"Description of the Kingdom of God"

Skandham-3.1

 

Chapter-15.

 

 

Slokam- 1 to 50.

 

 

Description of the Kingdom of God

 

 

(1) Maitreya said: 'Diti understood that of the powerful semen of the great Prajâpati, others in power would be in trouble and thus she bore it in doubt about how it for a hundred years would affect the godly. (2) The world was deprived of light from it and the diverse local divinities who saw their power diminished, turned to God [Brahmâ] wondering about where the darkness expanding in all directions came from. (3) The godly said: 'Of this darkness you know of, o mighty one, we are very afraid because we are not unmanifest as you are; your supreme divine ways are unaffected by the touch of time. (4) O god of gods, sustainer of the universe, you as the crownjewel of the spiritual and material worlds of all local divinities, know of all intentions of all living beings. (5) Our respects, o original source of strength and objective knowledge. Having obtained this body of external energy and accepting the differentiated of your mode of passion, we offer our obeisances to you as you are the original unmanifest source. (6) Those with unswerving devotion meditate upon you as the origin of all beings; all the worlds are linked by your self which is the supreme generator of cause and effect. (7) Of them who are mature in the practice of yoga and attained to your mercy controlling the senses and the mind by the breath, there is no defeat anywhere. (8) Of whose directions all living entities are led like a bull by the rope, of him whose force of control cannot be undone, to that chief, to you, we offer our obeisances. (9) Him, you, we ask to act to our good fortune, o great Lord, as from the darkness all our prescribed duties have been suspended. By the magnanimous mercy of your glance, we, the surrendered, are able to see. (10) O god, this semen of Kas'yapa deposited in the womb of Diti, causes complete darkness in all directions like a fire that is overloaded with fuel.'

 

 

 

(11) Maitreya said: 'Smilingly he the self-born, o mighty armed one, who by the prayers is understood as the original possessor of all opulence, replied the godly satisfying them with sweet words. (12) Brahmâ said: 'Those headed by Sanaka [Sanâtana, Sanandana en Sanat-kumâra] where, before you, born from my mind and traveled the peoples of the spiritual and material worlds without any desire. (13) Once upon a time did they, by the Supreme Personality of Lord Vishnu freed from all contamination, enter Vaikunthha, the heavenly abode worshiped by people everywhere. (14) All the persons living there have the same form as the Lord of Vaikunthha and live without desire because of their devotional service of continuous worship of the Supreme Personality. (15) There the original person is the Supreme Lord Himself who is understood by scripture in accepting, in the mode of goodness, the uncontaminated of His own associates, which increases our happiness about the personification of the religious principles. (16) At Vaikunthha, where everything is spiritual and personal, there are forests in the name of happiness that yield to all desires with trees that throughout all seasons are filled with splendid flowers and fruits. (17) Highly elevated they along with their wives are always singing there, free from all inauspicious qualities, of the Supreme Lord, deriding even the mind expanding fragrance of the mâdhavi flowers full of nectar blossoming in the midst of the water. (18) The tumult of pigeons, cuckoos, cranes, cakravâka's, and gallinules, swans, parrots, partridges and peacocks but for a moment is stopped by the loud humming of the king of the bumblebees as he sings the glories of the Lord. (19) The fragrance of the mandâra, kunda, kurabaka, utpala, campaka, arna, punnâga, nâgakes'ara, bakula, lily and pârijâtâ, being worshiped in the good mindedness of the austerity of Vaikunthha, finds there its full glory in a garland of tulsî-leaves. (20) Simply by obeisance to the Lord His feet the devotees attained to palaces, made of lapis lazuli with emeralds and gold, of which the inhabitants have large hips and beautiful smiling faces. But with their minds absorbed in Krishna this does not give rise to any lust with their friendly laughing and joking. (21) Assuming the beautiful body of the goddess of fortune do their leg bangles tinkle as they are playing with lotus flowers in the house of the Lord where they, free from all faults, see to it that its gold decorated walls are wiped crystal clear in the care for others to be worthy of the grace. (22) In the ponds with banks of coral they offer in their gardens surrounded by their maidservants the Lord tulsî leaves, seeing in the clear nectarine water the tilaka high on their noses, thinking their faces thus kissed by the Lord as being part of His beauty. (23) Alas, how unfortunate are the ones who never get near to this Vaikunthha creation of the vanquisher of all sin, but rather hear of other subject matter in bad words that kill the intelligence. Such persons, away from the values of life, are, devoid of all shelter, thrown into the darkness. (24) Those and us who so desired certainly attained to the human form of life and knowledge of the subject matter of the Absolute with the religious principles. Where one is not in such respect of the Supreme Lord, one is alas performing in the bewilderment of His all-pervading illusory energy. (25) Although in association [of Vaikunthha] one refrains from strict austerity and the following in the footsteps of the important wise, one certainly desires there to hear, above hearing from us, about the good qualities from His associates. Discussing amongst one other the glories, in ecstasy of the attraction they are with tears in their eyes and have their bodies shivering.'

