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Chapter
14: Brahmâ's
Prayers to Lord Krishna
(1) S'rî Brahmâ said: 'My praise for
You oh Son of the Cowherd King, oh worshipable Lord whose beauty
is characterized by a resplendent
face, soft feet, a body as dark as a raincloud, clothes as bright as
lightening, guñjâ [seed] ornaments [on Your ears], peacock
feathers, a garland of forest flowers, a morsel of food [see 10.13:
14], a rod, a bugle
and a
flute. (2) Oh
Godhead so full of mercy
for me, even with this body of
Yours before me, that to the
desire of Your devotees has manifested but at the other hand is not a
material product at all, I, Brahmâ, with my inward mind cannot
directly fathom Your greatness, not to mention the happiness You
experience within Yourself. (3) Even though You are
Invincible
in the three worlds, You surrender to the will of those persons who, in
maintaining their material positions, regularly exercise their body,
words and mind and [are prepared to] listen to the stories about You
the
way they are described by the devotees - by those truthful souls who,
living simply, offer their obeisances and no longer try to be of any
intellectual achievement [apart from You]. (4) The so
highly beneficial path of bhakti
oh Almighty Lord, is
rejected by those who struggle exclusively for the achievement of
knowledge ['enlightenment']. Their efforts though mean nothing but
trouble to them, just as empty husks are nothing but a hindrance to the
ones threshing. (5) A long time ago oh
Almighty One, there was in this world many a yoga adept who, dedicating
all his actions to You, acquired insight by doing his duty. It is
indeed so that by performing devotional service someone with the
presentation [the chanting and reading] of Your stories easily can
achieve Your Supreme
Destination oh Infallible One
[see also 7.5: 23-24]! (6) Nevertheless,
oh
Completeness
of
Existence,
only
he
is
able
to
understand
the
potency
of You as being without material qualities [nirguna],
who is of a pure engagement with a mind and senses that are free from
agitations. A person is truly
free from attachments to this or that
form only when he follows Your
love without another
instruction for himself, and not otherwise. (7) Great
scientists in the long run might
succeed in counting all the particles present in the universe of the
earth, the sky, the snow and the light of the stars. But who would be
able to count all the qualities of You, the Self of All Qualities [gunâtma],
who
descended
for
the
benefit
of
all
living
beings
[compare
8.5:
6]? (8) Someone
who
earnestly
hopes
for
Your
compassion,
endures
the
consequences
of
his
own
actions and offers You
his obeisances with his heart,
words and body, will lead a life directed at the position of
liberation, because he then will be the heir of Your service [see also 1.5:
17, 1.19: 32, 2.1:
12, 3.33:
6, 4.20: 11, 4.29: 38
etc.]. (9) Just see oh Lord, how I, just
to test Your potency, by expanding my illusory power, have behaved myself in an uncivilized manner towards even You, the Deluder of All
Deluders, the Unlimited, Original Supersoul. What is my
will
compared
to
Yours?
But a spark
relative to a fire! (10) Therefore
oh
Infallible
One,
I
offer
You
my
excuses,
I,
born
from
passion, who as
the unborn one thought himself to be independent
from You. My eyes were
blinded by the darkness of ignorance. Does someone like me, who accepts
You as his master, not deserve Your mercy? (11) What
am I with my material nature, with those seven vitasi
[± 63 inches] of this body, with this totality of matter, false
ego, ether, air, fire, water and earth that surrounds me like a pot?
What am I compared to the unlimited universes that like atomic dust
move away from the openings and pores of Your body, Your greatness [see also 1.3:
3 and 3: 11]? (12)
Oh Lord from the Beyond, does the mother count it as an offense when a
child kicks its legs within the womb? What, being labeled with
designations as 'existent' or 'nonexistent', would there actually be outside of Your
abdomen? (13) Have I, the 'selfborn' Brahmâ [aja
*5] not originated from You? Are
the words untrue that state that when the three worlds ended and You Nârâyana laid down in the waters of
devastation, I have appeared on the lotus of the stem that grew from
Your abdomen [see 3: 8]? (14) Are
You not Nârâyana the Soul of
all living beings? You are the Teacher Within the Heart, the Witness of
All Worlds, the Nâra-ayana: the lead of man and the source
from which the waters originated. That is what You truly are and not so
much your deluding material energy [mâyâ]. (15) If
that real transcendental body of
Yours that shelters the entire universe is situated upon the water, why
then did I not see it oh Supreme Lord [when I was looking for You]? And
why did You, when I could not see you clearly in the heart, on the
other hand then suddenly become visible again [see 3.8: 22]? (16) In this incarnation, oh
Dispeller of Mâyâ,
You
[by opening Your mouth] have demonstrated to Your
mother the illusory nature of this externally visible manifested
universe that is also in its entirety present
inside of You [see 10.7:
35-36 & 10.8:
37-39]. (17) The
way all of this including
Yourself is visible within You, it is also fully present outside. This
is only possible because of Your inconceivable potency! (18) Did
You not
just today show me how this all, except for Yourself, is based upon
Your bewildering potency? First You were there all alone and then You
became all of Vraja's boys and calves. Next You even became a same
number of four-handed forms who were served by all [the powers] including me and
then You became an equal number of universes [10.13:
53]. Then You again
became the One Infinite Absolute Truth without a second... (19) For those who unaware of Your position understand You
the
material way, You, by expanding Your mâyâ, appear as Me for
the matters of creation, as Yourself for the purpose of
maintenance and as the Three-eyed One [Lord S'iva] in the end. (20) You,
who are [factually]
unborn oh Lord, take Your birth
among the
enlightened souls and the seers, as well as among the human
beings, the animals and the aquatics oh Master and Creator,
to
subdue
the
false
pride
of
the
non-devotees
and
to be of mercy for the
devotees [see also B.G. 4:
8]. (21) Who,
oh Greatest Supreme Lord, oh Supersoul
and Master of Yoga, knows where and how, to what degree or when in the
three
worlds Your pastimes occur, You expand the play of Your spiritual
energy
[yoga-mâyâ]? (22) For
that reason this complete
whole, which is untrue [asat, temporary] in its form, is just
like a dream wherein one's awareness is covered by all kinds of
distress. While one inside
of You finds Your unlimited forms of consciousness, eternity and
happiness [sat, permanent,
see also B.G. 2: 16 and **], that
what seems to be true [outside] on the other hand originated from the
material energy. (23) You are the
One Soul, the Original Personality, the Oldest One, the Truth, the
Light from Within without a beginning and an end, the eternally
unchangeable, unimpeded happiness free from impurities, the
Complete Whole Without a Second that is everlasting and defies all
description. (24) They
who from the sunlike spiritual
master received the perfect vision of the confidential
philosophy, can see You, the very
Soul, the Supersoul of all souls,
being described as such. They are the ones who easily cross over the
ocean of an untrue
worldly existence. (25) For those who do not
understand You as being the Supreme Soul, for that reason alone a
totally material life unfolds that disappears again with
spiritual knowledge, just as with a rope [in
illusion the image of] a snake may appear and disappear again. (26) Designations
of
being
bound
to
matter
or
being
liberated,
rise
from
ignorance.
When one
realizes that the two
have no separate existence, one is situated in the true knowledge and
unhindered consciousness [as-it-is, free from mâyâ]
of the supreme transcendental self. [They at that time lose their
meaning,] just as day and night are matters doubtful to the sun itself. (27) Oh,
how ignorant the foolishness is of persons who think of You, the Original Soul, as being something
else and about the Self as something to be looked for [as someone
present] in the outside world [see B.G. 18:
16]! (28) The
realized devotees [the
sages], who reject everything
that
is not 'that' [see neti neti 7.7:
23], look for You within themselves oh Unlimited
One. How can
such a person of discrimination, appreciate
the
true
nature
of
the
'rope'
he
sees
before
him
without
rejecting the
[therewith associated] illusion of seeing a 'snake' [see also 10.6: 8, and B.G. 18:
37]? (29) It is
therefore so my Lord, that someone who is blessed with but a trace of
Your lotus feet, can understand the truth
of the glory of Your Supreme
Personality, while that is not possible for someone else, however long
he
might speculate. (30) May it
therefore be so oh Lord, that in this birth, a next one or
even another type of birth, there will be that greatest fortune in
which I, by becoming one of Your devotees, am fully of
service at
the lotus buds of Your feet? (31) How
fortunate are the cows and the gopîs of Vraja from whom
You, to Your full satisfaction in the form of the calves and boys, have been drinking the
nectarine breast
milk. Oh Almighty Lord, that
satisfaction of You could as yet by no Vedic sacrifice be equaled! (32) What a
happiness, oh what a fortune it is
for Nanda, the gopas and the other inhabitants of Vraja, to
have You as
their friend, You the Complete,
Absolute and
Eternal Truth of Transcendental Happiness. (33) However great the
good fortune and glory of these people might be oh Infallible One, we,
the eleven [presiding
deities of the senses ***],
Lord S'iva and the other leading demigods, are very happy to drink,
again and again, from the cups of the senses
of these devotees, the nectarean beverage of Your sweet lotus feet. (34) Whatever
birth I would take here in this forest [even as this or that animal or
plant], would bring me the greatest happiness, just because I then
would bathe in the
dust of the feet of any of them [out here] whose life is completely
devoted to the
Supreme Lord Mukunda, the dust of whose feet even today is
sought in the Vedic mantras [the S'rutis]. (35) What
but Yourself, the source of all
benedictions, oh Godhead, would You grant as a reward to these
members of the cowherd community? All of their homes, wealth,
friends, dear
ones, bodies, children, life-air and minds are dedicated to You. When
our mind thinks of anything else it falls in illusion. For did You not
even arrange
it indubitably so that Pûtanâ - who dressed up as a devotee
- and also her family members [Bakâ and Agha] could reach You
oh divine personality? (36) As
long as the people are not Yours oh Krishna, their attachments and such
are all
thieves, their home is a prison and their infatuation is as a pair of
shackles to their feet. (37) Despite of being
completely transcendental You on this earth imitate [and deride] the
material ways oh Master, just to increase the amount of happiness of
the people of surrender. (38) Let the people [who
claim to know] of Your unlimited potency think what they like - why all
these words? That is not my way oh Master. Your magnificence is not
within the range of my mind, body and words
[see B.G. 2:
42-44]! (39) Permit me to
leave oh Krishna. You know everything, You see all, You alone are the
master of all universes, I put this universe at Your disposal. (40) S'rî
Krishna, oh bestower of pleasure of the lotus of the
Vrishni dynasty. You are the cause of the development
of the seas of this earth, of the demigods, the brahmins and the
animals. When there are unsound doctrines You dispel the darkness. You are
the opponent of the ogres
on earth. For as long as the sun shines, till the end of time, I oh
worshipable Supreme Lord, will offer You my obeisances.'
(41) S'rî S'uka said: 'Thus having extolled the
Wealth of the World, the creator of the universe, after
circumambulating Him three times and bowing down to His feet, returned
to his abode. (42) The
Supreme
Lord granted the one who had originated from Him permission to leave
and then brought the calves back to the
riverbank where
they had been. There, just as it was before, all His friends were
present. (43) Although
one
year
had
passed
and
they,
without
the
Lord
of their lives,
had been covered by Krishna's mâyâ, it was to the
conception of the
boys but half a moment ago oh King.
(44) What do persons whose minds are under the spell of mâyâ
not
forget out here? Because
of
illusion the
entire world is perpetually bewildered and forgetful about itself [its
soul, its identity]. (45) The
friends
said to Krishna: 'You have returned quickly, we did not even eat
a single bite more, please come here and take Your meal as should.' (46) Smiling at them, the Lord of the Senses
thereupon took His meal with the cowherd
boys whom He, when they returned
from the forest to Vraja,
showed
the skin of the python Aghâsura [see 10.12]. (47) He whose
body
was
decorated
with
a
peacock
feather,
with
flowers
and colors from the
forest, loudly
played the bamboo flute. He called for the calves while the horns sounded and
the
boys sang about
His purifying glories. Thus with His comrades entering the
pasture grounds
[near Vrindâvana] He was a pleasure to the eyes of the gopîs. (48) In Vraja the boys sang: 'Today we have been saved by the son of Yas'odâ and Nanda who killed a great serpent!'
(49) The king said: 'Please oh brahmin, explain how there could be such an unprecedented amount of love for the child of someone else that Krishna was, a love that even exceeded the love [the gopas and gopîs had] for their own offspring?'
