lord shone forth, mountain-like.

3.13.28

Sniffing with his snout to trace the path of the earth, disguised as a boar though himself made of the sacrifice, / though having terrible tusks, he looked upon the praising brāhmaṇas with gentle eyes and plunged into the water.

3.13.29

With his belly shattered by the violent impact of that thunderbolt-like body, the roaring ocean, / as if distressed, with hands of outstretched long waves, cried out: 'O Lord of Sacrifice, protect me!'

3.13.30

Cleaving those boundless waters with his razor-sharp hooves, he of three joints [the sacrifice] / saw down in the nether world the earth, lying as if asleep, which he himself had formerly created as the dwelling of living beings.

3.13.31

Placing his two feet on the mass of coils of the ruler of the base of Pātāla and bearing the earth, / he to whom there was no equal—may that Acyuta, Hari, be for the increase of my auspiciousness.

3.13.32

Having raised up the submerged earth with his tusk, he arose and shone brightly from the nether world; / there too, with fierce wrath ignited by the disc [Sudarśana] against the Daitya who rushed at him with a mace,

3.13.33

he effortlessly struck down that obstructer of unbearable prowess, as a lion strikes down an elephant in water, / his cheeks and snout smeared with his blood-mud, like a lordly elephant tearing up the ground.

3.13.34

Recognizing the Lord, dark as a tamāla tree, lifting up the earth on the tip of his white tusk / with the play of an elephant, O dear one, [the sages] headed by Viriñci approached him with folded hands and Vedic hymns.

3.13.35

The ṛṣis said: / Victory, victory to you, O unconquered one, O promoter of sacrifice! Salutations to you who shake your body which is the three Vedas! / Salutations to you, the primal Boar, in the pores of whose skin the oceans lay concealed.

3.13.36

Truly, O God, this form of yours, which consists of sacrifice, is difficult to behold for evil-doers: / the meters are in your skin; the sacrificial grass in your hairs; / the clarified butter in your eyes; and in your four legs are the functions of the four priests.

3.13.37

The sruc ladle was in your snout, the sruva ladle, O Lord, in your nostrils; the iḍā offering in your belly, the camasa cups in the cavity of your ears; / the prāśitra in your mouth, the graha cups in your throat; and your chewing, O Lord, is the agnihotra.

3.13.38

Your repeated incarnations are the initiations; your neck the upasads; your tusks the prāyaṇīya and udayanīya offerings; / your tongue the pravargya; your head the kratoḥ śīrṣa; the satya and āvasathya fires your vital airs; the sacrificial altars your bodily frames.

3.13.39

Soma is your semen; the morning, midday, and evening offerings are your postures; the different forms of sacrifice are your bodily tissues, O Lord; / all the long sacrificial sessions are the joints of your body; you are the embodiment of all sacrifices, whose bond is the primary offering.

3.13.40

Homage, homage to you, who are all mantras, deities, and sacrificial substances, who are all sacrifices, whose self is ritual action; / homage, homage to you, the teacher of knowledge, whose wisdom is realized through dispassion, devotion, and self-restraint.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit