SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM: CANTO 3

(1) Brahmâ said: 'Today, after a long time, I may know that the embodied beings that do not know You of Your ways as the Supreme Lord are not safe in this life. There is none beyond You, o my Lord, and anything that appears to be so can never be the absolute; You are the power because of which there is the mixture of the material energy. (2) That form, which is always free from material ignorance, came into being with the manifestation of Your internal potency for the sake of the devotees as the original incarnation in hundreds of forms and is the source of the lotusflower from which I myself originated. (3) O my Lord, beyond You I see no form that is superior to Your eternal form of bliss, that is without changes and deterioration of potency; You are the one and only Creator of the cosmic manifestation and the nonmaterial Supreme Soul itself; I who takes pride in the identification with the body and senses am surrendered to You. (4) That form, or however You make Your presence, is all-auspicious for the entire universe and benefits our meditation, and to You, Supreme Lord, who are the manifested for us devotees, I offer my obeisances; unto You I perform that which is neglected by persons who are heading for hell in their concern with material topics. (5) Those who inside only smell the aroma of Your lotus feet, through their ears hearing the sounds of devotional service, are in acceptance of the school of transcendence and for them, Your own devotees, there is never the separation of You from the lotus of their hearts, o Lord. (6) Till then there will be fear because of the wealth, the body and the relatives, and will the lamentation and desire as also the avarice and contempt be very great; till then, as long as the people of the world do not take to the shelter of Your safe lotus feet, will one, undertaking to the perishable notion of ownership, be full of anxieties. (7) How unfortunate are they who are bereft of the memory of Your topics; tied down by inauspiciousness and their senses turned against, they act to their desires finding happiness for only a brief moment: they are poor fellows whose minds are overwhelmed by greed and whose activities are full of stress. (8) Their always being troubled by [neurotic] hunger, thirst and their three humors [mucus, bile and wind], winter and summer, wind and rain and many other disturbances as also by a strong sexdrive and an inevitable anger, I see all together as most unbearable, o great actor - it aggrieves me a lot. (9) As long as a person, acting for sake of the senses under the influence of the material illusion, is faced with the being separated in a body, o Fortunate One, will such a one for that time, o Lord, not be able to overcome the cycle of repeated births in the material world; even though working for results has no factual meaning [to the soul], will it bring him endless miseries. (10) During the day they are engaged in stressful labor and at night they suffer insomnia because of their ruminations that break their intelligence and sleep constantly; the divine order frustrates their plans and also the wise, o my Lord, who turned against Your topics, stay around in this world. (11) Unto You cent percent united in devotion, with You residing on the lotus of their hearts, do the devotees who are on the path of hearing, o my Lord, see You, in the here and now, in Your causeless mercy manifesting Your very same transcendental form, according whatever each of them in his meditations thinks of You hymned by so many. (12) You're never that much pleased by the big arrangements with a lot of articles of high-class servants who are of worship with hearts full of all kinds of desires, for You, the variously percieved Unique One and Only Wellwisher, the Supersoul within the living entities, are there to show all living entities Your causeless mercy and cannot be achieved by those going for the temporal. (13) Therefore is it the people's worship which, with different fruitive activities, charities, difficult penances and transcendental service, is performed for simply pleasing You, the Fortunate One, that is the right course one at any time is fixed upon and never will die.

brahma praying (14) Let me offer my obeisances unto You, who are this Supreme, who in enjoying pastimes in the matter of the cosmic creation, maintenance and destruction, for sure is distinguished by the glories of the eternal original form: all glory to the intelligence of the self-knowledge after Your transcendence of the illusory conception. (15) I take shelter of the Unborn One whose incarnations, transcendental qualities and activities are all mysterious; of Him whose names invoked at the time of leaving this life, even unconsciously, immediately for sure take away the accumulated sins of many, many lives and open up the way to immortality. (16) The one who indeed, with me and S'iva, as the Almighty personality and the cause of maintenance, creation and dissolution rooting in the soul, penetrated [this world] growing three trunks as the one and only to the many branches; unto Him, the Personality of Godhead, this tree of the planetary systems, my obeisances. (17) As long as the people of the world are engaged in unwanted activities and in the fixed acts of their own business are negligent of the by You pronounced beneficial activities, will the struggle for existence of these people be very tough and of the Vigilant One [of Time] all run straight into shambles; let there be My obeisances unto Him. (18) To You whom I also fear, although I exist in a place that lasts for two parârdhas [2 x 50 years, with one day and night being two times 4.32 billion earthly years: 311.04 trillion years] and are respected in all the worlds having undergone severe penances for many years for selfrealization, I nevertheless offer My respectful obeisances my Lord, Supreme Personality and enjoyer of all sacrifices. (19) By the power of Your own will You project Yourself among the lower and the human beings, among the empowered ones and in the different species, performing transcendental pastimes in the desire to fulfill Your obligations, to which You are never under the material influence but for sure are manifesting Your divine form; my obeisances to that primeval Lord, the Supreme Personality. (20) In spite of having accepted the influence of the fivefold interaction of the senses, You remain unaffected and sleep lying down on the snakebed happy to be in touch within the waters of devastation with its violent waves - and that You do so for the maintenance of the different entities in Your abdomen, showing the chain of the intelligent Your happiness. (21) Unto Him of whom I, from the lotus house sprouting from the navel, manifested to assist Him, the worshipable one, in the creation of the three worlds; unto Him who has the universe in His abdomen and unto Him whose eyes are blossoming like lotuses after the end of the union of His sleep, my obeisances.

