Srimad Bhagavatam | Canto 10 Chapter 14 | Brahmā’s Prayers To Lord Kṛṣṇa

Lord Brahmā said: My dear Lord, You are the only worshipable Lord, the Supreme Per sonality of Godhead, and therefore I offer my humble obeisances and prayers just to please You. O son of the king of the cowherds, Your transcendental body is dark blue like a new cloud, Your garment is brilliant like lightning, and the beauty of Your face is enhanced by Your guñjā earrings and the peacock feather on Your head. Wearing garlands of various forest flowers and leaves, and equipped with a herd ing stick, a buffalo horn and a flute, You stand beautifully with a morsel of food in Your hand. (1) My dear Lord, neither I nor anyone else can estimate the potency of this transcendental body of Yours, which has shown such mercy to me and which appears just to fulfill the desires of Your pure devotees. Although my mind is completely withdrawn from material affairs, I cannot understand Your personal form. How, then, could I possibly understand the happiness You experience within Yourself? (2)

Those who, even while remaining situated in their es tablished social positions, throw away the pro cess of speculative knowledge and with their body, words and mind offer all respects to de scriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lord ship, although You are otherwise unconquera ble by anyone within the three worlds. (3) My dear Lord, devotional service unto You is the best path for self-realization. If someone gives up that path and engages in the cultivation of speculative knowledge, he will simply undergo a troublesome process and will not achieve his desired result. As a person who beats an empty husk of wheat cannot get grain, one who simply speculates cannot achieve self-realization. His only gain is trouble. (4)

O almighty Lord, in the past many yogīs in this world achieved the plat form of devotional service by offering all their endeavors unto You and faithfully carrying out their prescribed duties. Through such devo tional service, perfected by the processes of hearing and chanting about You, they came to understand You, O infallible one, and could easily surrender to You and achieve Your su preme abode. (5) Nondevotees, however, can not realize You in Your full personal feature. Nevertheless, it may be possible for them to re alize Your expansion as the impersonal Su preme by cultivating direct perception of the Self within the heart. But they can do this only by purifying their mind and senses of all con ceptions of material distinctions and all attach ment to material sense objects. Only in this way will Your impersonal feature manifest itself to them. (6)

In time, learned philosophers or scientists might be able to count all the atoms of the earth, the particles of snow, or perhaps even the shin ing molecules radiating from the sun, the stars and other luminaries. But among these learned men, who could possibly count the unlimited transcendental qualities possessed by You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who have de scended onto the surface of the earth for the benefit of all living entities? (7) My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past mis deeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligi ble for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim. (8)

My Lord, just see my uncivilized im pudence! To test Your power I tried to extend my illusory potency to cover You, the unlim ited and primeval Supersoul, who bewilder even the masters of illusion. What am I com pared to You? I am just like a small spark in the presence of a great fire. (9) Therefore, O infal lible Lord, kindly excuse my offenses. I have taken birth in the mode of passion and am therefore simply foolish, presuming myself a controller independent of Your Lordship. My eyes are blinded by the darkness of ignorance, which causes me to think of myself as the un born creator of the universe. But please con sider that I am Your servant and therefore wor thy of Your compassion. (10) What am I, a small creature measuring seven spans of my own hand? I am enclosed in a potlike universe composed of material nature, the total material energy, false ego, ether, air, water and earth. And what is Your glory? Unlimited universes pass through the pores of Your body just as par ticles of dust pass through the openings of a screened window. (11)

O Lord Adhokṣaja, does a mother take of fense when the child within her womb kicks with his legs? And is there anything in exist encewhether designated by various philoso phers as real or as unrealthat is actually outside Your abdomen? (12) My dear Lord, it is said that when the three planetary systems are merged into the water at the time of dissolution, Your plenary portion, Nārāyaṇa, lies down on the water, gradually a lotus flower grows from His navel, and Brahmā takes birth upon that lo tus flower. Certainly, these words are not false. Thus am I not born from You? (13) Are You not the original Nārāyaṇa, O supreme control ler, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? Indeed, Lord Nārāyaṇa is Your expan sion, and He is called Nārāyaṇa because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Māyā. (14)

My dear Lord, if Your transcendental body, which shelters the entire universe, is actually lying upon the water, then why were You not seen by me when I searched for You? And why, though I could not envision You properly within my heart, did You then suddenly reveal Yourself? (15) My dear Lord, in this incarnation You have proved that You are the supreme controller of Māyā. Although You are now within this uni verse, the whole universal creation is within Your transcendental bodya fact You demon strated by exhibiting the universe within Your abdomen before Your mother, Yaśodā. (16) Just as this entire universe, including You, was exhibited within Your abdomen, so it is now manifested here externally in the same ex act form. How could such things happen unless arranged by Your inconceivable energy? (17)

