Bhagavatapurana 3.5
English (machine translation) 3.5
- Language
- English
3.5.1
Śrī Śuka said:
Approaching Maitreya of unfathomable wisdom seated on the bank of the heavenly river,
Vidura, the foremost of the Kurus, perfected in his devotional emotion toward Acyuta and fully satisfied by Maitreya’s virtues and good nature, asked:
3.5.2
Vidura said:
People perform actions for the sake of happiness; but neither happiness nor the cessation of misery is obtained by them;
rather, suffering alone is experienced again and again through them. Tell us, Lord, what is fitting in this matter.
3.5.3
For the grace of the person who has turned away from Kṛṣṇa due to destiny,
who is inclined to unrighteousness and is deeply miserable, the auspicious servants of Janārdana surely wander here in this world.
3.5.4
Therefore, best of the virtuous, point out the path of welfare to us, by which the Lord, being worshipped, / situated in the heart purified by devotion, bestows the ancient knowledge accompanied by the comprehension of ultimate truth.
3.5.5
What activities the independent Lord, master of the three [realms], performs having assumed incarnations, / and how in the beginning, desireless, he projected this [universe], established it, and ordained the sustenance of the world;
3.5.6
and how again, having drawn this into his own ether, he lies asleep within the cave [of the heart], all activity ceased; / and how he, the one sovereign master of the masters of yoga, having entered this, became manifold;
3.5.7
and [how], in divine play, he performs deeds for the welfare of the twice-born, the cows, and the gods through his various incarnations— / our minds never tire of hearing the immortal deeds of him whose glory is the crown of good fame.
3.5.8
By which diverse principles the Lord of the worlds fashioned the worlds, the non-worlds, along with the world-guardians, / in which indeed the distinction of all orders of living beings is recognized as established;
3.5.9
and whereby Nārāyaṇa, the creator of the universe, self-born, brought about the differentiation of the creatures in their individual nature, actions, forms, and names— / describe this to us, O best of the twice-born!
3.5.10
O lord, I have repeatedly heard from the mouth of Vyāsa about the religious duties of the higher and lower [classes]; / but I am weary of those which yield only petty pleasures, devoid of the flood of the nectar of Kṛṣṇa's stories.
3.5.11
Who could ever have enough of the name of him whose feet are a sacred place, praised by the wise in your sacrificial sessions, / which, entering a man's ear-passages, severs that attachment to home which causes transmigration?
3.5.12
The sage Kṛṣṇa [Dvaipāyana], your friend, wishing to speak of the Lord's virtues, composed the Mahābhārata, / in which men's minds are drawn toward the narration of Hari by means of descriptions of common worldly pleasures.
3.5.13
When it grows in a man endowed with faith, it generates dispassion toward other things; / and for him who is delighted by continuous remembrance of Hari’s feet, it swiftly brings about the cessation of all sorrow.
3.5.14
I lament those pitiable fools who, because of sin, turn away from the narrative of Hari, / whose lifespan the unblinking Lord [as Time] diminishes while their thoughts, movements, and speech are in vain.
3.5.15
Therefore, O son of Kuṣāru, friend of the afflicted, extract like honey from flowers the very essence among all stories— / the narrative of Hari, the giver of peace, whose fame is sacred—and recite it for our welfare.
3.5.16
Recite to me those superhuman deeds which the sovereign Lord performed, / having assumed incarnations and grasped his powers for the creation, maintenance, and destruction of the universe.
3.5.17
Śrī Śuka said:
Thus questioned by the Kṣattṛ [Vidura] for the ultimate welfare of men, / the venerable sage Kauṣārava [Maitreya] addressed him with great respect.
3.5.18
Maitreya said:
Well have you questioned, O virtuous one, showering your grace upon the worlds, / spreading in the world your own fame as one whose self belongs to Adhokṣaja.
3.5.19
This is no wonder in you, O Kṣattṛ, born of the seed of Bādarāyaṇa, / since Hari, the Supreme Lord, has been embraced by you with exclusive devotion.
3.5.20
By the curse of Māṇḍavya, the lord Yama, the restrainer of creatures, / was born of the son of Satyavatī [Vyāsa] in the wife of his brother as a servant-maid.
3.5.21
You are ever esteemed by the Lord and his followers; / for on his departure the Lord instructed me to impart knowledge to you.
3.5.22
Now, in regular succession, I will describe to you the divine plays of the Lord, / amplified by his supreme creative power, for the sake of the universe's maintenance, origination, and end.
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In the beginning the Lord alone was this [all]—the Self of selves, the all-pervading, / the one Self following his own will, yet indicated by various faculties of mind.