(22) Let He, the Lord of all universes, the one friend and philosopher, the Supersoul who by the mode of goodness gives happiness as the Supreme Lord of the six opulences [beauty, intelligence, penance, power, fame and wealth], for sure give Me the power of introspection so that I will be able to create as before this universe in surrender and love with Him. (23) To this benefactor of the surrendered soul, who [as Râma] enjoys with the Goddess of Fortune [Lakshmî] in whatever He may enact from His internal potency with the accepting of incarnations of goodness, I pray that I may create gifted with His omnipotency and that, in spite of the material affection of my heart engaged in the work, I will also be able to stop with all of it. (24) I pray that I, who was born from the lake of the Supreme Person His navel as the energy of the total universe to the manifestation of the variegatedness of the unlimitedly powerful of Him, may not lose sight of the soundvibrations of the Vedic truth. (25) And may He, the Supreme Lord who is unlimitedly merciful in His ultimate love and His smiles in opening His lotuseyes for the florishing and glory of the cosmic creation, with His sweet words as the oldest and Original Person lovingly remove our dejection.'

(26) Maitreya said: 'After thus regarding the source of His appearance in penance, knowledge and concentration of mind, as far as possible giving thought to the words of his prayer, he fell silent as if tired. (27-28) Madhusûdana [Krishna as the killer of Madhu] saw the sincerity of Brahmâ and his being sorrowful at heart about the devastating waters of the age. Seeing him sufficiently anxious about His science to the situation of the planet, He in deep thoughtful words spoke to him removing that way his anxiety.

(29) The Supreme Lord said: 'You who has the depth of all vedic wisdom, do not despair on the endeavor of creation. What you have set yourselves to and pray for, I most sure have already granted before. (30) As before set yourself to penance and the principles of knowledge to be sure of My support and from those qualifications you will see all the worlds disclosed within your heart, o brahmin. (31) Then, when to the universe you are fully absorbed connected in devotion, you shall see Me as spread throughout, o Brahmâ, and that you, all the worlds and all beings, are part of Me. (32) The time that you see Me in all living entities and the universe the way fire is present in wood, then without doubt you'll be able to abandon the weakness. (33) When you have freed your soul from the material ideas of your senses under the influence of the modes, will you, thus seeing, find your pure in relating to Me and will you enjoy the spiritual kingdom. (34) With all the variety of service and the desire to expand the population innumerably, your soul will never be saddened; concerning you My causeless mercy will be forever. (35) You are the original sage; the vicious mode of passion will never encroach upon you because, despite of your generating progeny, your mind is always narrowed down to Me. (36) Although for the conditioned soul I am difficult to be known, I Myself am known today by you because you understand Me as not being made of matter, senses, modes and the bewilderment of the self. (37) To you, when you tried to figure Me out contemplating the source of the lotus through its stem in the water, I showed myself from within. (38) The prayers you did for Me, o Brahmâ, put into My words, enumerating My glories or the penance and your faith; consider all these as the result of My causeless mercy. (39) Let with all this that pleased Me, all benediction rest upon you, who in your desire prayed for the conquest of all the worlds by nicely describing My qualities and My being above them. (40) May whatever person, who regularly prays this way with these verses, of his worship very soon see all his desires fulfilled, for I am the Lord of all benediction. (41) By the good works, penances, sacrifices, charities and the absorbtion in yoga that are done in love for Me, will the human being find his ultimate success, so is the opinion of they who know the reality. (42) I am the Supersoul, the director of all other souls, the dearest being of all that is dear and certainly one should therefore direct all the attachment in which one's body and mind are so dear, towards Me. (43) With the command of your knowledge of the Veda and with your body that directly found its life from the Soul, now generate the lives, which also lie in Me, as it was done here before.

