Bhagavatapurana 3.7

English (machine translation) 3.7

Language: English

3.7.1

Śrī Śuka said: / As Maitreya was speaking in this way, the wise Vidura, son of Dvaipāyana, / addressed him in reply, seeming to delight him with his words.

3.7.2

Vidura said: / O Brahman, how could qualities and actions, even by way of divine play, / belong to the Lord, who is pure consciousness, changeless, and devoid of qualities?

3.7.3

A child's effort in play arises from desire and the wish to play with another; / but how can there be [such desire] for one who is self-satisfied and ever turned away from another?

3.7.4

The Lord created the universe through his own creative power, which consists of the qualities; / by it he maintains this, and again he will dissolve it.

3.7.5

How could he, whose self is undivided consciousness / by space, by time, by state, by himself, or by another, be joined with the unborn [creative power]?

3.7.6

This Lord alone resides in all fields of embodiment; / whence could misfortune or distress come to him through deeds?

3.7.7

In this strait of ignorance, O learned sage, my mind is troubled; / therefore dispel, O all-pervading lord, this great delusion of my heart.

3.7.8

Śrī Śuka said: / Thus questioned by the attendant Vidura, who was eager to know the truth, / the sage, his mind fixed on the Lord and free from pride, replied as if smiling.

3.7.9

Maitreya said: / This is the creative power of the Lord, which defies logical reasoning: / that helplessness or bondage should pertain to the Lord who is eternally free.

3.7.10

Just as an inversion of the self appears to the beholder without any real object, / such as seeing one's own head severed and so forth;

3.7.11

Just as the trembling and other properties caused by water are seen in the moon, though unreal, / so the property of that which is not the self is perceived in the witnessing self.

3.7.12

Indeed, that [delusion] gradually disappears in this world by the dharma of detachment, / by the mercy of Vāsudeva, and by the yoga of devotion to the Lord.

3.7.13

When the senses cease their function and are fixed on Hari, the supreme witnessing self, / then all afflictions dissolve, just as in deep sleep.

3.7.14

Listening to the recounting of the qualities of Murāri brings cessation to all distress; / what then of attaining loving attachment to the service of the dust of his lotus feet?

3.7.15

Vidura said: / My doubt has been cut away by the sword of your well-spoken words, O lord; / in both directions, O venerable one, my mind now runs freely.

Well has this been spoken, O learned sage: the resting place of Hari's creative power is not the self; / it appears meaningless and groundless, since that which is the root of the universe has no exterior.

3.7.17

Both he who is the greatest fool in the world and he who has gone beyond the intellect / prosper in happiness; the person situated between them suffers.

3.7.18

Having resolved upon the absence of reality in what appears, though not belonging to the self, / I also dispel that [delusion] by serving your feet;

3.7.19

By serving which, intense love and delight in the feet of the Lord, / the immutable foe of Madhu, arises, destroying all distress.

3.7.20

For service to those who walk the path to Vaikuṇṭha is difficult to attain by one of meager austerities— / [the path] where Janārdana, the God of gods, is constantly sung.

3.7.21

Having first created the cosmic intellect and the rest, with their transformations in sequence, / and having drawn the universal form from them, the all-pervading Lord entered into it.

3.7.22

Whom they call the primordial person, with thousands of feet, thighs, and arms, / in whom all these worlds with their ample spaces abide;

3.7.23

In whom is the tenfold vital breath, the threefold mind with the senses and sense-objects, / and from whom, as you stated, came the classes—tell us of his manifestations.

3.7.24

In whom, along with sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, and descendants, / there were creatures of manifold forms by whom this universe was spread.

3.7.25

Which lords of creatures did he, the master of the lords of creatures, create, / and the primary creations, the secondary creations, the Manus, and the rulers of the Manvantaras?

3.7.26

Tell of their worlds and the histories of their lineages; / and, O son of Mitrā, of the worlds that lie above and below the earth;

3.7.27

Describe their arrangement and measurement, and that of the earthly realm; / tell us the systematic arrangement of the creation of animals, humans, gods, reptiles, and birds, / born of wombs, of sweat, of eggs, and of sprouting plants.

3.7.28

Explain the generous valor of the dwelling-place of Śrī, / who by his qualitative incarnations creates the universe, the basis of creation, maintenance, and dissolution.

3.7.29

And the divisions of class and life-stage according to form, character, and nature; / the births and deeds of the sages, and the arrangement of the Veda;

3.7.30

The expansions of the sacrifice, O master, and the path of yoga; / and the system of Sāṅkhya leading to freedom from karmic reaction, or taught by the Lord;

3.7.31

The deviation of heretical paths, the intermixture of castes against the grain, / and whatever and however many are the courses of the living being born of quality and action;

3.7.32

The means for achieving dharma, wealth, pleasure, and liberation without conflict; / and the distinct rules of trade and agriculture, statecraft, and sacred lore;

3.7.33

The procedure for ancestral rites, O Brahman, and the creation of the ancestors; / the positions of the planets, lunar mansions, and stars, and the divisions of time;

3.7.34

The fruit of charity and austerity, as well as of public and sacrificial works; / the duty of one living abroad, and that of a person in distress;

3.7.35

By which Janārdana, the Lord who is the origin of dharma, is pleased, / or towards whom he becomes gracious—relate this to me, O sinless one.

3.7.36

To devoted disciples and sons, O best among the twice-born, / teachers compassionate to the wretched should speak even without being asked.

3.7.37

In how many ways, O venerable one, does the dissolution of those cosmic principles occur? / At that time, who worships him, and who reposes alongside him?

3.7.38

And what is the state and the essential nature of the individual soul and of the Supreme, / and that Vedic knowledge which is the purpose of teacher and disciple?

3.7.39

And the causes for it that are proclaimed in this world by sinless sages— / for whence could knowledge, devotion, or dispassion arise of themselves in men?

3.7.40

To me who ask these questions, desiring to know the deeds of Hari, / speak, out of friendship, to me who am ignorant, my vision lost through His unborn creative power.

3.7.41

All the Vedas, sacrifices, austerities, and gifts, O sinless one, / do not equal even a fraction of the gift of fearlessness to living beings.

3.7.42

Śrī Śuka said: / Having been thus questioned on the ancient lore by the foremost of the Kurus, that foremost of sages, / his joy swelling in the discourse of the Lord, being thus urged, replied as if smiling.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit