Canto 3: The Status Quo
Chapter 1: Questions by Vidura
Sukadeva Gosvami answered - Dhirtarastra became blind under the influence of impious desires to nourish his dishonest sons and set fire to the lacquer house to burn his fatherless nephews. The king did not forbid his son Dhusasana act of grabbing the hair of Draupadi. Even after Maharaja Yudistir was defeated unfairly in gambling, having taken the vow of truthfullness, he left the kingdom and when he returned to ask for a piece of land, he was refused by Dhirtarastra. Then Arjuna sent Lord Krsna to the assembly as the spiritual master of the whole world and no one heard his words except for Bhisma. Then when Vidura was invited by his brother for consultations. he said, you must return the legitimate share to Yudhisthira who has no enemise and has gone through a lot of sufferings because of your offenses. Lord Krsna has accepted the sons of Prtha as his kinsmen and all the kings of the world are with Lord Krsna. You are maintaining offense personified - Duryodhana as your infallible son, who is envious to Sri Krsna. As you are maintaining a nondevotee of Krsna, you are devoid of all auspicious qualities. Relive yourself of this ill fortune as soon as possible and do good for the whole family. While speaking thus, He was insulted by Duryodhana who was swollen with anger and whose lips were trembling. He was in the company of Karna, his younger brothers and uncle Sakuni. He insulted Vidura by saying - who asked him to come here, this son of a kept mistress. He is so crooked that he spies in the interest of the enemy against those on whose support he has grown up. Toss him out of the palace immediately and leave him with only his breath. Thus being pierced by arrows through his ears and afflicted to the core of his heart, Vidura placed his bow on the door and quit his brother's palace. He was not sorry, for he considered the acts of the external energy to be supreme.
After leaving the Kingdom, he travelled to many pilgrimages which are lotus feet of the Lord. With a desire to gain a high order of pious life, he traveled to holy places where thousands of transcendental forms of the Lord are situated. While he travelled he only thought about the Lord and performed duties to please the Supreme lord Hari. His occupation was pure and independent. He was constantly sanctified by taking bath in holy places and was always dressed like a mendicant and hence was unseen by various relatives. Then Sukadeva Gosvami explained the different places Vidura travelled. At the bank of Yamuna he med Uddhava the great devotee of Lord Krsna.
Due to his great love and feeling, Vidura embraced him. Uddava was a constant companion of Lord Krsna and formerly a great student of Brhaspati. Then he asked him some questions regarding the entire family how everybody was doing?
O my friend, please, therefore, chant the glories of the Lord, who is meant to be glorified in the places of pilgrimage. He is unborn, and yet He appears by His causeless mercy upon the surrendered rulers of all parts of the universe. Only for their interest did He appear in the family of His unalloyed devotees the Yadus.
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Chapter 2: Remembrance of Lord Krsna
After Uddhava was asked by Vidura these questions, he wasn't able to answer due to excessive anxiety at the rememberance of the Lord. He was so absorbed in the service of the Lord, that even at age 5 when he was called by his mother for breakfast, he didn't wish to have it. This service attitude continued till his old age. When he was asked by Vidura, he remained dead silent and became absorbed in the nectar of remembering the Lord's lotus feet in devotional ecstasy and appreared to be going increasingly deeper into that ecstacy. Vidura noticed that he had transcendental bodily changes due to total ecstacy and was wiping his tears of separation from his eyes which was complete assimilation of extensive love for the Lord. The great devotee soon came back from the abode of the Lord and wiping his eyes he awakened his reminiscence of the past and spoke to Vidura in a pleasing mood:
1. The sun of the world, Lord Krsna has set and our house has now been swallowed by the great snake of time.
2. This universe with all its planets is most unfortunate and even more unforutnate are the members of the Yadu dynasty because they could not identify Lord Hari as the Personality Of Godhead.
3. Though the Yadus were experienced devotees, they were always with the Lord in all his relaxations and yet they were only able to know his as the one Supreme who dwells everywhere.
4. Under no circumstances can the words of the persons bewildered by illusory energy of the Lord deviate the intelligence of the completely surrendered souls.
5. Sri Krsna, manifested his eternal form before the vision of all on the earth and performed his disappearance by removing His form from the sight of those who were unable to see Him due to not executing required penance.
6. Lord appeared in the mortal world by his internal potency - yoga maya. He came in his eternal form which were suitable for his pastimes.
7. At the Raja suya yajna by Yudhisthira, all demigods assembled there said that he was the ultimate dexterous creation of Brahma with his beautiful bodily features.
8.The damsels of Vraja, after pastimes of laughter, humor and exchanges of glances were anguished when Krsna left them.
9. He is unborn, but when there is friction between his peaceful devotees and persons who are in the material mode of nature, he takes birth just like fire.
10. Uddava then thought of how Krsna was born in the prison house, left his father's pretection and lived incognito in Vraja and then left Mathura in fear gave him distress.
11. Uddava's heart pained when he rememberd, how He begged pardon from his parents that he couldn't serve their feet when he was away from home because of fear of Kamsa.
12. Who after smelling the dust of his lotus feet could ever forget it.
13. Then he described the story of Sisupala how he achieved success in yoga practice.
14. Even on the battlefied of Kurukshetra, all those killed by Arjuna's arrows were fortunate to have seen his lotus like face at their time of death.
15. He is the Lord of threes and is independently supreme by achievement of all kinds of fortune. He is worshipped by the eternal maintainers of creation and offer him paraphernalia to worship by touching millions of helmets to his feet.
16. He was so merciful, that he granted the position of mother to the she demon putana.
17. The demons are better as they are absorbed in his thoughts only even in enmity.
18. He was begotten by Vasudeva in the womb of his wife Devali after being prayed to By Brahma to bring welfare to the earth.
19. Then his father brought him to the cow pastures of Nanda where he lived for 11 years with his elder brother Baladeva.
20. In his childhood, he was surrounded by cowherd boys and calves and travelled the shores of yamuna which was densely covered by trees and chirping birds.
21. He displayed his childhood activities to the residents of Vrndavan and would sometimes cry, laugh and appear like a lion cub
22. While herding the bulls, he used to blow his flute to enliven his followers
23. The gread wizards who could take any form were trying to kill him being engaged by king of Bhoja (kamsa) but he would kill them like a child breaks dolls
24. After the portions of yamuna was poisoned by kaliya, he chastised the snake king and then came out of the water and made the cows drink the water to prove the water was again in the natural state
25. To teach a lesson to Indra he made his father to worship the cows, the pasturing land and the cows.
26. Being insulted, Indra thundered rain incessantly on Vrindavan and the cows were greatly distressed but he provided them an umbrella with the Govardhana Hill
27. In the third season of the year, the Lord enjoyed as the central beauty of the assembly of women by attracting them with His pleasing songs in an autumn night brightened by moonshine.
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Chapter 3: The Lord's Pastimes Out of Vṛndāvana
Then Sri uddhava answered:
1. The Lord went to Mathura with Sri Baladeva to please their parents and then dragged Kamsa and killed him by pulling him along the ground with great strength.
2. The Lord learnt all the vedas with their differnt branches simply by hearing once from his teacher, Sandipani Muni. He rewarded him by bringing his dead son from Yamaloka.
3. Attracted by the beauty and fortune of Rukmini, the lord stepping over many kings who had assembled to marry her, carried her away as his own share, as Garuda carried away nectar.
4. He subdued 7 bulls whose noses were not pierced to win the hand of Princess Nagnijti to select her as bridegroom but even when victorious the competitors asked the hand of the princess and thus there was a fight. The lord killed them or wounded them all but didn't get hurt.
5. To please his dear wife, he brought back the parijata tree from heaven. Indra thought ran after the Lord to fight him.
6. Narakasura, grasped the whole sky and was hence killed by Lord Krsna. His mother prayed to the Lord and he returned the kingdom but entered the house of the demon. There he saw many princesses who were kidnapped by the demon and seeing Krsna they all looked with eagerness, joy and shyness and offered to be his wives. All those princesses were lodged in different apartments and Krsna expanded into all of them simultaneously with equal qualities. He begot each of them with 10 offsprings exactly with his qualities.
7. When Kalayavana and Salva attacked the city of Mathura by encircling the city with soldiers, the Lord refrained from killing them personally to show the power of his own men.
8. He killed many demons himself and let others like Balarama to kill others
9. Then, Uddava told Vidura, that during the battle of Kuruksetra, many of his relatives were killed.
10. Duryodhana was bereft of fortune and duration of life because of the ill advise of Karna, Duhsasana and Saubala and in the end he lay with his followers, thigh broken and even though powerful, the Lord wasn't happy to see him.
11. Then he had the Yadus quarrel among themselves influenced by intoxication and had them all disappear.
12. Then to show the ideal way of administration, made Yudhistira to be the king of the world.
13. He also protected Pariksit in the womb of uttara who was Abhimanyu's son.
14. He had Yudhistir, perform horse sacrifices and then enjoyed life in the city of Dvaraka. He was situated in detachment and knowledge.
15. He was there in his transcendental body, with gentle and sweet smiling face with nectarean words and flawless character
16. He enjoyed his pastimes in both this world and other worlds with the yadus and at leisure at night his friendship of conjugal love with women.
17. Though he was engaged in household life for many years, he did it to show others how to lead the right life.
18. The sages cursed the yadus and bhoja dynasties as desired by the Lord.
19. Being bewildred by Krsna, all descendants of Vrsni, BHoja and Andhaka, incarnations of demigonds went to Prabhasa but eternal devotees of the Lord did not leave him at Dvaraka.
20. After they arrived there, all of them took bath, offered their respects to forefathers, demigods and sages and satisfied them by giving cows to brahmanasin royal charity along with gold, gold coins, bedding, clothing, animal skin seats, blankets, elephants etc.
21. After that they were offered highly delicious foodstuffs first offered to the personality of Godhead and by touching their heads to the ground. They were very cultured and lived the right life.
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Chapter 4: Vidura Approaches Maitreya
After they had offered kindly to the brahmana's, they were permitted to partake in the remnants of prasad and also drank liquor made of rice. They were intoxicated and harsh words were spoken which touched each other's core of heart. Krsna knowing that the end of the yadus was near, went to the bank of River Saraswati and sipped water and sat under a tree. The lord knowing fully what was going to happen, had already told Uddava to go to Badarikasrama. Though Uddava knew what the Lord was planning, it was impossible for him to bear his separation and hence came to meet him master. He saw him sitting along deep in thought and he was taking the shelter of River Saraswati, though he was the shelter of goodness of fortune. He had his right foot on his left thigh and was resting against a young banyan tree.
The Lord's body is blackish, but is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, and very, very beautiful. His eyes are always peaceful, and they are reddish like the rising morning sun. I could immediately recognize Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by His four hands, different symbolic representations, and yellow silk garments.
At that time, Maitreya muni was passing by and reached that spot too.Then the Lord spoke to Uddava - O vasu, I know from within your mind, that you had desired to achieve my association which I awarded to you which is very difficult to obtain for others. But you present life is the last and the supermost because in this term of life, you have been awarded my ultimate favor. You can now go to Vaikuntha lok by leaving this universe . Your visit to me at this lonely spot is because of your pure and unflinching devotional service which is a great boon to you. He also said that in the lotus millenium, at the beginning of creation, he spoke to Brahma about his transcendental glories which sages call the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Then Uddava told Vidura, that being favored at every moment by the supreme and being addressed by him with great affection, his words failed in tears and his hairs on the body erupted. He smeared his tears and with folded hand spoke - Devotees who are engaged in transcendental loving service of your lotus feet have no difficulty in achieving anything within the realm of the 4 principles of religion, economic devolpment, sense gratification or liberation. But all I prefer is only to engage in the loving service of your lotus feet. Even learned sages are disturbed in their intelligence, when they see you being engaged in fruitive work though you are free from all desires, take birth even though you are unborn, flee out of fear though you are controller of invincible time and enjoy householder life even though you enjoy in your self. He then said, that you eternal self is never divided by the influence of time and you have unlimited perfect knowledge. You could consult with yourself but yet you calle me (Uddava) to consult as if you were bewildered and your act of being bewildred, bewilders me!
Then Uddava asked Sri Krsna - Please explain us, if you think us competent the transcendetal knowledge which gives enlightenment about yourself and which you have explained Brahmaji earlier. The Lord then instructed them based of Uddavji's heartfelt desires. Then Uddava told Vidura, that after understanding the self knowledge from his spiritual master, Krsna and after circumambulating Him, he has come to this place very much aggrieved due to separation. He was now mad for want of the pleasure of seeing the Lord and is proceeding to Badarikasrama from the banks of yamuna where the Lord in his incarnation as the sages Nara and Narayana has been undergoing many penances from time immemorial for the welfare of living entities. Hearing from Uddava about the transcendental knowledge, Vidura pacified himself from the bereavement of his family.
Then Vidura questioned him about the self knowledge he had learnt from the Lord. Uddava suggested him to go to the great learned sage Maitreya as he had learnt it too and he was elder to him and Vidura.
Then the king Pariksit inquired - At the end of the pasttimes of the Lord, why did Uddava along remain. Sukadeva repolied - He saw Uddava as the foremost of his devotees and who could be directly entrusted with knowledge of him. Then Vidura, after passing a few days on the bank of River yamuna, he reached the bank of the ganga where Maitreya was situated.
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Chapter 5: Vidura's Talks with Maitreya
Sukadava Gosvami then said - Vidura reached the banks of Ganga where Maitreya was seated and was perfect in gentleness and satisfied in transcendence. He inquired from him.
1. Everyone in this world is engaged in fruitive activities to attain happiness but nobody finds satiation or mitigation of distress. Only aggravated by such activities. So please give us direction for real happiness.
2. Great souls travel on earth on behalf of the Lord to show compassion to the fallen souls who are averse to the sense of subordination to the Lord.
3. Hence, please give me instruction on the transcendental devotional service of the Lord who is situated in everyone's heart, so he can be pleased from within.
4. Please narrate how the Lord accepts incarnations and creates the cosmic manifestation.
5. How he lies down on his own heart spread in the form of the sky, placing the whole creation in that space and expands himself into many living entities which are manifested as different species of life. He has no endeavor for his maintenance as he is the master of all mystic powers and the propritor of everything. Hence, he is distinct from the living entities.
6. Even though we continuously hear about his transcendental activities, as our mind is never satisfied completely - may you also narrate the auspicious characteristics of the Lord in his different incarnations for our welfare.
7. How has he created nature, activities, forms, features and names of the different living creatures.
8. By hearing about him, one can cut off bondage of family affection.
9. One who is anxious to engage constantly in Krsna-Katha gradually increases his indifference towards all other things.
10. Anybody averse to the topics of the Lord and thus ignorant of the BG are pitiable.
11. Just as bees collect honey from flowers, kindly describe the essence of all topics - the topics of the Lord.
Hearing Vidura's questions, Maitreya was very happy that these topics are going to be very helpful to the society.Then Sri Maitreya said:
1. He told Vidura that he knew he was King Yamaraja and had a curse from Mandavya Muni and was born from the semen of Vyasadeva and is the son of Satyavati.
2. He also said that he was one of the eternal associates of the Lord and HE had given Maitreya instructions for Vidura's sake before going back to his abode.
3. Then he described the pastimes for creation, maintenance, dissolution of the cosmic world as they occured one after another.
4. THe lord existed prior to the creation as one without a second and by his will only creation is possible and then everything merges into him.
5. As it was only him to start, he felt imperfect without his plenary and separated parts and parcels. The material energy was dormant, whereas internal potency was manifested.
6. The external energy that works both as cause and effect is the cosmic manifestation which is also called maya or illusion and through her agency the material manifestation is made possible.
7. The purusa incarnation which is Lords plenary expansion then impregnates the material nature and in time the living entitites appear.
8. then in time, the mahat-tattva become manifested whcih has seeds of universal manifestation out of His own body.
9. This Mahat-tattva - transforms the false ego into cause, effect and doer. All such activities are on the mental plane and are based on the material elements , gross senses and mental speculation. The false ego is represented in 3 different modes - goodness, passion and ignorance.
10. The false ego then gets transformed into mind by interaction with mode of goodness.
11. The senses are products of mode of passion in false ego
12. Sky is a product of sound, sound is transformation of egoistic passion.
13. Thereafter the air was produced, interacting with the sky - sense perception.
14. then water and taste was produced
15. then we had earth and smell.
16. But everything was due only by the glance of the Lord.
17. Then the demigods prayed to the Lord saying and glorified him - his feet are like an umbrella for the surrendered souls pretecting them from all miseries of material existence. We also take shelter of them.
18. Simply by hearing about Your lotus feet with eagerness and devotion and by meditating upon them within the heart, one at once becomes enlightened with knowledge, and on the strength of detachment one becomes pacified. We must therefore take shelter of the sanctuary of Your lotus feet.O Lord, You assume incarnations for the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the cosmic manifestation, and therefore we all take shelter of Your lotus feet because they always award remembrance and courage to Your devotees.O Lord, persons who are entangled by undesirable eagerness for the temporary body and kinsmen, and who are bound by thoughts of "mine" and "I," are unable to see Your lotus feet, although Your lotus feet are situated within their own bodies. But let us take shelter of Your lotus feet.O great Supreme Lord, offensive persons whose internal vision has been too affected by external materialistic activities cannot see Your lotus feet, but they are seen by Your pure devotees, whose one and only aim is to transcendentally enjoy Your activities.O Lord, persons who, because of their serious attitude, attain the stage of enlightened devotional service achieve the complete meaning of renunciation and knowledge and attain the Vaikuṇṭhaloka in the spiritual sky simply by drinking the nectar of Your topics. the devotee simply discharges devotional service and thus feels no such pain.O Original Person, we are therefore but Yours only. Although we are Your creatures, we are born one after another under the influence of the three modes of nature, and for this reason we are separated in action. Therefore, after the creation we could not act concertedly for Your transcendental pleasure.O unborn one, please enlighten us regarding the ways and means by which we can offer You all enjoyable grains and commodities so that both we and all other living entities in this world can maintain ourselves without disturbance and can easily accumulate the necessities of life both for You and for ourselves.You are the original personal founder of all the demigods and the orders of different gradations, yet You are the oldest and are unchanged. O Lord, You have no source or superior. You have impregnated the external energy with the semen of the total living entities, yet You are unborn.
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Chapter 6: Creation of the Universal Form
Then Maitreya muni said:The Lord then entered into 23 elements with goddess Kali who amalgamates different elements. When he entered into the elements by his energy, all living entities were enlivened into different activities like awakening from sleep. The lord's energy gives conciousness to the living entities. The individual consciousness (Arjuna) is advised to dovetail with the supreme consciousness and thus maintain his conscious purity. It is foolish to try to stop the activities of consciousness, but they can be purified when they are dovetailed with the Supreme. The gigantic universal form is represented by 3, 10 and 1.
The supreme Lord is the supersoul of all demigods and entrusted with the task of constructing the cosmic manifestation. As he was being prayed to by the demigods and hence for their understanding he manifested the universal form. After this Maitreya described the universal form to Vidura. As the Lord manifested different organs, the demigods entered into them and from them the living entities could feel that sense.
In the end Maitreya muni tells Vidura that who can estimate or measure the transcendental time, work and potency of the gigantic form manifested by the internal potency of the Lord and then he says that whatever he could assimilate he is describing to him.
But The highest perfectional gain of humanity is to engage in discussions of the activities and glories of the Pious Actor. Such activities are so nicely arranged in writing by the greatly learned sages that the actual purpose of the ear is served just by being near them.O my son, the original poet, Brahmā, after mature meditation for one thousand celestial years, could know only that the glories of the Supreme Soul are inconceivable. Words, mind and ego, with their respective controlling demigods, have failed to achieve success in knowing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, we simply have to offer our respectful obeisances unto Him as a matter of sanity.
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Chapter 7: Further Inquires by Vidura
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami then told Maharaja Pariksit that while Maitreya muni explained to Vidura, he expressed a request in a pleasing manner by asking the following question:
1. O great brahmana - as the Lord is the complete spiritual whole and is unchangeable, how is he connected with material modes of nature and their activities.If this is his pastime, then how do his activities take place
2. Living entites are encouraged by their desires, but he has no desires.
3. He has self sheltered the 3 modes of material nature in his potency which the Lord has used the create the universe. Only by her He maintains the creation and dissolves it again and again.
4. The pure soul is always in pure consciousness and is never out of consciousness either by time, situations, dreams or other causes then how does he engage in this nescience.
5. The Lord as the supersoul is situated in every living being's heart. then why do living entities activities result in misfortune and misery.
Though Maitreya muni was astonished, he replied to Vidura as he was fully God conscious. He said:
1. The living entity is in distress regarding his self-identity. He has no factual background.
2. As a moon reflected on water appears to the viewer to tremble due to being associated with the quality of water, so the self associated with matter appears to be qualified as matter. SP also says in his purport that then there are pure souls who even though in contact with matter are still not trembling just like the reflection of the moon in still water.
3. Only by the mercy of the Supreme can the misconception of self identity be diminished. by Devotional service in the mode of detachment.
4. Only when the senses of the Lord are satisfied, he can merge in him and then all miseries are vanquished.
5. Simply by chanting and hearing the transcendental name, form of the Lord , one can achieve the mitigation of unlimited miserable conditions. Hence the souls who have attained attraction by serving the flavor of the lotus dust of the Lord's lotus feet are elevated.
{Importance of spiritual master and association of pure devotees}
After hearing Maitreya muni's convincing words, Vidura said he was obliged to him and could now understand the material manifestation is without substance. He was also confident that by serving his feet it will be possible for him to give up the false idea. Because, only by serving the feet of the spiritual master, one is enabled to develop transcendental ecstacy in the service of the Lord who vanquished one's material destresses.
Persons whose austerity is meager can hardly obtain the service of the pure devotees who are progressing on the path back to the kingdom of Godhead, the Vaikuṇṭhas. Pure devotees engage one hundred percent in glorifying the Supreme Lord, who is the Lord of the demigods and the controller of all living entities.
Then Vidura asked Maitreya muni to explain the Lord's different powers of specific divisions, about how Brahmaji established the various manus, their descendants. The planets and their measurements, about the living beings, incarnations of material modes of nature, divisions of human society, births of sages and divisions of vedas, devotional service, imperfections and contradictions of the faithless atheists, sense gratification, salvation, creation of pitrloka, frutive results of charity, penance and digging resoviours of water, people who are away from home and also duty of a man in awkward position, How can the Lord be completely satisfied. He then said
[Keep talking]
anuvratānāḿ śiṣyāṇāḿ
putrāṇāḿ ca dvijottama
anāpṛṣṭam api brūyur
guravo dīna-vatsalāḥ
O best among the brāhmaṇas, those who are spiritual masters are very kind to the needy. They are always kind to their followers, disciples and sons, and without being asked by them, the spiritual master describes all that is knowledge.
He also asked - the importance of spiritual master and his disciples, Pure devotees have mentioned the source of such knowledge - how could they have this without the help of other devotees. All these questions are to know the pastimes of Hari. The answers to my question will grant immunity from all material miseries. Such charity is greater than all Vedic charities, sacrifices and penances.
Then Maitreya muni, the chief of the sages began to speak...
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Chapter 8: Manifestation of Brahmā from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu
Maitreya Muni replied to Vidura by saying, he is going to speak the Bhagavata Purana which was directly spoken to the great sages by the Lord for the benefit of those who are entangled in extreme miseries for the sake of very little pleasure.Some time ago, Sanat-Kumara the chief of the boy-saints inquired exactly like this about the truths regarding Vasudeva from Lork Sankarsana (Balarama). At that time Sankarsana was meditating upon the Lord. He was seated at the bottom of the universe. The sages had come done from the higher plantes to the lower ones through Ganga and hence their hair were wet. They touched the Lotus feet of the lord. The four kumaras glorified the Lord in rhythmic accents and hearing this Lord Sankarsana began to radiate an effulgence from the stones of his head. So here is the disciplic succession. Lord Sankarsana>Sanat-Kumara>Sankhyayana>Parasara and Brhaspati. Sage Parasara was Maitreya muni's master and he was advised by pulastya to speak the SB. Hence Maitreya muni now spoke what he heard to Vidura.
At the time when the three worlds were submerged in water, the Garbhodaksayi Visunu appeared to be in slumber for 4 thousand yuga cycles. When the living entities started coming out for further development of fruititive activities, the Lord's attention being fixed on the matter of creation, got agitated by the material mode of passion and the form of creation pierced through His abdomen which was in the form of a bud of a lotus flower. On that brahmaji was born and as he couldn't see the world, he cirumabulated all of space while moving his eyes in all 4 directions (hence got 4 heads).
Lord Brahma couldn't understand creation or lotus himself and at the end of the millennium the air of devastation began to move the water and lotus in great circular waves. Lord Brahma then thought - whom an I situated on the top of this lotus, where has it sprouted from, there is something down from which the lotus has come. Hence, thinking this way, he entered the water through the channel of the stem of the lotus and even though he was close to the navel of Visnu he couldn't trace the root. But still couldn't understand the creation and hence closed his eyes to concentrate.
After 100 years he developed the required knowledge and he could see the supreme within himself. He saw the following:
1. A giant lotus like white bedstead, the body of sesa naga on which the Lord was lying alone. The whole atmosphere was illuminated by the rays of the jewels bedecking the hood of Sesa naga.
2. The luster of the body of the Lord mocked the beauty of the coral mountain. The yellow dress of the lord mocked its beauty. Gold on the summit of the mountain was mocked by the lord;s helmet with jewels, the lords body, hands, legs and decorated by pearls, tulasi leave and flower garlands mocked the mountains waterfalls, herbs etc.
3. His transcendental body, unlimited in length and breadth, occupied the three planetary systems, upper, middle and lower. His body was self-illuminated by unparalleled dress and variegatedness and was properly ornamented.
4.The Lord showed His lotus feet by raising them. His lotus feet are the source of all awards achieved by devotional service free from material contamination. Such awards are for those who worship Him in pure devotion. The splendor of the transcendental rays from His moonlike toenails and fingernails appeared like the petals of a flower.
5.He also acknowledged the service of the devotees and vanquished their distress by His beautiful smile. The reflection of His face, decorated with earrings, was so pleasing because it dazzled with the rays from His lips and the beauty of His nose and eyebrows.
6.O my dear Vidura, the Lord's waist was covered with yellow cloth resembling the saffron dust of the kadamba flower, and it was encircled by a well-decorated belt. His chest was decorated with the śrīvatsa marking and a necklace of unlimited value.
7.As a sandalwood tree is decorated with fragrant flowers and branches, the Lord's body was decorated with valuable jewels and pearls. He was the self-situated tree, the Lord of all others in the universe. And as a sandalwood tree is covered with many snakes, so the Lord's body was also covered by the hoods of Ananta.
8. Like a great mountain, the Lord stands as the abode for all moving and nonmoving living entities. He is the friend of the snakes because Lord Ananta is His friend. As a mountain has thousands of golden peas, so the Lord was seen with the thousands of golden-helmeted hoods of Ananta-nāga; and as a mountain is sometimes filled with jewels, so also His transcendental body was fully decorated with valuable jewels. As a mountains is sometimes submerged in the ocean water, so the Lord is sometimes submerged in the water of devastation.
Brahmaji seeing this concluded that this was Hari, the Personality of Godhead. Everything became visible to him finally. He was then surcharged by the mode of passion and was inclined to create the world. He then began to offer his prayers to the Lord.
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Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Brahma's Prayers for Creative Energy
After Brahmaji saw the Garbodaksayi Visnu, Lord Brahma said:
1. Oh my Lord, after many years of penance, I have known you. You are the Absolute and the only knowable object as there is nothing supreme beyond you.
2. The form I see is eternally freed from material contamination and is ther to show mercy to the devotess as a manifestation of the internal potency.
3. I was born from the lotus flower grown from your navel home.
4. The present form is equally auspicious for all the universes. I don't see a form superior to your present form of eternal bliss and knowledge. Your lordship is the cause of the cosmic manifestation and yet you are untouched by matter.
5. O my Lord, persons who smell the aroma of Your lotus feet, carried by the air of Vedic sound through the holes of the ears, accept Your devotional service. For them You are never separated from the lotus of their hearts.
6. The people of the world are embarrased by all material anxieties. They are always afraid and try to protect wealth, body, friends and think everything is my and mine. But as long as they don't tkae shelter of your safe lotus feet, they are full on anxieties.
7. People who are bereft of the all-auspicious performance of hearing and chanting the holy name are certainly unfortunate and also bereft of good sense. They engage in inauspicious activities and enjoy sense gratification for a very little while.
8. O great actor, my Lord, all these poor creatures are constantly perplexed by hunger, thirst, severe cold, secretion and bile, attacked by coughing winter, blasting summer, rains and many other disturbing elements, and overwhelmed by strong sex urges and indefatigable anger. I take pity on them, and I am very much aggrieved for them.
9. The material miseries are without factual existence for the soul. Yet as long as the conditioned soul sees the body as meant for sense enjoyment, he cannot get out of the entanglement of material miseries, being influenced by Your external energy.
10. Such nondevotees engage their senses in very troublesome and extensive work, and they suffer insomnia at night because their intelligence constantly breaks their sleep with various mental speculations. They are frustrated in all their various plans by supernatural power. Even great sages, if they are against Your transcendental topics, must rotate in this material world.
11. Devotees can see the Lord by hearing and their hearts become cleansed and you take your seat there. You are so merciful to your devotees that you manifest yourself in the particular eternal form of transcendence.
12. The demigods arrange elaborately for the Lords worship. But he's never satisfied by their worship as they are full of material hankerings. You are situated in everyone's hearts as the supersoul and show your causeless mercy to them.
13. He is eternally distinguished by his internal ptency. He enjoys by his pasttimes - creation, maintenance and dissolution of cosmic manifestation.
14. I take shelter of his Lotus feeet whose incarnations, qualities, activites are mysterious imitations of worldy affairs.
15. One who invokes His transcendental names, even unconsciously, at the time he quits this life, is certainly washed immediately of the sins of many, many births and attains Him without fail.
16. Your Lordship is the prime root of the tree of the planetary systems. This tree has grown by first penetrating the material nature in three trunks — as me, Śiva and You, the Almighty — for creation, maintenance and dissolution, and we three have grown with many branches. Therefore I offer my obeisances unto You, the tree of the cosmic manifestation.
17. You act as eternal time and people in general engage in foolish activities which aren't beneficial if they aren't enunciated directly by you.
18. Your Lordship, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You who are indefatigable time and the enjoyer of all sacrifices. Although I am situated in an abode which will continue to exist for a time duration of two parārdhas, although I am the leader of all other planets in the universe, and although I have undergone many, many years of penance for self-realization, still I offer my respects unto You.
19.Your own will You appear in the various species of living entities, among animals lower than human beings as well as among the demigods, to perform Your transcendental pastimes. You are not affected by material contamination. You come just to fulfill the obligations of Your own principles of religion,
20. My Lord, You accept the pleasure of sleeping in the water of devastation, where there are violent waves, and You enjoy pleasure on the bed of snakes, showing the happiness of Your sleep to intelligent persons. At that time, all the universal planets are stationed within Your abdomen.
21. O object of my worship, I am born from the house of Your lotus navel for the purpose of creating the universe by Your mercy. All these planets of the universe were stationed within Your transcendental abdomen while You were enjoying sleep. Now, Your sleep having ended, Your eyes are open like blossoming lotuses in the morning.
22. He is one friend and soul of all living entities in the world. He maintains all for their ultimate happiness by his six transcendental opulences. May he be merciful towards me so I can create as I'm also one of the surrendered souls dear to the Lord.
23. He is always the benfactor of the surrender souls. His activities are always enacted by his internal potency Rama or goddes of fortune. I pray I'm not materially affected by my works. The Lord's potencies are innumerable. As He lies down in the water of devastation, I am born as the total universal energy from the navel lake in which the lotus sprouts. I am now engaged in manifesting His diverse energies in the form of the cosmic manifestation.
24. The Lord, who is supreme and is the oldest of all, is unlimitedly merciful. I wish that He may smilingly bestow His benediction upon me by opening His lotus eyes. He can uplift the entire cosmic creation and remove our dejection by kindly speaking His directions. (This is the prayer to wake up deities)
Then Brahmaji became silent as if tired by his concentration, penance and knowledge. Seeing Brahma depressed, Lord Krsna spoke in deep thoughful words to remove all illusion that had arisen.
The lord said -
1. O Brahmā, O depth of Vedic wisdom, be neither depressed nor anxious about the execution of creation. What you are begging from Me has already been granted before.
2. O Brahmā, situate yourself in penance and meditation and follow the principles of knowledge to receive My favor. By these actions you will be able to understand everything from within your heart.3. O Brahmā, when you are absorbed in devotional service, in the course of your creative activities, you will see Me in you and throughout the universe, and you will see that you yourself, the universe and the living entities are all in Me.
4. You will see Me in all living entities as well as all over the universe, just as fire is situated in wood. Only in that state of transcendental vision will you be able to be free from all kinds of illusion.
5. When you are free from the conception of gross and subtle bodies and when your senses are free from all influences of the modes of material nature, you will realize your pure form in My association. At that time you will be situated in pure consciousness.
6. Since you have desired to increase the population innumerably and expand your varieties of service, you shall never be deprived in this matter because My causeless mercy upon you will always increase for all time.
7. You are the original ṛṣi, and because your mind is always fixed on Me, even though you will be engaged in generating various progeny, the vicious mode of passion will never encroach upon you.
8. Although I am not easily knowable by the conditioned soul, you have known Me today because you know that My personality is not constituted of anything material, and specifically not of the five gross and three subtle elements.
9. When you were contemplating whether there was a source to the stem of the lotus of your birth and you even entered into that stem, you could not trace out anything. But at that time I manifested My form from within.
10. O Brahmā, the prayers that you have chanted praising the glories of My transcendental activities, the penances you have undertaken to understand Me, and your firm faith in Me — all these are to be considered My causeless mercy.
11. I am very much pleased by your description of Me in terms of My transcendental qualities, which appear mundane to the mundaners. I grant you all benedictions in your desire to glorify all the planets by your activities.
12. Any human being who prays like Brahmā, and who thus worships Me, shall very soon be blessed with the fulfillment of all his desires, for I am the Lord of all benediction.
13. It is the opinion of expert transcendentalists that the ultimate goal of performing all traditional good works, penances, sacrifices, charities, mystic activities, trances, etc., is to invoke My satisfaction.
14. I am the Supersoul of every individual. I am the supreme director and the dearest. People are wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies, but they should be attached to Me only.
15. By following My instructions you can now generate the living entities as before, by dint of your complete Vedic wisdom and the body you have directly received from Me, the supreme cause of everything.
The sage Maitreya said: After instructing Brahmā, the creator of the universe, to expand, the primeval Lord, the Personality of Godhead in His personal form as Nārāyaṇa, disappeared.
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Chapter 10: Divisions of the Creation
The Vidura asked the great sage Maitreya, how did Brahma, the grandfather of planetary inhabitants create the bodies of living entities from his own body and mind after the Lord disappeared.
Maitreya said - O Vidura, Brahma thus engaged hinself in penances for 100 celestial years and applied himself to the devotional service of the Lord. He noticed that the lotus on which he was situated and the water on which the lotus was growing were trembling due to strong violent wind. Long penance and transcendental knowledge of self realization had matured Brahma in practical knowledge and he drank the wind and water completely. Then he saw the lotus on which he was situated was spreading throughout the universe. He entered into the whorl of the lotus and it spread all over the universe which he divided into 3 divisions and later into 14 divisions.Lord Brahma is the most exalted personality in the universe and because of his causeless devotion unto the Lord is mature in transcendental knowledge.He created all 14 planetary divisions for inhabitation by differnt types of living entities.
Then Vidura inquired what is eternal time, what are the symptoms of time.
Maitreya said - Eternal time is the primeval source of interactions of the 3 modes of material nature. It is unchangeable and limitless and it works as the instrument of the supreme personlaity of Godhead for his pasttimes in the material creation. The cosmic maifestation is spearated from the supreme as material energy by means of kala which is the unmanifested impersonal feature of the Lord. It is situated as the objective manifestation of the Lord under the influence of the same material energy of visnu. The cosmic manifestation is as it is now and it was in the past and will continue in the same way in the future.
Then Maitreya described all the creations one after another which occured due to the interactions of the modes of material nature. and 3 kinds of annihilations due to eternal time, material elements and quality of one's work.
9 Creations
1. Mahat-tatva - sum total of all ingredients wherein the modes interact due to the presence of the Lord.
2. false ego
3. sense perceptions
4. knowlege and working capacity
5. deities of mode of goodness
6. ignorant darkness of the living enetity which makes him act as a fool
all above are by the external energy. Now are the creations by Brahma - who is an incarnation of the mode of passion and has a brain like the Lord.
7. immovable entities - fruit trees without flowers, trees, plants before fruits become ripe, creepers, pipe plants, creepers with no support and trees with flowers and fruits - these have feelings of pain within.
8. lower species of life - 28 types - all foolish and ignorant. They know desires by smell and can't remember anything. They are - cow, goat, buffalo, stag, hog, gavaya, deer, lamb, camel (all two hooves). horse, mule, ass, gaura, bison, wild cow (all have one hoof), then dog, jackal, tiger, fox, cat, rabbit, sajaru, lion, monkey, elephant, tortoise, alligator, gosapa - all have five nails on claws, heron, vulture, crane, hawk, bhasa, peacock, swan, crow - birds,
9. Human beings - sock their bellies with eatables. -Mode of passion is predominant. They are miserable in life but want to think themselves happy in all respects.
10. Demigods - 8 varieties - (1) the demigods, (2) the forefathers, (3) the asuras, or demons, (4) the Gandharvas and Apsarās, or angels, (5) the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas, (6) the Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Vidyādharas, (7) the Bhūtas, Pretas and Piśācas, and (8) the superhuman beings, celestial singers, etc. All are created by Brahmā, the creator of the universe.
The 8,9,10 creations are vaikrta creations which are differnt from prakrta (natural) creations. The appearance of kumaras is both.
After this Maitreya muni said I shall describe the manus.
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Chapter 11: Calculation of Time, from the Atom
The material manifestation's ultimate particle - not indivisible and not formed into the body is called atom. It always exists as invisible identity even after dissolutions of all forms. The material body is but a combination of such atoms but misunderstood by common man. Atoms are the ultimate state of the manifest universe. When they stay in their own forms without forming differnt bodies they are called the ultimate oneness.They form the complete manifestation on their own.
One can estimate time by measuring the movement of the atomic combination of bodies. Time is the potency of the Lord, who controls all physical movement although He is not visible in the physical world. Atomic time is measured according to its covering a particular atomic space. Atomic time is measured according to its covering a particular atomic space. The division of gross time is calculated as follows - 2 atoms make a double atom and 3 double atoms make a hexatom. This hexatom is visible in the sunshine which enters through the holes of a window screen. One can clearly see that the hexatom goes up towards the sky. This hexatom is called a trasarenu. 3 trasarenus make a truti and 100 trutis make a vedha. 3 vedhas make a lava. 3 lavas equal to one nimesa (second) and 3 nimesas make 1 ksana, 5 ksnas make 1 kastha and 15 kasthas make 1 laghu (2 minutes). 15 laghus make one nadika a.k.a danda. 2 dandas make 1 muhurta, 6/7 dandas make 1/4 day or night.
Measuring pot for 1 nadika or danda can be done by taking a 4 oz pot of copper, boring a hole with a gold probe 4 fingers long and then placing the pot in water and time before the water overflows the pot is a danda.
There are 4 praharas aka yamas (3 hours) in the day and 4 at night. 15 days make a fortnight (paksah) and 2 fortnights white and black in a month. The aggregate of 2 fortnights in 1 month and the period of 1 day and night for the pita planets. 2 months make a season and 6 months comprise movement of the sun from south to north. 2 solar movements make one day and night of the demigods and that combination is one complete year for a human being who lives for 100 years.
Stars, planets, luminaries, atoms all over the universe are rotating in their respective orbits under the Lord represented by eternal kala. 5 different names for orbits of the sun, moon, stars and luminaries in the firmament and each have their own samvatsara (scheduled orbital time).
One truṭi - 8/13,500 second
One vedha - 8/135 second
One lava - 8/45 second
One nimeṣa - 8/15 second
One kṣaṇa - 8/5 second
One kāṣṭhā - 8 seconds
One laghu - 2 minutes
One daṇḍa - 30 minutes
One prahara - 3 hours
One day - 12 hours
One night - 12 hours
One pakṣa - 15 days
"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, under whose control even the sun, which is considered to be the eye of the Lord, rotates within the fixed orbit of eternal time. The sun is the king of all planetary systems and has unlimited potency in heat and light." - Brahma Samhita. Then Maitreya told Vidura how great the Sun is as it enlivens all living entities with his unlimited heat and light and hence everyone should offer his respects once every five years with ingredients of worship. Vidura said now he understood the life durations of pita planets and heavenly planets and human beings. He now wanted to know the durations of life of greatly learned living entities (sanka bhrgu - who are not affected by the dissolutions of the milleniums) who are beyond range of a kalpa.
Then Maitreya said - 4 millenniums are called - satya, treta, dvapara and kali . The aggregate number of years of all of these combined is equal to 12,000 years (yuga sandhyas) of the demigods (1 year of demigod = 360 years of human kind = 4.32 million years). Satya = 4800 years of demigods, Dvapara = 2400, kali = 1200 of demigods. Transitional periods before and after each millennium which is a few 100 years are called yuga sandhyas. In those periods all kinds of religious activities are performed. Satya yuga mankind properly and completely maintained the principles of religion but it kept getting decreased by one part of irreligion. so in satya it was 4 parts of religion and now it's 1 part religion and 3 parts irreligion.
outside the 3 planetary systems (svarga, martya and patala), 4 yugas * 1000 = 1 day of Brahma and similar is 1 night of Brahma when he sleeps - then the 3 planetary systems below brahmaloka are submerged under water of devastation and he dreams of Garbodaksayi visnu and takes instructions for rehabilitation of the devastated areas of space. After the end of Brahmā's night, the creation of the three worlds begins again in the daytime of Brahmā, and they continue to exist through the life durations of fourteen consecutive Manus, or fathers of mankind.
Each and every Manu enjoys life a little more than 71 sets of 4 millenniums. The three planetary systems revolve and the inhabitants including the lower animals, human beings, demigos and pitas appear and disapper in terms of frutive activities. With every change of Manu, the Supreme personality of Godhead appears by manifesting his internal potency in different incarnations. At the end of Brahma's day, under the insignificant portion of the mode of darkness, the powerful manifestation of the universe merges in the darkness of night. By the influence of eternal time, the living entities remain merged in the dissolution and everything is silent.And the 3 worlds are out of sight and the sun and moon are without glare (the other planetary systems still have the glare of sun and moon). The devastation takes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of Sankarsana and great sages like Bhrgu and other inhabitants of Maharloka transport themselves to Janaloka - distressed by the warmth of the blazing sun below (3 worlds). There are seas, hurricane winds and devastation. The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, lies down in the water on the seat of Ananta, with His eyes closed, and the inhabitants of the Janaloka planets offer their glorious prayers unto the Lord with folded hands. The 100 years of Brahma are divided into 2 parts. first half was brahma kalpa where he appeared and the vedas were also born then. The millennium following brahma kalp is called padma kalpa (pitr kalpa) - that's where the universal lotus flower grew out of the naval of Lord. First millenium in second part of Brahma's life is called varaha (lord apperas as boar).
The material world's diameter is about 4 billion miles.Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is resting in yoga-nidrā on the Causal Ocean and creating innumerable universes by His breathing process, only temporarily appears in the mahat-tattva for the temporary manifestation of the material worlds. He is a plenary portion of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and thus although He is nondifferent from Lord Kṛṣṇa, His formal appearance in the material world as an incarnation is temporary. The original form of the Personality of Godhead is actually the svarūpa, or real form, and He eternally resides in the Vaikuṇṭha world (Viṣṇuloka). The word mahātmanaḥ is used here to indicate Mahā-Viṣṇu, and His real manifestation is Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is called parama, as confirmed in the Brahma-saḿhitā:
īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
[Bs. 5.1]
"The Supreme Lord is Kṛṣṇa, the original Personality of Godhead known as Govinda. His form is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, and He is the original cause of all causes.
Chapter 6: Creation of the Universal Form
Then Maitreya muni said:The Lord then entered into 23 elements with goddess Kali who amalgamates different elements. When he entered into the elements by his energy, all living entities were enlivened into different activities like awakening from sleep. The lord's energy gives conciousness to the living entities. The individual consciousness (Arjuna) is advised to dovetail with the supreme consciousness and thus maintain his conscious purity. It is foolish to try to stop the activities of consciousness, but they can be purified when they are dovetailed with the Supreme. The gigantic universal form is represented by 3, 10 and 1.
The supreme Lord is the supersoul of all demigods and entrusted with the task of constructing the cosmic manifestation. As he was being prayed to by the demigods and hence for their understanding he manifested the universal form. After this Maitreya described the universal form to Vidura. As the Lord manifested different organs, the demigods entered into them and from them the living entities could feel that sense.
In the end Maitreya muni tells Vidura that who can estimate or measure the transcendental time, work and potency of the gigantic form manifested by the internal potency of the Lord and then he says that whatever he could assimilate he is describing to him.
But The highest perfectional gain of humanity is to engage in discussions of the activities and glories of the Pious Actor. Such activities are so nicely arranged in writing by the greatly learned sages that the actual purpose of the ear is served just by being near them.O my son, the original poet, Brahmā, after mature meditation for one thousand celestial years, could know only that the glories of the Supreme Soul are inconceivable. Words, mind and ego, with their respective controlling demigods, have failed to achieve success in knowing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, we simply have to offer our respectful obeisances unto Him as a matter of sanity.
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Chapter 7: Further Inquires by Vidura
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami then told Maharaja Pariksit that while Maitreya muni explained to Vidura, he expressed a request in a pleasing manner by asking the following question:
1. O great brahmana - as the Lord is the complete spiritual whole and is unchangeable, how is he connected with material modes of nature and their activities.If this is his pastime, then how do his activities take place
2. Living entites are encouraged by their desires, but he has no desires.
3. He has self sheltered the 3 modes of material nature in his potency which the Lord has used the create the universe. Only by her He maintains the creation and dissolves it again and again.
4. The pure soul is always in pure consciousness and is never out of consciousness either by time, situations, dreams or other causes then how does he engage in this nescience.
5. The Lord as the supersoul is situated in every living being's heart. then why do living entities activities result in misfortune and misery.
Though Maitreya muni was astonished, he replied to Vidura as he was fully God conscious. He said:
1. The living entity is in distress regarding his self-identity. He has no factual background.
2. As a moon reflected on water appears to the viewer to tremble due to being associated with the quality of water, so the self associated with matter appears to be qualified as matter. SP also says in his purport that then there are pure souls who even though in contact with matter are still not trembling just like the reflection of the moon in still water.
3. Only by the mercy of the Supreme can the misconception of self identity be diminished. by Devotional service in the mode of detachment.
4. Only when the senses of the Lord are satisfied, he can merge in him and then all miseries are vanquished.
5. Simply by chanting and hearing the transcendental name, form of the Lord , one can achieve the mitigation of unlimited miserable conditions. Hence the souls who have attained attraction by serving the flavor of the lotus dust of the Lord's lotus feet are elevated.
{Importance of spiritual master and association of pure devotees}
After hearing Maitreya muni's convincing words, Vidura said he was obliged to him and could now understand the material manifestation is without substance. He was also confident that by serving his feet it will be possible for him to give up the false idea. Because, only by serving the feet of the spiritual master, one is enabled to develop transcendental ecstacy in the service of the Lord who vanquished one's material destresses.
Persons whose austerity is meager can hardly obtain the service of the pure devotees who are progressing on the path back to the kingdom of Godhead, the Vaikuṇṭhas. Pure devotees engage one hundred percent in glorifying the Supreme Lord, who is the Lord of the demigods and the controller of all living entities.
Then Vidura asked Maitreya muni to explain the Lord's different powers of specific divisions, about how Brahmaji established the various manus, their descendants. The planets and their measurements, about the living beings, incarnations of material modes of nature, divisions of human society, births of sages and divisions of vedas, devotional service, imperfections and contradictions of the faithless atheists, sense gratification, salvation, creation of pitrloka, frutive results of charity, penance and digging resoviours of water, people who are away from home and also duty of a man in awkward position, How can the Lord be completely satisfied. He then said
[Keep talking]
anuvratānāḿ śiṣyāṇāḿ
putrāṇāḿ ca dvijottama
anāpṛṣṭam api brūyur
guravo dīna-vatsalāḥ
O best among the brāhmaṇas, those who are spiritual masters are very kind to the needy. They are always kind to their followers, disciples and sons, and without being asked by them, the spiritual master describes all that is knowledge.
He also asked - the importance of spiritual master and his disciples, Pure devotees have mentioned the source of such knowledge - how could they have this without the help of other devotees. All these questions are to know the pastimes of Hari. The answers to my question will grant immunity from all material miseries. Such charity is greater than all Vedic charities, sacrifices and penances.
Then Maitreya muni, the chief of the sages began to speak...
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Chapter 8: Manifestation of Brahmā from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu
Maitreya Muni replied to Vidura by saying, he is going to speak the Bhagavata Purana which was directly spoken to the great sages by the Lord for the benefit of those who are entangled in extreme miseries for the sake of very little pleasure.Some time ago, Sanat-Kumara the chief of the boy-saints inquired exactly like this about the truths regarding Vasudeva from Lork Sankarsana (Balarama). At that time Sankarsana was meditating upon the Lord. He was seated at the bottom of the universe. The sages had come done from the higher plantes to the lower ones through Ganga and hence their hair were wet. They touched the Lotus feet of the lord. The four kumaras glorified the Lord in rhythmic accents and hearing this Lord Sankarsana began to radiate an effulgence from the stones of his head. So here is the disciplic succession. Lord Sankarsana>Sanat-Kumara>Sankhyayana>Parasara and Brhaspati. Sage Parasara was Maitreya muni's master and he was advised by pulastya to speak the SB. Hence Maitreya muni now spoke what he heard to Vidura.
At the time when the three worlds were submerged in water, the Garbhodaksayi Visunu appeared to be in slumber for 4 thousand yuga cycles. When the living entities started coming out for further development of fruititive activities, the Lord's attention being fixed on the matter of creation, got agitated by the material mode of passion and the form of creation pierced through His abdomen which was in the form of a bud of a lotus flower. On that brahmaji was born and as he couldn't see the world, he cirumabulated all of space while moving his eyes in all 4 directions (hence got 4 heads).
Lord Brahma couldn't understand creation or lotus himself and at the end of the millennium the air of devastation began to move the water and lotus in great circular waves. Lord Brahma then thought - whom an I situated on the top of this lotus, where has it sprouted from, there is something down from which the lotus has come. Hence, thinking this way, he entered the water through the channel of the stem of the lotus and even though he was close to the navel of Visnu he couldn't trace the root. But still couldn't understand the creation and hence closed his eyes to concentrate.
After 100 years he developed the required knowledge and he could see the supreme within himself. He saw the following:
1. A giant lotus like white bedstead, the body of sesa naga on which the Lord was lying alone. The whole atmosphere was illuminated by the rays of the jewels bedecking the hood of Sesa naga.
2. The luster of the body of the Lord mocked the beauty of the coral mountain. The yellow dress of the lord mocked its beauty. Gold on the summit of the mountain was mocked by the lord;s helmet with jewels, the lords body, hands, legs and decorated by pearls, tulasi leave and flower garlands mocked the mountains waterfalls, herbs etc.
3. His transcendental body, unlimited in length and breadth, occupied the three planetary systems, upper, middle and lower. His body was self-illuminated by unparalleled dress and variegatedness and was properly ornamented.
4.The Lord showed His lotus feet by raising them. His lotus feet are the source of all awards achieved by devotional service free from material contamination. Such awards are for those who worship Him in pure devotion. The splendor of the transcendental rays from His moonlike toenails and fingernails appeared like the petals of a flower.
5.He also acknowledged the service of the devotees and vanquished their distress by His beautiful smile. The reflection of His face, decorated with earrings, was so pleasing because it dazzled with the rays from His lips and the beauty of His nose and eyebrows.
6.O my dear Vidura, the Lord's waist was covered with yellow cloth resembling the saffron dust of the kadamba flower, and it was encircled by a well-decorated belt. His chest was decorated with the śrīvatsa marking and a necklace of unlimited value.
7.As a sandalwood tree is decorated with fragrant flowers and branches, the Lord's body was decorated with valuable jewels and pearls. He was the self-situated tree, the Lord of all others in the universe. And as a sandalwood tree is covered with many snakes, so the Lord's body was also covered by the hoods of Ananta.
8. Like a great mountain, the Lord stands as the abode for all moving and nonmoving living entities. He is the friend of the snakes because Lord Ananta is His friend. As a mountain has thousands of golden peas, so the Lord was seen with the thousands of golden-helmeted hoods of Ananta-nāga; and as a mountain is sometimes filled with jewels, so also His transcendental body was fully decorated with valuable jewels. As a mountains is sometimes submerged in the ocean water, so the Lord is sometimes submerged in the water of devastation.
Brahmaji seeing this concluded that this was Hari, the Personality of Godhead. Everything became visible to him finally. He was then surcharged by the mode of passion and was inclined to create the world. He then began to offer his prayers to the Lord.
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Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Brahma's Prayers for Creative Energy
After Brahmaji saw the Garbodaksayi Visnu, Lord Brahma said:
1. Oh my Lord, after many years of penance, I have known you. You are the Absolute and the only knowable object as there is nothing supreme beyond you.
2. The form I see is eternally freed from material contamination and is ther to show mercy to the devotess as a manifestation of the internal potency.
3. I was born from the lotus flower grown from your navel home.
4. The present form is equally auspicious for all the universes. I don't see a form superior to your present form of eternal bliss and knowledge. Your lordship is the cause of the cosmic manifestation and yet you are untouched by matter.
5. O my Lord, persons who smell the aroma of Your lotus feet, carried by the air of Vedic sound through the holes of the ears, accept Your devotional service. For them You are never separated from the lotus of their hearts.
6. The people of the world are embarrased by all material anxieties. They are always afraid and try to protect wealth, body, friends and think everything is my and mine. But as long as they don't tkae shelter of your safe lotus feet, they are full on anxieties.
7. People who are bereft of the all-auspicious performance of hearing and chanting the holy name are certainly unfortunate and also bereft of good sense. They engage in inauspicious activities and enjoy sense gratification for a very little while.
8. O great actor, my Lord, all these poor creatures are constantly perplexed by hunger, thirst, severe cold, secretion and bile, attacked by coughing winter, blasting summer, rains and many other disturbing elements, and overwhelmed by strong sex urges and indefatigable anger. I take pity on them, and I am very much aggrieved for them.
9. The material miseries are without factual existence for the soul. Yet as long as the conditioned soul sees the body as meant for sense enjoyment, he cannot get out of the entanglement of material miseries, being influenced by Your external energy.
10. Such nondevotees engage their senses in very troublesome and extensive work, and they suffer insomnia at night because their intelligence constantly breaks their sleep with various mental speculations. They are frustrated in all their various plans by supernatural power. Even great sages, if they are against Your transcendental topics, must rotate in this material world.
11. Devotees can see the Lord by hearing and their hearts become cleansed and you take your seat there. You are so merciful to your devotees that you manifest yourself in the particular eternal form of transcendence.
12. The demigods arrange elaborately for the Lords worship. But he's never satisfied by their worship as they are full of material hankerings. You are situated in everyone's hearts as the supersoul and show your causeless mercy to them.
13. He is eternally distinguished by his internal ptency. He enjoys by his pasttimes - creation, maintenance and dissolution of cosmic manifestation.
14. I take shelter of his Lotus feeet whose incarnations, qualities, activites are mysterious imitations of worldy affairs.
15. One who invokes His transcendental names, even unconsciously, at the time he quits this life, is certainly washed immediately of the sins of many, many births and attains Him without fail.
16. Your Lordship is the prime root of the tree of the planetary systems. This tree has grown by first penetrating the material nature in three trunks — as me, Śiva and You, the Almighty — for creation, maintenance and dissolution, and we three have grown with many branches. Therefore I offer my obeisances unto You, the tree of the cosmic manifestation.
17. You act as eternal time and people in general engage in foolish activities which aren't beneficial if they aren't enunciated directly by you.
18. Your Lordship, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You who are indefatigable time and the enjoyer of all sacrifices. Although I am situated in an abode which will continue to exist for a time duration of two parārdhas, although I am the leader of all other planets in the universe, and although I have undergone many, many years of penance for self-realization, still I offer my respects unto You.
19.Your own will You appear in the various species of living entities, among animals lower than human beings as well as among the demigods, to perform Your transcendental pastimes. You are not affected by material contamination. You come just to fulfill the obligations of Your own principles of religion,
20. My Lord, You accept the pleasure of sleeping in the water of devastation, where there are violent waves, and You enjoy pleasure on the bed of snakes, showing the happiness of Your sleep to intelligent persons. At that time, all the universal planets are stationed within Your abdomen.
21. O object of my worship, I am born from the house of Your lotus navel for the purpose of creating the universe by Your mercy. All these planets of the universe were stationed within Your transcendental abdomen while You were enjoying sleep. Now, Your sleep having ended, Your eyes are open like blossoming lotuses in the morning.
22. He is one friend and soul of all living entities in the world. He maintains all for their ultimate happiness by his six transcendental opulences. May he be merciful towards me so I can create as I'm also one of the surrendered souls dear to the Lord.
23. He is always the benfactor of the surrender souls. His activities are always enacted by his internal potency Rama or goddes of fortune. I pray I'm not materially affected by my works. The Lord's potencies are innumerable. As He lies down in the water of devastation, I am born as the total universal energy from the navel lake in which the lotus sprouts. I am now engaged in manifesting His diverse energies in the form of the cosmic manifestation.
24. The Lord, who is supreme and is the oldest of all, is unlimitedly merciful. I wish that He may smilingly bestow His benediction upon me by opening His lotus eyes. He can uplift the entire cosmic creation and remove our dejection by kindly speaking His directions. (This is the prayer to wake up deities)
Then Brahmaji became silent as if tired by his concentration, penance and knowledge. Seeing Brahma depressed, Lord Krsna spoke in deep thoughful words to remove all illusion that had arisen.
The lord said -
1. O Brahmā, O depth of Vedic wisdom, be neither depressed nor anxious about the execution of creation. What you are begging from Me has already been granted before.
2. O Brahmā, situate yourself in penance and meditation and follow the principles of knowledge to receive My favor. By these actions you will be able to understand everything from within your heart.3. O Brahmā, when you are absorbed in devotional service, in the course of your creative activities, you will see Me in you and throughout the universe, and you will see that you yourself, the universe and the living entities are all in Me.
4. You will see Me in all living entities as well as all over the universe, just as fire is situated in wood. Only in that state of transcendental vision will you be able to be free from all kinds of illusion.
5. When you are free from the conception of gross and subtle bodies and when your senses are free from all influences of the modes of material nature, you will realize your pure form in My association. At that time you will be situated in pure consciousness.
6. Since you have desired to increase the population innumerably and expand your varieties of service, you shall never be deprived in this matter because My causeless mercy upon you will always increase for all time.
7. You are the original ṛṣi, and because your mind is always fixed on Me, even though you will be engaged in generating various progeny, the vicious mode of passion will never encroach upon you.
8. Although I am not easily knowable by the conditioned soul, you have known Me today because you know that My personality is not constituted of anything material, and specifically not of the five gross and three subtle elements.
9. When you were contemplating whether there was a source to the stem of the lotus of your birth and you even entered into that stem, you could not trace out anything. But at that time I manifested My form from within.
10. O Brahmā, the prayers that you have chanted praising the glories of My transcendental activities, the penances you have undertaken to understand Me, and your firm faith in Me — all these are to be considered My causeless mercy.
11. I am very much pleased by your description of Me in terms of My transcendental qualities, which appear mundane to the mundaners. I grant you all benedictions in your desire to glorify all the planets by your activities.
12. Any human being who prays like Brahmā, and who thus worships Me, shall very soon be blessed with the fulfillment of all his desires, for I am the Lord of all benediction.
13. It is the opinion of expert transcendentalists that the ultimate goal of performing all traditional good works, penances, sacrifices, charities, mystic activities, trances, etc., is to invoke My satisfaction.
14. I am the Supersoul of every individual. I am the supreme director and the dearest. People are wrongly attached to the gross and subtle bodies, but they should be attached to Me only.
15. By following My instructions you can now generate the living entities as before, by dint of your complete Vedic wisdom and the body you have directly received from Me, the supreme cause of everything.
The sage Maitreya said: After instructing Brahmā, the creator of the universe, to expand, the primeval Lord, the Personality of Godhead in His personal form as Nārāyaṇa, disappeared.
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Chapter 10: Divisions of the Creation
The Vidura asked the great sage Maitreya, how did Brahma, the grandfather of planetary inhabitants create the bodies of living entities from his own body and mind after the Lord disappeared.
Maitreya said - O Vidura, Brahma thus engaged hinself in penances for 100 celestial years and applied himself to the devotional service of the Lord. He noticed that the lotus on which he was situated and the water on which the lotus was growing were trembling due to strong violent wind. Long penance and transcendental knowledge of self realization had matured Brahma in practical knowledge and he drank the wind and water completely. Then he saw the lotus on which he was situated was spreading throughout the universe. He entered into the whorl of the lotus and it spread all over the universe which he divided into 3 divisions and later into 14 divisions.Lord Brahma is the most exalted personality in the universe and because of his causeless devotion unto the Lord is mature in transcendental knowledge.He created all 14 planetary divisions for inhabitation by differnt types of living entities.