(44) Maitreya said: 'After thus instructing him, the creator of the universe, did the primeval original Lord in His personal form of Nârâyana disappear.'

Brahmâ said: ' Today, after a long time, I may know that the embodied beings that do not know You of Your ways as the Supreme Lord are not safe in this life. There is none beyond You, o my Lord, and anything that appears to be so can never be the absolute; You are the power because of which there is the mixture of the material energy.

Lord Brahmâ said: O my Lord, today, after many, many years of penance, I have come to know about You. Oh, how unfortunate the embodied living entities are that they are unable to know Your personality! My Lord, You are the only knowable object because there is nothing supreme beyond You. If there is anything supposedly superior to You, it is not the Absolute. You exist as the Supreme by exhibiting the creative energy of matter. (Vedabase)

Text 2:

That form, which is always free from material ignorance, came into being with the manifestation of Your internal potency for the sake of the devotees as the original incarnation in hundreds of forms and is the source of the lotusflower from which I myself originated.

The form which I see is eternally freed from material contamination and has advented to show mercy to the devotees as a manifestation of internal potency. This incarnation is the origin of many other incarnations, and I am born from the lotus flower grown from Your navel home. (Vedabase)

Text 3:

O my Lord, beyond You I see no form that is superior to Your eternal form of bliss, that is without changes and deterioration of potency; You are the one and only Creator of the cosmic manifestation and the nonmaterial Supreme Soul itself; I who takes pride in the identification with the body and senses am surrendered to You.

O my Lord, I do not see a form superior to Your present form of eternal bliss and knowledge. In Your impersonal Brahman effulgence in the spiritual sky, there is no occasional change and no deterioration of internal potency. I surrender unto You because whereas I am proud of my material body and senses. Your Lordship is the cause of the cosmic manifestations and yet You are untouched by matter. (Vedabase)

Text 4:

That form, or however You make Your presence, is all-auspicious for the entire universe and benefits our meditation, and to You, Supreme Lord, who are the manifested for us devotees, I offer my obeisances; unto You I perform that which is neglected by persons who are heading for hell in their concern with material topics.

This present form, or any transcendental form expanded by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, S'rî Krishna , is equally auspicious for all the universes. Since You have manifested this eternal personal form upon whom Your devotees meditate, I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You. Those who are destined to be dispatched to the path of hell neglect Your personal form because of speculating on material topics. (Vedabase)

Text 5:

Those who inside only smell the aroma of Your lotus feet, through their ears hearing the sounds of devotional service, are in acceptance of the school of transcendence and for them, Your own devotees, there is never the separation of You from the lotus of their hearts, o Lord.

O my Lord, persons who smell the aroma of Your lotus feet, carried by the air of Vedic sound through the holes of the ears, accept Your devotional service. For them You are never separated from the lotus of their hearts.

Text 6:

Till then there will be fear because of the wealth, the body and the relatives, and will the lamentation and desire as also the avarice and contempt be very great; till then, as long as the people of the world do not take to the shelter of Your safe lotus feet, will one, undertaking to the perishable notion of ownership, be full of anxieties.

O my lord, the people of the world are embarrassed by all material anxieties -they are always afraid. They always try to protect wealth, body and friends, they are filled with lamentation and unlawful desires and paraphernalia, and they avariciously base their undertakings on the perishable conceptions of "my" and "mine." As long as they do not take shelter of Your safe lotus feet, they are full of such anxieties. (Vedabase)

Text 7:

How unfortunate are they who are bereft of the memory of Your topics; tied down by inauspiciousness and their senses turned against, they act to their desires finding happiness for only a brief moment: they are poor fellows whose minds are overwhelmed by greed and whose activities are full of stress.

O my Lord, persons who are bereft of the all-auspicious performance of chanting and hearing about Your transcendental activities are certainly unfortunate and are also bereft of good sense. They engage in inauspicious activities, enjoying sense gratification for a very little while. (Vedabase)

Text 8:

Their always being troubled by [neurotic] hunger, thirst and their three humors [mucus, bile and wind], winter and summer, wind and rain and many other disturbances as also by a strong sexdrive and an inevitable anger, I see all together as most unbearable, o great actor - it aggrieves me a lot.

O great actor, my Lord, all these poor creatures are constantly perplexed by hunger, thirst, severe cold, secretion and bile, attacked by coughing winter, blasting summer, rains and many other disturbing elements, and overwhelmed by strong sex urges and indefatigable anger. I take pity on them, and I am very much aggrieved for them. (Vedabase)

Text 9:

As long as a person, acting for sake of the senses under the influence of the material illusion, is faced with the being separated in a body, o Fortunate One, will such a one for that time, o Lord, not be able to overcome the cycle of repeated births in the material world; even though working for results has no factual meaning [to the soul], will it bring him endless miseries.

O my Lord, the material miseries are without factual existence for the soul. Yet as long as the conditioned soul sees the body as meant for sense enjoyment, he cannot get out of the entanglement of material miseries, being influenced by Your external energy. (Vedabase)

Text 10

During the day they are engaged in stressful labor and at night they suffer insomnia because of their ruminations that break their intelligence and sleep constantly; the divine order frustrates their plans and also the wise, o my Lord, who turned against Your topics, stay around in this world.

Such nondevotees engage their senses in very troublesome and extensive work, and they suffer insomnia at night because their intelligence constantly breaks their sleep with various mental speculations. They are frustrated in all their various plans by supernatural power. Even great sages, if they are against Your transcendental topics, must rotate in this material world. (Vedabase)

Text 11

Unto You cent percent united in devotion, with You residing on the lotus of their hearts, do the devotees who are on the path of hearing, o my Lord, see You, in the here and now, in Your causeless mercy manifesting Your very same transcendental form, according whatever each of them in his meditations thinks of You hymned by so many.

O my Lord, Your devotees can see You through the ears by the process of bona fide hearing, and thus their hearts become cleansed, and You take Your seat there. You are so merciful to Your devotees that You manifest Yourself in the particular eternal form of transcendence in which they always think of You. (Vedabase)

Text 12:

You're never that much pleased by the big arrangements with a lot of articles of high-class servants who are of worship with hearts full of all kinds of desires, for You, the variously percieved Unique One and Only Wellwisher, the Supersoul within the living entities, are there to show all living entities Your causeless mercy and cannot be achieved by those going for the temporal.

My Lord, You are not very much satisfied by the worship of the demigods, who arrange for Your worship very pompously, with various paraphernalia, but who are full of material hankerings. You are situated in everyone's heart as the Supersoul just to show Your causeless mercy, and You are the eternal well-wisher, but You are unavailable for the nondevotee. (Vedabase)

Text 13:

Therefore is it the people's worship which, with different fruitive activities, charities, difficult penances and transcendental service, is performed for simply pleasing You, the Fortunate One, that is the right course one at any time is fixed upon and never will die.

But the pious activities of the people, such as performance of Vedic rituals, charity, austere penances, and transcendental service, performed with a view to worship You and satisfy You by offering You the fruitive results, are also beneficial. Such acts of religion never go in vain. (Vedabase)

Text 14:

Let me bring my obeisances unto You, who are this Supreme, who in enjoying pastimes in the matter of the cosmic creation, maintenance and destruction, for sure is distinguished by the glories of the eternal original form: all glory to the intelligence of the self-knowledge after Your transcendence of the illusory conception.

Let me offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Transcendence, who is eternally distinguished by His internal potency. His indistinguishable impersonal feature is realized by intelligence for self-realization. I offer my obeisances unto Him who by His pastimes enjoys the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the cosmic manifestation. (Vedabase)

Text 15:

I take shelter of the Unborn One whose incarnations, transcendental qualities and activities are all mysterious; of Him whose names invoked at the time of leaving this life, even unconsciously, immediately for sure take away the accumulated sins of many, many lives and open up the way to immortality.

Let me take shelter of the lotus feet of Him whose incarnations, qualities and activities are mysterious imitations of worldly affairs. One who invokes His transcendental names, even unconsciously, at the time he quits this life, is certainly washed immediately of the sins of many, many births and attains Him without fail. (Vedabase)

Text 16:

The one who indeed, with me and S'iva, as the Almighty personality and the cause of maintenance, creation and dissolution rooting in the soul, penetrated [this world] growing three trunks as the one and only to the many branches; unto Him, the Personality of Godhead, this tree of the planetary systems, my obeisances.

Your Lordship is the prime root of the tree of the planetary systems. This tree has grown by first penetrating the material nature in three trunks-as me, S'iva and You, the Almighty - for creation, maintenance and dissolution, and we three have grown with many branches. Therefore I offer my obeisances unto You, the tree of the cosmic manifestation. (Vedabase)

Text 17:

As long as the people of the world are engaged in unwanted activities and in the fixed acts of their own business are negligent of the by You pronounced beneficial activities, will the struggle for existence of these people be very tough and of the Vigilant One [of Time] all run straight into shambles; let there be My obeisances unto Him.

