Bhagavatapurana 6.9

English (machine translation) 6.9

Language: English

6.9.1

Śrī Śuka said: / That Viśvarūpa had three heads, O Bhārata: / one for drinking soma, one for drinking wine, and one for eating food, as we have heard.

6.9.2

Upon the sacrificial grass he openly and loudly offered their share to the gods, / whose ancestors were gods, O king, with deference;

6.9.3

Yet he secretly gave their share to the demons; / performing the sacrifice, he carried their share, yielding to the influence of affection for his mother.

6.9.4

Noticing that offense to the gods, a hypocrisy against dharma, / the ruler of the gods, terrified, swiftly severed those heads in anger.

6.9.5

The head with which he drank soma became a francolin partridge; / that with which he drank wine became a sparrow, and that with which he ate food became a black partridge.

6.9.6

Although he was the lord, he received the sin of killing a brāhmaṇa with folded hands; / at the end of a year, for the purification of all beings, that sin

6.9.7

Hari divided into four parts among the earth, water, trees, and women. / The earth accepted a fourth in return for the boon that its holes would be filled.

6.9.8

Its form of the sin of killing a brāhmaṇa is seen on earth as barren ground. / The trees accepted a fourth in return for the boon of growing again after being cut down;

6.9.9

Among them, the sin of killing a brāhmaṇa is seen in the form of sap. / Women accepted a fourth of the sin in exchange for the boon of constant sexual desire;

6.9.10

Among them, that sin is seen month after month in the form of menstrual blood. / In return for the boon of increasing in volume, water took a fourth of the impurity;

6.9.11

In it, that [sin] is seen as bubbles and foam; throwing it out, it removes it. / Then Tvaṣṭṛ, whose son was killed, performed a sacrifice for an enemy to Indra.

6.9.12

“O enemy of Indra, grow! Without delay, slay the foe!”
Then from the Anvāhāryapacana fire arose one of terrifying appearance,

6.9.13

like the end of all worlds at the time of cosmic dissolution.
Growing every day in all directions by the length of an arrow,

6.9.14

resembling a burnt mountain, radiant as a host of evening clouds,
with crest and beard like molten copper and eyes fierce as the midday sun,

6.9.15

piercing heaven and earth upon his blazing trident,
dancing, roaring, and shaking the earth with his stride,

6.9.16

drinking the sky with his cave-deep mouth,
lapping the stars with his tongue, swallowing the three worlds,

6.9.17

yawning again and again with immense, dreadful fangs—
seeing him, all people fled in terror in the ten directions.

6.9.18

Because these worlds were enveloped (vṛta) by him through the austerity of Tvaṣṭṛ’s form,
he was called Vṛtra, sinful and exceedingly terrible.

6.9.19

The chiefs of the gods, with their hosts, rushed and attacked him
with their divine missiles and weapons, but he swallowed them all entirely.

6.9.20

Then, all astonished, despondent, and stripped of their splendor,
they concentrated their minds and approached the innermost, primordial Person:

6.9.21

The gods said:
Wind, sky, fire, water, earth, the three worlds, and we beginning with Brahmā, out of fear
offer tribute to [Time]; that very Ender fears [Him]—may He be our refuge!

He is never bewildered, His desires are fully satisfied, He is equal through His own gain, and tranquil;
whoever bypasses Him to approach another is indeed a fool trying to cross the ocean holding a dog’s tail.

6.9.23

Just as Manu tied his boat, the earth, to His immense horn and crossed the impassable peril,
He alone, even as an aquatic creature, will surely protect us who take refuge from this insurmountable dread of Tvaṣṭṛ’s son.

6.9.24

Long ago, even the Self-born [Brahmā], fallen from the lotus into the waters of dissolution
terrifying with the roar of fierce wind-driven waves, crossed beyond that danger alone through Him—may He be our deliverance!

6.9.25

He, the one Lord, created us by His own creative power, and through Him we create the universe in turn;
yet, imagining ourselves independent lords, we do not see His sign even though He acts right before us.

6.9.26

When we are severely harassed by our enemies, He who is eternal
takes incarnations through forms among the gods, sages, beasts, and men by His creative power, claims us as His own, and protects us age after age.

6.9.27

To that very God, our own deity, the Supreme, the Pradhāna, the Person, the universe, and beyond,
we all go for shelter, to the one worthy of shelter; that Great Self will bestow auspiciousness upon His own.

6.9.28

Śrī Śuka said:
O Great King, as the gods were thus offering worship,
there appeared in the western quarter He who bears the conch, discus, and mace,

6.9.29

attended by sixteen attendants equal to Himself, save for the Śrīvatsa and Kaustubha,
with eyes like blooming autumnal lotuses.

6.9.30

Beholding Him, all fell prostrate like rods on the ground, overwhelmed with joy at the sight, O King,
and slowly rising, they praised Him.

6.9.31

The gods said:
Homage to You whose power is sacrifice, and homage to You as Time!
Homage to You who have hurled the discus! Homage to You who are invoked by the best hymns!

6.9.32

O Creator, that supreme abode of Yours, who rule the three courses of being,
no creature belonging to this lower creation is able to comprehend.

6.9.33

Oṃ, homage be to You, O Lord, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, primordial Person, Great Person, of supreme majesty, supreme auspiciousness, supreme benevolence, supremely compassionate, one without a second, support of the universe, sole protector of the worlds, Lord of all, Lord of Lakṣmī! You are He whose inherent bliss of self-experience is personally attained in the consciousness of supreme wandering ascetics—a consciousness whose door-panels of darkness have been flung wide open by the dharma of the supreme ascetic, made fully manifest through contemplation in the supreme samādhi of the yoga of the self—where the realm of the self is unveiled.

6.9.34

This course of Your divine play is difficult to comprehend: without support, without a physical body, disregarding any assistance from us, devoid of qualities, You create, sustain, and withdraw this universe possessed of qualities solely by Yourself, who remain unchanging.

6.9.35

Therefore, we certainly do not know whether You here, like an ordinary person, having entered into the creation of the qualities, experience through dependence the good and bad results of Your own deeds, or whether, delighting in the self, of peaceful nature, and possessing impartial vision, You remain indifferent.

6.9.36

Indeed, there is no contradiction between the two in the Lord, who possesses an infinite multitude of qualities, the Master whose greatness is unfathomable, who leaves no room for dispute among debaters clinging tenaciously to the turbid intellect of modern doubts, arguments, sophistry, and false logic, in whom all that is made of creative power has ceased; for He is purely one, and once He sets aside His creative power, what purpose indeed could be difficult to reconcile, since there are no two separate natures in Him?

6.9.37

You conform to the conception of those with balanced or biased minds, just as a piece of rope conforms to the notions of a snake and the like.

6.9.38

For He alone is the true essence in every object, the Lord of all, the cause of all causes of the entire universe; being the innermost self of all, indicated by the appearances of all qualities, He alone remains as the ultimate residue.

6.9.39

Moreover, O Slayer of Madhu, the supreme Bhāgavatas, exclusive devotees, whose minds are deeply and unceasingly tranquil in the Lord, the beloved friend of all beings and the Self of all—having tasted but once a drop of the ocean of the nectar of Your greatness, through the uninterrupted bliss welling up in their own minds, they have forgotten even the semblance of the slightest pleasure from seen or heard sense-objects; how indeed would these virtuous ones, who know their true self-interest and have You as their beloved friend and self, abandon constant service to Your lotus feet, where there is no further return to this cycle of rebirth?

6.9.40

O You whose abode is the three worlds, O Trivikrama, O Trinayana, O You whose majesty enchants the three worlds! The descendants of Diti and Danu are also Your manifestations; yet when the time comes to check them, You, the wielder of the rod of punishment, assume forms through Your own creative power—blends of god, human, beast, and aquatic creature—and mete out punishment according to the transgression. In the same way, O Lord, slay this son of Tvaṣṭṛ, if You deem it fit.

6.9.41

O Father, O protector, we are Yours, bowed before You, O Hari, our hearts bound by the chain of meditation on Your pair of lotus feet, claimed as Your own through the manifestation of Your divine forms; O Sinless One, deign to quell our inner burning with Your bright, charming, cool smile and gaze imbued with compassion, and with the nectar-stream of Your sweet voice flowing from Your mouth.

6.9.42

Therefore, O Lord, whose divine play through creative power is the cause of the creation, maintenance, and dissolution of all worlds; who, both within the hearts of all living beings and externally, in the form of Brahman as the inner self and in the form of primordial matter, experiences according to distinct places, times, and bodily states, as the revealer of their material cause; who are the witness of all mental states, whose body is like the sky, the direct Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Self—what particular need could we possibly report to you here, like sparks to the sacred fire?

6.9.43

Therefore, do you yourself arrange that for us, who have approached the shade of your lotus feet, O Supreme Preceptor, O Lord—a shade that relieves the fatigue of the cycle of rebirth with its diverse miseries—prompted by whatever desire we have approached you.

6.9.44

Therefore, O Lord, slay this son of Tvaṣṭṛ who is devouring the three worlds, / by whom our splendors, missiles, and weapons have been swallowed, O Kṛṣṇa!

6.9.45

To the swan-like sage, dwelling in the small lotus of the heart, the observer, to Kṛṣṇa, of spotless fame, who acts without effort, / the refuge of exalted devotees, the destination sought at the end in reaching one's true home for the wanderer on the path of worldly existence—to Hari, obeisance to you!

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Commentaries (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇaṭīkā — Vaṃśīdhara 1630, Sanskrit

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit