Garudapurana 3.2

The venerable Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa — 2.
Śrī Śaunaka said:
How did the Blessed One create the presiding deities of those various cosmic principles?
I do not know the order of creation, nor the hierarchy of the gods, O sage.

Having been addressed by Śaunaka, Sūta spoke these words.
Sūta said:
Your intellect is rightly resolved, O best of brahmin sages!

Just so was a question asked of Hari by Garuḍa;
what Hari said to him, that I will declare to you, O sinless one.
Garuḍa said:
Speak of the creation, O blessed one, whose form is being, consciousness, and bliss!

When creation is known, your supremacy will be almost fully known;
and I will have the knowledge of the hierarchy of Brahmā and the others.

The means of liberation that was stated by you—another means to that [is now asked].
Having been addressed by Garuḍa, Kṛṣṇa spoke these words.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said:
He is to be known in his primordial form, for the imperishable Viṣṇu is so by virtue of being all-pervading.

This incarnation is declared solely on account of his plenitude, O you of noble vows;
assuming oneness though manifold, he sleeps for the dissolution [of the cosmos].

Even there, a distinction exists: the reality itself is to be known as he.

Through seeing Viṣṇu’s attributes, forms, limbs, happiness, and the like
as different, or through seeing them as different-and-non-different, / or through seeing [imperfection] right there, one would quickly go to darkness.

Those who are conceived beginning from another person, O best of the twice-born, / are to be known as forms of Hari; for they are united with him.

When the cosmic dissolution arrives, those individual souls of mine go [to him];
they reside in the cosmic body of Hari, and then they are manifold.

They attain oneness with the primordial form at the cosmic dissolution, O twice-born;
if Viṣṇu himself were to attain oneness with the prototype,

how could the individual soul be a reflection of Nārāyaṇa?
The soul is dependent on Hari and similar to him, no doubt.

Such is the meaning of the word 'reflection' that has been stated;
therefore, one should not think of the prototype-forms as [merely] unified.

Oneness is intended just as in the case of Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, and others;
difference between the prototype-forms and the primordial form is not intended here.

Even there, a distinction exists that must be known by those desiring reality;
by one portion, they indeed attain oneness with the prototypes,

and by one portion, they remain in the state of the individual soul, no doubt.
Those persons who do not know the source of the prototype are remembered as asuras.

Hari alone, having been one previously, under the influence of ignorance
becomes manifold immediately, like a reflection in a mirror—

the fools who speak thus also go to the lowest darkness.
The adjunct is declared to be of two kinds: inherent and external.

The external adjunct undergoes dissolution, while the other persists in liberation;
for if all adjuncts were destroyed, how could there be a reflection?

The adjunct known as consciousness belongs to those who are eligible for liberation;
but the adjunct consisting of suffering belongs to those eligible for darkness;

the adjunct consisting of a mixture is held to belong to those perpetually in saṃsāra;
the subtle body is the external adjunct for all, no doubt.

Because the daityas suffer, Hari is himself said to suffer [in them];
because of having the nature of their respective sufferings, he is the prototype-form of the daityas.

One should not think of mutual difference or distinction
among the prototype-forms residing in the daityas and the primordial form of the Lord.

Among the forms such as Śrī, Bhū, and Durgā, and likewise among those taking forms such as Sītā, / between one another there is not the slightest difference, externally or internally.

If it is conceived [as different] in any way, having known [so], they go to lower darkness; / the original object residing in the reflection indeed always possesses a female form.

When the dissolution arrives, O best of birds, / [those forms] remaining together with the archetype do not attain merger with Lakṣmī.

Between the forms abiding in the archetype and Lakṣmī, O son of Vinatā, / not even an atom of difference should ever be suspected.

When indeed the all-pervading Lord sleeps on the ocean of dissolution, having placed all individual souls inside his belly, / the liberated ones, beginning with Brahmā, Indra, and the hosts of Maruts, and those who are to attain liberation, abiding in his sons, […]

and all the souls who have fallen into the blind well [of hell] and the like, as well as the others destined for Kali, / and likewise the people who dwell eternally in the cycle of transmigration, [and] insentient souls such as trees and the like—

having thus placed these beings in his belly, he sleeps soundly upon the water during the cosmic dissolution; / while Lakṣmī, who is the embodiment of all the Vedas, though ever thriving through devotion to Hari,

showing immense reverence, as it were, praised Viṣṇu, though thriving through devotion; / at that time there was nothing in the form of activity and the like apart from Viṣṇu and Śrī.

The goddess became his couch; Ramā shone forth in the form of his garment; / Ramā herself was everything at that time; that single goddess spoke in many forms:

"You are preeminent because you are the highest of all gods; no one is your equal or superior. / You alone are Brahman, not the four-faced [Brahmā], nor am I, nor Rudra, nor Bṛhaspati.

The word 'Brahman' is indeed primary in Viṣṇu alone; in others, beginning with Brahmā and Rudra, it is secondary. / Because he is full of infinite qualities, Hari is called Brahman.

Because of the absence of fullness of qualities and the like, others are not called Brahman. / Infinity in terms of space, quality, or time—there is no infinity [for them] anywhere in space or time.

When that is so, what need is there to say here that there is no infinity of qualities in Brahmā and the rest? / Even though I am equal in terms of space and time with Vāsudeva,

nevertheless I do not have infinity in terms of qualities; therefore his attributes are infinite in qualities, / and they are uncontradicted in the Veda; in God they are to be meditated upon and are incomprehensible, manifold, and infinite.