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He indeed, the sole sovereign Seer, saw then no object of sight; / with powers dormant, his vision unsleeping, he considered himself as if non-existent.
3.5.25
That very power of this Seer, comprising the manifest and unmanifest, / is named māyā, O fortunate one, by which the all-pervading Lord fashioned this [universe].
3.5.26
By the function of Time, Adhokṣaja, possessing virile potency, / placed his seed into māyā, composed of the three qualities, through the Puruṣa who is his own manifestation.
3.5.27
Then from the unmanifest, impelled by Time, arose the principle of the Mahat, / whose nature is consciousness, dispelling darkness and manifesting the universe abiding within its body.
3.5.28
That [Mahat], having the nature of parts, qualities, and time, resting within the range of the Lord's glance, / transformed itself through its desire to project this universe.
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From the transforming principle of the Mahat was born the principle of ego, / comprising cause, effect, and agent, consisting of elements, senses, and mind.
3.5.30
Ego is threefold: sättvika, rājasika, and tāmasika. / From the transforming ego, the mind arose from the sättvika, / and the deities who are sättvika, from whom arises the manifestation of objects.
3.5.31
From the rājasika [arose] the senses of knowledge and action; / and the tāmasika is the subtle elements and the like, from which comes ether, the symbol of the Self.
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Glanced upon by the Lord, ether, through conjunction with Time and a portion of māyā, / undergoing transformation, produced touch, and from touch, air.
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Air also, undergoing transformation and endowed with great strength from ether, / produced the subtle element of form: light, the eye of the world.
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Light, combined with air, transforming and looked upon by the Supreme, / brought forth water, composed of taste, through conjunction with Time and a portion of māyā.
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Water, united with light, transforming and looked upon by Brahman, / brought forth earth, characterized by smell, through conjunction with Time and a portion of māyā.
3.5.36
Among the elements, beginning with ether, whatever is successively later, / they recognize in it qualities according to number, owing to its association with what preceded it.
3.5.37
These deities, portions of Viṣṇu, marked by portions of Time and māyā, / unable to perform their functions because of their separateness, spoke to the all-pervading Lord with folded hands:
3.5.38
The gods said:
We bow to your lotus feet, O God, an umbrella that quenches the torment of those who take refuge, / beneath which as their shelter ascetics easily cast away the vast sorrow of the cycle of rebirth.
3.5.39
O Creator, O Lord, since in this worldly existence living beings, struck by the three kinds of suffering, / find no peace, we take refuge in the shade of your feet, which bestow knowledge, O Lord!
3.5.40
Which sages seek in solitude with the wings of the Vedic hymns, using your lotus face as their nest; / and to whose sanctuary—the best of rivers [the Gaṅgā], washing away sins—pilgrims have recourse at every step;
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fixing which [feet] in a heart purified with faith and devotion born of listening, / may we, wise through the power of dispassion and knowledge, attain that footstool of your lotus feet!
3.5.42
O Lord, we all take refuge in the lotus of your feet—you who have assumed incarnations for the universe's creation, maintenance, and destruction— / which, when remembered, grant fearlessness to your own devotees.
3.5.43
Though you dwell in the body, your lotus feet are very far from those men / who obstinately cling to 'I' and 'mine' in the fleeting body, home, and ties; yet we worship those feet of yours, O Lord!
3.5.44
O Supreme Lord, those whose inner minds are drawn away by eyes wandering after unreal objects / do not behold those feet of Yours, O widely sung one, which are marked by the playful placing of Your strides.
3.5.45
By drinking the nectar of Your tales, O Lord, those whose hearts are purified through augmented devotion / attain discernment, the essence of dispassion, and quickly reach Your unhindered realm.
3.5.46
Likewise, others, the resolute, by the power of self-absorbed concentration and yoga, having conquered potent material nature, / enter into You alone, the Puruṣa; but for them there is toil, while none exists through service unto You.
3.5.47
Therefore, O Lord, created by You through the three primary factors with a desire to create the worlds, / we, being separated, are unable to offer back to You the mechanism of Your divine play.
3.5.48
Give [us power] so that we may offer You tribute at the proper time, O unborn one, so that we may partake of food where [appointed], / and so that all these beings may offer tribute and eat food without distress for both of us.
3.5.49
For us, the gods and our descendants, You are the unchangeable, primeval, ancient Puruṣa; / You, O unborn Lord, deposited seed in Your power, the unborn creative energy, the source of qualities and actions, generating the first creator.
3.5.50
Born for that purpose, with the cosmic intellect as our head, what may we do for You, O Self? / O Lord, grant us Your own vision by Your power, for the sake of action, since we are Your favored beings.
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit