Bhagavatapurana 3.20
English (machine translation) 3.20
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Contents
3.20.1
Śaunaka said:
Having placed the earth in its position, O son of Sūta, / what ways of life did Svāyambhuva Manu establish as a path for the later generations?
3.20.2
The steward [Vidura] was an exalted devotee, a wholehearted friend of Kṛṣṇa, / who abandoned his elder brother along with his sons, knowing him to be sinful toward Kṛṣṇa.
3.20.3
Born of the body of Dvaipāyana, he was not inferior to him in greatness; / he took refuge in Kṛṣṇa with all his heart and was devoted to those devoted to Him.
3.20.4
Having approached Maitreya, the foremost knower of truth, seated at Kuśāvarta, / what did he, purified by visiting sacred waters, ask?
3.20.5
As those two conversed, O Sūta, spotless discourses indeed took place, / which destroy sin like the waters of the Gaṅgā, taking refuge in Hari’s lotus feet.
3.20.6
Recite those to us, may you be blessed, concerning Him whose noble deeds are worthy of praise; / who that knows aesthetic flavor could ever be sated drinking the nectar of Hari’s divine play?
3.20.7
Thus questioned by the sages residing in Naimiṣa, Ugraśravas, / his inner self surrendered to the Lord, spoke to them, saying, “Listen!”
3.20.8
Sūta said:
Hearing of the retrieval of the earth from the nether world by Hari, who had assumed the form of a boar by His creative power, / and of the divine play in which Hiraṇyākṣa was effortlessly slain, the descendant of Bharata, filled with joy, spoke to the sage.
3.20.9
Vidura said:
Having created the lords of progeny for the creation of progeny, / what did the lord of the lords of progeny begin, O brahmin? Tell me, you who know the unmanifest path.
3.20.10
Those brahmins headed by Marīci, and Svāyambhuva Manu— / how indeed did they bring this into being by Brahmā’s command?
3.20.11
Did they create with their wives, or acting independently in their duties, / or did they all unite together to fashion this [creation]?
3.20.12
Maitreya said:
From the agitation of the three qualities of the Lord, caused by the inconceivable, / supreme, and unblinking destiny, the principle of cosmic intellect arose.
3.20.13
From the cosmic intellect dominated by passion, impelled by destiny, / the three-featured source of the elements was born, which created the ether and the rest in sets of five.
3.20.14
Being unable to create the material universe individually, / they united by the agency of destiny and produced the golden cosmic egg.
3.20.15
That lifeless cosmic shell lay in the waters of the ocean, / and the Lord dwelt within it for more than a thousand years.
3.20.16
From His navel arose a lotus with the vast radiance of a thousand suns, / the dwelling of all groups of living beings, wherein the self-born creator appeared by himself.
3.20.17
He, entered by the Lord who reclined upon the reservoir of water, / fashioned the structure of the worlds as before, through his own structural arrangement.
3.20.18
From his shadow he first created five-branched ignorance: / darkness, deep darkness, gloom, delusion, and great delusion.
3.20.19
Taking no pleasure in that body full of darkness, he cast it off; / the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas seized that night, which was the origin of hunger and thirst.
3.20.20
Overcome by hunger and thirst, they ran toward him to devour him, / crying out in torment from hunger and thirst: “Do not protect him! Devour him!”
3.20.21
The god, agitated, said to them: “Do not devour me! Protect me! / Ah, you have become my progeny, Yakṣas and Rākṣasas!”
3.20.22
The shining gods he created foremost from his radiance; / worshipping the gods, they took that cast-off radiance, the day.
3.20.23
From his buttocks the god created the demons, excessively lustful; / out of desire, they approached him for sexual union.
3.20.24
Then the Lord, laughing at first, pursued vehemently / by the shameless asuras, fled away in fear and anger.
3.20.25
He approached Hari, the giver of boons, who removes the distress of the surrendered, / who reveals his own form in accordance with the desire of his devotees to bestow grace upon them:
3.20.26
“Protect me, O Supreme Self! By your command I created offspring; / now these sinful ones are coming upon me to violate me, O Lord!
3.20.27
You alone, indeed, are the destroyer of the distress of suffering worlds; / you alone bring distress to those who do not approach your feet.”
3.20.28
Perceiving his distress, [the Lord], whose sight discerns the inner self, / said, “Cast off your terrible body.” And he indeed cast it off.
3.20.29
With jingling lotus-feet, eyes bewildered by intoxication, / and hips veiled in fine silk resplendent with a girdle of bells,
3.20.30
with high, contiguous breasts closely embracing each other, / a shapely nose, beautiful teeth, and a playful glance with an affectionate smile,
3.20.31
hiding herself out of modesty, with a multitude of dark curls, / when all the asuras beheld this woman, O Vidura, they were completely infatuated.
3.20.32
“Ah, what beauty! Ah, what poise! Ah, her fresh youth! / In the midst of those who desire her, she walks as if devoid of desire!”
3.20.33
Conjecturing in many ways about that twilight in the form of a woman, / the foolish ones approached her with confidence and asked:
3.20.34
“Who are you? Whose are you, O slender-waisted lady? What is your purpose here, O passionate one? / You torment us, the unfortunate, with the commodity of your beauty's wealth!
3.20.35
Whoever you may be, O slender woman, by good fortune we behold you; / you stir the minds of onlookers as you play with your ball.
3.20.35.p1
Your lotus-foot, O lovely lady, does not stay in one place / as you strike again and again with your palm the falling ball;
3.20.36
your waist falters, weighed down by the burden of heavy breasts; / your clear gaze seems exhausted, as does your mass of fine locks.”
3.20.36.p1
[…]
3.20.37
Thinking the evening twilight acting as a young woman / and alluring them to be a woman, the asuras, deluded in mind, seized her.
3.20.38
Laughing with deep intent, smelling himself with himself, / the Lord created the hosts of Gandharvas and Apsarases with his charm.
3.20.39
He cast off that body, indeed, which was the lovely, beloved moonlight; / and led by Viśvāvasu, they joyfully took it.
3.20.40
And having created the Bhūtas and Piśācas from his indolence, / the Lord closed his eyes on seeing them naked with disheveled hair.
3.20.41
They seized that body cast off by the Lord, known as yawning, / which is sleep, through which discharge of the senses is seen in creatures, / and by which they defile the impure; it is called madness.
3.20.42
Considering himself vigorous, the unborn Lord, the master, / invisibly created the hosts of Sādhyas and the hosts of Pitṛs.
3.20.43
The ancestors took that body, which was their own origin; / through it the wise offer oblations to the Sādhyas and the Pitṛs.
3.20.44
Then, through disappearance, he created the Siddhas and Vidyādharas, / and gave them that wonderful form called invisibility.
3.20.45
The master created the Kinnaras and Kimpuruṣas from his own reflection, / honoring himself by himself as he looked upon his own image.
3.20.46
They took that form discarded by the supreme Lord, / and uniting in pairs, they sing of him and his deeds at dawn.
3.20.47
Lying down with a body that still had enjoyment, filled with much worry / because creation was not expanding, he cast off that form in anger.
3.20.48
The hairs that fell from it, my dear, became the ahis, / the crawling, cruel serpents, and the nāgas with broad, hooded necks.
3.20.49
Considering himself to have accomplished his work, the self-born one / then at last created from his mind the Manus, who foster the world.
3.20.50
To them the self-possessed one gave his own form, the human body; / seeing them, those created before praised the lord of progeny:
3.20.51
“Ah, Creator of the world, well done indeed! / In whom religious rites are established, and together with whom we shall eat food!”
3.20.52
Endowed with austerity, knowledge, yoga, and deep absorption, / the seer, Hṛṣīkeśa, created the seers, his beloved offspring.
3.20.53
To each of them the unborn gave a portion of his own body / that was endowed with meditative absorption, the powers of yoga, austerity, knowledge, and dispassion.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit