SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM: CANTO 6

Chapter 4: The Hamsa-guhya Prayers Offered to the Lord by Prajâpati Daksha

(1-2) The king said: 'Although you in brief explained to me about the creation of the godly, the ones of darkness and the human beings; the serpentine, the beasts and the birds under the rule of Svâyambhuva Manu [see canto 3], I would like to hear a more detailed account about this from you, my Lord, as well as an account about the creation that thereafter rose from the potency of the Transcendental Supreme Lord'.

(3) S'rî Sûta said: "O best of the sages [assembled at Naimishâranya see canto 1.1], thus hearing the king his inquiry did the son of Vyâsa, the great yogi, praising him, reply. (4) S'rî S'uka said: 'When the Pracetâs, the ten sons of King Prâcînabarhi returned from [their meditations] near the ocean, saw they that the entire planet was overgrown by trees [see 4.24, 4.30, 4.31]. (5) Incensed about the trees, having undergone austerities for so long, had they by their mouths blown up a fire with the intention to burn down the forests. (6) Seeing all the trees being burnt by the blazing fire, o son of Kuru, spoke the king of the forest, the great Soma, in order to pacify their anger, like this:

(7) 'Do not burn the poor trees to ashes, o fortunate souls, it is yours to strive for an increase of all living beings who know you as their protectors. (8) You may regret; the Supreme Personality of the Lord, the original, unchanging father and almighty protector, created all the trees, plants and herbs to serve as food. (9) It is arranged that the ones nonmoving serve the winged ones as food and that those without limbs [like grasses] serve as food for the ones with legs who have no hands or paws; the fourlegged on their turn are there for the animals with claws and the bipeds [to serve with respectively their flesh and milk]. (10) You are, on the order of your father and the God of Gods, o sinless ones, there also to generate the population; how then, for the love of God, can you burn the trees to ashes? (11) Like your father, grandfather and great-grandfather did, just follow the path of the saints and subdue the anger that has risen in you! (12) Be the way parents, like eyelids to their eyes, are as friends to their children; be the way the husband protects the wife and the way the householder cares for the ones in need of charity, or be alike the learned who are as friends to the ignorant. (13) The Supersoul residing within the bodies of all living entities is the Lord and Controller of all; try to see them as His residence and may He thus be pleased with you. (14) Anyone who by inquiry of self-realization subdues the powerful anger that, as fallen from the sky, suddenly awoke, will transcend the modes of nature. (15) Enough with that burning the trees, let there be all fortune for the ones remaining and accept the daughter [called Mârishâ], that was raised by them, as your wife.'

(16) O King, after thus addressing them, delivered he, King Soma, the Apsara girl who had beautiful hips, to the ones who had returned and married they with her according the religion. (17) In her was from all of them generated Daksha, the son of the Pracetâs, of whose procreative activity thereafter the three worlds were said to fill with offspring. (18) Please attentively hear from me how Daksha, so affectionate with his daughters, by his semen as sure as also by his mind, brought about all that life. (19) By his mind indeed set the prajâpati in the beginning the scene for those living beings that are of the godly and the godless, including all those resorting under them that live in the sky, on the land or in the water. (20) But upon seeing that his creation of beings did not increase in number, went Daksha to the feet of the Vindhya mountains where he performed the most difficult austerities. (21) There at the most suitable place for ending all reactions to sin, the holy place called Aghamarshana, satisfied he the Lord by austere and regularly performing the ceremonies. (22) I shall now explain to you how with the Hamsa-guhya ['the secret of the swan']-prayers he satisfied the Lord, pleasing Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead beyond the senses. (23) Daksha said: 'My reverential homage I offer Him, from whom we may realize the right way of transcending the modes and the material energy to which all alive are bound; my offer is for Him, the self-born Controller beyond measure and calculation, who in His abode is imperceptible to the materially directed intelligence. (24) The friend of whose friendship the person has no knowledge, just like sense objects that have no knowledge of the sense-organ that oversees them; that friend one lives with in this body, unto Him I offer my obeisances. (25) This body with its life airs, its senses, its understanding, its elements and sense-objects, they to themselves, to each other and to everything outside of them are known by the living being; but knowing all those qualities, he does not know the Unlimited One who knows all; Him I revere. (26) When the mind is put to a stop and all ideas and names of form of a material vision and remembrance have ceased, will due to that ending He be perceived in His own unique spiritual completeness; unto that swanlike one [called swan because of sifting the true from the untrue, the milk from the water], unto Him who is realized in the purest state, my respects. (27-28) Just like with fire that locked within wood is extracted singing the fifteen hymns [the Sâmidhenî mantras], do the great brahmins of sacrifice extract what with His powers by the modes of nature is situated within the heart of the celebrated elements and the rest of them [see e.g. 3.26: 11]; He, who is realized by the bliss, the negation in liberation of the illusory of all the variety, He of all names, He, the gigantic form of the universe, may He, that inconceivable reservoir of all qualities have mercy with me. (29) Whatever expressed by words or ascertained by contemplation, by sense perception or by the mind, may of something, as an expression of the three modes, not be the actual form indeed; the actual form in truth appears as that [form of the Supreme Lord] which is the cause that puts an end to all that is of the modes in creation. (30) In whom, from whom and by whom and also to whom belongs and towards whom is directed; He, whether acting or causing to act, is of both the material and spiritual of existence the Supreme Origin well known to everyone that is the Brahman, the Cause of All Causes, the One without a second to which there is no other cause. (31) Of whose many energies the speakers of the different philosophies discussing the causes are of argument and accord, and of which they continuously, bewildered about the soul, create; unto Him, that unlimited, all-pervading One of all transcendental attributes, my reverence. (32) Those professing the knowledge of the ultimate cause speaking about what would be [the absolute has form: sâkâra] and would not be [the absolute is formless, nirâkâra], deal with one and the same subject matter but demonstrate different and opposing characters, as one may notice from that which is of mystic union and of analysis; indeed is that transcendental dwelling place, that ultimate cause, one and the same [compare 5.26: 39]. (33) In order to be of causeless mercy with the devotees at His lotus feet does He, the eternal, Supreme Personality who is not bound to any name or form, manifest with the forms and holy names He takes birth with and enacts; may He, the Transcendence, be merciful with me. (34) He who by the lower grade paths of worship to the desires of each living being manifests from within the core of the heart, gains, just as the wind blowing over the earth, in color and aroma [taking the form of demigods thus]; may He, my Controller, attend to my bearings.'

Vishnu on Garuda

(35-39) S'rî S'uka said: 'Thus being praised by the prayers offered did He, the Supreme Lord, the caretaker of the devotees, appear there in Aghamarshana, o best of the Kurus. With His feet on Garuda's shoulders held He with His long and mighty eight arms, the disc, the conchshell, the sword, the shield, the arrow, the bow, the rope and the club. His intense black-blue form was clad in yellow garments, His face and glance were very cheerful and His whole body was adorned from top to bottom; decorated with the shining Kaustubha jewel, the S'rîvatsa mark, a large full circle helmet, glittering shark-earrings, a belt, finger-rings, bracelets around His wrists and upper-arms and with His ankle bells, captivated His appearance the three worlds. As the brilliance of the lower, the higher and the middle spheres was the Controller surrounded by Nârada, Nanda and other eternal associates as well as by the leaders of the godly, and was He glorified by the perfect, the heavenly singers, and the venerable ones of the Veda, who sang for Him. (40) Seeing that greatly wonderful form he was at first frightened but then pleased in body mind and soul did the prajâpati prostrate flat on the ground. (41) By the great happiness that filled His senses like rivers flooded by mountain streams, was he unable to utter a word. (42) Seeing a great devotee like him, desirous of offspring, prostrated before Him, did He, Janârdana who appeases all, knowing each his heart, speak as follows. (43) The Supreme Lord said: 'O son of the Pracetâs, you so greatly fortunate perfected, by your austerities, your good self in great faith and attained with Me as your object the supreme of love. (44) I am very pleased with you, o ruler of man; because of your penance the numbers of beings living here increased. May there of this desire be progress in all fields. (45) Brahmâ, S'iva, all you founding fathers, the Manus and all rulers of power [like the divinities of the sun and the moon], all these are indeed expansions of My energy and are the cause of the welfare of all living beings. (46) Penance is My heart, o brahmin, the vedic knowledge is My body, the spiritual activities are My form, the rituals conducted by the book are My limbs, and the enlivening of the godly [the unseen good fortune of devotional activities] is the true of My mind and soul. (47) In the beginning, before the creation, was I certainly the only one existing, nothing else was found besides me; the external of a material consciousness was unmanifest like it is with being immersed in sleep. (48) When in Me, from My unlimited potency, the unlimited of qualities in the form of the universe came into existence, was indeed therein born the first being, Lord Brahmâ, originating from no other but himself. (49-50) When he Svayambhû, the truly great God, in trying to bring about the creation, thought himself incapable in being an extension of My power, was the god he was at the time advised by Me to perform the severest austerity; thus were there from him in the beginning the nine great personalities of creation from whom all of you originated [see 3.24: 21 and also 3.8]. (51) O Prajâpati, take this daughter named Asiknî of another prajâpati called Pañcajana as your wife, my dear son. (52) You, married to her, will in sexual union according the religion again [see 4.2] be the cause of the many of this who according the dharma in marriage will give birth to all alive [see also B.G. 7: 11]. (53) All the ones alive who, because of My illusory energy, after you engage in sexual intercourse, will then also arrive at doing their best in making offerings to Me. '

(54) S'rî S'uka said: 'Thus speaking before his eyes disappeared the Supreme Lord, the creator of all the universe, from there as if He, the Supreme Personality, had been a dream image.

The king said: 'Although you in brief explained to me about the creation of the godly, the ones of darkness and the human beings; the serpentine, the beasts and the birds under the rule of Svâyambhuva Manu [see canto 3], I would like to hear a more detailed account about this from you, my Lord, as well as an account about the creation that thereafter rose from the potency of the Transcendental Supreme Lord'.

The king said: 'Although you in brief explained to me about the creation of the godly, the ones of darkness and the human beings; the serpentine, the beasts and the birds under the rule of Svâyambhuva Manu [see canto 3], I would like to hear a more detailed account about this from you, my Lord, as well as an account about the creation that thereafter rose from the potency of the Transcendental Supreme Lord'. (Vedabase)

Text 3

S'rî Sûta said: "O best of the sages [assembled at Naimishâranya see canto 1.1], thus hearing the king his inquiry did the son of Vyâsa, the great yogi, praising him, reply.

S'rî Sûta said: "O best of the sages [assembled at Naimishâranya see canto 1.1], thus hearing the king his inquiry did the son of Vyâsa, the great yogî, praising him, reply. (Vedabase)

Text 4

S'rî S'uka said: 'When the Pracetâs, the ten sons of King Prâcînabarhi returned from [their meditations] near the ocean, saw they that the entire planet was overgrown by trees [see 4.24, 4.30, 4.31]. '

S'rî S'uka said: 'When the Pracetâs, the ten sons of king Prâcinabarhi returned from [their meditations] near the ocean saw they that the entire planet was overgrown by trees [see 4.24-30-31]. (Vedabase)

Text 5

Incensed about the trees, having undergone austerities for so long, had they by their mouths blown up a fire with the intention to burn down the forests.

Incensed about the trees, having undergone austerities for so long, had they by their mouths blown up a fire with the intention to burn down the forests. (Vedabase)

Text 6

Seeing all the trees being burnt by the blazing fire, o son of Kuru, spoke the king of the forest, the great Soma, in order to pacify their anger, like this:

Seeing all the trees being burnt by the blazing fire, o son of Kuru, spoke the king of the forest, the great Soma, in order to pacify their anger, like this: (Vedabase)

Text 7

'Do not burn the poor trees to ashes, o fortunate souls, it is yours to strive for an increase of all living beings who know you as their protectors.

'Do not burn the poor trees to ashes, o fortunate souls, it is yours to strive for an increase of all living beings that know you as their protectors. (Vedabase)

Text 8

You may regret; the Supreme Personality of the Lord, the original, unchanging father and almighty protector, created all the trees, plants and herbs to serve as food.

You may regret; the Supreme Personality of the Lord, the original, unchanging father and almighty protector, created all the trees, plants and herbs to serve as food. (Vedabase)

Text 9

It is arranged that the ones nonmoving serve the winged ones as food and that those without limbs [like grasses] serve as food for the ones with legs who have no hands or paws; the fourlegged on their turn are there for the animals with claws and the bipeds [to serve with respectively their flesh and milk].

Verily do the nonmoving provide the winged ones with food and do those without limbs [like grasses] serve as food for the ones with legs who have no hands or paws; the fourlegged on their turn are there for the animals with claws and the bipeds [to serve with respectively their flesh and milk]. (Vedabase)

Text 10

You are, on the order of your father and the God of Gods, o sinless ones, there also to generate the population; how then, for the love of God, can you burn the trees to ashes?

You are, on the order of your father and the God of Gods, o sinless ones, there also to generate the population; how then for the love of God can you burn the trees to ashes? (Vedabase)

Text 11

Like your father, grandfather and great-grandfather did, just follow the path of the saints and subdue the anger that has risen in you!

Like your father, grandfather and great-grandfather did, just follow the path of the saints and subdue the anger that has risen in you! (Vedabase)

Text 12

Be the way parents, like eyelids to their eyes, are as friends to their children; be the way the husband protects the wife and the way the householder cares for the ones in need of charity, or be alike the learned who are as friends to the ignorant.

Be the way parents, like eyelids to their eyes, are as friends to their children, be the way the husband protects the wife and the way the householder cares for the ones in need of charity or be alike the learned that are the friends of the ignorant. (Vedabase)

Text 13

The Supersoul residing within the bodies of all living entities is the Lord and Controller of all; try to see them as His residence and may He thus be pleased with you.

The Supersoul residing within the bodies of all living entities is the Lord and Controller of all; try to see them as His residence and may He thus be pleased with you. (Vedabase)

Text 14

Anyone who by inquiry of self-realization subdues the powerful anger that, as fallen from the sky, suddenly awoke, will transcend the modes of nature.

Anyone who by inquiry of self-realization subdues the powerful anger that, as fallen from the sky, suddenly awoke, will transcend the modes of nature. (Vedabase)

Text 15

Enough with that burning the trees, let there be all fortune for the ones remaining and accept the daughter [called Mârishâ], that was raised by them, as your wife.'

Enough with that burning the trees, let there be all fortune for the ones remaining and accept for true the daughter [called Mârishâ] that was raised by them, choosing her for your wife.' (Vedabase)

Text 16

O King, after thus addressing them, delivered he, King Soma, the Apsara girl who had beautiful hips, to the ones who had returned and married they with her according the religion.

O King, after thus addressing them, did he, king Soma, deliver the apsara girl that had beautiful hips, to the ones who had returned and married they with her according the religion. (Vedabase)