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Bhagavatapurana 8.12

English (machine translation) 8.12

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8.12.1

The son of Bādarāyaṇa said:
He whose emblem is the bull, having heard this—that Hari, having assumed the form of a woman,
deluded the Dānavas and made the hosts of gods drink the Soma—

8.12.2

Mounting his bull, Giriśa, surrounded by all the hosts of spirits, / went together with the goddess to see where Madhusūdana was.

8.12.3

Welcomed respectfully together with Umā by the Lord, / Bhava sat down comfortably and, worshipping Hari, said this with a smile:

8.12.4

Śrī Mahādeva said: / God of gods, all-pervading one, Lord of the universe, whose embodiment is the universe! / You alone are the self, the cause, and the sovereign ruler of all beings.

8.12.5

The beginning and the end of this [universe], that which is its middle, this [other], that other, the 'I', and the outside— / since none of these pertain to the imperishable, that truth is Brahman, consciousness, which you are.

8.12.6

Desiring the highest good, free from desires, / abandoning attachment to both [this world and the next], sages worship your lotus feet alone.

8.12.6.p1

You are Brahman: complete, immortal, beyond the qualities, free from sorrow, / pure bliss, changeless, without an equal, distinct [from the universe],

8.12.7

the cause of the universe's origin, sustenance, and destruction, / the Self and Lord, independent even while attending to it.

8.12.7.p1

[…]

8.12.7.p2

You alone are the one, the real and unreal, the duality and non-duality— / just as gold fashioned into ornaments and unworked is not a difference in substance here.

8.12.7.p3

You alone are the one, the real and unreal, the duality and non-duality— / just as gold fashioned into ornaments and unworked is not a difference in substance here.

8.12.8

Through ignorance, differentiation has been conceived in you by people, / because of the interplay of the qualities in you who are free from limiting conditions.

8.12.8.p1

[…]

8.12.8.p2

Some understand you as Brahman, others indeed as dharma; / some as the supreme Person beyond the real and the unreal, the supreme Lord;

8.12.8.p3

Some understand you as Brahman, others indeed as dharma; / some as the supreme Person beyond the real and the unreal, the supreme Lord;

8.12.9

others understand you as the Supreme endowed with the nine powers; / some as the great Person, imperishable and self-dependent.

8.12.9.p1

[…]

8.12.9.p2

Neither I, nor he who lives for a cosmic lifespan [Brahmā], nor the ṛṣis headed by Marīci, / though born of purity, know what has indeed been fashioned by you.

8.12.9.p3

Neither I, nor he who lives for a cosmic lifespan [Brahmā], nor the ṛṣis headed by Marīci, / though born of purity, know what has indeed been fashioned by you.

8.12.10

Robbed of their minds by your creative power, O Lord, how then could the Daityas, / mortals, and others, whose conduct is ever unfortunate, [know it]?

8.12.10.p1

[…]

8.12.10.p2

That very you—the preservation, birth, and destruction of this world willed [by you], / the actions of living beings, and the bondage and liberation of worldly existence—

8.12.10.p3

That very you—the preservation, birth, and destruction of this world willed [by you], / the actions of living beings, and the bondage and liberation of worldly existence—

8.12.11

just as the wind enters space and everything called moving and unmoving, / by being their inner self, you, [pure] awareness, encompass all.

8.12.11.p1

[…]

8.12.12

The incarnations of you who delight through the qualities have been seen by me. / I therefore wish to see that form of a woman which was assumed by you,

8.12.13

by which the Daityas were completely bewildered and the gods were made to drink nectar. / Desirous of seeing it, we have come; great indeed is our curiosity.

8.12.14

Śrī Śuka said: / Thus petitioned by the spear-bearing [Śiva], the Lord Viṣṇu, / laughing with profound intent, replied to Giriśa:

8.12.15

The Lord said: / To captivate the Daityas, the guise of a woman was assumed by me / as I watched over the affairs of the gods when the vessel of nectar was carried off.

8.12.16

That I shall show to you, who are eager to see it, O best of the gods; / it is highly esteemed by the lustful, an arising born of desire.

8.12.17

Śrī Śuka said: / Speaking thus, the Lord vanished right there. / Casting his eyes in all directions, Bhava remained with Umā.

8.12.18

Then in a grove of trees with diverse blossoms and red sprouts, he saw an exquisite woman / playing a game with a ball, the girdle on her hips glistening over her fine silk garment,

8.12.19

seeming as if broken in the middle at every step by the immense weight of splendid pearl necklaces on breasts trembling with her turns and leaps, / moving her trembling sprout-like feet this way and that,

8.12.20

her wide, restless eyes with agitated pupils darting swiftly as the ball wandered in all directions, / her face adorned with dark ringlets of hair and radiant cheeks illuminated by the earrings glistening at her ears,

8.12.21

fastening with a charming left hand her slipping silk cloth and her loosening braid of hair, / striking the ball with the other hand, bewitching the universe with her creative power.

8.12.22

Seeing her playing with the ball in this way, the god [Śiva], captivated by the sidelong glances she cast with faint, bashful smiles, / his heart bewildered by looking at the woman and catching her glances, knew neither himself, nor Umā near him, nor his own followers.

8.12.23

And when that ball, slipping from the woman's fingertips, went far away, as she ran after it, / the wind quickly carried off her garment along with its girdle before the very eyes of the god Bhava.

8.12.24

Seeing her thus, with charming corners of her eyes, beautiful to look upon, enchanting, / Bhava indeed fixed his mind on her as she seemed to invite him.

8.12.25

His discernment stolen away by her, overwhelmed by the passion she aroused, / even while Bhavānī was watching, he cast off all shame and went to her place.

8.12.26

Seeing him approaching, naked and deeply ashamed, / she hid among the trees, laughing, and would not stand still.

8.12.27

The Lord Bhava followed after her, his senses completely stolen away, / brought under the control of desire like the leader of an elephant herd after a cow elephant.

8.12.28

Following with great speed, he seized the unwilling woman, / took her by the braid of her hair, and embraced her with his arms.

8.12.29

Embraced by the Lord as a cow elephant is by a tusker, / she squirmed this way and that, her hair disheveled.

8.12.30

Freeing herself, O King, from between the arms of the foremost of gods, / that woman of broad hips, the creative power produced by the Lord, ran away.

8.12.31

Rudra pursued the path of that Viṣṇu of wondrous deeds, / completely conquered by desire as if by an enemy.

8.12.32

As he pursued her, the semen of him whose seed is unfailing was discharged, / like that of a lustful bull elephant pursuing a female in heat.

8.12.33

Wherever the semen of that great-souled one fell upon the earth, / those became places of silver and gold, O king.

8.12.34

In rivers, in lakes, in mountains, in forests, and in groves, / and wherever there were sages, there Hara was present.

8.12.35

When his semen was discharged, he saw himself stupefied / by the divine creative power, O best of kings, and restrained himself from that infatuation.

8.12.36

Then, having realized the greatness of his own self and of the Self of the universe, / whose power is unfathomable, he did not consider that to be wondrous at all.

8.12.37

Perceiving him to be unperturbed and free from shame, Madhusūdana / was supremely pleased, and assuming his own male form, spoke to him:

8.12.38

The Lord said: / By good fortune, O best of the gods, you have remained grounded in your own state through your self, / in that even though enchanted at will by my creative power in the form of a woman, O dear one,

8.12.39

what man indeed other than you could cross beyond my creative power, / which projects diverse emotional states and is impassable for those who have not conquered themselves?

8.12.40

This creative power of Mine, consisting of the qualities, will not overpower you, / though united with Me in the form of Time, functioning in its various parts.

8.12.41

Śrī Śuka said: / Having been thus honored by the Lord who bears the Śrīvatsa mark, O King, / [Śiva] took His leave, circumambulated Him, and returned to his own abode with his attendants.

8.12.42

Then, O descendant of Bharata, the glorious Bhava joyfully addressed Bhavānī, / who is a partial expansion of his own self and esteemed by the foremost sages:

8.12.43

"Ah, did you behold the creative power of the unborn Supreme Person, the supreme divinity? / Even I, the chief of His plenary portions, am helplessly bewildered by it—what then of others who are not independent?

8.12.44

He whom you questioned me about when you approached me as I arose from yoga at the end of a thousand years— / He is that very ancient Person directly, where neither Time nor the Veda has access."

8.12.45

Śrī Śuka said: / Thus has been narrated to you, dear one, the valor of the Lord who wields the Śārṅga bow, / by whom the great mountain was borne on His back during the churning of the ocean.

8.12.46

For one who repeatedly glorifies or hears this, no endeavor is ever ruined anywhere, / because description of the qualities of Him of highest renown removes all the exhaustion of the cycle of rebirth.

8.12.46.p1

Whose feet, beyond the reach of the unrighteous, are attained through devotional emotion, who fed the nectar churned from the ocean to the foremost immortals who surrendered to Him,

8.12.47

and who, assuming the guise of a deceptive young maiden, bewildered the enemies of the gods—unto that fulfiller of desires of those who take refuge in Him, I bow.

8.12.47.p1

[…]

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