(50) S'rî S'uka said: 'One's own self is most dear to every living being oh ruler of man. All the love for others, children, wealth and so on is based upon that. (51) Oh best of kings, the love of embodied beings for their own individual self is therefore not equal to the love they have for that what belongs to them like sons, wealth, homes and so forth. (52) Persons who speak of the body as being their self [see also ahankâra] oh best of kings, therefore [also] hold their body as most dear and certainly do not attach an equal value to that what [or the other person] they are associated with [see also B.G. 2: 71]. (53) If one considers the body as something that one possesses [though], it consequently will not be as dear as the soul [the true self]. After all, when it grows old the desire to stay alive remains equally strong. (54) [The self of] one's own soul is therefore most dear to all embodied beings. It constitutes in fact the purpose of existence of all the moving and not moving living entities in the universe. (55) In this you should know Krishna as the Soul of all souls [or the Supersoul]. It is He [that Self] who by His own art appearing as a human being, is present on this planet for the benefit of the entire universe. (56) They who in this world know Krishna as He really is, understand that the moving and not moving living entities [including inorganic matter] are two different manifestations of the Supreme Lord. He is the Complete Whole, the essence outside of which nothing exists out here [compare B.G. 7: 26]. (57) He is even the cause of the transformation [of the unmanifested matter of pradhâna] that establishes the manifestation of everything in material nature. Is there anything that can exist apart from Krishna, the Supreme Lord? (58) His lotus feet, that are like a boat, the feet that for the entire universe [even for the greatest gods] constitute the refuge of virtue and merit of Him who is so famous as the enemy of Mura [the demon], constitute for those who seek shelter with them the Supreme Abode. In this place [named Vaikunthha] none of the material miseries are found. With each step taken with them the ocean of material existence is [not more than the water in] a calf's hoof-print [compare 10.1: 5-7 and 10.2: 30].
(59) Everything you have been asking for concerning that what the Lord did at His fifth year and was declared at His sixth, I have now described to you. (60) The person who hears or sings about these pastimes of Lord Murâri annihilating Agha, how He with His friends was taking lunch in an open spot in the forest and about the other-worldly [multiple Vishnu] form that He assumed with the selfborn one who so elaborately offers his prayers, will achieve all the [spiritual] ends he desired.' (61) *4
(49) The king said: 'Please oh brahmin, explain how there could be such an unprecedented amount of love for the child of someone else that Krishna was, a love that even exceeded the love [the gopas and gopîs had] for their own offspring?'
(50) S'rî S'uka said: 'One's own self is most dear to every living being oh ruler of man. All the love for others, children, wealth and so on is based upon that. (51) Oh best of kings, the love of embodied beings for their own individual self is therefore not equal to the love they have for that what belongs to them like sons, wealth, homes and so forth. (52) Persons who speak of the body as being their self [see also ahankâra] oh best of kings, therefore [also] hold their body as most dear and certainly do not attach an equal value to that what [or the other person] they are associated with [see also B.G. 2: 71]. (53) If one considers the body as something that one possesses [though], it consequently will not be as dear as the soul [the true self]. After all, when it grows old the desire to stay alive remains equally strong. (54) [The self of] one's own soul is therefore most dear to all embodied beings. It constitutes in fact the purpose of existence of all the moving and not moving living entities in the universe. (55) In this you should know Krishna as the Soul of all souls [or the Supersoul]. It is He [that Self] who by His own art appearing as a human being, is present on this planet for the benefit of the entire universe. (56) They who in this world know Krishna as He really is, understand that the moving and not moving living entities [including inorganic matter] are two different manifestations of the Supreme Lord. He is the Complete Whole, the essence outside of which nothing exists out here [compare B.G. 7: 26]. (57) He is even the cause of the transformation [of the unmanifested matter of pradhâna] that establishes the manifestation of everything in material nature. Is there anything that can exist apart from Krishna, the Supreme Lord? (58) His lotus feet, that are like a boat, the feet that for the entire universe [even for the greatest gods] constitute the refuge of virtue and merit of Him who is so famous as the enemy of Mura [the demon], constitute for those who seek shelter with them the Supreme Abode. In this place [named Vaikunthha] none of the material miseries are found. With each step taken with them the ocean of material existence is [not more than the water in] a calf's hoof-print [compare 10.1: 5-7 and 10.2: 30].
(59) Everything you have been asking for concerning that what the Lord did at His fifth year and was declared at His sixth, I have now described to you. (60) The person who hears or sings about these pastimes of Lord Murâri annihilating Agha, how He with His friends was taking lunch in an open spot in the forest and about the other-worldly [multiple Vishnu] form that He assumed with the selfborn one who so elaborately offers his prayers, will achieve all the [spiritual] ends he desired.' (61) *4
