Radha Krishna - Chapter 4: The Process of Creation

(1) Sûta said: "Just having realized what S'ukadeva Gosvâmî thus said about the verification of the reality of the soul, the chaste son of Uttarâ [Parîkchit] concentrated upon Lord Krishna. (2) He [thus meditating for a moment innerly] gave up his deep-rooted and constant possessiveness in relation to his body, his wife, his son, his treasury and all his relatives and friends in his undisputed kingdom. (3-4) The great soul in full faith inquired for the purpose of this exactly the way you are asking me, oh great sages. Being informed of his death he renounced his fruitive activity according to the three principles [of self-realization: renouncing religious acts, economic development and sense gratification] and everything thereto and thus firmly fixed he achieved the attraction for the love of the Supreme Lord Vâsudeva. (5) The king said: 'What you said is perfectly right, oh learned one; being without contaminations you have the knowledge of it all and make the darkness of ignorance gradually disappear when you are speaking about the topics concerning the Lord. (6) Furthermore, I would like to learn how the Supreme Lord by His personal energies creates this phenomenal world of the universe that is so inconceivable for even the great masters of meditation. (7)

And please also tell me about the way the powerful one maintains His energies and winds them up again, how He as the all-powerful Supreme Personality arrives at His expansions, involves them and being involved Himself presents them and causes them to act [see also canto 1, chapter 3]. (8) Even the highly learned in spite of their endeavors for His sake, fall short, dear brahmin, in explaining the wonderful, inconceivable acts of the Supreme Lord. (9) Even though He acts through His different incarnations He is the One and Supreme, whether He acts by the modes, is there simultaneously in the material energy or is manifesting in many forms consecutively. (10) Please clear up these questions asked by me, since you, being as good as the Supreme Lord, are of the oral tradition with the Vedic literatures and also of full realization in transcendence.' "

(11) Sûta said: "Upon thus being requested by the king to describe the transcendental attributes of Lord Hrishîkes'a [Krishna as the master of the senses] S'uka, in order to reply properly, proceeded methodically.

(12) S'rî S'uka said: 'My obeisances to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who for the maintenance and also the winding up of the complete whole of the material creation, by His pastimes assumed the power of the three modes while residing within as the One whose ways are inconceivable. (13) Again my obeisances to Him who frees the truthful ones from the distressing controversies of those who follow untruth, unto Him who is the form of pure goodness, granting all that is sought by those who are situated in the status of the highest stage of spiritual perfection [the paramahamsas]. (14) Let me offer my obeisances unto the great associate of the Yadu dynasty who, keeping far from mundane wrangling, vanquishes the non-devotees. I bow down to Him who is of the same greatness of enjoying the opulences as in enjoying the sky in His own abode. (15) For Him of whom the glorification, remembrance, audience, prayers, hearing and worship forthwith cleanses away the effects of the sins of everyone, unto Him of whom one speaks as being the all-auspicious one, I bring my due obeisances again and again. (16) The bright ones who by simply dedicating themselves to His lotus feet completely give up all attachments to a present or future existence, realize without difficulty the progress of the heart and the soul towards a spiritual existence; unto that renown all-auspicious One my obeisances again and again. (17) The great sages, the great performers of charity, the ones most distinguished, the great thinkers, the great mantra chanters [reciters/singers] and the strict followers will never attain to tangible results when they are not dedicated to Him. I offer my obeisances again and again to Him about whom to hear is so very auspicious. (18) The people of old Bharata, Europe, southern India, Greece, Pulkas'a [a province], Âbhîra [part of old Sind], S'umbha [another province], Turkey, Mongolia and more who are also addicted to sin, at once get purified when they take to the shelter of the Lord's devotees. Him, the powerful Lord Vishnu I offer my respectful obeisances. (19) He is the soul and Lord of the selfrealized ones, the personification of the Vedas, the religious literatures and austerity. May the Supreme Lord, He who is held in awe by those who in their transcendence are free from all pretension - the Unborn One [Lord Brahmâ], Lord S'iva and others - always be graceful with me. (20) May He, the Supreme Lord and master of all the devotees, who is the owner of all opulence, the director of all sacrifices, the leader of all living entities, the master of the intelligent ones, the ruler of all worlds, the supreme head of the planet earth and the destination and first among the [Yadu] kings of the Sâtvatas, the Andhakas and the Vrishnis, be merciful with me. (21) It is said that thinking of His lotus feet and at each moment being absorbed in it, when one follows the authorities, purifies and results in the actual knowledge of the ultimate reality of the soul and also that it makes the scholars describe Him to their liking. Oh Mukunda, my Supreme Lord, may Your grace always be with me. (22) May He who strengthened the first one of creation [Lord Brahmâ] with remembrance in his heart about Himself and his origin and who [thus] from the beginning inspired the Goddess of Learning who appeared to have been created from Brahmâ's mouth - may He, the Teacher of Teachers, be pleased with me. (23) He who lies down within the material creation and empowers all these bodies made of the material elements while He as the Purusha [the original person] causes all to be subjected to the modes of nature with her sixteen divisions [of consciousness, the elements of earth, water, fire, air, ether, the five organs of action and the senses]; may that Supreme Lord give strength to my statements. (24) My obeisances unto him, the great expansion of Vâsudeva [viz. Vyâsadeva] who is the compiler of the Vedic literatures from whose lotus mouth his adherents drank the nectar of this knowledge. (25) The first created being [Brahmâ], my dear king, imparted, on the request of Nârada, from the inside the Vedic knowledge exactly as it was spoken by the Lord in the heart.' "