Then Vidura inquired what is eternal time, what are the symptoms of time.
Maitreya said - Eternal time is the primeval source of interactions of the 3 modes of material nature. It is unchangeable and limitless and it works as the instrument of the supreme personlaity of Godhead for his pasttimes in the material creation. The cosmic maifestation is spearated from the supreme as material energy by means of kala which is the unmanifested impersonal feature of the Lord. It is situated as the objective manifestation of the Lord under the influence of the same material energy of visnu. The cosmic manifestation is as it is now and it was in the past and will continue in the same way in the future.
Then Maitreya described all the creations one after another which occured due to the interactions of the modes of material nature. and 3 kinds of annihilations due to eternal time, material elements and quality of one's work.
9 Creations
1. Mahat-tatva - sum total of all ingredients wherein the modes interact due to the presence of the Lord.
2. false ego
3. sense perceptions
4. knowlege and working capacity
5. deities of mode of goodness
6. ignorant darkness of the living enetity which makes him act as a fool
all above are by the external energy. Now are the creations by Brahma - who is an incarnation of the mode of passion and has a brain like the Lord.
7. immovable entities - fruit trees without flowers, trees, plants before fruits become ripe, creepers, pipe plants, creepers with no support and trees with flowers and fruits - these have feelings of pain within.
8. lower species of life - 28 types - all foolish and ignorant. They know desires by smell and can't remember anything. They are - cow, goat, buffalo, stag, hog, gavaya, deer, lamb, camel (all two hooves). horse, mule, ass, gaura, bison, wild cow (all have one hoof), then dog, jackal, tiger, fox, cat, rabbit, sajaru, lion, monkey, elephant, tortoise, alligator, gosapa - all have five nails on claws, heron, vulture, crane, hawk, bhasa, peacock, swan, crow - birds,
9. Human beings - sock their bellies with eatables. -Mode of passion is predominant. They are miserable in life but want to think themselves happy in all respects.
10. Demigods - 8 varieties - (1) the demigods, (2) the forefathers, (3) the asuras, or demons, (4) the Gandharvas and Apsarās, or angels, (5) the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas, (6) the Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Vidyādharas, (7) the Bhūtas, Pretas and Piśācas, and (8) the superhuman beings, celestial singers, etc. All are created by Brahmā, the creator of the universe.
The 8,9,10 creations are vaikrta creations which are differnt from prakrta (natural) creations. The appearance of kumaras is both.
After this Maitreya muni said I shall describe the manus.
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Chapter 11: Calculation of Time, from the Atom
The material manifestation's ultimate particle - not indivisible and not formed into the body is called atom. It always exists as invisible identity even after dissolutions of all forms. The material body is but a combination of such atoms but misunderstood by common man. Atoms are the ultimate state of the manifest universe. When they stay in their own forms without forming differnt bodies they are called the ultimate oneness.They form the complete manifestation on their own.
One can estimate time by measuring the movement of the atomic combination of bodies. Time is the potency of the Lord, who controls all physical movement although He is not visible in the physical world. Atomic time is measured according to its covering a particular atomic space. Atomic time is measured according to its covering a particular atomic space. The division of gross time is calculated as follows - 2 atoms make a double atom and 3 double atoms make a hexatom. This hexatom is visible in the sunshine which enters through the holes of a window screen. One can clearly see that the hexatom goes up towards the sky. This hexatom is called a trasarenu. 3 trasarenus make a truti and 100 trutis make a vedha. 3 vedhas make a lava. 3 lavas equal to one nimesa (second) and 3 nimesas make 1 ksana, 5 ksnas make 1 kastha and 15 kasthas make 1 laghu (2 minutes). 15 laghus make one nadika a.k.a danda. 2 dandas make 1 muhurta, 6/7 dandas make 1/4 day or night.
Measuring pot for 1 nadika or danda can be done by taking a 4 oz pot of copper, boring a hole with a gold probe 4 fingers long and then placing the pot in water and time before the water overflows the pot is a danda.
There are 4 praharas aka yamas (3 hours) in the day and 4 at night. 15 days make a fortnight (paksah) and 2 fortnights white and black in a month. The aggregate of 2 fortnights in 1 month and the period of 1 day and night for the pita planets. 2 months make a season and 6 months comprise movement of the sun from south to north. 2 solar movements make one day and night of the demigods and that combination is one complete year for a human being who lives for 100 years.
Stars, planets, luminaries, atoms all over the universe are rotating in their respective orbits under the Lord represented by eternal kala. 5 different names for orbits of the sun, moon, stars and luminaries in the firmament and each have their own samvatsara (scheduled orbital time).
One truṭi - 8/13,500 second
One vedha - 8/135 second
One lava - 8/45 second
One nimeṣa - 8/15 second
One kṣaṇa - 8/5 second
One kāṣṭhā - 8 seconds
One laghu - 2 minutes
One daṇḍa - 30 minutes
One prahara - 3 hours
One day - 12 hours
One night - 12 hours
One pakṣa - 15 days
"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, under whose control even the sun, which is considered to be the eye of the Lord, rotates within the fixed orbit of eternal time. The sun is the king of all planetary systems and has unlimited potency in heat and light." - Brahma Samhita. Then Maitreya told Vidura how great the Sun is as it enlivens all living entities with his unlimited heat and light and hence everyone should offer his respects once every five years with ingredients of worship. Vidura said now he understood the life durations of pita planets and heavenly planets and human beings. He now wanted to know the durations of life of greatly learned living entities (sanka bhrgu - who are not affected by the dissolutions of the milleniums) who are beyond range of a kalpa.
Then Maitreya said - 4 millenniums are called - satya, treta, dvapara and kali . The aggregate number of years of all of these combined is equal to 12,000 years (yuga sandhyas) of the demigods (1 year of demigod = 360 years of human kind = 4.32 million years). Satya = 4800 years of demigods, Dvapara = 2400, kali = 1200 of demigods. Transitional periods before and after each millennium which is a few 100 years are called yuga sandhyas. In those periods all kinds of religious activities are performed. Satya yuga mankind properly and completely maintained the principles of religion but it kept getting decreased by one part of irreligion. so in satya it was 4 parts of religion and now it's 1 part religion and 3 parts irreligion.
outside the 3 planetary systems (svarga, martya and patala), 4 yugas * 1000 = 1 day of Brahma and similar is 1 night of Brahma when he sleeps - then the 3 planetary systems below brahmaloka are submerged under water of devastation and he dreams of Garbodaksayi visnu and takes instructions for rehabilitation of the devastated areas of space. After the end of Brahmā's night, the creation of the three worlds begins again in the daytime of Brahmā, and they continue to exist through the life durations of fourteen consecutive Manus, or fathers of mankind.
Each and every Manu enjoys life a little more than 71 sets of 4 millenniums. The three planetary systems revolve and the inhabitants including the lower animals, human beings, demigos and pitas appear and disapper in terms of frutive activities. With every change of Manu, the Supreme personality of Godhead appears by manifesting his internal potency in different incarnations. At the end of Brahma's day, under the insignificant portion of the mode of darkness, the powerful manifestation of the universe merges in the darkness of night. By the influence of eternal time, the living entities remain merged in the dissolution and everything is silent.And the 3 worlds are out of sight and the sun and moon are without glare (the other planetary systems still have the glare of sun and moon). The devastation takes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of Sankarsana and great sages like Bhrgu and other inhabitants of Maharloka transport themselves to Janaloka - distressed by the warmth of the blazing sun below (3 worlds). There are seas, hurricane winds and devastation. The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, lies down in the water on the seat of Ananta, with His eyes closed, and the inhabitants of the Janaloka planets offer their glorious prayers unto the Lord with folded hands. The 100 years of Brahma are divided into 2 parts. first half was brahma kalpa where he appeared and the vedas were also born then. The millennium following brahma kalp is called padma kalpa (pitr kalpa) - that's where the universal lotus flower grew out of the naval of Lord. First millenium in second part of Brahma's life is called varaha (lord apperas as boar).
The material world's diameter is about 4 billion miles.Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu, who is resting in yoga-nidrā on the Causal Ocean and creating innumerable universes by His breathing process, only temporarily appears in the mahat-tattva for the temporary manifestation of the material worlds. He is a plenary portion of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and thus although He is nondifferent from Lord Kṛṣṇa, His formal appearance in the material world as an incarnation is temporary. The original form of the Personality of Godhead is actually the svarūpa, or real form, and He eternally resides in the Vaikuṇṭha world (Viṣṇuloka). The word mahātmanaḥ is used here to indicate Mahā-Viṣṇu, and His real manifestation is Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is called parama, as confirmed in the Brahma-saḿhitā:
īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
[Bs. 5.1]
"The Supreme Lord is Kṛṣṇa, the original Personality of Godhead known as Govinda. His form is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, and He is the original cause of all causes.
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