Therefore, O God Viṣṇu, we are never able to fully praise the qualities of Hari— / not I, nor Keśa, nor Sarasvatī, nor Rudra, nor the daughter of Dakṣa, nor the daughter of Menakā;

nor indeed Indra, nor the daughter of Puloman, nor Idhmavāha, nor Yama, nor anyone else; / neither Nārada, nor Bhṛgu, nor Vasiṣṭha, nor Gaṇeśa, nor Bali and the rest;

nor indeed Virāṭ, nor Bhīma, nor Saturn, nor Puṣkara, nor Kaśeru; / nor Kinnaras, ancestors, nor gods, nor the chief Gandharvas, nor those known as Tuṣitas;

nor kings of the earth, nor mortal men—they do not know Viṣṇu, what to speak of others here? / Brahmā is inferior to me by a crore of qualities, and Mātariśvan is equal to that Brahmā.

Those two are indeed equal in dispassion, in devotion to Hari, in firmness, endurance, vital force, strength, yoga, / and intellect, in the cycle of transmigration and at the time of liberation, and mutually supportive.

The great ones call Murāri the presiding deity of food, Brahman; they call Vāyu the presiding deity of individual souls; / that god Brahmā is not capable of dwelling eternally in transmigration without Vāyu;

nor can Mātariśvan dwell without him; there is mutual dependence and difference in time: / when the noble one became the ruler of the principle of intellect in the gross creation inside the cosmic egg,

then the noble Vāyu was not able [to act] in the outer creation, and there is a distinction of time. / Sarasvatī and Bhāratī arose one year after Brahmā.

When ten years had passed, O noble one, then Vāyu became worshipful to the world; / there was a slight inferiority in the gross creation, O noble one, but not by that much is there any loss of their benevolence.

Sarasvatī arose one year after the time of Brahmā's birth; / compared to Speech, there is an inferiority in time for Vāyu, so what harm is there in that relative inferiority?

Speech arose after Vāyu, after one year; / as long as there is subsequent birth, so long does destruction of the prior body occur.

Śeṣa, Indra, and Rudra—these three are equal even in knowledge, strength, and the like; nevertheless, there is inferiority of time among them, and their time is two thousand years.

Ananta and Rudra should be known just like Brahmā and Vāyu; there is no diminution in their essential nature; / in the gross creation and in the outer creation, O noble one, inferiority in time is not to be thought of by me.

After them, Vāruṇī, Pārvatī, and the one named Sauparṇī—these three, O noble one, / arose after ten years, and should be understood like Sarasvatī and Bhāratī.

Indra is superior to the wives of Rudra and the rest; such knowledge should always be granted without dullness; / whoever has such knowledge in the world, he indeed is a knower, he alone is to be known through the Vedas.

He who does not know this distinction is not a knower; he is a mere disputant of the Vedas, not a true reciter of the Vedas.

As many syllables of the Vedas as are recited by the twice-born, / so many are the names of Hari, and they are ever dear to Hari.

"Hari is eternally my master, I am ever the servant of Hari; / all deities beginning with Brahmā are my gurus in their proper order.

And Hari is the master of these [gods]"—this is sung everywhere in the Veda; / the one who recites the Vedas knowing thus is the best of the twice-born.

He is to be known as a true reciter of the Vedas; others are mere disputants of the Vedas; / weighed down by the burden of the Vedas, such a brāhmaṇa is indeed a donkey.

One proud of knowledge and one proud of the Vedas—both constantly say to each other: / the Veda is the water where Murāri dwells, due to the fault of associating with teachers of the twice-born.

There are great offenses in the world, O noble one, by thousands, hundreds, and crores; / and Hari, being compassionate, always forgives them through the remembrance of his three names.

When the noble Viṣṇu sees the offense of one devoid of all offense [confessions], full of gifts and honors, but ever lacking [knowledge of the divine] hierarchy, / he cries out in distress with an angry mind:

"Arise, O Govinda, knowable through the true Vedas! May he protect, whose name is praised; be completely pleased with me! / O Keśava, whose nature is bliss, arise, you who are capable of directing creation and dissolution!

Having created Brahmā, you impel him to the venerable creation; having created Rudra, you impel him to destruction; / having examined and recognized the gods beginning with Brahmā and Śeṣa who are fit to attain [it], grant them complete liberation!"

O Hari, O Murāri, devoid of slumber, rise now! From the ignorance that follows the beginning of the kalpa, / seeing fully through the vision of karmic deeds, O Great-Souled One, darkness has been obtained, burning, whose nature is suffering.

Since the daityas and others, whose intellects are filled with suffering, [are cast] into blinding darkness, while you are eternally of the nature of pure consciousness, / therefore they say you, Hari, are of the nature of suffering [to them]; from the nature of suffering, you become one afflicted with sorrow, O Hari.

Arise, O Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva! Arise, O Kṛṣṇa, Acyuta, Mādhava! / Arise, O Vaikuṇṭha, whose form is moist with compassion! Arise, O Lord of Lakṣmī! Reverence, reverence to you!

Arise, O Lord of Madhva, Lord of Sarasvatī! Arise, O Lord of Rudra and Lord of Ambikā! / Arise, O Lord of the Moon, Lord of Śacī, Lord of the brahmins, Lord of devotees, Lord of cattle, eternally!

O Lover of scripture, arise! You who are fond of the Ṛgveda, arise, lover of the Yajurveda, whose form is the ultimate cause! / You are fond of the Sāmaveda, O Murāri, and always fond of the Atharvaveda.

You are fond of prose, O embodiment of the Purāṇas! Arise, lover of praise, whose forms are manifold! / You alone bring delight in melodious singing; arise quickly, O husband of Kamalā!

Thus praised, Viṣṇu, unborn and primeval, arose with great haste, he who is eternally bound [by devotion].

Thus ends the second chapter, entitled 'Determination of the Hierarchy of Deities Beginning with Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Maheśvara', in the Brahmakāṇḍa of the third part of the Uttarakhaṇḍa in the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the dialogue between Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa.