Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Nārada Bhakti Sūtra,
Introduction
In 1967, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda translated and wrote purports for thirteen of the eighty-four aphorisms (Śrīla Prabhupāda called them "codes") of the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra. In 1989, at their annual meeting, the Governing Body Commission of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) suggested that I complete the book. I was pleased to accept the assignment, especially because of my involvement with Śrīla Prabhupāda's initial writing of the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra.
I was part of the small group of seekers who joined Śrīla Prabhupāda in the latter part of 1966 at his storefront temple at 26 Second Avenue, in New York City. At one point we began passing around a Gita Press edition of Nārada's Philosophy of Love-Nārada-bhakti-sūtra. Some of us were attracted to the nectar and simplicity of the aphorisms. In those days it wasn't unusual for us naive followers to pick up all sorts of translations of Sanskrit Indian books. We tended to think that anything Hindu was salutary and within Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It wasn't long before Śrīla Prabhupāda made it clear to us that we had to discriminate. Many books, we learned, were the works of Māyāvādīs, a brand of atheists in the guise of svāmīs, gurus, and scholars. It was hard to break our attachments to some of these books, but we always did so once Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that a particular book or guru was not bona fide.
But when I showed Śrīla Prabhupāda the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra and told him I liked it, he encouraged me and said he might translate it.
In our edition of the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra was a beautiful color illustration of Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. They looked young, about eight years old, and stood gracefully by the edge of the Yamunā River with a cow behind Them. I took the illustration to a photography shop and had a dozen color copies made. With Śrīla Prabhupāda's approval, I gave a photo to each of his initiated disciples. It became like an ISKCON membership photo and was used by devotees on their personal altars.
When Śrīla Prabhupāda left our New York home early in 1967 and went to San Francisco, I wrote him to ask if he would translate the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra. Here is Śrīla Prabhupāda's reply, dated February 10, 1967:
Yes, please send me immediately one copy of Bhakti Sutra (with original Sanskrit text). I shall immediately begin the commentary.
At first Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation of the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra went quickly. He sent tapes of his dictation in the mail, and I transcribed them along with the tapes he sent for his major work, Teachings of Lord Caitanya. From the beginning it was understood that Nārada-bhakti-sūtra was a kind of "extra" for Śrīla Prabhupāda. But it had its own charm, and Prabhupāda approached it in his own inimitable way. I was surprised, on receiving the translation for the first aphorism, to see how Śrīla Prabhupāda translated the word bhakti. The edition he was using translated bhakti as "devotion" or "Divine Love." But Śrīla Prabhupāda translated bhakti as "devotional service." Even by this one phrase he indicated that bhakti was active and personal. He would not tolerate any hint that bhakti was a state of impersonal "Love."
It was significant that Śrīla Prabhupāda began his first purport with a reference to Bhagavad-gītā, the foremost scripture for teaching bhakti-yoga. The Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, or any other treatise on devotion to God, should be supported by Lord Kṛṣṇa's direct teachings in Bhagavad-gītā. By their nature, sūtras require explanation. As Lord Caitanya explained while discussing the Vedānta-sūtra, the aphorisms have a direct meaning, but their brevity allows devious commentators to distort the meaning through misinterpretation. How safe we were when reading the Bhaktivedanta purports to the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, and how dangerous it is to read these aphorisms when interpreted by those who lack pure devotion to the Supreme Person!
As with his other works, Śrīla Prabhupāda's purports to the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra were completely in line with the teachings of the param-parā, or disciplic succession, and at the same time full of his own realizations.
One particular statement that attracted me was his reference to enthusiasm in bhakti. Commenting on Sūtra 5, Śrīla Prabhupāda compared enthusiasm to a powerful engine that has to be used properly. He wrote, "If one, however, becomes disappointed in his enthusiasm for serving the Supreme Lord, that disappointment must also be rejected." As a neophyte devotee, I was well aware of the danger of depression, which we sometimes refer to in ISKCON as being "fried." But just as a serious practitioner restrains his tongue and other senses, so one should not indulge in too much depression or disappointment. It was comforting to hear this from Śrīla Prabhupāda and to gain conviction that it is within our control-we are not helpless before unlimited waves of depression.
One simply has to follow the rules and regulations patiently "so that the day will come when he will achieve, all of a sudden, all the perfection of devotional service."
I have to admit that I acquired a personal attachment for Śrīla Prabhupāda's Nārada-bhakti-sūtra as I happily watched its progress. I noticed that some of the same material Śrīla Prabhupāda was putting into Teachings of Lord Caitanya also appeared in the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, but I didn't think anything was wrong in that. Yet at some point Śrīla Prabhupāda began to think that perhaps Nārada-bhakti-sūtra was a bit redundant, at least while he was also working on Teachings of Lord Caitanya. I might have suspected this when he wrote in his purport to Sūtra 12, "There are many authoritative books of spiritual knowledge, but all of them are more or less supplements to the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Even the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra is a summary of the Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore the beginning of devotional service is to hear these two important transcendental books of knowledge."
Then, in March of 1967, while Śrīla Prabhupāda was still residing in San Francisco, he wrote me this letter:
Please accept my blessings. I have seen the typed copies of Narada Bhakti Sutras as well as Teachings of Lord Caitanya. Both of them are nicely made. I think let us finish first Teachings of Lord Caitanya and then we may take again Narada Bhakti Sutras. The subject matter discussed with Narada Sutras is already there in the Teachings of Lord Caitanya.
I have sent you matter for the second part of the Teachings and please go on sending me a copy of your typewritten matter. I shall be glad to hear from you.
And so Śrīla Prabhupāda's work on the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra stopped, and it was never resumed. It was a personal choice by the author, who wanted to concentrate on Teachings of Lord Caitanya. But we should not see it as a rejection of the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra. Śrīla Prabhupāda intended to "take again Narada Bhakti Sutras." And so more than twenty years later we are taking up the work again, on the authority of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Whatever we have written to complete the work we have done as Śrīla Prabhupāda's student, using his commentated translations of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Bhagavad-gītā, and the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and his summary studies of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (The Nectar of Devotion) and the Bhāgavatam's Tenth Canto (Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead).
There is a particular charm to the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra in its brevity, universality, and emphasis on total surrender to Lord Kṛṣṇa. The aphorisms are strong and can be easily remembered and confidently quoted in devotional discussions and preaching. Śrīla Prabhupāda refers to the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra several times in his writings, as in this statement from Teachings of Lord Caitanya (p. 53-4): "In the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra it is said that one who is very serious about developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness has his desire to understand Kṛṣṇa fulfilled very soon by the grace of the Lord."
The major importance of the present publication is that another of Śrīla Prabhupāda's literary works is now available in book form for his growing reading audience. The GBC's request to Gopiparāṇadhana Prabhu and me to complete the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra is their mercy upon us. We pray that we have not deviated from Śrīla Prabhupāda's intentions and that this edition of the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra will bring pleasure and enlightenment to the hearts of everyone who reads it.
Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami
Editor's note: Citations from Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and Teachings of Lord Caitanya are from "The Great Classics of India" editions (1985). Citations from The Nectar of Devotion are from the 1982 edition.
Chapter 1: The Value of Devotion
NBS 1: Now, therefore, I will try to explain the process of devotional service.
NBS 2: Devotional service manifests as the most elevated, pure love for God.
NBS 3: This pure love for God is eternal.
NBS 4: Upon achieving that stage of transcendental devotional service in pure love of God, a person becomes perfect, immortal, and peaceful.
NBS 5: A person engaged in such pure devotional service neither desires anything for sense gratification, nor laments for any loss, nor hates anything, nor enjoys anything on his personal account, nor becomes very enthusiastic in material activity.
NBS 6: One who understands perfectly the process of devotional service in love of Godhead becomes intoxicated in its discharge. Sometimes he becomes stunned in ecstasy and thus enjoys his whole self, being engaged in the service of the Supreme Self.
NBS 7: There is no question of lust in the execution of pure devotional service, because in it all material activities are renounced.
NBS 8: Such renunciation in devotional service means to give up all kinds of social customs and religious rituals governed by Vedic injunction.
NBS 9: Renunciation also means being exclusively dedicated to the Lord and indifferent to what stands in the way of His service.
NBS 10: Exclusive dedication to the Lord means giving up all shelters other than Him.
NBS 11: Indifference toward what stands in the way of devotional service means to accept only those activities of social custom and Vedic injunction that are favorable to devotional service.
NBS 12: One must continue to follow scriptural injunctions even after one is fixed up in determined certainty that devotional service is the only means for reaching the perfection of life.
NBS 13: Otherwise there is every possibility of falling down.
NBS 14: For as long as the body lasts, one should engage minimally in social and political activities and in such matters as eating.
Chapter 2: Defining Bhakti
NBS 15: Now the characteristics of devotional service will be described according to various authoritative opinions.
NBS 16: Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the son of Parāśara Muni, says that bhakti is fond attachment for worshiping the Lord in various ways.
NBS 17: Garga Muni says that bhakti is fondness for narrations about the Lord, by the Lord, and so on.
NBS 18: Śāṇḍilya says that bhakti results from one's removing all obstructions to taking pleasure in the Supreme Self.
NBS 19: Nārada, however, says that bhakti consists of offering one's every act to the Supreme Lord and feeling extreme distress in forgetting Him.
NBS 20: Bhakti is, in fact, correctly described in each of these ways.
NBS 21: The cowherd women of Vraja are an example of pure bhakti.
NBS 22: Even in the case of the gopīs, one cannot criticize them for forgetting the Lord's greatness.
NBS 23: On the other hand, displays of devotion without knowledge of God's greatness are no better than the affairs of illicit lovers.
NBS 24: In such false devotion one does not find pleasure exclusively in the Lord's pleasure.
NBS 25: Pure devotional service, on the other hand, is far superior to fruitive work, philosophical speculation, and mystic meditation.
NBS 26: After all, bhakti is the fruit of all endeavor.
NBS 27: Furthermore, the Lord dislikes the proud but is pleased with the humble.
NBS 28: Some say that knowledge is the means for developing devotion.
NBS 29: Others consider bhakti and knowledge interdependent.
NBS 30: But the son of Brahmā says that bhakti is its own fruit.
NBS 31-32: This is illustrated by the examples of a royal palace, a meal, and so on. A king is not really satisfied just by seeing a palace, nor can someone placate his hunger just by looking at a meal.
NBS 33: Therefore seekers of liberation should take to devotional service alone.
Chapter 3: The Means of Achievement
NBS 34: Standard authorities have described the methods for achieving devotional service.
NBS 35: One achieves bhakti by giving up sense gratification and mundane association.
NBS 36: One achieves bhakti by worshiping the Lord ceaselessly.
NBS 37: One achieves bhakti by hearing and chanting about the Supreme Lord's special qualities, even while engaged in the ordinary activities of life in this world.
NBS 38: Primarily, however, one develops bhakti by the mercy of great souls, or by a small drop of the Lord's mercy.
NBS 39: The association of great souls is rarely obtained, difficult to understand, and infallible.
NBS 40: The association of great souls can be attained — but only by the Lord's mercy.
NBS 41: [One can attain bhakti either by the association of the Lord's pure devotees or directly by the Lord's mercy because] the Lord and His pure devotees are nondifferent.
NBS 42: Strive, strive only for the association of pure devotees.
NBS 43: One should give up all kinds of degrading association.
NBS 44: Material association is the cause of lust, anger, confusion, forgetfulness, loss of intelligence, and total calamity.
NBS 45: Rising like waves from material association, these bad effects mass into a great ocean of misery.
NBS 46: Who can cross beyond illusion? One who abandons material association, serves the sages, and becomes selfless.
NBS 47: [Who can cross beyond illusion?] That person who stays in a secluded place, cuts off at the root his attachment to mundane society, becomes free from the influence of the three modes of nature, and gives up hankering for material gain and security.
NBS 48: [Who can cross beyond illusion?] That person who renounces material duties and their profits, thus transcending duality.
NBS 49: That person who renounces even the Vedas obtains exclusive and uninterrupted attraction for God.
NBS 50: Such a person, indeed, is delivered, and he also delivers the rest of the world.
Chapter 4: Pure and Mixed Devotion
NBS 51: The true nature of pure love of God is beyond description.
NBS 52: [Trying to describe the experience of pure love of God] is like a mute's effort to describe what he tastes.
NBS 53: Nonetheless, from time to time pure love of God is revealed to those who are qualified.
NBS 54: Pure love of God manifests as the most subtle consciousness, devoid of material qualities and material desires, increasing at every moment, and never interrupted.
NBS 55: Having obtained pure love of God, one looks only at the Lord, hears only about Him, speaks only of Him, and thinks only of Him.
NBS 56: Secondary devotional service is of three kinds, according to which of the three material modes predominates, or according to which material motivation — distress and so on — brings one to bhakti.
NBS 57: Each earlier stage should be considered better than the one following it.
NBS 58: Success is easier to attain by devotional service than by any other process.
NBS 59: The reason devotional service is the easiest of all spiritual processes is that it does not depend on any other authority for its validity, being itself the standard of authority.
NBS 60: Furthermore, bhakti is the embodiment of peace and supreme ecstasy.
NBS 61: After consigning to the Lord all one's mundane and Vedic duties, one no longer need worry about worldly loss.
NBS 62: Even after one has achieved devotional service, one should not abandon one's responsibilities in this world but should rather continue surrendering the results of one's work to the Lord. And while still trying to reach the stage of pure devotion, one must certainly continue executing prescribed duties.
NBS 63: One should not find entertainment in news of women, money, and atheists.
NBS 64: One should put aside false pride, hypocrisy, and other vices.
NBS 65: Offering all one's activities to the Lord, one should feel desire, anger, and pride only with regard to Him.
NBS 66: After breaking through the aforementioned coverings of the three modes of nature, one should act only in pure love of God, remaining perpetually in the mood of a servant serving his master, or a lover serving her beloved.
NBS 67: Among the Lord's devotees, the greatest are those who are dedicated to Him solely as His intimate servants.
NBS 68: Conversing among one another with throats choked, hair standing on end, and tears flowing, the Lord's intimate servants purify their own followers and the whole world.
NBS 69: Their association makes holy places holy, works auspicious, and the scriptures authoritative.
NBS 70: The intimate servants of the Supreme Lord are fully absorbed in loving Him.
NBS 71: Thus the pure devotees' forefathers become joyful, the demigods dance, and the world feels protected by good masters.
NBS 72: There are no distinctions among such pure devotees in terms of social class, education, bodily beauty, family status, wealth, occupation, and so on.
NBS 73: Pure devotees are not distinguished by externals like social class, for they belong to the Lord.
Chapter 5: Attaining Perfection
NBS 74: One should not indulge in argumentative debate.
NBS 75: Such argumentation leads to excessive entanglements and is never decisive.
NBS 76: One should respect the revealed scriptures of devotional service and discharge the duties they prescribe.
NBS 77: Patiently enduring till the time when one can put aside material happiness, distress, desire, and false gain, one should not waste even a fraction of a second.
NBS 78: One should cultivate such good qualities as nonviolence, truthfulness, cleanliness, compassion, and faith.
NBS 79: Those who are free of doubts should constantly worship the Supreme Lord with all their hearts.
NBS 80: When He is glorified, the Lord swiftly reveals Himself to His devotees and allows them to know Him as He is.
NBS 81: Devotional service is the most precious possession of a person who honestly uses his mind, body, and words.
NBS 82: Although devotional service is one, it becomes manifested in eleven forms of attachment: attachment to the Lord's glorious qualities, to His beauty, to worshiping Him, to remembering Him, to serving Him, to reciprocating with Him as a friend, to caring for Him as a parent, to dealing with Him as a lover, to surrendering one's whole self to Him, to being absorbed in thought of Him, and to experiencing separation from Him. This last is the supreme attachment.
NBS 83: Thus say the founding authorities of devotional service: the Kumāras, Vyāsa, Śuka, Śāṇḍilya, Garga, Viṣṇu, Kauṇḍilya, Śeṣa, Uddhava, Aruṇi, Bali, Hanumān, Vibhīṣaṇa, and others — speaking without fear of worldly gossip and sharing among themselves one and the same opinion.
NBS 84: Anyone who trusts these instructions spoken by Nārada and is convinced by them will be blessed with devotion and attain the most dear Lord. Yes, he will attain the most dear Lord.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Mukunda-mālā-stotra
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Mukunda-mālā-stotra
Introduction
MM 1: O Mukunda, my Lord! Please let me become a constant reciter of Your names, addressing You as Śrī-vallabha ["He who is very dear to Lakṣmī"], Varada ["the bestower of benedictions"], Dayāpara ["He who is causelessly merciful"], Bhakta-priya ["He who is very dear to His devotees"], Bhava-luṇṭhana-kovida ["He who is expert at plundering the status quo of repeated birth and death"], Nātha ["the Supreme Lord"], Jagan-nivāsa ["the resort of the cosmos"], and Nāga-śayana ["the Lord who lies down on the serpent bed"].
MM 2: All glories to this Personality of Godhead known as the son of Śrīmatī Devakī devī! All glories to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the brilliant light of the Vṛṣṇi dynasty! All glories to the Personality of Godhead, the hue of whose soft body resembles the blackish color of a new cloud! All glories to Lord Mukunda, who removes the burdens of the earth!
MM 3: O Lord Mukunda! I bow down my head to Your Lordship and respectfully ask You to fulfill this one desire of mine: that in each of my future births I will, by Your Lordship's mercy, always remember and never forget Your lotus feet.
MM 4: O Lord Hari, it is not to be saved from the dualities of material existence or the grim tribulations of the Kumbhīpāka hell that I pray to Your lotus feet. Nor is my purpose to enjoy the soft-skinned beautiful women who reside in the gardens of heaven. I pray to Your lotus feet only so that I may remember You alone in the core of my heart, birth after birth.
MM 5: O my Lord! I have no attachment for religiosity, or for accumulating wealth, or for enjoying sense gratification. Let these come as they inevitably must, in accordance with my past deeds. But I do pray for this most cherished boon: birth after birth, let me render unflinching devotional service unto Your two lotus feet.
MM 6: O Lord, killer of the demon Naraka! Let me reside either in the realm of the demigods, in the world of human beings, or in hell, as You please. I pray only that at the point of death I may remember Your two lotus feet, whose beauty defies that of the lotus growing in the Śarat season.
MM 7: I always think of Lord Hari, whose joyful lotus face bears a gentle smile. Although He is the son of the cowherd Nanda, He is also the Supreme Absolute Truth worshiped by great sages
like Nārada.
MM 8: The desert of material existence has exhausted me. But today I will cast aside all troubles by diving into the lake of Lord Hari and drinking freely of the abundant waters of His splendor. The lotuses in that lake are His hands and feet, and the fish are His brilliant shining eyes. That lake's water relieves all fatigue and is agitated by the waves His arms create. Its current flows deep beyond fathoming.
MM 9: O mind, please never stop taking pleasure in thinking of the Mura demon's destroyer, who has lotus eyes and bears the conch and disc weapon. Indeed, I know of nothing else that gives such extreme pleasure as meditating on Lord Hari's divine feet.
MM 10: O foolish mind, stop your fearful fretting about the extensive torments imposed by Yamarāja. How can your enemies, the sinful reactions you have accrued, even touch you? After all, is your master not the Supreme Lord, the husband of Goddess Śrī? Cast aside all hesitation and concentrate your thoughts on Lord Nārāyaṇa, whom one very easily attains through devotional service. What can that dispeller of the whole world's troubles not do for His own servant?
MM 11: The people in this vast ocean of birth and death are being blown about by the winds of material dualities. As they flounder in the perilous waters of sense indulgence, with no boat to help them, they are sorely distressed by the need to protect their sons, daughters, and wives. Only the boat that is Lord Viṣṇu can save them.
MM 12: Dear mind, do not bewilder yourself by anxiously thinking, How can I cross this fathomless and impassable ocean of material existence? There is one who can save you — Devotion. If you offer her to the lotus-eyed Lord, the killer of Narakāsura, she will carry you across this ocean without fail.
MM 13: O Lord of the three worlds, we are drowning in the vast ocean of saḿsāra, which is filled with the waters of material hankering, with many waves of illusion whipped up by the winds of lust, with whirlpools of wives, and with vast schools of sharks and other sea monsters who are our sons and brothers. O giver of all benedictions, please grant me a place on the boat of devotion that is Your lotus feet.
MM 14: Once our savior has been seen, the whole earth becomes no greater than a speck of dust, all the waters of the ocean become mere droplets, the totality of fire becomes a minute spark, the winds become just a faint sigh, and the expanse of space becomes a tiny hole. Great lords like Rudra and Grandfather Brahmā become insignificant, and all the demigods become like small insects. Indeed, even one particle of dust from our Lord's feet conquers all.
MM 15: O people, please hear of this treatment for the disease of birth and death! It is the name of Kṛṣṇa. Recommended by Yājñavalkya and other expert yogīs steeped in wisdom, this boundless, eternal inner light is the best medicine, for when drunk it bestows complete and final liberation. Just drink it!
MM 16: O mortal beings, you have submerged yourselves fully in the ocean of material existence, which is filled with the waves of misfortune. Please hear as I briefly tell you how to attain your supreme benefit. Just put aside your various attempts at gaining knowledge and instead begin constantly chanting the mantra oḿ namo nārāyaṇāya and bowing down to the Lord.
MM 17: Our master, the Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa, who alone rules the three worlds, whom one can serve in meditation, and who happily shares His personal domain, is manifest before us. Yet still we beg for the service of some minor lord of a few villages, some lowly man who can only meagerly reward us. Alas, what foolish wretches we are!
MM 18: O lotus-eyed Lord, please sustain our lives as we constantly relish the nectar of meditating on Your lotus feet, with our palms prayerfully joined, our heads bowed down, our bodily hair standing up in jubilation, our voices choked with emotion, and our eyes flowing with tears.
MM 19: That head is the loftiest which is white with dust from bowing down to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Those eyes are the most beautiful which darkness has abandoned after they have seen Lord Hari. That intelligence is spotless — like the white glow of the moon or a conchshell — which concentrates on Lord Mādhava. And that tongue rains down nectar which constantly glorifies Lord Nārāyaṇa.
MM 20: O tongue, praise the glories of Lord Keśava. O mind, worship the enemy of Mura. O hands, serve the Lord of Śrī. O ears, hear the topics of Lord Acyuta. O eyes, gaze upon Śrī Kṛṣṇa. O feet, go to the temple of Lord Hari. O nose, smell the tulasī buds on Lord Mukunda's feet. O head, bow down to Lord Adhokṣaja.
MM 21: All glories to Lord Nārāyaṇa! Without remembrance of His lotus feet, recitation of scripture is merely crying in the wilderness, regular observance of severe vows enjoined in the Vedas is no more than a way to lose weight, execution of prescribed pious duties is like pouring oblations onto ashes, and bathing at various holy sites is no better than an elephant's bath.
MM 22: O Cupid, abandon your residence in my mind, which is now the home of Lord Mukunda's lotus feet. You have already been incinerated by Lord Śiva's fiery glance, so why have you forgotten the power of Lord Murāri's disc?
MM 23: Think only of your master and sustainer, the Supreme Lord, who is known as Nārāyaṇa and Mādhava and who lies on the body of the serpent Ananta. He is the darling son of Devakī, the hero of the demigods, and the Lord of the cows, and He holds a conchshell and the bow Śārńga. He is the husband of the goddess of fortune and the controller of all the universes, which He manifests from His abdomen as a pastime. What will you gain by thinking of anything else?
MM 24: O Mādhava, please do not let me even glance at those whose pious credits are so depleted that they have no devotion for Your lotus feet. Please do not let me be distracted from listening to the worthy narrations of Your pastimes and become interested in other topics. Please, O Lord of the universe, let me pay no attention to those who avoid thinking of You. And let me never be unable to serve You in some menial way, birth after birth.
MM 25: O enemy of Madhu and Kaiṭabha, O Lord of the universe, the perfection of my life and the most cherished mercy You could show me would be for You to consider me the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Your servant.
MM 26: My dear tongue, I stand before you with joined palms and beg you to recite the names of Lord Nārāyaṇa. These names describing the Supreme Absolute Truth bring great pleasure, as if exuding honey.
MM 27: At every moment I bow down to the lotus feet of Nārāyaṇa, I perform worship to Nārāyaṇa, I recite the pure name of Nārāyaṇa, and I reflect on the infallible truth of Nārāyaṇa.
MM 28-29: O Śrīnātha, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, divine Kṛṣṇa, O kind friend of Your devotees! O Cakrapāṇi, Padmanābha, Acyuta, Kaiṭabhāri, Rāma, Padmākṣa, Hari, Murāri! O Ananta, Vaikuṇṭha, Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Dāmodara, Mādhava! Although all people can address You, still they remain silent. Just see how eager they are for their own peril!
MM 30: He is the jewel riding on the back of Garuḍa, who carries away the Lord's devotees on his wings. He is the magic jewel protecting the three worlds, the jewellike cloud attracting the cātaka-bird eyes of the gopīs, and the jewel among all who gesture gracefully. He is the only jeweled ornament on the ample breasts of Queen Rukmiṇī, who is herself the jewel of beloved consorts. May that crown jewel of all gods, the best of the cowherds, grant us the supreme benediction.
MM 31: O tongue, please constantly chant the mantra composed of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's names. This is the only mantra for destroying all enemies, the mantra worshiped by every word of the Upaniṣads, the mantra that uproots saḿsāra, the mantra that drives away all the darkness of ignorance, the mantra for attaining infinite opulence, the mantra for curing those bitten by the poisonous snake of worldly distress, and the mantra for making one's birth in this world successful.
MM 32: O mind, please drink the transcendental medicine of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's glories. It is the perfect medicine for curing the disease of bewilderment, for inspiring sages to engage their minds in meditation, and for tormenting the mighty Daitya demons. It alone is the medicine for restoring the three worlds to life and for bestowing unlimited blessings on the Supreme Lord's devotees. Indeed, it is the only medicine that can destroy one's fear of material existence and lead one to the attainment of the supreme good.
MM 33: O Lord Kṛṣṇa, at this moment let the royal swan of my mind enter the tangled stems of the lotus of Your feet. How will it be possible for me to remember You at the time of death, when my throat will be choked up with mucus, bile, and air?
MM 34: O mind, think of the lotus-eyed Lord who reclines on the mountainlike serpent Ananta. O tongue, glorify Him. O head, bow down to Him. O hands, join your palms in supplication to Him. O body, offer outstretched obeisances to Him. O heart, take full shelter of Him. That Supreme Lord is the topmost Deity. It is He alone who is all-auspicious and supremely purifying, He alone who awards eternal perfection.
MM 35: One who hears descriptions of Lord Janārdana's pastimes and glorious qualities but whose bodily hair fails to bristle in ecstasy and whose eyes fail to flood with tears of pure love — such a person is indeed the most degraded rascal. What a condemned life he leads!
MM 36: O Lord, the powerful thieves of my senses have blinded me by stealing my most precious possession, my discrimination, and they have thrown me deep into the pitch-dark well of delusion. Please, O Lord of lords, extend Your hand and save this wretched soul.
MM 37: This body's beauty is fleeting, and at last the body must succumb to death after its hundreds of joints have stiffened with old age. So why, bewildered fool, are you asking for medication? Just take the Kṛṣṇa elixir, the one cure that never fails.
MM 38: The greatest wonder in human society is this: People are so incorrigible that they reject the life-giving nectar of Lord Nārāyaṇa's names and instead drink poison by speaking everything else.
MM 39: Let my relatives all abandon me and my superiors condemn me. Still, the supremely blissful Govinda remains my life and soul.
MM 40: O mankind, with arms raised high I declare the truth! Any mortal who chants the names Mukunda, Nṛsiḿha, and Janārdana day after day, even in battle or when facing death, will come to regard his most cherished ambitions as no more valuable than a stone or a block of wood.
MM 41: Raising my arms, I utter this compassionate advice as loudly as I can: If those in the renounced order want to be delivered from the terrible, poisonous condition of material life, they should have the good sense to constantly hear the mantra oḿ namo nārāyaṇāya.
MM 42: My mind cannot turn from Śrī Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, even for a moment. So let my dear ones and other relatives criticize me, my superiors accept or reject me as they like, the common people spread evil gossip about me, and my family's reputation be sullied. For a madman like me, it is honor enough to feel this flood of love of Godhead, which brings such sweet emotions of attraction for my Lord.
MM 43: May Kṛṣṇa, the spiritual master of the three worlds, protect us. Continually bow down to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has killed all our enemies. Obeisances to Kṛṣṇa. From Kṛṣṇa alone this world has come into being. I am the servant of Kṛṣṇa. This entire universe rests within Kṛṣṇa. O Kṛṣṇa, please protect me!
MM 44: O young cowherd boy! O ocean of mercy! O husband of Lakṣmī, the ocean's daughter! O killer of Kaḿsa! O merciful benefactor of Gajendra! O Mādhava! O younger brother of Rāma! O spiritual master of the three worlds! O lotus-eyed Lord of the gopīs! I know no one greater than You. Please protect me.
MM 45: Your wife is the beautiful daughter of the ocean, and Your son is Lord Brahmā. The Vedas are Your panegyrist, the demigods comprise Your company of servants, and liberation is Your benediction, while this entire universe is a display of Your magic power. Śrīmatī Devakī is Your mother, and Arjuna, the son Indra, is Your friend. For these reasons I have no interest in anyone but You.
MM 46: The wise inhabitants of the heavenly regions know that the perfection of the head is to offer prostrate obeisances to the Supreme Lord, the perfection of the life-breath is to worship the Lord, the perfection of the mind is to ponder the details of His transcendental qualities, and the perfection of speech is to chant the glories of His qualities.
MM 47: What person, even if most sinful, has ever said aloud the blessed name Nārāyaṇa and failed to fulfill his desires? But we, alas, never used our power of speech in that way, and so we had to suffer such miseries as living in a womb.
MM 48: The unlimited and infallible Viṣṇu, who is always present within the lotus of the heart, grants fearlessness to those who fix their intelligence upon Him. The devotees who meditate on Him will reach the supreme perfection of the Vaiṣṇavas.
MM 49: O Supreme Lord, O Viṣṇu, You are the most compassionate. So now please show me Your favor and bestow Your mercy upon this helpless soul. O unlimited Lord, kindly uplift this wretch who is drowning in the ocean of material existence. O Lord Hari, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
MM 50: Obeisances to Lord Mādhava, enemy of the Madhu demon. His beautiful form, lying on the couch of the serpent Ananta, is speckled by the shower of spray from the milk ocean's waves.
MM 51: By themselves the words "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa" are sufficient to drive away the sins of all living beings. Anyone who possesses devotion for Lord Mukunda that is densely imbued with ecstasy holds in the palms of his hands the gifts of liberation, worldly influence, and wealth.
MM 52: This work was composed by King Kulaśekhara, a bee at the lotus feet of the lotus-eyed Lord. The king's two beloved friends are the twin stems of the exquisite lotus of the brāhmaṇa community, expert Vedic scholars renowned as leaders of the community of poets.
MM 53: Who among those who recite this Mukunda-mālā will not achieve complete happiness? An embodied being who chants these prayers will have all his sinful reactions eradicated and proceed straight to the supreme abode of Lord Viṣṇu.
Introduction
MM 1: O Mukunda, my Lord! Please let me become a constant reciter of Your names, addressing You as Śrī-vallabha ["He who is very dear to Lakṣmī"], Varada ["the bestower of benedictions"], Dayāpara ["He who is causelessly merciful"], Bhakta-priya ["He who is very dear to His devotees"], Bhava-luṇṭhana-kovida ["He who is expert at plundering the status quo of repeated birth and death"], Nātha ["the Supreme Lord"], Jagan-nivāsa ["the resort of the cosmos"], and Nāga-śayana ["the Lord who lies down on the serpent bed"].
MM 2: All glories to this Personality of Godhead known as the son of Śrīmatī Devakī devī! All glories to Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the brilliant light of the Vṛṣṇi dynasty! All glories to the Personality of Godhead, the hue of whose soft body resembles the blackish color of a new cloud! All glories to Lord Mukunda, who removes the burdens of the earth!
MM 3: O Lord Mukunda! I bow down my head to Your Lordship and respectfully ask You to fulfill this one desire of mine: that in each of my future births I will, by Your Lordship's mercy, always remember and never forget Your lotus feet.
MM 4: O Lord Hari, it is not to be saved from the dualities of material existence or the grim tribulations of the Kumbhīpāka hell that I pray to Your lotus feet. Nor is my purpose to enjoy the soft-skinned beautiful women who reside in the gardens of heaven. I pray to Your lotus feet only so that I may remember You alone in the core of my heart, birth after birth.
MM 5: O my Lord! I have no attachment for religiosity, or for accumulating wealth, or for enjoying sense gratification. Let these come as they inevitably must, in accordance with my past deeds. But I do pray for this most cherished boon: birth after birth, let me render unflinching devotional service unto Your two lotus feet.
MM 6: O Lord, killer of the demon Naraka! Let me reside either in the realm of the demigods, in the world of human beings, or in hell, as You please. I pray only that at the point of death I may remember Your two lotus feet, whose beauty defies that of the lotus growing in the Śarat season.
MM 7: I always think of Lord Hari, whose joyful lotus face bears a gentle smile. Although He is the son of the cowherd Nanda, He is also the Supreme Absolute Truth worshiped by great sages
like Nārada.
MM 8: The desert of material existence has exhausted me. But today I will cast aside all troubles by diving into the lake of Lord Hari and drinking freely of the abundant waters of His splendor. The lotuses in that lake are His hands and feet, and the fish are His brilliant shining eyes. That lake's water relieves all fatigue and is agitated by the waves His arms create. Its current flows deep beyond fathoming.
MM 9: O mind, please never stop taking pleasure in thinking of the Mura demon's destroyer, who has lotus eyes and bears the conch and disc weapon. Indeed, I know of nothing else that gives such extreme pleasure as meditating on Lord Hari's divine feet.
MM 10: O foolish mind, stop your fearful fretting about the extensive torments imposed by Yamarāja. How can your enemies, the sinful reactions you have accrued, even touch you? After all, is your master not the Supreme Lord, the husband of Goddess Śrī? Cast aside all hesitation and concentrate your thoughts on Lord Nārāyaṇa, whom one very easily attains through devotional service. What can that dispeller of the whole world's troubles not do for His own servant?
MM 11: The people in this vast ocean of birth and death are being blown about by the winds of material dualities. As they flounder in the perilous waters of sense indulgence, with no boat to help them, they are sorely distressed by the need to protect their sons, daughters, and wives. Only the boat that is Lord Viṣṇu can save them.
MM 12: Dear mind, do not bewilder yourself by anxiously thinking, How can I cross this fathomless and impassable ocean of material existence? There is one who can save you — Devotion. If you offer her to the lotus-eyed Lord, the killer of Narakāsura, she will carry you across this ocean without fail.
MM 13: O Lord of the three worlds, we are drowning in the vast ocean of saḿsāra, which is filled with the waters of material hankering, with many waves of illusion whipped up by the winds of lust, with whirlpools of wives, and with vast schools of sharks and other sea monsters who are our sons and brothers. O giver of all benedictions, please grant me a place on the boat of devotion that is Your lotus feet.
MM 14: Once our savior has been seen, the whole earth becomes no greater than a speck of dust, all the waters of the ocean become mere droplets, the totality of fire becomes a minute spark, the winds become just a faint sigh, and the expanse of space becomes a tiny hole. Great lords like Rudra and Grandfather Brahmā become insignificant, and all the demigods become like small insects. Indeed, even one particle of dust from our Lord's feet conquers all.
MM 15: O people, please hear of this treatment for the disease of birth and death! It is the name of Kṛṣṇa. Recommended by Yājñavalkya and other expert yogīs steeped in wisdom, this boundless, eternal inner light is the best medicine, for when drunk it bestows complete and final liberation. Just drink it!
MM 16: O mortal beings, you have submerged yourselves fully in the ocean of material existence, which is filled with the waves of misfortune. Please hear as I briefly tell you how to attain your supreme benefit. Just put aside your various attempts at gaining knowledge and instead begin constantly chanting the mantra oḿ namo nārāyaṇāya and bowing down to the Lord.
MM 17: Our master, the Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa, who alone rules the three worlds, whom one can serve in meditation, and who happily shares His personal domain, is manifest before us. Yet still we beg for the service of some minor lord of a few villages, some lowly man who can only meagerly reward us. Alas, what foolish wretches we are!
MM 18: O lotus-eyed Lord, please sustain our lives as we constantly relish the nectar of meditating on Your lotus feet, with our palms prayerfully joined, our heads bowed down, our bodily hair standing up in jubilation, our voices choked with emotion, and our eyes flowing with tears.
MM 19: That head is the loftiest which is white with dust from bowing down to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Those eyes are the most beautiful which darkness has abandoned after they have seen Lord Hari. That intelligence is spotless — like the white glow of the moon or a conchshell — which concentrates on Lord Mādhava. And that tongue rains down nectar which constantly glorifies Lord Nārāyaṇa.
MM 20: O tongue, praise the glories of Lord Keśava. O mind, worship the enemy of Mura. O hands, serve the Lord of Śrī. O ears, hear the topics of Lord Acyuta. O eyes, gaze upon Śrī Kṛṣṇa. O feet, go to the temple of Lord Hari. O nose, smell the tulasī buds on Lord Mukunda's feet. O head, bow down to Lord Adhokṣaja.
MM 21: All glories to Lord Nārāyaṇa! Without remembrance of His lotus feet, recitation of scripture is merely crying in the wilderness, regular observance of severe vows enjoined in the Vedas is no more than a way to lose weight, execution of prescribed pious duties is like pouring oblations onto ashes, and bathing at various holy sites is no better than an elephant's bath.
MM 22: O Cupid, abandon your residence in my mind, which is now the home of Lord Mukunda's lotus feet. You have already been incinerated by Lord Śiva's fiery glance, so why have you forgotten the power of Lord Murāri's disc?
MM 23: Think only of your master and sustainer, the Supreme Lord, who is known as Nārāyaṇa and Mādhava and who lies on the body of the serpent Ananta. He is the darling son of Devakī, the hero of the demigods, and the Lord of the cows, and He holds a conchshell and the bow Śārńga. He is the husband of the goddess of fortune and the controller of all the universes, which He manifests from His abdomen as a pastime. What will you gain by thinking of anything else?
MM 24: O Mādhava, please do not let me even glance at those whose pious credits are so depleted that they have no devotion for Your lotus feet. Please do not let me be distracted from listening to the worthy narrations of Your pastimes and become interested in other topics. Please, O Lord of the universe, let me pay no attention to those who avoid thinking of You. And let me never be unable to serve You in some menial way, birth after birth.
MM 25: O enemy of Madhu and Kaiṭabha, O Lord of the universe, the perfection of my life and the most cherished mercy You could show me would be for You to consider me the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of Your servant.
MM 26: My dear tongue, I stand before you with joined palms and beg you to recite the names of Lord Nārāyaṇa. These names describing the Supreme Absolute Truth bring great pleasure, as if exuding honey.
MM 27: At every moment I bow down to the lotus feet of Nārāyaṇa, I perform worship to Nārāyaṇa, I recite the pure name of Nārāyaṇa, and I reflect on the infallible truth of Nārāyaṇa.
MM 28-29: O Śrīnātha, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, divine Kṛṣṇa, O kind friend of Your devotees! O Cakrapāṇi, Padmanābha, Acyuta, Kaiṭabhāri, Rāma, Padmākṣa, Hari, Murāri! O Ananta, Vaikuṇṭha, Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Dāmodara, Mādhava! Although all people can address You, still they remain silent. Just see how eager they are for their own peril!
MM 30: He is the jewel riding on the back of Garuḍa, who carries away the Lord's devotees on his wings. He is the magic jewel protecting the three worlds, the jewellike cloud attracting the cātaka-bird eyes of the gopīs, and the jewel among all who gesture gracefully. He is the only jeweled ornament on the ample breasts of Queen Rukmiṇī, who is herself the jewel of beloved consorts. May that crown jewel of all gods, the best of the cowherds, grant us the supreme benediction.
MM 31: O tongue, please constantly chant the mantra composed of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's names. This is the only mantra for destroying all enemies, the mantra worshiped by every word of the Upaniṣads, the mantra that uproots saḿsāra, the mantra that drives away all the darkness of ignorance, the mantra for attaining infinite opulence, the mantra for curing those bitten by the poisonous snake of worldly distress, and the mantra for making one's birth in this world successful.
MM 32: O mind, please drink the transcendental medicine of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's glories. It is the perfect medicine for curing the disease of bewilderment, for inspiring sages to engage their minds in meditation, and for tormenting the mighty Daitya demons. It alone is the medicine for restoring the three worlds to life and for bestowing unlimited blessings on the Supreme Lord's devotees. Indeed, it is the only medicine that can destroy one's fear of material existence and lead one to the attainment of the supreme good.
MM 33: O Lord Kṛṣṇa, at this moment let the royal swan of my mind enter the tangled stems of the lotus of Your feet. How will it be possible for me to remember You at the time of death, when my throat will be choked up with mucus, bile, and air?
MM 34: O mind, think of the lotus-eyed Lord who reclines on the mountainlike serpent Ananta. O tongue, glorify Him. O head, bow down to Him. O hands, join your palms in supplication to Him. O body, offer outstretched obeisances to Him. O heart, take full shelter of Him. That Supreme Lord is the topmost Deity. It is He alone who is all-auspicious and supremely purifying, He alone who awards eternal perfection.
MM 35: One who hears descriptions of Lord Janārdana's pastimes and glorious qualities but whose bodily hair fails to bristle in ecstasy and whose eyes fail to flood with tears of pure love — such a person is indeed the most degraded rascal. What a condemned life he leads!
MM 36: O Lord, the powerful thieves of my senses have blinded me by stealing my most precious possession, my discrimination, and they have thrown me deep into the pitch-dark well of delusion. Please, O Lord of lords, extend Your hand and save this wretched soul.
MM 37: This body's beauty is fleeting, and at last the body must succumb to death after its hundreds of joints have stiffened with old age. So why, bewildered fool, are you asking for medication? Just take the Kṛṣṇa elixir, the one cure that never fails.
MM 38: The greatest wonder in human society is this: People are so incorrigible that they reject the life-giving nectar of Lord Nārāyaṇa's names and instead drink poison by speaking everything else.
MM 39: Let my relatives all abandon me and my superiors condemn me. Still, the supremely blissful Govinda remains my life and soul.
MM 40: O mankind, with arms raised high I declare the truth! Any mortal who chants the names Mukunda, Nṛsiḿha, and Janārdana day after day, even in battle or when facing death, will come to regard his most cherished ambitions as no more valuable than a stone or a block of wood.
MM 41: Raising my arms, I utter this compassionate advice as loudly as I can: If those in the renounced order want to be delivered from the terrible, poisonous condition of material life, they should have the good sense to constantly hear the mantra oḿ namo nārāyaṇāya.
MM 42: My mind cannot turn from Śrī Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, even for a moment. So let my dear ones and other relatives criticize me, my superiors accept or reject me as they like, the common people spread evil gossip about me, and my family's reputation be sullied. For a madman like me, it is honor enough to feel this flood of love of Godhead, which brings such sweet emotions of attraction for my Lord.
MM 43: May Kṛṣṇa, the spiritual master of the three worlds, protect us. Continually bow down to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa has killed all our enemies. Obeisances to Kṛṣṇa. From Kṛṣṇa alone this world has come into being. I am the servant of Kṛṣṇa. This entire universe rests within Kṛṣṇa. O Kṛṣṇa, please protect me!
MM 44: O young cowherd boy! O ocean of mercy! O husband of Lakṣmī, the ocean's daughter! O killer of Kaḿsa! O merciful benefactor of Gajendra! O Mādhava! O younger brother of Rāma! O spiritual master of the three worlds! O lotus-eyed Lord of the gopīs! I know no one greater than You. Please protect me.
MM 45: Your wife is the beautiful daughter of the ocean, and Your son is Lord Brahmā. The Vedas are Your panegyrist, the demigods comprise Your company of servants, and liberation is Your benediction, while this entire universe is a display of Your magic power. Śrīmatī Devakī is Your mother, and Arjuna, the son Indra, is Your friend. For these reasons I have no interest in anyone but You.
MM 46: The wise inhabitants of the heavenly regions know that the perfection of the head is to offer prostrate obeisances to the Supreme Lord, the perfection of the life-breath is to worship the Lord, the perfection of the mind is to ponder the details of His transcendental qualities, and the perfection of speech is to chant the glories of His qualities.
MM 47: What person, even if most sinful, has ever said aloud the blessed name Nārāyaṇa and failed to fulfill his desires? But we, alas, never used our power of speech in that way, and so we had to suffer such miseries as living in a womb.
MM 48: The unlimited and infallible Viṣṇu, who is always present within the lotus of the heart, grants fearlessness to those who fix their intelligence upon Him. The devotees who meditate on Him will reach the supreme perfection of the Vaiṣṇavas.
MM 49: O Supreme Lord, O Viṣṇu, You are the most compassionate. So now please show me Your favor and bestow Your mercy upon this helpless soul. O unlimited Lord, kindly uplift this wretch who is drowning in the ocean of material existence. O Lord Hari, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
MM 50: Obeisances to Lord Mādhava, enemy of the Madhu demon. His beautiful form, lying on the couch of the serpent Ananta, is speckled by the shower of spray from the milk ocean's waves.
MM 51: By themselves the words "Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa" are sufficient to drive away the sins of all living beings. Anyone who possesses devotion for Lord Mukunda that is densely imbued with ecstasy holds in the palms of his hands the gifts of liberation, worldly influence, and wealth.
MM 52: This work was composed by King Kulaśekhara, a bee at the lotus feet of the lotus-eyed Lord. The king's two beloved friends are the twin stems of the exquisite lotus of the brāhmaṇa community, expert Vedic scholars renowned as leaders of the community of poets.
MM 53: Who among those who recite this Mukunda-mālā will not achieve complete happiness? An embodied being who chants these prayers will have all his sinful reactions eradicated and proceed straight to the supreme abode of Lord Viṣṇu.
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Īśopaniṣad
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Īśopaniṣad
Introduction
Iso Invocation: The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.
Iso 1: Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.
Iso 2: One may aspire to live for hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to this way for man.
Iso 3: The killer of the soul, whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full of darkness and ignorance.
Iso 4: Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.
Iso 5: The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.
Iso 6: He who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.
Iso 7: One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?
Iso 8: Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.
Iso 9: Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.
Iso 10: The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.
Iso 11: Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.
Iso 12: Those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and still more so do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute.
Iso 13: It is said that one result is obtained by worshiping the supreme cause of all causes and that another result is obtained by worshiping what is not supreme. All this is heard from the undisturbed authorities, who clearly explained it.
Iso 14: One should know perfectly the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His transcendental name, form, qualities and pastimes, as well as the temporary material creation with its temporary demigods, men and animals. When one knows these, he surpasses death and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in the eternal kingdom of God he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge.
Iso 15: O my Lord, sustainer of all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Kindly remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee.
Iso 16: O my Lord, O primeval philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind, please remove the effulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss. You are the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead, like unto the sun, as am I.
Iso 17: Let this temporary body be burnt to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You.
Iso 18: O my Lord, as powerful as fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances, falling on the ground at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my progress.
Introduction
Iso Invocation: The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.
Iso 1: Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.
Iso 2: One may aspire to live for hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to this way for man.
Iso 3: The killer of the soul, whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless, full of darkness and ignorance.
Iso 4: Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.
Iso 5: The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.
Iso 6: He who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.
Iso 7: One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?
Iso 8: Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.
Iso 9: Those who engage in the culture of nescient activities shall enter into the darkest region of ignorance. Worse still are those engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge.
Iso 10: The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.
Iso 11: Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.
Iso 12: Those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and still more so do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute.
Iso 13: It is said that one result is obtained by worshiping the supreme cause of all causes and that another result is obtained by worshiping what is not supreme. All this is heard from the undisturbed authorities, who clearly explained it.
Iso 14: One should know perfectly the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His transcendental name, form, qualities and pastimes, as well as the temporary material creation with its temporary demigods, men and animals. When one knows these, he surpasses death and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in the eternal kingdom of God he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge.
Iso 15: O my Lord, sustainer of all that lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Kindly remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee.
Iso 16: O my Lord, O primeval philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind, please remove the effulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss. You are the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead, like unto the sun, as am I.
Iso 17: Let this temporary body be burnt to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You.
Iso 18: O my Lord, as powerful as fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances, falling on the ground at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my progress.
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā,
Foreword
The materialistic demeanor cannot possibly stretch to the transcendental autocrat who is ever inviting the fallen conditioned souls to associate with Him through devotion or eternal serving mood. The phenomenal attractions are often found to tempt sentient beings to enjoy the variegated position which is opposed to undifferenced monism. People are so much apt to indulge in transitory speculations even when they are to educate themselves on a situation beyond their empiric area or experiencing jurisdiction. The esoteric aspect often knocks them to trace out immanence in their outward inspection of transitory and transformable things. This impulse moves them to fix the position of the immanent to an indeterminate impersonal entity, no clue of which could be discerned by moving earth and heaven through their organic senses.
The lines of this booklet will surely help such puzzled souls in their march towards the personality of the immanent lying beyond their sensuous gaze of inspection. The very first stanza of this publication will revolutionize their reserved ideas when the nomenclature of the Absolute is put before them as "Kṛṣṇa." The speculative mind would show a tendency of offering some other attributive name to designate the unknown object. They will prefer to brand Him by their experience as the "creator of this universe", "the entity beyond phenomena" — far off the reference of any object of nature and void of all transformation. So they will urge that the very fountainhead should have no conceivable designation except to show a direction of the invisible, and inaudible untouchable, nonfragrant and unperceivable object. But they will not desist from contemplating on the object with their poor fund of experience. The interested enquirer will be found to hanker after the records left by erudite savants to incompatible hallucinative views of savage demonstration. In comparing the different names offered by different thoughts of mankind, a particular judge would decide in favor of some nomenclature which will suit best his limited and specific whims. The slave mentality of an individual will no doubt offer invective assertions to the rest who will be appealing to him for a revelation of his decision. To remedy this evil, the hymns of the accepted progenitor of the phenomena would do great help in taking up the question of nomenclature which is possessed of adequate power to dispel all imaginations drawn out of their experiencing the phenomena by their tentative exploitations.
The first hymn will establish the supremacy of the Absolute Truth, if His substratum is not shot by the bullets of limited time, ignorance and uncomfortable feeling, as well as by recognizing the same as an effect instead of accepting Him as the prime cause. He will be satisfied to mark that the object of their determination is the par"excellent Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa who has eternally embodied Himself in His ever-presence, all-blissful, all-pervasive perfected knowledge as the very fountainhead of all prime causes of unending nonbeginning time, the supplying fosterer of all entities, viz., mundane and transcendental.
The subsequent lines will go to determine the different aspects of the Absolute, who are but emanations of the supreme fountainhead Kṛṣṇa, the attractive entity of all entities. Moreover, the derivative proclamation of the nomenclature will indicate the plane of uninterrupted, unending, transcendental felicity and the nomenclature Himself is the source of the two components which go by the names of efficient and material causes. The very transcendental name "Kṛṣṇa" is known as the embodiment of all the transcendental eternal rasas as well as the origin of all eclipsed conceptions of interrupted rasas found in the mentality of animated beings which are successfully depicted by litterateurs and rhetoricians for our mundane speculation.
The verses of Brahma-saḿhitā are a full elucidation of the origination of phenomenal and noumenic conceptions. The hymns of the incarnated prime potency has dealt fully with the monotheistic speculations of different schools which are busy to give an outer cover of an esoteric concoction without any reference to the true eternal aspect of transcendental nontransformable and imperishable manifestation of the immanent. The hymns have also dealt with different partial aspects of the personality of the Absolute who is quite isolated from the conception of the enjoyers of this phenomenal world.
A very close attention and a comparative study of all prevailing thoughts and conceptions will relieve and enlighten all — be he a materialist, a downright atheist, an agnostic, a sceptic, a naturalist, a pantheist or a panantheist — busy with their knowledge of three dimensions only by their speculative exertions.
This booklet is only the fifth chapter of the Hymns of Brahmā which were recorded in a hundred chapters. The Supreme Lord Śrī Caitanya picked up this chapter from the temple of Ādi-keśava at Tiruvattar, a village lying under the government of Travancore, for the assurance of all God-loving, and especially Kṛṣṇa-loving, people in this conditioned jurisdiction. This booklet can easily be compared with another book which passes by the name of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Though it has got a reference in the pantheon of Purāṇas, the Bhāgavatam corroborates the same idea of this Pañcarātra.
The devotees should consider that these two books tend to the identical Kṛṣṇa who is the fountainhead of all transcendental and mundane entities and has a manifestive exhibition of the plenary variegatedness.
Aspersions of calumniation are restricted in the limited world, whereas transcendence cannot admit such angularities being an angle of 180 degrees or void of any angular discrepancies.
The publisher is carried away to the realm of gratitude when his stores of publication are scrutinized. Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda has given an elucidatory purport of the conception of the most sublime fountainhead of all entities in Bengali, and one of his devout followers has rendered that into English for propagatory purpose. The purports and the translations are traced to the backgrounds of the writings of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, a contemporary follower of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. The emotional aspirations will find fair play in perusing the texts of this brochure by one and all who have any interest in pure theistic achievements. The materialistic inspection often goes on to say that the provincial conception of theism has made the depicting of transcendental unity into diverse face quite opposed to the ethical consideration of the limited region. But we differ from such erroneous considerations when we get a prospective view of the manifested transcendentality eliminating all historicities and allegorical enterprises. All our enjoying mood should have a different direction when we take into account the transcendental entity who has obsessed all frailties and limitations of nature. So we solicit the happier mood of the scrutinizers to pay special attention to the importance of manifestive transcendence in Kṛṣṇa.
It was found necessary to publish this small book for the use of English-knowing people who are interested in the acme of transcendental truths in their manifestive phases. The theme delineated in the texts of this book is quite different from the ordinary heaps of poetical mundane literature, as they are confined to our limited aspiration of senses. The book was found in the South some four centuries ago and it is again brought into light in the very same country after a long time, just like the worshiping of the Goddess Ganges by the offering of her own water.
Siddhānta Sarasvatī
Shree Gaudiya Math,
Calcutta, the 1st August, 1932.
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā
BS 5.1: Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.
BS 5.2: [The spiritual place of transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa is portrayed in the second verse.] The superexcellent station of Kṛṣṇa, which is known as Gokula, has thousands of petals and a corolla like that of a lotus sprouted from a part of His infinitary aspect, the whorl of the leaves being the actual abode of Kṛṣṇa.
BS 5.3: The whorl of that transcendental lotus is the realm wherein dwells Kṛṣṇa. It is a hexagonal figure, the abode of the indwelling predominated and predominating aspect of the Absolute. Like a diamond the central supporting figure of self-luminous Kṛṣṇa stands as the transcendental source of all potencies. The holy name consisting of eighteen transcendental letters is manifested in a hexagonal figure with sixfold divisions.
BS 5.4: The whorl of that eternal realm Gokula is the hexagonal abode of Kṛṣṇa. Its petals are the abodes of gopīs who are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa to whom they are most lovingly devoted and are similar in essence. The petals shine beautifully like so many walls. The extended leaves of that lotus are the gardenlike dhāma, i.e. spiritual abode of Śrī Rādhikā, the most beloved of Kṛṣṇa.
BS 5.5: [The surrounding external plane of Gokula is described in this verse.] There is a mysterious quadrangular place named Śvetadvīpa surrounding the outskirts of Gokula. Śvetadvīpa is divided into four parts on all sides. The abode of Vāsudeva, Sańkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are separately located in each of these four parts. These four divided abodes are enveloped by the fourfold human requirements such as piety, wealth, passion and liberation, as also by the four Vedas, viz., Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur and Atharva, which deal with the mantra and which are the bases of achievements of the fourfold mundane requirements. Ten tridents are fixed in the ten directions, including the zenith and nadir. The eight directions are decorated with the eight jewels of Mahāpadma, Padma, Śańkha, Makara, Kacchapa, Mukunda, Kunda, and Nīla. There are ten protectors [dik-pālas] of the ten directions in the form of mantra. The associates of the hues of blue, yellow, red and white and the extraordinary potencies bearing the names of Vimala, etc., shine on all sides.
BS 5.6: The Lord of Gokula is the transcendental Supreme Godhead, the own Self of eternal ecstasies. He is the superior of all superiors and is busily engaged in the enjoyments of the transcendental realm and has no association with His mundane potency.
BS 5.7: Kṛṣṇa never consorts with His illusory energy. Still her connection is not entirely cut off from the Absolute Truth. When He intends to create the material world the amorous pastime, in which He engages by consorting with His own spiritual [cit] potency Ramā by casting His glance at the deluding energy in the shape of sending His time energy, is an auxiliary activity.
BS 5.8: [The secondary process of association with Māyā is described.] Ramādevī, the spiritual [cit] potency, beloved consort of the Supreme Lord, is the regulatrix of all entities. The divine plenary portion of Kṛṣṇa creates the mundane world. At creation there appears a divine halo of the nature of His own subjective portion [svāḿśa]. This halo is divine Śambhu, the masculine symbol or manifested emblem of the Supreme Lord. This halo is the dim twilight reflection of the supreme eternal effulgence. This masculine symbol is the subjective portion of divinity who functions as progenitor of the mundane world, subject to the supreme regulatrix [niyati]. The conceiving potency in regard to mundane creation makes her appearance out of the supreme regulatrix. She is Māyā, the limited, nonabsolute [aparā] potency, the symbol of mundane feminine productivity. The intercourse of these two brings forth the faculty of perverted cognition, the reflection of the seed of the procreative desire of the Supreme Lord.
BS 5.9: All offspring of the consort of the great lord [Maheśvara] of this mundane world are of the nature of the embodiment of the mundane masculine and feminine generative organs.
BS 5.10: The person embodying the material causal principle, viz., the great lord of this mundane world [Maheśvara] Śamhhu, in the form of the male generating organ, is joined to his female consort the limited energy [Māyā] as the efficient causal principle. The Lord of the world Mahā-Viṣṇu is manifest in him by His subjective portion in the form of His glance.
BS 5.11: The Lord of the mundane world, Mahā-Viṣṇu, possesses thousands of thousands of heads, eyes, hands. He is the source of thousands of thousands of avatāras in His thousands of thousands of subjective portions. He is the creator of thousands of thousands of individual souls.
BS 5.12: The same Mahā-Viṣṇu is spoken of by the name of "Nārāyaṇa" in this mundane world. From that eternal person has sprung the vast expanse of water of the spiritual Causal Ocean. The subjective portion of Sańkarṣaṇa who abides in paravyoma, the above supreme puruṣa with thousands of subjective portions, reposes in the state of divine sleep [yoga-nidrā] in the waters of the spiritual Causal Ocean.
BS 5.13: The spiritual seeds of Sańkarṣaṇa existing in the pores of skin of Mahā-Viṣṇu, are born as so many golden sperms. These sperms are covered with five great elements.
BS 5.14: The same Mahā-Viṣṇu entered into each universe as His own separate subjective portions. The divine portions, that entered into each universe are possessed of His majestic extension, i.e., they are the eternal universal soul Mahā-Viṣṇu, possessing thousands of thousands of heads.
BS 5.15: The same Mahā-Viṣṇu created Viṣṇu from His left limb, Brahmā, the first progenitor of beings, from His right limb and, from the space between His two eyebrows, Śambhu, the divine masculine manifested halo.
BS 5.16: The function of Śambhu in relation to jīvas is that this universe enshrining the mundane egotistic principle has originated from Śambhu.
BS 5.17: Thereupon the same great personal Godhead, assuming the threefold forms of Viṣṇu, Prajāpati and Śambhu, entering into the mundane universe, plays the pastimes of preservation, creation and destruction of this world. This pastime is contained in the mundane world. Hence, it being perverted, the Supreme Lord, identical with Mahā-Viṣṇu, prefers to consort with the goddess Yoganidrā, the constituent of His own spiritual [cit] potency full of the ecstatic trance of eternal bliss appertaining to His own divine personality.
BS 5.18: When Viṣṇu lying in the ocean of milk wills to create this universe, a golden lotus springs from His navel-pit. The golden lotus with its stem is the abode of Brahmā representing Brahmaloka or Satyaloka.
BS 5.19: Before their conglomeration the primary elements in their nascent state remained originally separate entities. Nonapplication of the conglomerating process is the cause of their separate existence. Divine Mahā-Viṣṇu, primal Godhead, through association with His own spiritual [cit] potency, moved Māyā and by the application of the conglomerating principle created those different entities in their state of cooperation. And alter that He Himself consorted with Yoganidrā by way of His eternal dalliance with His spiritual [cit] potency.
BS 5.20: By conglomerating all those separate entities He manifested the innumerable mundane universes and Himself entered into the inmost recess of every extended conglomerate [viraḍ-vigraha]. At that time those jīvas who had lain dormant during the cataclysm were awakened.
BS 5.21: The same jīva is eternal and is for eternity and without a beginning joined to the Supreme Lord by the tie of an eternal kinship. He is transcendental spiritual potency.
BS 5.22: The divine lotus which springs from the navel-pit of Viṣṇu is in every way related by the spiritual tie with all souls and is the origin of four-faced Brahmā versed in the four Vedas.
BS 5.23: On coming out of the lotus, Brahmā, being guided by the divine potency tuned his mind to the act of creation under the impulse of previous impressions. But he could see nothing but darkness in every direction.
BS 5.24: Then the goddess of learning Sarasvatī, the divine consort of the Supreme Lord, said thus to Brahmā who saw nothing but gloom in all directions, "O Brahmā, this mantra, viz., klīḿ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopī-jana-vallabhāya svāhā, will assuredly fulfill your heart's desire."
BS 5.25: "O Brahmā, do thou practice spiritual association by means of this mantra; then all your desires will be fulfilled."
BS 5.26: Brahmā, being desirous of satisfying Govinda, practiced the cultural acts for Kṛṣṇa in Goloka, Lord of Śvetadvīpa, for a long time. His meditation ran thus, "There exists a divine lotus of a thousand petals, augmented by millions of filaments, in the transcendental land of Goloka. On its whorl, there exists a great divine throne on which is seated Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the form of eternal effulgence of transcendental bliss, playing on His divine flute resonant with the divine sound, with His lotus mouth. He is worshiped by His amorous milkmaids with their respective subjective portions and extensions and also by His external energy [who stays outside] embodying all mundane qualities."
BS 5.27: Then Gāyatrī, mother of the Vedas, being made manifest, i.e. imparted, by the divine sound of the flute of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, entered into the lotus mouth of Brahmā, born from himself, through his eight ear-holes. The lotus-born Brahmā having received the Gāyatrī, sprung from the flute-song of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, attained the status of the twice-born, having been initiated by the supreme primal preceptor, Godhead Himself.
BS 5.28: Enlightened by the recollection of that Gāyatrī, embodying the three Vedas, Brahmā became acquainted with the expanse of the ocean of truth. Then he worshiped Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the essence of all Vedas, with this hymn.
BS 5.29: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor who is tending the cows, yielding all desire, in abodes built with spiritual gems, surrounded by millions of purpose trees, always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of lakṣmīs or gopīs.
BS 5.30: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept in playing on His flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals with head decked with peacock's feather, with the figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and His unique loveliness charming millions of Cupids.
BS 5.31: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, round whose neck is swinging a garland of flowers beautified with the moon-locket, whose two hands are adorned with the flute and jeweled ornaments, who always revels in pastimes of love, whose graceful threefold-bending form of Śyāmasundara is eternally manifest.
BS 5.32: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth, substantiality and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane.
BS 5.33: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal puruṣa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.
BS 5.34: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogīs who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to prāṇāyāma by drilling the respiration; or by the jñānīs who try to find out the nondifferentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.
BS 5.35: He is an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.
BS 5.36: I adore the same Govinda, the primeval Lord, in whose praise men, who are imbued with devotion, sing the mantra-sūktas told by the Vedas, by gaining their appropriate beauty, greatness, thrones, conveyances and ornaments.
BS 5.37: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.
BS 5.38: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.
BS 5.39: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who manifested Himself personally as Kṛṣṇa and the different avatāras in the world in the forms of Rāma, Nṛsiḿha, Vāmana, etc., as His subjective portions.
BS 5.40: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.
BS 5.41: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is the absolute substantive principle being the ultimate entity in the form of the support of all existence whose external potency embodies the threefold mundane qualities, viz., sattva, rajas, and tamas and diffuses the Vedic knowledge regarding the mundane world.
BS 5.42: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose glory ever triumphantly dominates the mundane world by the activity of His own pastimes, being reflected in the mind of recollecting souls as the transcendental entity of ever-blissful cognitive rasa.
BS 5.43: Lowest of all is located Devī-dhāma [mundane world], next above it is Maheśa-dhāma [abode of Maheśa]; above Maheśa-dhāma is placed Hari-dhāma [abode of Hari] and above them all is located Kṛṣṇa's own realm named Goloka. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who has allotted their respective authorities to the rulers of those graded realms.
BS 5.44: The external potency Māyā who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit potency, is worshiped by all people as Durgā, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.
BS 5.45: Just as milk is transformed into curd by the action of acids, but yet the effect curd is neither same as, nor different from, its cause, viz., milk, so I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whom the state of Śambhu is a transformation for the performance of the work of destruction.
BS 5.46: The light of one candle being communicated to other candles, although it burns separately in them, is the same in its quality. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda who exhibits Himself equally in the same mobile manner in His various manifestations.
BS 5.47: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda who assuming His own great subjective form, who bears the name of Śeṣa, replete with the all-accommodating potency, and reposing in the Causal Ocean with the infinity of the world in the pores of His hair, enjoys creative sleep [yoga-nidrā].
BS 5.48: Brahmā and other lords of the mundane worlds, appearing from the pores of hair of Mahā-Viṣṇu, remain alive as long as the duration of one exhalation of the latter [Mahā-Viṣṇu]. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whose subjective personality Mahā-Viṣṇu is the portion of portion.
BS 5.49: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda from whom the separated subjective portion Brahmā receives his power for the regulation of the mundane world, just as the sun manifests some portion of his own light in all the effulgent gems that bear the names of sūryakānta, etc.
BS 5.50: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, whose lotus feet are always held by Gaṇeśa upon the pair of tumuli protruding from his elephant head in order to obtain power for his function of destroying all the obstacles on the path of progress of the three worlds.
BS 5.51: The three worlds are composed of the nine elements, viz., fire, earth, ether, water, air, direction, time, soul and mind. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda from whom they originate, in whom they exist and into whom they enter at the time of the universal cataclysm.
BS 5.52: The sun who is the king of all the planets, full of infinite effulgence, the image of the good soul, is as the eye of this world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in pursuance of whose order the sun performs his journey mounting the wheel of time.
BS 5.53: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, by whose conferred power are maintained the manifested potencies, that are found to exist, of all virtues, all vices, the Vedas, the penances and all jīvas, from Brahmā to the meanest insect.
BS 5.54: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who burns up to their roots all fruitive activities of those who are imbued with devotion and impartially ordains for each the due enjoyment of the fruits of one's activities, of all those who walk in the path of work, in accordance with the chain of their previously performed works, no less in the case of the tiny insect that bears the name of indragopa than in that of Indra, king of the devas.
BS 5.55: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, the meditators of whom, by meditating upon Him under the sway of wrath, amorous passion, natural friendly love, fear, parental affection, delusion, reverence and willing service, attain to bodily forms befitting the nature of their contemplation.
BS 5.56: I worship that transcendental seat, known as Śvetadvīpa where as loving consorts the Lakṣmīs in their unalloyed spiritual essence practice the amorous service of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa as their only lover; where every tree is a transcendental purpose tree; where the soil is the purpose gem, all water is nectar, every word is a song, every gait is a dance, the flute is the favorite attendant, effulgence is full of transcendental bliss and the supreme spiritual entities are all enjoyable and tasty, where numberless milk cows always emit transcendental oceans of milk; where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self-realized souls in this world.
BS 5.57: On hearing these hymns containing the essence of the truth, the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa said to Brahmā, "Brahmā, if you experience the inclination to create offspring by being endowed with the real knowledge of the glory of Godhead, listen, My beloved, from Me to this science set forth in the following five ślokas.
BS 5.58: When the pure spiritual experience is excited by means of cognition and service [bhakti], superexcellent unalloyed devotion characterized by love for Godhead is awakened towards Kṛṣṇa, the beloved of all souls.
BS 5.59: The highest devotion is attained by slow degrees by the method of constant endeavor for self-realization with the help of scriptural evidence, theistic conduct and perseverance in practice.
BS 5.60: These preliminary practices of devotion [sādhana-bhakti] are conducive to the realization of loving devotion. [Loving devotion] — than whom there is no superior well-being, who goes hand in hand with the attainment of the exclusive state of supreme bliss and who can lead to Myself.
BS 5.61: Abandoning all meritorious performances serve Me with faith. The realization will correspond to the nature of one's faith. The people of the world act ceaselessly in pursuance of some ideal. By meditating on Me by means of those deeds one will obtain devotion characterized by love in the shape of the supreme service.
BS 5.62: "Listen, O Vidhi, I am the seed, i.e., the fundamental principle, of this world of animate and inanimate objects. I am pradhāna [the substance of matter], I am prakṛti [material cause] and I am puruṣa [efficient cause]. This fiery energy that belongs specially to the Brahman, that inheres in you, has also been conferred by Me. It is by bearing this fiery energy that you regulate this phenomenal world of animate and inanimate objects."
Foreword
The materialistic demeanor cannot possibly stretch to the transcendental autocrat who is ever inviting the fallen conditioned souls to associate with Him through devotion or eternal serving mood. The phenomenal attractions are often found to tempt sentient beings to enjoy the variegated position which is opposed to undifferenced monism. People are so much apt to indulge in transitory speculations even when they are to educate themselves on a situation beyond their empiric area or experiencing jurisdiction. The esoteric aspect often knocks them to trace out immanence in their outward inspection of transitory and transformable things. This impulse moves them to fix the position of the immanent to an indeterminate impersonal entity, no clue of which could be discerned by moving earth and heaven through their organic senses.
The lines of this booklet will surely help such puzzled souls in their march towards the personality of the immanent lying beyond their sensuous gaze of inspection. The very first stanza of this publication will revolutionize their reserved ideas when the nomenclature of the Absolute is put before them as "Kṛṣṇa." The speculative mind would show a tendency of offering some other attributive name to designate the unknown object. They will prefer to brand Him by their experience as the "creator of this universe", "the entity beyond phenomena" — far off the reference of any object of nature and void of all transformation. So they will urge that the very fountainhead should have no conceivable designation except to show a direction of the invisible, and inaudible untouchable, nonfragrant and unperceivable object. But they will not desist from contemplating on the object with their poor fund of experience. The interested enquirer will be found to hanker after the records left by erudite savants to incompatible hallucinative views of savage demonstration. In comparing the different names offered by different thoughts of mankind, a particular judge would decide in favor of some nomenclature which will suit best his limited and specific whims. The slave mentality of an individual will no doubt offer invective assertions to the rest who will be appealing to him for a revelation of his decision. To remedy this evil, the hymns of the accepted progenitor of the phenomena would do great help in taking up the question of nomenclature which is possessed of adequate power to dispel all imaginations drawn out of their experiencing the phenomena by their tentative exploitations.
The first hymn will establish the supremacy of the Absolute Truth, if His substratum is not shot by the bullets of limited time, ignorance and uncomfortable feeling, as well as by recognizing the same as an effect instead of accepting Him as the prime cause. He will be satisfied to mark that the object of their determination is the par"excellent Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa who has eternally embodied Himself in His ever-presence, all-blissful, all-pervasive perfected knowledge as the very fountainhead of all prime causes of unending nonbeginning time, the supplying fosterer of all entities, viz., mundane and transcendental.
The subsequent lines will go to determine the different aspects of the Absolute, who are but emanations of the supreme fountainhead Kṛṣṇa, the attractive entity of all entities. Moreover, the derivative proclamation of the nomenclature will indicate the plane of uninterrupted, unending, transcendental felicity and the nomenclature Himself is the source of the two components which go by the names of efficient and material causes. The very transcendental name "Kṛṣṇa" is known as the embodiment of all the transcendental eternal rasas as well as the origin of all eclipsed conceptions of interrupted rasas found in the mentality of animated beings which are successfully depicted by litterateurs and rhetoricians for our mundane speculation.
The verses of Brahma-saḿhitā are a full elucidation of the origination of phenomenal and noumenic conceptions. The hymns of the incarnated prime potency has dealt fully with the monotheistic speculations of different schools which are busy to give an outer cover of an esoteric concoction without any reference to the true eternal aspect of transcendental nontransformable and imperishable manifestation of the immanent. The hymns have also dealt with different partial aspects of the personality of the Absolute who is quite isolated from the conception of the enjoyers of this phenomenal world.
A very close attention and a comparative study of all prevailing thoughts and conceptions will relieve and enlighten all — be he a materialist, a downright atheist, an agnostic, a sceptic, a naturalist, a pantheist or a panantheist — busy with their knowledge of three dimensions only by their speculative exertions.
This booklet is only the fifth chapter of the Hymns of Brahmā which were recorded in a hundred chapters. The Supreme Lord Śrī Caitanya picked up this chapter from the temple of Ādi-keśava at Tiruvattar, a village lying under the government of Travancore, for the assurance of all God-loving, and especially Kṛṣṇa-loving, people in this conditioned jurisdiction. This booklet can easily be compared with another book which passes by the name of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Though it has got a reference in the pantheon of Purāṇas, the Bhāgavatam corroborates the same idea of this Pañcarātra.
The devotees should consider that these two books tend to the identical Kṛṣṇa who is the fountainhead of all transcendental and mundane entities and has a manifestive exhibition of the plenary variegatedness.
Aspersions of calumniation are restricted in the limited world, whereas transcendence cannot admit such angularities being an angle of 180 degrees or void of any angular discrepancies.
The publisher is carried away to the realm of gratitude when his stores of publication are scrutinized. Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda has given an elucidatory purport of the conception of the most sublime fountainhead of all entities in Bengali, and one of his devout followers has rendered that into English for propagatory purpose. The purports and the translations are traced to the backgrounds of the writings of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, a contemporary follower of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. The emotional aspirations will find fair play in perusing the texts of this brochure by one and all who have any interest in pure theistic achievements. The materialistic inspection often goes on to say that the provincial conception of theism has made the depicting of transcendental unity into diverse face quite opposed to the ethical consideration of the limited region. But we differ from such erroneous considerations when we get a prospective view of the manifested transcendentality eliminating all historicities and allegorical enterprises. All our enjoying mood should have a different direction when we take into account the transcendental entity who has obsessed all frailties and limitations of nature. So we solicit the happier mood of the scrutinizers to pay special attention to the importance of manifestive transcendence in Kṛṣṇa.
It was found necessary to publish this small book for the use of English-knowing people who are interested in the acme of transcendental truths in their manifestive phases. The theme delineated in the texts of this book is quite different from the ordinary heaps of poetical mundane literature, as they are confined to our limited aspiration of senses. The book was found in the South some four centuries ago and it is again brought into light in the very same country after a long time, just like the worshiping of the Goddess Ganges by the offering of her own water.
Siddhānta Sarasvatī
Shree Gaudiya Math,
Calcutta, the 1st August, 1932.
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā
BS 5.1: Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.
BS 5.2: [The spiritual place of transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa is portrayed in the second verse.] The superexcellent station of Kṛṣṇa, which is known as Gokula, has thousands of petals and a corolla like that of a lotus sprouted from a part of His infinitary aspect, the whorl of the leaves being the actual abode of Kṛṣṇa.
BS 5.3: The whorl of that transcendental lotus is the realm wherein dwells Kṛṣṇa. It is a hexagonal figure, the abode of the indwelling predominated and predominating aspect of the Absolute. Like a diamond the central supporting figure of self-luminous Kṛṣṇa stands as the transcendental source of all potencies. The holy name consisting of eighteen transcendental letters is manifested in a hexagonal figure with sixfold divisions.
BS 5.4: The whorl of that eternal realm Gokula is the hexagonal abode of Kṛṣṇa. Its petals are the abodes of gopīs who are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa to whom they are most lovingly devoted and are similar in essence. The petals shine beautifully like so many walls. The extended leaves of that lotus are the gardenlike dhāma, i.e. spiritual abode of Śrī Rādhikā, the most beloved of Kṛṣṇa.
BS 5.5: [The surrounding external plane of Gokula is described in this verse.] There is a mysterious quadrangular place named Śvetadvīpa surrounding the outskirts of Gokula. Śvetadvīpa is divided into four parts on all sides. The abode of Vāsudeva, Sańkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are separately located in each of these four parts. These four divided abodes are enveloped by the fourfold human requirements such as piety, wealth, passion and liberation, as also by the four Vedas, viz., Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur and Atharva, which deal with the mantra and which are the bases of achievements of the fourfold mundane requirements. Ten tridents are fixed in the ten directions, including the zenith and nadir. The eight directions are decorated with the eight jewels of Mahāpadma, Padma, Śańkha, Makara, Kacchapa, Mukunda, Kunda, and Nīla. There are ten protectors [dik-pālas] of the ten directions in the form of mantra. The associates of the hues of blue, yellow, red and white and the extraordinary potencies bearing the names of Vimala, etc., shine on all sides.
BS 5.6: The Lord of Gokula is the transcendental Supreme Godhead, the own Self of eternal ecstasies. He is the superior of all superiors and is busily engaged in the enjoyments of the transcendental realm and has no association with His mundane potency.
BS 5.7: Kṛṣṇa never consorts with His illusory energy. Still her connection is not entirely cut off from the Absolute Truth. When He intends to create the material world the amorous pastime, in which He engages by consorting with His own spiritual [cit] potency Ramā by casting His glance at the deluding energy in the shape of sending His time energy, is an auxiliary activity.
BS 5.8: [The secondary process of association with Māyā is described.] Ramādevī, the spiritual [cit] potency, beloved consort of the Supreme Lord, is the regulatrix of all entities. The divine plenary portion of Kṛṣṇa creates the mundane world. At creation there appears a divine halo of the nature of His own subjective portion [svāḿśa]. This halo is divine Śambhu, the masculine symbol or manifested emblem of the Supreme Lord. This halo is the dim twilight reflection of the supreme eternal effulgence. This masculine symbol is the subjective portion of divinity who functions as progenitor of the mundane world, subject to the supreme regulatrix [niyati]. The conceiving potency in regard to mundane creation makes her appearance out of the supreme regulatrix. She is Māyā, the limited, nonabsolute [aparā] potency, the symbol of mundane feminine productivity. The intercourse of these two brings forth the faculty of perverted cognition, the reflection of the seed of the procreative desire of the Supreme Lord.
BS 5.9: All offspring of the consort of the great lord [Maheśvara] of this mundane world are of the nature of the embodiment of the mundane masculine and feminine generative organs.
BS 5.10: The person embodying the material causal principle, viz., the great lord of this mundane world [Maheśvara] Śamhhu, in the form of the male generating organ, is joined to his female consort the limited energy [Māyā] as the efficient causal principle. The Lord of the world Mahā-Viṣṇu is manifest in him by His subjective portion in the form of His glance.
BS 5.11: The Lord of the mundane world, Mahā-Viṣṇu, possesses thousands of thousands of heads, eyes, hands. He is the source of thousands of thousands of avatāras in His thousands of thousands of subjective portions. He is the creator of thousands of thousands of individual souls.
BS 5.12: The same Mahā-Viṣṇu is spoken of by the name of "Nārāyaṇa" in this mundane world. From that eternal person has sprung the vast expanse of water of the spiritual Causal Ocean. The subjective portion of Sańkarṣaṇa who abides in paravyoma, the above supreme puruṣa with thousands of subjective portions, reposes in the state of divine sleep [yoga-nidrā] in the waters of the spiritual Causal Ocean.
BS 5.13: The spiritual seeds of Sańkarṣaṇa existing in the pores of skin of Mahā-Viṣṇu, are born as so many golden sperms. These sperms are covered with five great elements.
BS 5.14: The same Mahā-Viṣṇu entered into each universe as His own separate subjective portions. The divine portions, that entered into each universe are possessed of His majestic extension, i.e., they are the eternal universal soul Mahā-Viṣṇu, possessing thousands of thousands of heads.
BS 5.15: The same Mahā-Viṣṇu created Viṣṇu from His left limb, Brahmā, the first progenitor of beings, from His right limb and, from the space between His two eyebrows, Śambhu, the divine masculine manifested halo.
BS 5.16: The function of Śambhu in relation to jīvas is that this universe enshrining the mundane egotistic principle has originated from Śambhu.
BS 5.17: Thereupon the same great personal Godhead, assuming the threefold forms of Viṣṇu, Prajāpati and Śambhu, entering into the mundane universe, plays the pastimes of preservation, creation and destruction of this world. This pastime is contained in the mundane world. Hence, it being perverted, the Supreme Lord, identical with Mahā-Viṣṇu, prefers to consort with the goddess Yoganidrā, the constituent of His own spiritual [cit] potency full of the ecstatic trance of eternal bliss appertaining to His own divine personality.
BS 5.18: When Viṣṇu lying in the ocean of milk wills to create this universe, a golden lotus springs from His navel-pit. The golden lotus with its stem is the abode of Brahmā representing Brahmaloka or Satyaloka.
BS 5.19: Before their conglomeration the primary elements in their nascent state remained originally separate entities. Nonapplication of the conglomerating process is the cause of their separate existence. Divine Mahā-Viṣṇu, primal Godhead, through association with His own spiritual [cit] potency, moved Māyā and by the application of the conglomerating principle created those different entities in their state of cooperation. And alter that He Himself consorted with Yoganidrā by way of His eternal dalliance with His spiritual [cit] potency.
BS 5.20: By conglomerating all those separate entities He manifested the innumerable mundane universes and Himself entered into the inmost recess of every extended conglomerate [viraḍ-vigraha]. At that time those jīvas who had lain dormant during the cataclysm were awakened.
BS 5.21: The same jīva is eternal and is for eternity and without a beginning joined to the Supreme Lord by the tie of an eternal kinship. He is transcendental spiritual potency.
BS 5.22: The divine lotus which springs from the navel-pit of Viṣṇu is in every way related by the spiritual tie with all souls and is the origin of four-faced Brahmā versed in the four Vedas.
BS 5.23: On coming out of the lotus, Brahmā, being guided by the divine potency tuned his mind to the act of creation under the impulse of previous impressions. But he could see nothing but darkness in every direction.
BS 5.24: Then the goddess of learning Sarasvatī, the divine consort of the Supreme Lord, said thus to Brahmā who saw nothing but gloom in all directions, "O Brahmā, this mantra, viz., klīḿ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopī-jana-vallabhāya svāhā, will assuredly fulfill your heart's desire."
BS 5.25: "O Brahmā, do thou practice spiritual association by means of this mantra; then all your desires will be fulfilled."
BS 5.26: Brahmā, being desirous of satisfying Govinda, practiced the cultural acts for Kṛṣṇa in Goloka, Lord of Śvetadvīpa, for a long time. His meditation ran thus, "There exists a divine lotus of a thousand petals, augmented by millions of filaments, in the transcendental land of Goloka. On its whorl, there exists a great divine throne on which is seated Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the form of eternal effulgence of transcendental bliss, playing on His divine flute resonant with the divine sound, with His lotus mouth. He is worshiped by His amorous milkmaids with their respective subjective portions and extensions and also by His external energy [who stays outside] embodying all mundane qualities."
BS 5.27: Then Gāyatrī, mother of the Vedas, being made manifest, i.e. imparted, by the divine sound of the flute of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, entered into the lotus mouth of Brahmā, born from himself, through his eight ear-holes. The lotus-born Brahmā having received the Gāyatrī, sprung from the flute-song of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, attained the status of the twice-born, having been initiated by the supreme primal preceptor, Godhead Himself.
BS 5.28: Enlightened by the recollection of that Gāyatrī, embodying the three Vedas, Brahmā became acquainted with the expanse of the ocean of truth. Then he worshiped Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the essence of all Vedas, with this hymn.
BS 5.29: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor who is tending the cows, yielding all desire, in abodes built with spiritual gems, surrounded by millions of purpose trees, always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of lakṣmīs or gopīs.
BS 5.30: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept in playing on His flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals with head decked with peacock's feather, with the figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and His unique loveliness charming millions of Cupids.
BS 5.31: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, round whose neck is swinging a garland of flowers beautified with the moon-locket, whose two hands are adorned with the flute and jeweled ornaments, who always revels in pastimes of love, whose graceful threefold-bending form of Śyāmasundara is eternally manifest.
BS 5.32: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth, substantiality and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane.
BS 5.33: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal puruṣa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.
BS 5.34: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogīs who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to prāṇāyāma by drilling the respiration; or by the jñānīs who try to find out the nondifferentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.
BS 5.35: He is an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. In His work of creation of millions of worlds, His potency remains inseparable. All the universes exist in Him and He is present in His fullness in every one of the atoms that are scattered throughout the universe, at one and the same time. Such is the primeval Lord whom I adore.
BS 5.36: I adore the same Govinda, the primeval Lord, in whose praise men, who are imbued with devotion, sing the mantra-sūktas told by the Vedas, by gaining their appropriate beauty, greatness, thrones, conveyances and ornaments.
BS 5.37: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, residing in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, resembling His own spiritual figure, the embodiment of the ecstatic potency possessed of the sixty-four artistic activities, in the company of Her confidantes [sakhīs], embodiments of the extensions of Her bodily form, permeated and vitalized by His ever-blissful spiritual rasa.
BS 5.38: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṇa Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.
BS 5.39: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who manifested Himself personally as Kṛṣṇa and the different avatāras in the world in the forms of Rāma, Nṛsiḿha, Vāmana, etc., as His subjective portions.
BS 5.40: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the nondifferentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upaniṣads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless, truth.
BS 5.41: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is the absolute substantive principle being the ultimate entity in the form of the support of all existence whose external potency embodies the threefold mundane qualities, viz., sattva, rajas, and tamas and diffuses the Vedic knowledge regarding the mundane world.
BS 5.42: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose glory ever triumphantly dominates the mundane world by the activity of His own pastimes, being reflected in the mind of recollecting souls as the transcendental entity of ever-blissful cognitive rasa.
BS 5.43: Lowest of all is located Devī-dhāma [mundane world], next above it is Maheśa-dhāma [abode of Maheśa]; above Maheśa-dhāma is placed Hari-dhāma [abode of Hari] and above them all is located Kṛṣṇa's own realm named Goloka. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who has allotted their respective authorities to the rulers of those graded realms.
BS 5.44: The external potency Māyā who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit potency, is worshiped by all people as Durgā, the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.
BS 5.45: Just as milk is transformed into curd by the action of acids, but yet the effect curd is neither same as, nor different from, its cause, viz., milk, so I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whom the state of Śambhu is a transformation for the performance of the work of destruction.
BS 5.46: The light of one candle being communicated to other candles, although it burns separately in them, is the same in its quality. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda who exhibits Himself equally in the same mobile manner in His various manifestations.
BS 5.47: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda who assuming His own great subjective form, who bears the name of Śeṣa, replete with the all-accommodating potency, and reposing in the Causal Ocean with the infinity of the world in the pores of His hair, enjoys creative sleep [yoga-nidrā].
BS 5.48: Brahmā and other lords of the mundane worlds, appearing from the pores of hair of Mahā-Viṣṇu, remain alive as long as the duration of one exhalation of the latter [Mahā-Viṣṇu]. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whose subjective personality Mahā-Viṣṇu is the portion of portion.
BS 5.49: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda from whom the separated subjective portion Brahmā receives his power for the regulation of the mundane world, just as the sun manifests some portion of his own light in all the effulgent gems that bear the names of sūryakānta, etc.
BS 5.50: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, whose lotus feet are always held by Gaṇeśa upon the pair of tumuli protruding from his elephant head in order to obtain power for his function of destroying all the obstacles on the path of progress of the three worlds.
BS 5.51: The three worlds are composed of the nine elements, viz., fire, earth, ether, water, air, direction, time, soul and mind. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda from whom they originate, in whom they exist and into whom they enter at the time of the universal cataclysm.
BS 5.52: The sun who is the king of all the planets, full of infinite effulgence, the image of the good soul, is as the eye of this world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in pursuance of whose order the sun performs his journey mounting the wheel of time.
BS 5.53: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, by whose conferred power are maintained the manifested potencies, that are found to exist, of all virtues, all vices, the Vedas, the penances and all jīvas, from Brahmā to the meanest insect.
BS 5.54: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, who burns up to their roots all fruitive activities of those who are imbued with devotion and impartially ordains for each the due enjoyment of the fruits of one's activities, of all those who walk in the path of work, in accordance with the chain of their previously performed works, no less in the case of the tiny insect that bears the name of indragopa than in that of Indra, king of the devas.
BS 5.55: I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, the meditators of whom, by meditating upon Him under the sway of wrath, amorous passion, natural friendly love, fear, parental affection, delusion, reverence and willing service, attain to bodily forms befitting the nature of their contemplation.
BS 5.56: I worship that transcendental seat, known as Śvetadvīpa where as loving consorts the Lakṣmīs in their unalloyed spiritual essence practice the amorous service of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa as their only lover; where every tree is a transcendental purpose tree; where the soil is the purpose gem, all water is nectar, every word is a song, every gait is a dance, the flute is the favorite attendant, effulgence is full of transcendental bliss and the supreme spiritual entities are all enjoyable and tasty, where numberless milk cows always emit transcendental oceans of milk; where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self-realized souls in this world.
BS 5.57: On hearing these hymns containing the essence of the truth, the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa said to Brahmā, "Brahmā, if you experience the inclination to create offspring by being endowed with the real knowledge of the glory of Godhead, listen, My beloved, from Me to this science set forth in the following five ślokas.
BS 5.58: When the pure spiritual experience is excited by means of cognition and service [bhakti], superexcellent unalloyed devotion characterized by love for Godhead is awakened towards Kṛṣṇa, the beloved of all souls.
BS 5.59: The highest devotion is attained by slow degrees by the method of constant endeavor for self-realization with the help of scriptural evidence, theistic conduct and perseverance in practice.
BS 5.60: These preliminary practices of devotion [sādhana-bhakti] are conducive to the realization of loving devotion. [Loving devotion] — than whom there is no superior well-being, who goes hand in hand with the attainment of the exclusive state of supreme bliss and who can lead to Myself.
BS 5.61: Abandoning all meritorious performances serve Me with faith. The realization will correspond to the nature of one's faith. The people of the world act ceaselessly in pursuance of some ideal. By meditating on Me by means of those deeds one will obtain devotion characterized by love in the shape of the supreme service.
BS 5.62: "Listen, O Vidhi, I am the seed, i.e., the fundamental principle, of this world of animate and inanimate objects. I am pradhāna [the substance of matter], I am prakṛti [material cause] and I am puruṣa [efficient cause]. This fiery energy that belongs specially to the Brahman, that inheres in you, has also been conferred by Me. It is by bearing this fiery energy that you regulate this phenomenal world of animate and inanimate objects."
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