Lord Brahmā said: The mouth of the virāṭ puruṣa [the universal form of the Lord] is the generating center of the voice, and the control ling deity is Fire. His skin and six other layers are the generating centers of the Vedic hymns, and His tongue is the productive center of dif ferent foodstuffs and delicacies for offering to the demigods, the forefathers and the general mass of people (1).His two nostrils are the gen erating centers of our breathing and of all other airs, His smelling powers generate the Aśvinī kumāra demigods and all kinds of medicinal herbs, and His breathing energies produce dif ferent kinds of fragrance (2). His eyes are the generating centers of all kinds of forms, and they glitter and illuminate. His eyeballs are like the sun and the heavenly planets. His ears hear from all sides and are receptacles for all the Ve das, and His sense of hearing is the generating center of the sky and of all kinds of sound (3).
His bodily surface is the breeding ground for the active principles of everything and for all kinds of auspicious opportunities. His skin, like the moving air, is the generating center for all kinds of sense of touch and is the place for performing all kinds of sacrifice (4).The hairs on His body are the cause of all vegetation, par ticularly of those trees which are required as in gredients for sacrifice. The hairs on His head and face are reservoirs for the clouds, and His nails are the breeding ground of electricity, stones and iron ores (5).The Lord’s arms are the productive fields for the great demigods and other leaders of the living entities who protect the general mass (6).Thus the forward steps of the Lord are the shelter for the upper, lower and heavenly planets, as well as for all that we need. His lotus feet serve as protection from all kinds of fear (7). From the Lord’s genitals originate water, semen, generatives, rains and the procre ators. His genitals are the cause of a pleasure that counteracts the distress of begetting (8).O Nārada, the evacuating outlet of the universal form of the Lord is the abode of the controlling deity of death, Mitra, and the evacuating hole and the rectum of the Lord is the place of envy, misfortune, death, hell, etc (9).The back of the Lord is the place for all kinds of frustration and ignorance, as well as for immorality. From His veins flow the great rivers and rivulets, and on His bones are stacked the great mountains (10).
The impersonal feature of the Lord is the abode of great oceans, and His belly is the rest ing place for the materially annihilated living entities. His heart is the abode of the subtle ma terial bodies of living beings. Thus it is known by the intelligent class of men (11).Also, the consciousness of that great personality is the abode of religious principles mine, yours, and those of the four bachelors Sanaka, Sanātana, Sanat-kumāra and Sanandana. That conscious ness is also the abode of truth and transcenden tal knowledge (12).Beginning from me [Brahmā] down to you and Bhava [Śiva], all the great sages who were born before you, the dem igods, the demons, the Nāgas, the human be ings, the birds, the beasts, as well as the rep tiles, etc., and all phenomenal manifestations of the universes, namely the planets, stars, aster oids, luminaries, lightning, thunder, and the in habitants of the different planetary systems, namely the Gandharvas, Apsarās, Yakṣas, Rakṣas, Bhūtagaṇas, Uragas, Paśus, Pitās, Sid dhas, Vidyādharas, Cāraṇas, and all other dif ferent varieties of living entities, including the birds, beasts, trees and everything that be, are all covered by the universal form of the Lord at all times, namely past, present and future, alt hough He is transcendental to all of them, eter nally existing in a form not exceeding nine inches (13-16).
The sun illuminates both inter nally and externally by expanding its radiation; similarly, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by expanding His universal form, maintains everything in the creation both internally and externally (17).The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the controller of immortality and fearlessness, and He is transcendental to death and the fruitive actions of the material world. O Nārada, O brāhmaṇa, it is therefore difficult to measure the glories of the Supreme Person (18). The Supreme Personality of Godhead is to be known as the supreme reservoir of all mate rial opulences by the one fourth of His energy in which all the living entities exist. Deathless ness, fearlessness and freedom from the anxie ties of old age and disease exist in the kingdom of God, which is beyond the three higher plan etary systems and beyond the material cover ings (19).The spiritual world, which consists of three fourths of the Lord’s energy, is situated beyond this material world, and it is especially meant for those who will never be reborn. Oth ers, who are attached to family life and who do not strictly follow celibacy vows, must live within the three material worlds (20).
By His energies, the all-pervading Personality of God head is thus comprehensively the master in the activities of controlling and in devotional ser vice. He is the ultimate master of both nesci ence and factual knowledge of all situations (21). From that Personality of Godhead, all the universal globes and the universal form with all material elements, qualities and senses are gen erated. Yet He is aloof from such material man ifestations, like the sun, which is separate from its rays and heat (22).When I was born from the abdominal lotus flower of the Lord [Mahā Viṣṇu], the great person, I had no ingredients for sacrificial performances except the bodily limbs of the great Personality of Godhead (23).For performing sacrificial ceremonies, one requires sacrificial ingredients, such as flowers, leaves and straw, along with the sacrificial altar and a suitable time [spring] (24).
Other require ments are utensils, grains, clarified butter, honey, gold, earth, water, the Ṛg Veda, Yajur Veda and Sāma Veda and four priests to per form the sacrifice (25).Other necessities in clude invoking the different names of the dem igods by specific hymns and vows of recom pense, in accordance with the particular scrip ture, for specific purposes and by specific pro cesses(26).Thus I had to arrange all these nec essary ingredients and paraphernalia of sacri fice from the personal bodily parts of the Per sonality of Godhead. By invocation of the dem igods’ names, the ultimate goal, Viṣṇu, was gradually attained, and thus compensation and ultimate offering were complete (27). Thus I created the ingredients and paraphernalia for offering sacrifice out of the parts of the body of the Supreme Lord, the enjoyer of the sacrifice, and I performed the sacrifice to satisfy the Lord (28). My dear son, thereafter your nine broth ers, who are the masters of living creatures, per formed the sacrifice with proper rituals to sat isfy both the manifested and nonmanifested personalities (29).Thereafter, the Manus, the fathers of mankind, the great sages, the forefa thers, the learned scholars, the Daityas and mankind performed sacrifices meant to please the Supreme Lord (30).
All the material mani festations of the universes are therefore situated in His powerful material energies, which He ac cepts self-sufficiently, although He is eternally without affinity for the material modes (31).By His will, I create, Lord Śiva destroys, and He Himself, in His eternal form as the Personality of Godhead, maintains everything. He is the powerful controller of these three energies(32). My dear son, whatever you inquired from me I have thus explained unto you, and you must know for certain that whatever there is (ei ther as cause or as effect, both in the material and spiritual worlds) is dependent on the Su preme Personality of Godhead (33).O Nārada, because I have caught hold of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, with great zeal, whatever I say has never proved to have been false. Nor is the progress of my mind ever deterred. Nor are my senses ever degraded by temporary attachment to mat ter (34).
Although I am known as the great Brahmā, perfect in the disciplic succession of Vedic wisdom, and although I have undergone all austerities and am an expert in mystic pow ers and self-realization, and although I am rec ognized as such by the great forefathers of the living entities, who offer me respectful obei sances, still I cannot understand Him, the Lord, the very source of my birth (35).Therefore it is best for me to surrender unto His feet, which alone can deliver one from the miseries of re peated birth and death. Such surrender is all auspicious and allows one to perceive all hap piness. Even the sky cannot estimate the limits of its own expansion. So what can others do when the Lord Himself is unable to estimate His own limits? (36)
Since neither Lord Śiva nor you nor I could ascertain the limits of spiritual happiness, how can other demigods know it? And because all of us are bewildered by the illusory, external energy of the Supreme Lord, we can see only this manifested cosmos according to our indi vidual ability (37).Let us offer our respectful obeisances unto that Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose incarnations and activities are chanted by us for glorification, though He can hardly be fully known as He is (38).That su preme original Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, expanding His plenary portion as Mahā-Viṣṇu, the first incarnation, creates this manifested cosmos, but He is unborn. The cre ation, however, takes place in Him, and the ma terial substance and manifestations are all Him self. He maintains them for some time and ab sorbs them into Himself again (39).The Person ality of Godhead is pure, being free from all contaminations of material tinges. He is the Ab solute Truth and the embodiment of full and perfect knowledge. He is all-pervading, with out beginning or end, and without rival. O Nārada, O great sage, the great thinkers can know Him when completely freed from all ma terial hankerings and when sheltered under un disturbed conditions of the senses. Otherwise, by untenable arguments, all is distorted, and the Lord disappears from our sight (40).
Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu is the first incarna tion of the Supreme Lord, and He is the master of eternal time, space, cause and effects, mind, the elements, the material ego, the modes of na ture, the senses, the universal form of the Lord, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and the sum total of all living beings, both moving and nonmoving (41).
I myself [Brahmā], Lord Śiva, Lord Viṣṇu, great generators of living beings like Dakṣa and Prajāpati, yourselves [Nārada and the Kumāras], heavenly demigods like Indra and Candra, the leaders of the Bhūrloka plan ets, the leaders of the earthly planets, the lead ers of the lower planets, the leaders of the Gandharva planets, the leaders of the Vidyādhara planets, the leaders of the Cāraṇaloka planets, the leaders of the Yakṣas, Rakṣas and Uragas, the great sages, the great demons, the great atheists and the great space men, as well as the dead bodies, evil spirits, sa tans, jinn, kūṣmāṇḍas, great aquatics, great beasts and great birds, etc. in other words, an ything and everything which is exceptionally possessed of power, opulence, mental and per ceptual dexterity, strength, forgiveness, beauty, modesty, opulence, and breeding, whether in form or formless may appear to be the specific truth and the form of the Lord, but actually they are not so. They are only a fragment of the tran scendental potency of the Lord (42-44).
O Nārada, now I shall state, one after another, the transcendental incarnations of the Lord known as līlā-avatāras. Hearing of their activities counteracts all foul matters accumulated in the ear. These pastimes are pleasing to hear and are to be relished. Therefore they are in my heart (45).
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