People in general all engage in foolish acts; not in the really beneficial activities enunciated directly by You for their guidance. As long as their tendency for foolish work remains powerful, all their plans in the struggle for existence will be cut to pieces. I therefore offer my obeisances unto Him who acts as eternal time. (Vedabase)

Text 18:

To You whom I also fear, although I exist in a place that lasts for two parârdhas [2 x 50 years, with one day and night being two times 4.32 billion earthly years: 311.04 trillion years] and are respected in all the worlds having undergone severe penances for many years for selfrealization, I nevertheless offer my respectful obeisances my Lord, Supreme Personality and enjoyer of all sacrifices.

Your Lordship, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You who are indefatigable time and the enjoyer of all sacrifices. Although I am situated in an abode which will continue to exist for a time duration of two parârdhas, although I am the leader of all other planets in the universe, and although I have undergone many, many years of penance for self-realization, still I offer my respects unto You. (Vedabase)

Text 19:

By the power of Your own will You project Yourself among the lower and the human beings, among the empowered ones and in the different species, performing transcendental pastimes in the desire to fulfill Your obligations, to which You are never under the material influence but for sure are manifesting Your divine form; my obeisances to that primeval Lord, the Supreme Personality.

O my Lord, by Your own will You appear in the various species of living entities, among animals lower than human beings as well as among the demigods, to perform Your transcendental pastimes. You are not affected by material contamination. You come just to fulfill the obligations of Your own principles of religion, and therefore, O Supreme Personality, I offer my obeisances unto You for manifesting such different forms. (Vedabase)

Text 20:

In spite of having accepted the influence of the fivefold interaction of the senses, You remain unaffected and sleep lying down on the snakebed, happy to be in touch within the waters of devastation with its violent waves - and that You do so for the maintenance of the different entities in Your abdomen, showing the chain of the intelligent Your happiness.

My Lord, You accept de pleasure of sleeping in the water of devastation, where there are violent waves, and You enjoy pleasure on the bed of snakes, showing the happiness of Your sleep to intelligent persons. At that time, all the universal planets are stationed within Your abdomen. (Vedabase)

Text 21:

Unto Him of whom I, from the lotus house sprouting from the navel manifested to assist Him, the worshipable one, in the creation of the three worlds; unto Him who has the universe in His abdomen and unto Him whose eyes are blossoming like lotuses after the end of the union of His sleep, my obeisances.

O object of my worship, I am born from the house of Your lotus navel for the purpose of creating the universe by Your mercy. All these planets of the universe were stationed within Your transcendental abdomen while You were enjoying sleep. Now, Your sleep having ended, Your eyes are open like blossoming lotuses in the morning. (Vedabase)

Text 22:

Let He, the Lord of all universes, the one friend and philosopher, the Supersoul who by the mode of goodness gives happiness as the Supreme Lord of the six opulences [beauty, intelligence, penance, power, fame and wealth], for sure give Me the power of introspection so that I will be able to create as before this universe in surrender and love with Him.

Let the Supreme Lord be merciful towards me. He is the one friend and soul of all living entities in the world, and He maintains all, for their ultimate happiness, by His six transcendental opulences. May He be merciful towards me so that I, as before, may be empowered with the introspection to create, for I am also one of the surrendered souls who are dear to the Lord. (Vedabase)

Text 23:

To this benefactor of the surrendered soul, who [as Râma] enjoys with the Goddess of Fortune [Lakshmî] in whatever He may enact from His internal potency with the accepting of incarnations of goodness, I pray that I may create gifted with His omnipotency and that, in spite of the material affection of my heart engaged in the work, I will also be able to stop with all of it.

The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, is always the benefactor of the surrendered souls. His activities are always enacted through His internal potency, Ramâ, or the goddess of fortune. I pray only to engage in His service in the creation of the material world, and I pray that I not be materially affected by my works, for thus I may be able to give up the false prestige of being the creator. (Vedabase)

Text 24:

I pray that I, who was born from the lake of the Supreme Person His navel as the energy of the total universe to the manifestation of the variegatedness of the unlimitedly powerful of Him, may not lose sight of the soundvibrations of the Vedic truth.

The Lord's potencies are innumerable. As He lies down in the water of devastation, I am born as the total universal energy from the navel lake in which the lotus sprouts. I am now engaged in manifesting His diverse energies in the form of the cosmic manifestation. I therefore pray that in the course of my material activities I may not be deviated from the vibration of the Vedic hymns. (Vedabase)