Sūta Gosvāmī said: Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the son of Uttarā, after hearing the speeches of Śukadeva Gosvāmī, which were all about the truth of the self, applied his concentration faith fully upon Lord Kṛṣṇa (1).Mahārāja Parīkṣit, as a result of his wholehearted attraction for Lord Kṛṣṇa, was able to give up all deep-rooted af fection for his personal body, his wife, his chil dren, his palace, his animals like horses and el ephants, his treasury house, his friends and rel atives, and his undisputed kingdom (2).
O great sages, the great soul Mahārāja Parīkṣit, con stantly rapt in thought of Lord Kṛṣṇa, knowing well of his imminent death, renounced all sorts of fruitive activities, namely acts of religion, economic development and sense gratification, and thus fixed himself firmly in his natural love for Kṛṣṇa and asked all these questions, exactly as you are asking me (3-4). Mahārāja Parīkṣit said: O learned brāhmaṇa, you know everything because you are without material contamination. Therefore whatever you have spoken to me appears per fectly right. Your speeches are gradually de stroying the darkness of my ignorance, for you are narrating the topics of the Lord (5).
I beg to know from you how the Personality of God head, by His personal energies, creates these phenomenal universes as they are, which are in conceivable even to the great demigods (6). Kindly describe how the Supreme Lord, who is all-powerful, engages His different energies and different expansions in maintaining and again winding up the phenomenal world in the sporting spirit of a player (7). O learned brāhmaṇa, the transcendental activities of the Lord are all wonderful, and they appear incon ceivable because even great endeavors by many learned scholars have still proved insufficient for understanding them (8).The Supreme Per sonality of Godhead is one, whether He alone acts with the modes of material nature, or sim ultaneously expands in many forms, or expands consecutively to direct the modes of nature (9).
Kindly clear up all these doubtful inquiries, be cause you are not only vastly learned in the Ve dic literatures and self-realized in transcend ence, but are also a great devotee of the Lord and are therefore as good as the Personality of Godhead (10). Sūta Gosvāmī said: When Śukadeva Gosvāmī was thus requested by the King to de scribe the creative energy of the Personality of Godhead, he then systematically remembered the master of the senses [Śrī Kṛṣṇa], and to re ply properly he spoke thus (11).
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Per sonality of Godhead, who, for the creation of the material world, accepts the three modes of nature. He is the complete whole residing within the body of everyone, and His ways are inconceivable (12). I again offer my respectful obeisances unto the form of complete existence and transcendence, who is the liberator of the pious devotees from all distresses and the de stroyer of the further advances in atheistic tem perament of the nondevotee-demons. For the transcendentalists who are situated in the top most spiritual perfection, He grants their spe cific destinations (13).
Let me offer my respect ful obeisances unto Him who is the associate of the members of the Yadu dynasty and who is always a problem for the nondevotees. He is the supreme enjoyer of both the material and spir itual worlds, yet He enjoys His own abode in the spiritual sky. There is no one equal to Him because His transcendental opulence is im measurable (14). Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-auspicious Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, about whom glorification, remem brances, audience, prayers, hearing and wor ship can at once cleanse the effects of all sins of the performer (15).
Let me offer my respect ful obeisances again and again unto the all-aus picious Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The highly intellectual, simply by surrendering unto His lotus feet, are relieved of all attachments to present and future existences and without difficulty progress to ward spiritual existence (16). Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-auspicious Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa again and again because the great learned sages, the great performers of charity, the great workers of distinction, the great philosophers and mystics, the great chanters of the Vedic hymns and the great fol lowers of Vedic principles cannot achieve any fruitful result without dedication of such great qualities to the service of the Lord (17).
Kirāta, Hūṇa, Āndhra, Pulinda, Pulkaśa, Ābhīra, Śumbha, Yavana, members of the Khasa races and even others addicted to sinful acts can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him (18). He is the Supersoul and the Supreme Lord of all self-realized souls. He is the personifica tion of the Vedas, religious scriptures and aus terities. He is worshiped by Lord Brahmā and Śiva and all those who are transcendental to all pretensions. Being so revered with awe and veneration, may that Supreme Absolute be pleased with me (19). May Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is the worshipable Lord of all devotees, the protector and glory of all the kings like Andhaka and Vṛṣṇi of the Yadu dynasty, the husband of all goddesses of fortune, the direc tor of all sacrifices and therefore the leader of all living entities, the controller of all intelli gence, the proprietor of all planets, spiritual and material, and the supreme incarnation on the earth (the supreme all in all), be merciful upon me (20).
It is the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa who gives liberation. By thinking of His lotus feet at every second, following in the foot steps of authorities, the devotee in trance can see the Absolute Truth. The learned mental speculators, however, think of Him according to their whims. May the Lord be pleased with me (21). May the Lord, who in the beginning of the creation amplified the potent knowledge of Brahmā from within his heart and inspired him with full knowledge of creation and of His own Self, and who appeared to be generated from the mouth of Brahmā, be pleased with me (22).May the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who enlivens the materially created bodies of the elements by lying down within the universe, and who in His puruṣa incarnation causes the living being to be subjected to the sixteen divi sions of material modes which are his genera tor, be pleased to decorate my statements (23).
I offer my respectful obeisances unto Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the incarnation of Vāsudeva who compiled the Vedic scriptures. The pure devo tees drink up the nectarean transcendental knowledge dropping from the lotuslike mouth of the Lord (24).My dear King, Brahmā, the firstborn, on being questioned by Nārada, ex actly apprised him on this subject as it had been directly spoken by the Lord to His own son, who was impregnated with Vedic knowledge from his very birth (25).
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