"Manifestation of Brahmâ from Garbhodakas'âyî Vishnu"

 

 

 

Skandham-3.1

 

Chapter-8.

 

Slokam- 1 to  33. 

 

Manifestation of Brahmâ from Garbhodakas'âyî Vishnu : 

 

(1) S'rî Maitreya said: 'The descendants of King Pûru are certainly worthy to serve the true because their kings are chiefly devoted to the Supreme Personality; and also with you who are born in this chain of devotional activity to the Invincible One, step by step there is constant renewal. (2) To that I will speak this Bhâgavatam, this vedic supplement which was directly spoken to the wise by the Supreme Lord for the mitigation of the great distress of the human beings who experience so little happiness.

 

(3) The son of Brahmâ [Sanat-Kumâra] inquired, heading the great sages [the four boy-saints, the Kumâra's], just like you for the truth about the original Personality with Lord Sankarshana [the first plenary portion and companion of the Lord] who undeterred of knowledge resides at the basis of the Universe. (4) Himself thus situated for the mediation of He who is greatly esteemed by the name of Vâsudeva had turned His vision inward, but for the advancement of the greatly learned sages He slightly opened his lotuslike eyes. (5) With the hairs on their heads wet from the water of the Ganges they touched the shelter of His lotusfeet that are worshiped by the daughters of the serpent-king with great devotion and various paraphernalia in the desire for a good husband. (6) With words and great affection in rhythmic accord repeatedly glorifying the activities of the Lord, from the thousands of raised hoods [of Ananta, the serpent king] emanated the glowing effulgence of the valuable stones of their thousands of helmets. (7) Of the purport of the Bhâgavatam He then certainly spoke to Sanat-Kumâra who had taken the vow of yoga and it was also told [on his turn by him], o Vidura, on request to Sânkhyâyana who had also taken to the vow. (8) When the great sage Sânkhyâyana as the chief of the transcendentalists reciting this Bhâgavatam [thereafter] gave explanation, he was heard by the spiritual master Parâs'ara I followed as also by Brihaspati. (9) He [Parâs'ara] kindhearted told me, as was told him by the sage Pulastya, the foremost of the purânas that also I shall speak to you, my dear son, as you are a follower that is always faithful.

 

(10) At the time the trhee worlds were submerged in the water was He therein laying down with nearly closed eyes on the snake bed Ananta and was He without any interest in the external actively enjoying His internal potency. (11) He, from within the body of transcendence kept the subtle of the material elements as the soul of time [kâla], giving life and energy from His own position of residing in the water, the way the power of fire is contained in firewood. (12) For a thousand times four yugas [4.32 billion years], He was [before this] asleep with His internal potency for the sake of the further development by His own force called kâla [time], of the whole world bound in fruitive action that made Him in His own body look bluish [as the resort of life giving water]. (13) To the purpose of His internal attention on the subtle subject matter, there was in due course of time by the material activity of the modes of nature, the agitated [of the primal substance] that then generated very subtly [with organic forms] the piecing through of His abdomen. (14) That bud of the lotus flower, generated from within, by time suddenly appeared, awakening the fruitive activities and by its own effulgence illuminating the vast waters of devastation like the sun.

 

(15) In that lotus flower that is the world Vishnu for sure factually entered as the reservoir of all the qualities of which one says that He in the past generated the person of vedic wisdom, the controller of the universe or the self-born one. (16) And in that water situated on the whorl of the lotus the [Brahmâ of the] world was not able to see and wandered around with spying eyes in the four directions thus achieving his heads ['the four heads' of Brahmâ]. (17) From there at the end of the Yuga because of the air of devastation [thunder and lightening] from the whirl of the water, the mystery of creation situated on and sheltered by the lotus flower in its astonishment could not understand itself perfectly as being the first demigod [Brahmâ]. (18) 'Who am I, this one on top of the lotus? Where did this lotus come from? Surely there is something in the water below. Whether it sprouted of its own or not, it must belong to something else!' (19) He [Brahmâ] contemplating this way the lotus stem, by that channel of the water he entered into, could not, despite of turning inward and thinking extensively about that stemming from the navel [of Vishnu], understand how it took birth of its own. (20) Because of looking in ignorance, o Vidura, contemplating the cause of the creation, thus it came to the dominance of three-dimensional [material or linear] time which to the embodied generates fearfulness and the diminishing of the lifespan to a hundred years in relating to the self-born and the wheel [s'is'umâra cakra or galactic] of eternal time [compare 2.2.: 24-25].

 

(21) Thereafter retiring from that endeavor without achieving what he desired, he came back to his own seat [or material position] where he as the demigod immediately sat down and withdrew his intelligence controlling the breath, self-assured absorbed in yoga. (22) In due course of time, he, the self born for his lifetime [a 'hundred years of Brahmâ', of which one day of 4.32 billion solar years has 1000 mahâyugas ], developed in his meditation the intelligence that manifested out of its own in the heart, of which he saw what he couldn't see before. (23) On the bed of the completely white gigantic S'esha-nâga [snake] lotus flower the Original person was lying alone under the umbrella of the serpent hood that was bedecked with head jewels of which by its rays the darkness in the water of devastation [the primal soup] dissipated. (24) The panorama derided the [ensuing] green and coral of the evening splendor of the sun and the great and golden of the mountain summits with their jewels of waterfalls and herbs and so was the scenery of flowers and trees [but] the adornment of His hands and legs. (25) The length and breadth of the measurement of His transcendental presence covered the totality of the three worlds in all its variety with the beauty of the divine radiance of the ornaments that dressed His body.

 

(26) To the desire of the human being on the path of devotional service in worship of the lotus feet that reward with all what is longed for, He showed of those feet in His causeless mercy the moon like shine of His toe- and fingernails that reveal the most beautiful [flower like] division. (27) From his facial expression, the vanquisher of the worldly distress, by His smiles dazzles, being decorated with earrings, the witnessing with the rays reflected from His lips in the reciprocation of His pleasing nose and eyebrows. (28) My dear Vidura, the waist was well decorated with a belt and cloth of a saffron color of kadamaba flowers; there was a priceless necklace and on the chest there was the attractive S'rîvatsa mark [a few white hairs]. (29) The way trees in the world are self-situated and disseminate with thousands of branches their high value [of flowers and fruits] as if ornamented with precious jewels, so the Lord, the ruler of Ananta, [Garbhodakas'âyî Vishnu] is ornamented with the hoods over His shoulders. (30) The Supreme Lord as the mountain range forms the abode for what moves around and does not move with the friendship of Ananatadeva who, from within the water bedecked with thousands of golden helmets, manifests as the peak of those mountains the Kaustubha [priceless jewel] in the ocean. (31) In the midst of that with the sweet sound of the beauty and the flower garlands of Vedic wisdom of His own glories [saw Brahmâ that] the Lord of the sun, the moon, the air and the fire was very difficult to reach, unapproachable as He was in His wandering around in the three worlds fighting for the duty. (32) So could it be that the godhead of the universe, the creator of destiny, was sure of seeing the navel of Him, the lake, the lotus flower, the soul its waters of destruction, its drying air and the sky; but he could not glance beyond the created of the cosmic manifestation. (33) He as the seed of worldly activities invigorated by the mode of passion with that vision thus prayed, with the [sensual] fivefold of the entities eager to procreate, to be creative after the worshipable transcendental on the path of the steadfast soul.