Canto
10
Chapter 14: Brahmâ's Prayers to Lord Krishna
(1) S'rî Brahmâ said: 'My praise for You, o Son of the Cowherd King, o worshipable Lord whose beauty we may see in the form of a body, a resplendent face and soft feet as dark as a raincloud, clothes as bright as lightening, guñjâ [seed] ornaments [at Your ears], peacock feathers, a garland of forest flowers, a morsel of food [see 10.13: 14], a rod, a bugle and a flute. (2) O Godhead so of mercy with me, even with directly before me indeed this body of Yours, that to the desire of Your devotees has manifested but at the other hand is not a product of matter at all, am I, Brahmâ, with my inward mind not able to fathom Your greatness, not even mentioning the experience of Your soul of happiness. (3) Invincible as You are You nevertheless give Yourselves won to those in the three worlds who regularly exercising their body, words and mind, in keeping their material positions, are eager to hear about the topics relating to You the way they are described by the truthful, the truthful who, living simply, offer their obeisances, no longer trying to accomplish something in the field of spiritual knowledge. (4) The path of bhakti so highly beneficial, that is rejected by those, o Almighty Lord, who struggle exclusively for the achievement of knowledge, means nothing but trouble to them, just as empty husks are nothing but a hindrance to the ones threshing. (5) Long before now, o Greatest, was there in this world many a yoga adept who, dedicating all his actions to You, came to understand what is achieved by one's specific duties; it is indeed so that one by devotional service in the cultivation of the hearing and singing with ease may achieve Your Supreme Destination o Infallible One! [see also 7.5: 23-24] (6) Nevertheless, o Complete of Existence, is only he able to understand the potency of You as being without material qualities [nirguna] who is spotless with a mind and senses free from agitations and who, following Your love as someone with no other instruction for himself, verily is unattached to this or that form; and not otherwise. (7) In time might great scientists succeed in counting all the particles there are in the universe of the earth, the sky, the snow and the light of the stars, but who would be able to count the qualities of You, the Self of All Qualities [gunâtma], who descended for the benefit of all beings? [compare 8.5: 6] (8) Earnestly hoping for Your compassion and enduring the things inevitably resulting from one's fruitive actions, will therefore anyone, who offers You with his heart, words and body his obeisances, lead a life directed at the position of liberation, because one is then a candidate for the mercy [see also 1.5: 17, 1.19: 32, 2.1: 12, 3.33: 6, 4.20: 11, 4.29: 38 etc.]. (9) Just see, o Controller, how I so contemptible with You, the Unlimited, Primeval Supersoul, just to see the might of You, the Deluder of All Deluders, have expanded my illusory power; was the extent of what I desired indeed not just like a spark relative to the fire? (10) Therefore, o Infallible One, my excuses, I, born from passion, indeed am an ignoramus who, not having started a new life, haughtily thought himself to be an independent authority; my eyes were blinded by the darkness of ignorance - does someone like me, in the acceptance of You as his master, not deserve Your mercy? (11) What am I with my material nature, those seven measures of this body of the totality of matter, the false ego, ether, air, fire, water and earth, that surrounds me like a pot? What is this compared to the Unlimited Universes that like atomic dust move from the openings and pores of Your body, Your greatness [see also 1. 3: 3 and 3: 11]? (12) O Lord from the Beyond, does the mother count it as an offense when a child kicks its legs within the womb - what all that is labeled with designations as 'existent' or 'nonexistent' would there actually be outside of Your abdomen? (13) For certain are the words indeed not untrue that state that Brahmâ, the 'selfborn' [aja *5], with the three worlds at their end in the oceans of water of the deluge, appeared from the lotus stem which grew from the abdomen of Nârâyana; have I not emanated from You? [see 3.8] (14) Are You not Nârâyana the Soul of all living beings? You are the Teacher Within the Heart, the Witness of all Worlds, the Nârâ-yana: the part [or lead] of God relating to man, that source from which the waters originated - that is what You truly are and not so much Your specific form [mâyâ]. (15) If that transcendental body of You sheltering the entire universe is situated upon the water, why then was it not seen by me o Supreme Lord or why were You, when You were not properly seen by me in the heart, at the other hand then suddenly again to be seen [see 3.8: 22]? (16) In this incarnation indeed do You by Your power over the bewildering material energy scare away the illusion of this entire, created universe that is externally visible and is also there within Your abdomen, the way You factually have demonstrated it to Your mother [by opening Your mouth see 10.7: 35-36 & 10.8: 37-39]. (17) The way one sees the cosmic complete here manifested externally, could this all, including Yourself, be seen inside of You; this could only happen because of the influence of Your inconceivable potency!(18) Have You not just today shown me how, except for Yourselves, this all is based upon Your bewildering potency? First were You there all alone and then You became all of Vraja's boys and calves, You next even became a same number of four-handed ones that together with me were served by all and then You became an equal number of universes [10.13: 53]; and now are You again the One Infinite Absolute Truth without a second... (19) To those unaware of Your position understanding it the material way do You, by Yourself expanding Your mâyâ, appear for the matters of creation as Me, as Yourself for the purpose of maintenance and as the Three-eyed One [Lord S'iva] in the end. (20) Among the enlightened and the seers, o Controller, as well indeed among the human beings, the animals and the aquatics also, do You, who are factually unborn, o Master, o Creator, take birth to be of mercy with the truthful and to chastise the untruthful who are blinded by illusion [see also B.G. 4: 8]. (21) Who, o Greatest Supreme Lord, o Supersoul and Controller of Yoga, knows where, how, how many or when in the three worlds the pastimes of Your Lordship, the play of Your spiritual energy [yoga-mâyâ] thus is expanding? (22) Therefore is this cosmic complete, being untrue [asat, temporary] in its form, just like a dream wherein the awareness is covered by all kinds of miseries; while one within Yourself may find Your unlimited forms of consciousness, eternity and happiness, have we [outside of that] the bewildering energy presenting itself as if it were true [sat, permanent, see also B.G. 2: 16 and **]. (23) The One Soul You are, the Original Personality, the Oldest, the Truth, the Light from Within without a beginning and an end, the eternally undiminishing, unimpeded happiness free from impurities, the unceasing Complete Without a Second which defies all description. (24) You as such described indeed are the very Soul of all souls, so may envision those who received from the radiating spiritual master the perfect vision of the confidential philosophy; it is they who easily cross over the ocean of an untrue worldly existence. (25) With those who do not understand You indeed as being the Supreme Soul, arises just because of that a totally material life which by means of spiritual knowledge then again disappears, just like with a rope [its appearance as] a snake its body appears and disappears. (26) Designations of being bound to matter or being liberated, rise from not knowing, actually are the two not separate [but the same in the sense of being bound to that what is not an illusion] when one, like with days and nights before the sun, properly distinguishes according the true knowledge of the pure, transcendental, spirit soul of which the awareness is unimpeded [as-it-is, free from mâyâ]. (27) Oh, how ignorant is the foolishness of persons who think of You, the Original Soul, as being something else and indeed of the Self as something to be looked for [as someone present] in the outside world! [see B.G. 18: 16] (28) The truthful, from the inside rejecting what is not 'that' [see neti neti 7.7: 23], are indeed looking for You, o Unlimited One; would even a man of truth, caught in the unreal of the 'snake' which is always so near to him, [directly] be able to appreciate the real of the 'rope'? [see also 10.6: 8, and B.G. 18: 37] (29) Therefore is it so my Lord that one, being granted but a trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, in fact has knowledge of the certain truth of the greatness of the Supreme Personality, but that is not true for anyone else, however long he might speculate. (30) May it therefore be so o Master, that, in this birth, a next one indeed or even one we rather not think about, there is that greatest fortune by which I, in becoming just one of Your devotees, are fully of service at the lotus buds of Your feet? (31) How fortunate Vraja, the cows and the gopîs are from whom You, to Your full satisfaction, have been drinking the nectarine breast milk in the form of the calves and boys, o Almighty Lord, whose satiation as yet by no vedic sacrifice could be equaled. (32) What a happiness, o what a fortune for Nanda and the gopas and the other inhabitants of Vraja, to have as their friend the Supreme Abode of Bliss, the Complete, Absolute and Eternal Truth. (33) And however great the good of their fortune all might be, o Infallible One, we, the eleven [***], S'iva and all other gods indeed, o Wonder, are as fortunate as to drink again and again by the cups of the senses of these devotees the nectarean, intoxicating honey of Your lotus feet. (34) Irrespective the birth I would have here in this forest [as this or that animal or plant] would bring me that greatest fortune, merely by bathing in the dust of the feet of any of them whose life truly is completely of the Supreme Lord Mukunda His feet, the feet of which the dust even today is sought by the S'rutis [the Vedas]. (35) What but Yourselves, the source of all benedictions indeed, o Godhead, would You grant as a reward to these members of the cowherd community whose homes, wealth, friends, dear ones, bodies, children, life-air and minds are all dedicated to You - our mind thinking of anything else falls in illusion, for You even made it undubitably so that Pûtanâ who dressed up as a truthful one and also her family members [Bakâ and Agha] could reach You, o divine personality. (36) As long as people are not Yours Krishna, are the attachments and such all thieves, is the home a prison and is the infatuation as a set of shackles to their feet. (37) Even though You're completely transcendental do You mimic on this earth that what is material, o Master, in order to teach the people of surrender about Your different types of spiritual happiness. (38) There are people who derive their certainty from the use of many words - let them, but of what use is that to us, o my Lord, for Your opulence is found beyond the range of my body, mind and words [see B.G. 2: 42-44]! (39) Permit me to leave o Krishna, You know everything, You see all, You alone are the master of all universes, I put this universe at Your disposal. (40) S'rî Krishna, the lotus of the Vrishni-dynasty You lend the happiness; of the seas of the earth, the demigods, the brahmins and the animals are You the cause of their development; when there is a lack of righteousness do You dispel the darkness; of the ogres on earth are You the opponent; for as long as the sun shines, till the end of time, do I, o worshipable Lord Supreme, offer You my obeisances.'
(41) S'rî S'uka said: 'Thus having extolled the Wealth of the World desired the creator of the universe it, with circumambulating Him three times and bowing down to His feet, to return to his abode. (42) The Supreme Lord gave the one who had originated from Him His permission, and then brought the calves from where they had been back to the riverbank where, just as it was before, His friends were all present. (43) Although one year had passed and they, without the Lord of their lives, had been covered by Krishna's mâyâ, was it to the boys but half a moment, o King. (44) What, o what do persons under the spell of mâyâ not forget in this world; for that reason being deluded in their consciousness does no one in this world understand himself. (45) The friends said to Krishna: 'You have returned quickly, we didn't even eat a single bite more, please come here and nicely take Your meal.' (46) Then, smiling, took the Lord of the senses His meal with the cowherd boys whom He, as they from the forest returned home to Vraja, showed the skin of the python Aghâsura [see 10.12]. (47) With the boys loudly playing together the bamboo flute and the horn beautifully and singing His purifying glories, called He, with His body decorated with a peacock feather and with flowers and colors from the forest, out for the calves while He with His comrades entered the pasture grounds [near Gokula]; it offered the gopîs a feast to their eyes. (48) 'Today has He, the son of Yas'odâ and Nanda, freed us from the great snake by killing it', so sang the boys in Vraja.'
(49) The king said: 'Please explain, o brahmin, how could there be so much unprecedented love for the child of someone else that Krishna was, exceeding even the love [the gopas and gopîs had] for their own offspring?'
(50) S'rî S'uka said: 'For each living being is in truth, o ruler of man, one's own self the dearmost, the love for others, children, wealth and so on are all based on that. (51) Therefore o best of kings, is the love of embodied beings self-centered and unequal to the love for that which belongs to them like sons, wealth, homes and so forth. (52) To those persons who factually speak of the body as being themselves [see also ahankâra], o best of kings, is the body just as dear and is thus for sure what is related to it not as dear. [see also B.G. 2: 71] (53) If the body [though] figures as a thing possessed will it as a consequence not be as dear as the soul, for when it grows old remains the desire to stay alive equally strong. (54) Therefore is for all embodied beings [the self of] one's own soul indeed the most dear, in constituting the factual purpose of existence for the entire universe of the moving and not moving entities. (55) In this you should know Krishna as being the Complete of the Soul of the living beings who, by His own potency appearing as a human being, is here for the benefit of the entire universe. (56) Those who in this world know Krishna as He really is understand the stationary and moving as being forms of the Supreme Lord, the complete, the essence outside of which nothing at all is found here [compare B.G. 7: 26]. (57) The Supreme Lord constitutes for all entities indeed the reason to be, from Him they have their stability; whatever thing could exist separate from Krishna? (58) For those who have taken to the shelter of the lotus buds of the feet that are like a boat, the feet that for the greatest even are the refuge of the supreme piety famed for opposing Mura [the demon], constitute these feet the Supreme Abode [of Vaikunthha] where none of the material miseries are found and is with them, with every step taken, the ocean of material existence [not more than the water in] a calf's hoof-print [compare 10.1: 5-7 and 10.2: 30].
(59) All you've been asking for concerning that what the Lord did in His fifth year and was declared at His sixth, I have now described to you. (60) The person who hears or sings these pastimes of Lord Murâri annihilating Agha, how He with His friends was taking lunch in an open spot in the forest, and about the other-worldly [multiple-Vishnu]-form He assumed with the selfborn one who so elaborately offers his prayers, will attain the all-inclusive of his interests [spiritual perfection].' (61) *4
Second edition, loaded April 11, 2008
Source texts:
Brahmâ's Prayers to Lord Krishna
S'rî Brahmâ said: 'My praise for You, o Son of the Cowherd King, o worshipable Lord whose beauty we may see in the form of a body, a resplendent face and soft feet as dark as a raincloud, clothes as bright as lightening, guñjâ [seed] ornaments [at Your ears], peacock feathers, a garland of forest flowers, a morsel of food [see 10.13: 14], a rod, a bugle and a flute.Lord Brahmâ said: My dear Lord, You are the only worshipable Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore I offer my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You. O son of the king of the cowherds, Your transcendental body is dark blue like a new cloud, Your garment is brilliant like lightning, and the beauty of Your face is enhanced by Your guñjâ earrings and the peacock feather on Your head. Wearing garlands of various forest flowers and leaves, and equipped with a herding stick, a buffalo horn and a flute, You stand beautifully with a morsel of food in Your hand. (Vedabase)
O Godhead so of mercy with me, even with directly before me indeed this body of Yours, that to the desire of Your devotees has manifested but at the other hand is not a product of matter at all, am I, Brahmâ, with my inward mind not able to fathom Your greatness, not even mentioning the experience of Your soul of happiness.
My dear Lord, neither I nor anyone else can estimate the potency of this transcendental body of Yours, which has shown such mercy to me and which appears just to fulfill the desires of Your pure devotees. Although my mind is completely withdrawn from material affairs, I cannot understand Your personal form. How, then, could I possibly understand the happiness You experience within Yourself? (Vedabase)
Invincible as You are You nevertheless give Yourselves won to those in the three worlds who regularly exercising their body, words and mind, in keeping their material positions, are eager to hear about the topics relating to You the way they are described by the truthful, the truthful who, living simply, offer their obeisances, no longer trying to accomplish something in the field of spiritual knowledge.
Those who, even while remaining situated in their established social positions, throw away the process of speculative knowledge and with their body, words and mind offer all respects to descriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lordship, although You are otherwise unconquerable by anyone within the three worlds. (Vedabase)
The path of bhakti so highly beneficial, that is rejected by those, o Almighty Lord, who struggle exclusively for the achievement of knowledge, means nothing but trouble to them, just as empty husks are nothing but a hindrance to the ones threshing.
My dear Lord, devotional service unto You is the best path for self-realization. If someone gives up that path and engages in the cultivation of speculative knowledge, he will simply undergo a troublesome process and will not achieve his desired result. As a person who beats an empty husk of wheat cannot get grain, one who simply speculates cannot achieve self-realization. His only gain is trouble. (Vedabase)
Long before now, o Greatest, was there in this world many a yoga adept who, dedicating all his actions to You, came to understand what is achieved by one's specific duties; it is indeed so that one by devotional service in the cultivation of the hearing and singing with ease may achieve Your Supreme Destination o Infallible One! [see also 7.5: 23-24]
O almighty Lord, in the past many yogîs in this world achieved the platform of devotional service by offering all their endeavors unto You and faithfully carrying out their prescribed duties. Through such devotional service, perfected by the processes of hearing and chanting about You, they came to understand You, O infallible one, and could easily surrender to You and achieve Your supreme abode. (Vedabase)
Nevertheless, o Complete of Existence, is only he able to understand the potency of You as being without material qualities [nirguna] who is spotless with a mind and senses free from agitations and who, following Your love as someone with no other instruction for himself, verily is unattached to this or that form; and not otherwise.
Nondevotees, however, cannot realize You in Your full personal feature. Nevertheless, it may be possible for them to realize Your expansion as the impersonal Supreme by cultivating direct perception of the Self within the heart. But they can do this only by purifying their mind and senses of all conceptions of material distinctions and all attachment to material sense objects. Only in this way will Your impersonal feature manifest itself to them. (Vedabase)
In time might great scientists succeed in counting all the particles there are in the universe of the earth, the sky, the snow and the light of the stars, but who would be able to count the qualities of You, the Self of All Qualities [gunâtma], who descended for the benefit of all beings? [compare 8.5: 6]
In time, learned philosophers or scientists might be able to count all the atoms of the earth, the particles of snow, or perhaps even the shining molecules radiating from the sun, the stars and other luminaries. But among these learned men, who could possibly count the unlimited transcendental qualities possessed by You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who have descended onto the surface of the earth for the benefit of all living entities? (Vedabase)
Earnestly hoping for Your compassion and enduring the things inevitably resulting from one's fruitive actions, will therefore anyone, who offers You with his heart, words and body his obeisances, lead a life directed at the position of liberation, because one is then a candidate for the mercy [see also 1.5: 17, 1.19: 32, 2.1: 12, 3.33: 6, 4.20: 11, 4.29: 38 etc.].
My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim. (Vedabase)
Just see, o Controller, how I so contemptible with You, the Unlimited, Primeval Supersoul, just to see the might of You, the Deluder of All Deluders, have expanded my illusory power; was the extent of what I desired indeed not just like a spark relative to the fire?
My Lord, just see my uncivilized impudence! To test Your power I tried to extend my illusory potency to cover You, the unlimited and primeval Supersoul, who bewilder even the masters of illusion. What am I compared to You? I am just like a small spark in the presence of a great fire. (Vedabase)
Therefore, o Infallible One, my excuses, I, born from passion, indeed am an ignoramus who, not having started a new life, haughtily thought himself to be an independent authority; my eyes were blinded by the darkness of ignorance - does someone like me, in the acceptance of You as his master, not deserve Your mercy?
Therefore, O infallible Lord, kindly excuse my offenses. I have taken birth in the mode of passion and am therefore simply foolish, presuming myself a controller independent of Your Lordship. My eyes are blinded by the darkness of ignorance, which causes me to think of myself as the unborn creator of the universe. But please consider that I am Your servant and therefore worthy of Your compassion. (Vedabase)
What am I with my material nature, those seven measures of this body of the totality of matter, the false ego, ether, air, fire, water and earth, that surrounds me like a pot? What is this compared to the Unlimited Universes that like atomic dust move from the openings and pores of Your body, Your greatness [see also 1. 3: 3 and 3: 11]?
What am I, a small creature measuring seven spans of my own hand? I am enclosed in a potlike universe composed of material nature, the total material energy, false ego, ether, air, water and earth. And what is Your glory? Unlimited universes pass through the pores of Your body just as particles of dust pass through the openings of a screened window. (Vedabase)
O Lord from the Beyond, does the mother count it as an offense when a child kicks its legs within the womb - what all that is labeled with designations as 'existent' or 'nonexistent' would there actually be outside of Your abdomen?
O Lord Adhokshaja, does a mother take offense when the child within her womb kicks with his legs? And is there anything in existence - whether designated by various philosophers as real or as unreal - that is actually outside Your abdomen? (Vedabase)
For certain are the words indeed not untrue that state that Brahmâ, the 'selfborn' [aja *5], with the three worlds at their end in the oceans of water of the deluge, appeared from the lotus stem which grew from the abdomen of Nârâyana; have I not emanated from You? [see 3.8]
My dear Lord, it is said that when the three planetary systems are merged into the water at the time of dissolution, Your plenary portion, Nârâyana, lies down on the water, gradually a lotus flower grows from His navel, and Brahmâ takes birth upon that lotus flower. Certainly, these words are not false. Thus am I not born from You? (Vedabase)
Are You not Nârâyana the Soul of all living beings? You are the Teacher Within the Heart, the Witness of all Worlds, the Nârâ-yana: the part [or lead] of God relating to man, that source from which the waters originated - that is what You truly are and not so much Your specific form [mâyâ].
Are You not the original Nârâyana, O supreme controller, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? Indeed, Lord Nârâyana is Your expansion, and He is called Nârâyana because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Mâyâ. (Vedabase)
If that transcendental body of You sheltering the entire universe is situated upon the water, why then was it not seen by me o Supreme Lord or why were You, when You were not properly seen by me in the heart, at the other hand then suddenly again to be seen [see 3.8: 22]?
My dear Lord, if Your transcendental body, which shelters the entire universe, is actually lying upon the water, then why were You not seen by me when I searched for You? And why, though I could not envision You properly within my heart, did You then suddenly reveal Yourself? (Vedabase)
In this incarnation indeed do You by Your power over the deluding energy scare away the illusion of this entire, created universe that is externally visible and is also there within Your abdomen, the way You factually have demonstrated it to Your mother [by opening Your mouth see 10.7: 35-36 & 10.8: 37-39].
My dear Lord, in this incarnation You have proved that You are the supreme controller of Mâyâ. Although You are now within this universe, the whole universal creation is within Your transcendental body - a fact You demonstrated by exhibiting the universe within Your abdomen before Your mother, Yas'odâ. (Vedabase)
The way one sees the cosmic complete here manifested externally, could this all, including Yourself, be seen inside of You; this could only happen because of the influence of Your inconceivable potency!
Just as this entire universe, including You, was exhibited within Your abdomen, so it is now manifested here externally in the same exact form. How could such things happen unless arranged by Your inconceivable energy? (Vedabase)
Have You not just today shown me how, except for Yourselves, this all is based upon Your bewildering potency? First were You there all alone and then You became all of Vraja's boys and calves, You next even became a same number of four-handed ones that together with me were served by all and then You became an equal number of universes [10.13: 53]; and now are You again the One Infinite Absolute Truth without a second...
Have You not shown me today that both You Yourself and everything within this creation are manifestations of Your inconceivable potency? First You appeared alone, and then You manifested Yourself as all of Vrindâvana's calves and cowherd boys, Your friends. Next You appeared as an equal number of fourhanded Vishnu forms, who were worshiped by all living beings, including me, and after that You appeared as an equal number of complete universes. Finally, You have now returned to Your unlimited form as the Supreme Absolute Truth, one without a second. (Vedabase)
To those unaware of Your position understanding it the material way do You, by Yourself expanding Your mâyâ, appear for the matters of creation as Me, as Yourself for the purpose of maintenance and as the Three-eyed One [Lord S'iva] in the end.
To persons ignorant of Your actual transcendental position, You appear as part of the material world, manifesting Yourself by the expansion of Your inconceivable energy. Thus for the creation of the universe You appear as me [Brahmâ], for its maintenance You appear as Yourself [Vishnu], and for its annihilation You appear as Lord Trinetra [S'iva]. (Vedabase)
Among the enlightened and the seers, o Controller, as well indeed among the human beings, the animals and the aquatics also, do You, who are factually unborn, o Master, o Creator, take birth to be of mercy with the truthful and to chastise the untruthful who are blinded by illusion [see also B.G. 4: 8].
O Lord, O supreme creator and master, You have no material birth, yet to defeat the false pride of the faithless demons and show mercy to Your saintly devotees, You take birth among the demigods, sages, human beings, animals and even the aquatics. (Vedabase)
Who, o Greatest Supreme Lord, o Supersoul and Controller of Yoga, knows where, how, how many or when in the three worlds the pastimes of Your Lordship, the play of Your spiritual energy [yoga-mâyâ] thus is expanding?
O supreme great one! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! O Supersoul, master of all mystic power! Your pastimes are taking place continuously in these three worlds, but who can estimate where, how and when You are employing Your spiritual energy and performing these innumerable pastimes? No one can understand the mystery of how Your spiritual energy acts. (Vedabase)
Therefore is this cosmic complete, being untrue [asat, temporary] in its form, just like a dream wherein the awareness is covered by all kinds of miseries; while one within Yourself may find Your unlimited forms of consciousness, eternity and happiness, have we [outside of that] the bewildering energy presenting itself as if it were true [sat, permanent, see also B.G. 2: 16 and **].
Therefore this entire universe, which like a dream is by nature unreal, nevertheless appears real, and thus it covers one's consciousness and assails one with repeated miseries. This universe appears real because it is manifested by the potency of illusion emanating from You, whose unlimited transcendental forms are full of eternal happiness and knowledge. (Vedabase)
The One Soul You are, the Original Personality, the Oldest, the Truth, the Light from Within without a beginning and an end, the eternally undiminishing, unimpeded happiness free from impurities, the unceasing Complete Without a Second which defies all description.
You are the one Supreme Soul, the primeval Supreme Personality, the Absolute Truth - self-manifested, endless and beginningless. You are eternal and infallible, perfect and complete, without any rival and free from all material designations. Your happiness can never be obstructed, nor have You any connection with material contamination. Indeed, You are the indestructible nectar of immortality. (Vedabase)
You as such described indeed are the very Soul of all souls, so may envision those who received from the radiating spiritual master the perfect vision of the confidential philosophy; it is they who easily cross over the ocean of an untrue worldly existence.
Those who have received the clear vision of knowledge from the sunlike spiritual master can see You in this way, as the very Soul of all souls, the Supersoul of everyone's own self. Thus understanding Your original personality, they are able to cross over the ocean of illusory material existence. (Vedabase)
With those who do not understand You indeed as being the Supreme Soul, arises just because of that a totally material life which by means of spiritual knowledge then again disappears, just like with a rope [its appearance as] a snake its body appears and disappears.
A person who mistakes a rope for a snake becomes fearful, but he then gives up his fear upon realizing that the so-called snake does not exist. Similarly, for those who fail to recognize You as the Supreme Soul of all souls, the expansive illusory material existence arises, but knowledge of You at once causes it to subside. (Vedabase)
Designations of being bound to matter or being liberated, rise from not knowing, actually are the two not separate [but the same in the sense of being bound to that what is not an illusion] when one, like with days and nights before the sun, properly distinguishes according the true knowledge of the pure, transcendental, spirit soul of which the awareness is unimpeded [as-it-is, free from mâyâ].
The conception of material bondage and the conception of liberation are both manifestations of ignorance. Being outside the scope of true knowledge, they cease to exist when one correctly understands that the pure spirit soul is distinct from matter and always fully conscious. At that time bondage and liberation no longer have any significance, just as day and night have no significance from the perspective of the sun. (Vedabase)
Oh, how ignorant is the foolishness of persons who think of You, the Original Soul, as being something else and indeed of the Self as something to be looked for [as someone present] in the outside world! [see B.G. 18: 16]
Just see the foolishness of those ignorant persons who consider You to be some separated manifestation of illusion and who consider the self, which is actually You, to be something else, the material body. Such fools conclude that the supreme soul is to be searched for somewhere outside Your supreme personality. (Vedabase)
The truthful, from the inside rejecting what is not 'that' [see neti neti 7.7: 23], are indeed looking for You, o Unlimited One; would even a man of truth, caught in the unreal of the 'snake' which is always so near to him, [directly] be able to appreciate the real of the 'rope'? [see also 10.6: 8, and B.G. 18: 37]
O unlimited Lord, the saintly devotees seek You out within their own bodies by rejecting everything separate from You. Indeed, how can discriminating persons appreciate the real nature of a rope lying before them until they refute the illusion that it is a snake. (Vedabase)
Therefore is it so my Lord that one, being granted but a trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, in fact has knowledge of the certain truth of the greatness of the Supreme Personality, but that is not true for anyone else, however long he might speculate.
My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years. (Vedabase)
May it therefore be so o Master, that, in this birth, a next one indeed or even one we rather not think about, there is that greatest fortune by which I, in becoming just one of Your devotees, are fully of service at the lotus buds of Your feet?
My dear Lord, I therefore pray to be so fortunate that in this life as Lord Brahmâ or in another life, wherever I take my birth, I may be counted as one of Your devotees. I pray that wherever I may be, even among the animal species, I can engage in devotional service to Your lotus feet. (Vedabase)
How fortunate Vraja, the cows and the gopîs are from whom You, to Your full satisfaction, have been drinking the nectarine breast milk in the form of the calves and boys, o Almighty Lord, whose satiation as yet by no vedic sacrifice could be equaled.
O almighty Lord, how greatly fortunate are the cows and ladies of Vrindâvana, the nectar of whose breast-milk You have happily drunk to Your full satisfaction, taking the form of their calves and children! All the Vedic sacrifices performed from time immemorial up to the present day have not given You as much satisfaction. (Vedabase)
What a happiness, o what a fortune for Nanda and the gopas and the other inhabitants of Vraja, to have as their friend the Supreme Abode of Bliss, the Complete, Absolute and Eternal Truth.
How greatly fortunate are Nanda Mahârâja, the cowherd men and all the other inhabitants of Vrajabhûmi! There is no limit to their good fortune, because the Absolute Truth, the source of transcendental bliss, the eternal Supreme Brahman, has become their friend. (Vedabase)
And however great the good of their fortune all might be, o Infallible One, we, the eleven [***], S'iva and all other gods indeed, o Wonder, are as fortunate as to drink again and again by the cups of the senses of these devotees the nectarean, intoxicating honey of Your lotus feet.
Yet even though the extent of the good fortune of these residents of Vrindâvana is inconceivable, we eleven presiding deities of the various senses, headed by Lord S'iva, are also most fortunate, because the senses of these devotees of Vrindâvana are the cups through which we repeatedly drink the nectarean, intoxicating beverage of the honey of Your lotus feet. (Vedabase)
Irrespective the birth I would have here in this forest [as this or that animal or plant] would bring me that greatest fortune, merely by bathing in the dust of the feet of any of them whose life truly is completely of the Supreme Lord Mukunda His feet, the feet of which the dust even today is sought by the S'rutis [the Vedas].
My greatest possible good fortune would be to take any birth whatever in this forest of Gokula and have my head bathed by the dust falling from the lotus feet of any of its residents. Their entire life and soul is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mukunda, the dust of whose lotus feet is still being searched for in the Vedic mantras. (Vedabase)
What but Yourselves, the source of all benedictions indeed, o Godhead, would You grant as a reward to these members of the cowherd community whose homes, wealth, friends, dear ones, bodies, children, life-air and minds are all dedicated to You - our mind thinking of anything else falls in illusion, for You even made it undubitably so that Pûtanâ who dressed up as a truthful one and also her family members [Bakâ and Agha] could reach You, o divine personality.
My mind becomes bewildered just trying to think of what reward other than You could be found anywhere. You are the embodiment of all benedictions, which You bestow upon these residents of the cowherd community of Vrindâvana. You have already arranged to give Yourself to Pûtanâ and her family members in exchange for her disguising herself as a devotee. So what is left for You to give these devotees of Vrindâvana, whose homes, wealth, friends, dear relations, bodies, children and very lives and hearts are all dedicated only to You? (Vedabase)
As long as people are not Yours Krishna, are the attachments and such all thieves, is the home a prison and is the infatuation as a set of shackles to their feet.
My dear Lord Krishna, until people become Your devotees, their material attachments and desires remain thieves, their homes remain prisons, and their affectionate feelings for their family members remain foot-shackles. (Vedabase)
Even though You're completely transcendental do You mimic on this earth that what is material, o Master, in order to teach the people of surrender about Your different types of spiritual happiness.
My dear master, although You have nothing to do with material existence, You come to this earth and imitate material life just to expand the varieties of ecstatic enjoyment for Your surrendered devotees. (Vedabase)
There are people who derive their certainty from the use of many words - let them, but of what use is that to us, o my Lord, for Your opulence is found beyond the range of my body, mind and words [see B.G. 2: 42-44]!
There are people who say, "I know everything about Krishna." Let them think that way. As far as I am concerned, I do not wish to speak very much about this matter. O my Lord, let me say this much: As far as Your opulences are concerned, they are all beyond the reach of my mind, body and words. (Vedabase)
Permit me to leave o Krishna, You know everything, You see all, You alone are the master of all universes, I put this universe at Your disposal.
My dear Krishna, I now humbly request permission to leave. Actually, You are the knower and seer of all things. Indeed, You are the Lord of all the universes, and yet I offer this one universe unto You. (Vedabase)
S'rî Krishna, the lotus of the Vrishni-dynasty You lend the happiness; of the seas of the earth, the demigods, the brahmins and the animals are You the cause of their development; when there is a lack of righteousness do You dispel the darkness; of the ogres on earth are You the opponent; for as long as the sun shines, till the end of time, do I, o worshipable Lord Supreme, offer You my obeisances.'
My dear S'rî Krishna, You bestow happiness upon the lotuslike Vrishni dynasty and expand the great oceans consisting of the earth, the demigods, the brâhmanas and the cows. You dispel the dense darkness of irreligion and oppose the demons who have appeared on this earth. O Supreme Personality of Godhead, as long as this universe exists and as long as the sun shines, I will offer my obeisances unto You. (Vedabase)
S'rî S'uka said: 'Thus having extolled the Wealth of the World desired the creator of the universe it, with circumambulating Him three times and bowing down to His feet, to return to his abode.
S'ukadeva Gosvâmî said: Having thus offered his prayers, Brahmâ circumambulated his worshipable Lord, the unlimited Personality of Godhead, three times and then bowed down at His lotus feet. The appointed creator of the universe then returned to his own residence. (Vedabase)
The Supreme Lord gave the one who had originated from Him His permission, and then brought the calves from where they had been back to the riverbank where, just as it was before, His friends were all present.
After granting His son Brahmâ permission to leave, the Supreme Personality of Godhead took the calves, who were still where they had been a year earlier, and brought them to the riverbank, where He had been taking His meal and where His cowherd boyfriends remained just as before. (Vedabase)
Although one year had passed and they, without the Lord of their lives, had been covered by Krishna's mâyâ, was it to the boys but half a moment, o King.
O King, although the boys had passed an entire year apart from the Lord of their very lives, they had been covered by Lord Krishna's illusory potency and thus considered that year merely half a moment. (Vedabase)
What, o what do persons under the spell of mâyâ not forget in this world; for that reason being deluded in their consciousness does no one in this world understand himself.
What indeed is not forgotten by those whose minds are bewildered by the Lord's illusory potency? By that power of Mâyâ, this entire universe remains in perpetual bewilderment, and in this atmosphere of forgetfulness no one can understand his own identity. (Vedabase)
The friends said to Krishna: 'You have returned quickly, we didn't even eat a single bite more, please come here and nicely take Your meal.'
The cowherd boyfriends said to Lord Krishna: You have returned so quickly! We have not eaten even one morsel in Your absence. Please come here and take Your meal without distraction. (Vedabase)
Then, smiling, took the Lord of the senses His meal with the cowherd boys whom He, as they from the forest returned home to Vraja, showed the skin of the python Aghâsura [see 10.12].
Then Lord Hrishîkes'a, smiling, finished His lunch in the company of His cowherd friends. While they were returning from the forest to their homes in Vraja, Lord Krishna showed the cowherd boys the skin of the dead serpent Aghâsura. (Vedabase)
With the boys loudly playing together the bamboo flute and the horn beautifully and singing His purifying glories, called He, with His body decorated with a peacock feather and with flowers and colors from the forest, out for the calves while He with His comrades entered the pasture grounds [near Gokula]; it offered the gopîs a feast to their eyes.
Lord Krishna's transcendental body was decorated with peacock feathers and flowers and painted with forest minerals, and His bamboo flute loudly and festively resounded. As He called out to His calves by name, His cowherd boyfriends purified the whole world by chanting His glories. Thus Lord Krishna entered the cow pasture of His father, Nanda Mahârâja, and the sight of His beauty at once produced a great festival for the eyes of all the cowherd women. (Vedabase)
'Today has He, the son of Yas'odâ and Nanda, freed us from the great snake by killing it', so sang the boys in Vraja.'
As the cowherd boys reached the village of Vraja, they sang, "Today Krishna saved us by killing a great serpent!" Some of the boys described Krishna as the son of Yas'odâ, and others as the son of Nanda Mahârâja. (Vedabase)
The king said: 'Please explain, o brahmin, how could there be so much unprecedented love for the child of someone else that Krishna was, exceeding even the love [the gopas and gopîs had] for their own offspring?'
King Parîkchit said: O brâhmana, how could the cowherd women have developed for Krishna, someone else's son, such unprecedented pure love - love they never felt even for their own children? Please explain this. (Vedabase)
S'rî S'uka said: 'For each living being is in truth, o ruler of man, one's own self the dearmost, the love for others, children, wealth and so on are all based on that.
S'rî S'ukadeva Gosvâmî said: O King, for every created being the dearmost thing is certainly his own self. The dearness of everything else - children, wealth and so on - is due only to the dearness of the self. (Vedabase)
Therefore o best of kings, is the love of embodied beings self-centered and unequal to the love for that which belongs to them like sons, wealth, homes and so forth.
For this reason, O best of kings, the embodied soul is self-centered: he is more attached to his own body and self than to his so-called possessions like children, wealth and home. (Vedabase)
To those persons who factually speak of the body as being themselves [see also ahankâra], o best of kings, is the body just as dear and is thus for sure what is related to it not as dear. [see also B.G. 2: 71]
Indeed, for persons who think the body is the self, O best of kings, those things whose importance lies only in their relationship to the body are never as dear as the body itself. (Vedabase)
If the body [though] figures as a thing possessed will it as a consequence not be as dear as the soul, for when it grows old remains the desire to stay alive equally strong.
If a person comes to the stage of considering the body "mine" instead of "me," he will certainly not consider the body as dear as his own self. After all, even as the body is growing old and useless, one's desire to continue living remains strong. (Vedabase)
Therefore is for all embodied beings [the self of] one's own soul indeed the most dear, in constituting the factual purpose of existence for the entire universe of the moving and not moving entities.
Therefore it is his own self that is most dear to every embodied living being, and it is simply for the satisfaction of this self that the whole material creation of moving and nonmoving entities exists. (Vedabase)
In this you should know Krishna as being the Complete of the Soul of the living beings who, by His own potency appearing as a human being, is here for the benefit of the entire universe.
You should know Krishna to be the original Soul of all living entities. For the benefit of the whole universe, He has, out of His causeless mercy, appeared as an ordinary human being. He has done this by the strength of His internal potency. (Vedabase)
Those who in this world know Krishna as He really is understand the stationary and moving as being forms of the Supreme Lord, the complete, the essence outside of which nothing at all is found here [compare B.G. 7: 26]
Those in this world who understand Lord Krishna as He is see all things, whether stationary or moving, as manifest forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such enlightened persons recognize no reality apart from the Supreme Lord Krishna. (Vedabase)
The Supreme Lord constitutes for all entities indeed the reason to be, from Him they have their stability; whatever thing could exist separate from Krishna?
The original, unmanifested form of material nature is the source of all material things, and the source of even that subtle material nature is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. What, then, could one ascertain to be separate from Him? (Vedabase)
For those who have taken to the shelter of the lotus buds of the feet that are like a boat, the feet that for the greatest even are the refuge of the supreme piety famed for opposing Mura [the demon], constitute these feet the Supreme Abode [of Vaikunthha] where none of the material miseries are found and is with them, with every step taken, the ocean of material existence [not more than the water in] a calf's hoof-print [compare 10.1: 5-7 and 10.2: 30].
For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murâri, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf's hoof-print. Their goal is param padam, Vaikunthha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step. (Vedabase)
All you've been asking for concerning that what the Lord did in His fifth year and was declared at His sixth, I have now described to you.
Since you inquired from me, I have fully described to you those activities of Lord Hari that were performed in His fifth year but not celebrated until His sixth. (Vedabase)
The person who hears or sings these pastimes of Lord Murâri annihilating Agha, how He with His friends was taking lunch in an open spot in the forest, and about the other-worldly [multiple-Vishnu]-form He assumed with the selfborn one who so elaborately offers his prayers, will attain the all-inclusive of his interests [spiritual perfection].
Any person who hears or chants these pastimes Lord Murâri performed with His cowherd friends - the killing of Aghâsura, the taking of lunch on the forest grass, the Lord's manifestation of transcendental forms, and the wonderful prayers offered by Lord Brahmâ - is sure to achieve all his spiritual desires. (Vedabase)
*: Based on this verse does S'rîla Prabhupâda in the Caitanya-caritâmrita, Âdi-lîlâ, Chapter Two, Text 30 state that Krishna is considered the real source of all other expansions of the Vishnu-forms and other demigods sprouting from them: 'Lord Krishna is Nârâyana, the father of Brahmâ, because Lord Krishna's plenary expansion Garbhodakas'âyî Vishnu, after placing Himself on the Garbha Ocean, created Brahmâ from His own body. Mahâ-Vishnu in the Causal Ocean and Kshîrodakas'âyî Vishnu, the Supersoul in everyone's heart, are also transcendental expansions of the Supreme Truth."
**: In his commentary on Vedanta-sûtra, quotes S'rîla Madhvâcârya the following statement from the Vedic s'ruti-mantras: 'satyam hy evedam vis'vam asrijata'. "This universe, created by the Lord, is real."
***: The 'eleven' pertains to the demigods ruling over the senses of action and perception plus the mind: the Digdevatâs over audition, the Vayus over the tactile, Sûrya over sight, Varuna over taste, the As'vinî-kumâras over the olfactory, Agni over speech, Indra over the hands, Upendra over the feet, Mitra over the defecation, Prajâpati over the organ of generation and Candra over the mind. S'iva is the demigod presiding over ahankâra, false ego.
*4: There is a last verse to this chapter identical to the last one of chapter eleven: verse 10.11: 59.
This way passed they their childhood in the cow-community with different childlike pastimes like playing hide and seek, building dams and jumping about like they were monkeys.
[translated by the pupils of Prabhupâda as]: In this way the boys spent their childhood in the land of Vrindâvana playing hide-and-go-seek, building play bridges, jumping about like monkeys and engaging in many other such games.Probably does this verse present in the original Sanskrit not belong here and has it accidentally been transferred from chapter 11 in the process of manual copying through the ages.
*5: In this Chapter is Brahmâ just as Krishna called the unborn one or aja; not to get confused is it here translated with 'selfborn', svâyam-bhu, another name for Brahmâ as the one directly born from Nârâyana, while Krishna, contrary to what it seems in His descending in a material form, factually is the never born primeval source [see also footnote *** to the previous chapter].
For
this original translation was used the Vedabase of the BBT offering
the work
that Svâmi Prabhupâda's pupils did to complete his
translation of the Bhâgavatam.
See the
S'rîmad Bhâgavatam
links-page
for this and more books of Prabhupâda.
The painting on this page is by Râmanatha
dâsa.
Production: Filognostic
Association
of The
Order of Time
Text
1