 

 

 

(26) The sages [led by Sanaka] upon reaching that place by dint of their spiritual potency attained to an unprecedented supreme happiness seeing it illumined by the highly elevated of the best of devotees and predominated by the Teacher of the Universe, who of all the world is the only one worthy of worship. (27) After passing there through six gates without feeling much attraction, they at the seventh gate then found two doorkeepers equal of age carrying valuable maces, bracelets, earrings, helmets and beautiful garments. (28) There were intoxicated bees about the garlands of fresh flowers around their necks in between their arms and with their arched eyebrows, snorting breathing and reddish eyes they looked somewhat agitated. (29) Seeing the both of them standing at the gate the sons of Brahmâ, as they did before, passed without asking through the gold and diamond doors; open-minded they were the great sages who of their own will had moved everywhere without being checked and doubted. (30) Seeing them, four naked boys who were aged and had realized the truth of the self but who looked as if they were only five years old, the two porters blocked them with their staffs, disregarding the glory and the etiquette in an offensive attitude towards the Lord. (31) Being refused by the two under the eyes of the inhabitants of Vaikunthha, although they were by far the fittest of the Lord, did their eyes to the slight hindrance of the doorkeepers suddenly turn red from anger in their eagerness to see their most beloved.

 

 

 

(32) The sages said: 'Who are the two of you that from your past pious deeds attained to the service of the Supreme Lord? Being in discord with the mentality of the devotees that are without anxiety and enmity in Him, can whoever, like you both are doing, maintain such duplicity losing the trust? (33) Like there is harmony between the little air that one keeps and the air outside, there is of the soul harmony contained between the Supreme Personality and the living beings. How can the learned who see the two of you in the dress of Vaikunthha regard you as awakened and as having developed a certain distinction to body and soul? From where by God this fearfulness? (34) Let us therefore consider, for bestowing the benefit of the Lord of Vaikunthha, how to deal with this offense of antipathy. From this place you may, because of seeing it in duality, go to the material world where one lives with the threefold sin that is the enemy [desire, lust and anger].'

 

 

 

(35) The two understood the terrible of what was said and became afraid of the devotees as the curse of a brahmin cannot be counteracted. Immediately they fell in great anxiety to the ground and grasped for their feet: (36) 'Let it be so for our sins that you have punished us. Disrespect for such great devotees as you, should be destroyed. But surely of your compassion and our repentance by time we pray not to suffer the illusion of forgetting the Supreme Lord, when more and more we have to descend to the level of the common mortal.'

 

 

 

(37) At that very moment the Supreme Lord, of whose navel sprouted the lotus, learned about the insult against the righteous sages and walked, accompanied by His goddess of fortune, over there with the very same lotus feet that are sought by the hermits and the wise. (38) Seeing Him coming forward with all the paraphernalia and His associates, the great sages who now saw the one whom they always were looking for, fell into ecstasy seeing how as beautiful swans, the câmara's [fans of yak-tail] were waving a cool breeze moving the pearls of His white umbrella, making them look like drops of water to a reflected moon. (39) Blessing all with His auspicious face as the desirable shelter He affectionately looked upon them and touched them expanding in their hearts; with His blackish skin and with His broad chest decorated by the goddess of fortune, He spread the good fortune as the summit of the spiritual worlds and the abode of the soul. (40) Covered by yellow cloth he had a brightly shining girdle around his hips and humming bees to his garland of fresh flowers. His wrists carried lovely bracelets and one of His hands rested on the shoulder of the son of Vinatâ [Garuda] while another waved a lotus flower. (41) Outshining lightening the decoration of His alligator shaped earrings completed the countenance of His cheeks and straight nose showing a gem-studded crown, a charming most precious necklace between his stout arms and the Kaustubha [His jewel] that adorned his neck. (42) There He thus curbed down the pride of the Goddess of beauty by the intelligence of His own meditating devotees; the very beautiful figure worshipable for me as well as for S'ivaas for all of you, seen by the sages, could not satisfy their eyes and made them joyously bow down. (43) When the breeze carrying the fragrance of tulsî leaves from the toes of the lotus feet entered their nostrils, their agitation changed, even though they were in both body and mind attached to the impersonal. (44) After looking up they surely saw the face of Him to be like the inside of a blue lotus and saw the even more beautiful jasmine flower lips smiling. Thus having achieved their lives aim they again looked down at the ruby-red nails of his lotus feet and meditated their shelter. (45) For those people who seek liberation in this world by the path's of yoga He is the object of meditation approved by the great ones; pleasing to the eyes displaying His human form He, eternally present as the Connecting One, is praised as the perfection of the eight achievements that is not attainable for others [the socalled eight perfections or siddhi's are: animâ: smallness, mahimâ: greatness, garimâ: weight, laghimâ: lightness, prâpti: free access, prâkâmya: doing at wish, vas'itva, control over the elements and îs'itvam: lordship over all]..

 

 

 

(46) The Kumâra's said: 'He who is seated in our hearts is not manifest to the ones far from the soul. You, who certainly are Him face to face to us today, o Unlimited One, can be attained when sure of hearing the intelligence by our father [Brahmâ] has uncovered the mysteries posed by Your appearance. (47) Him, You, we know, o Supreme Lord, as the supreme reality of the soul that is of pure goodness. Now You can be understood by us sages as the mercy and love of God that shapes each and all unflinching in the union of devotion, free from bondage in the heart and without interest in a material life. (48) One does not even care for the grace of worldly success or whatever material happiness; fearful by the raising of Your eyebrows we as devotees, o Supreme One, take to the shelter of Your Lotus feet and the stories about You of which the pure glories are worth the chanting of the very expert knowers of Your rasa's [individual relations to Him]. (49) As we deserved from our sins we may be of low births and have minds busy like bees; if we may be engaged at Your lotus feet and have our words like the tulsî leaves at Your mercy, they will find beauty with the filling of our ears with Your transcendental qualities. (50) By this eternal form of You that You manifested, o Greatly Worshiped, o Lord, we obtained so much satisfaction in our vision about You as the Supreme Lord. Let us therefore offer our obeisances to You only; You who by the estranged cannot be seen as the Supreme Lord the way You are seen by us.