Have You not shown me today that both You Yourself and everything within this creation are manifestations of Your inconceivable potency? First You appeared alone, and then You mani fested Yourself as all of Vṛndāvana’s calves and cowherd boys, Your friends. Next You ap peared as an equal number of four-handed Viṣṇu forms, who were worshiped by all living beings, including me, and after that You ap peared as an equal number of complete uni verses. Finally, You have now returned to Your unlimited form as the Supreme Absolute Truth, one without a second. (18) To persons ignorant of Your actual transcendental position, You ap pear as part of the material world, manifesting Yourself by the expansion of Your inconceiva ble energy. Thus for the creation of the universe You appear as me [Brahmā], for its mainte nance You appear as Yourself [Viṣṇu], and for its annihilation You appear as Lord Trinetra [Śiva]. (19)

O Lord, O supreme creator and master, You have no material birth, yet to de feat the false pride of the faithless demons and show mercy to Your saintly devotees, You take birth among the demigods, sages, human be ings, animals and even the aquatics. (20) O su preme great one! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! O Supersoul, master of all mystic power! Your pastimes are taking place contin uously in these three worlds, but who can esti mate where, how and when You are employing Your spiritual energy and performing these in numerable pastimes? No one can understand the mystery of how Your spiritual energy acts. (21) Therefore, this entire universe, which like a dream is by nature unreal, nevertheless appears real, and thus it covers one’s consciousness and assails one with repeated miseries. This uni verse appears real because it is manifested by the potency of illusion emanating from You, whose unlimited transcendental forms are full of eternal happiness and knowledge. (22)

You are the one Supreme Soul, the primeval Su preme Personality, the Absolute Truthself manifested, endless and beginningless. You are eternal and infallible, perfect and complete, without any rival and free from all material des ignations. Your happiness can never be ob structed, nor have You any connection with material contamination. Indeed, You are the in destructible nectar of immortality. (23) Those who have received the clear vision of knowledge from the sunlike spiritual master can see You in this way, as the very Soul of all souls, the Supersoul of everyone’s own self. Thus understanding Your original personality, they are able to cross over the ocean of illusory material existence. (24)

A person who mistakes a rope for a snake becomes fearful, but he then gives up his fear upon realizing that the so called snake does not exist. Similarly, for those who fail to recognize You as the Supreme Soul of all souls, the expansive illusory material ex istence arises, but knowledge of You at once causes it to subside. (25) The conception of ma terial bondage and the conception of liberation are both manifestations of ignorance. Being outside the scope of true knowledge, they cease to exist when one correctly understands that the pure spirit soul is distinct from matter and al ways fully conscious. At that time bondage and liberation no longer have any significance, just as day and night have no significance from the perspective of the sun. (26) Just see the foolish ness of those ignorant persons who consider You to be some separated manifestation of illu sion and who consider the self, which is actu ally You, to be something else, the material body. Such fools conclude that the supreme soul is to be searched for somewhere outside Your supreme personality. (27)

O unlimited Lord, the saintly devotees seek You out within their own bodies by rejecting everything separate from You. Indeed, how can discriminating persons appreciate the real na ture of a rope lying before them until they re fute the illusion that it is a snake? (28) My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme Per sonality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years. (29) My dear Lord, I therefore pray to be so fortunate that in this life as Lord Brahmā or in another life, wherever I take my birth, I may be counted as one of Your devo tees. I pray that wherever I may be, even among the animal species, I can engage in devotional service to Your lotus feet. (30)

O almighty Lord, how greatly fortunate are the cows and ladies of Vṛndāvana, the nectar of whose breast milk You have happily drunk to Your full sat isfaction, taking the form of their calves and children! All the Vedic sacrifices performed from time immemorial up to the present day have not given You as much satisfaction. (31) How greatly fortunate are Nanda Mahārāja, the cowherd men and all the other inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi! There is no limit to their good for tune, because the Absolute Truth, the source of transcendental bliss, the eternal Supreme Brah man, has become their friend. (32) Yet even though the extent of the good fortune of these residents of Vṛndāvana is inconceivable, we eleven presiding deities of the various senses, headed by Lord Śiva, are also most fortunate, because the senses of these devotees of Vṛndāvana are the cups through which we re peatedly drink the nectarean, intoxicating bev erage of the honey of Your lotus feet. (33)

My greatest possible good fortune would be to take any birth whatever in this forest of Gokula and have my head bathed by the dust falling from the lotus feet of any of its residents. Their entire life and soul is the Supreme Personality of God head, Mukunda, the dust of whose lotus feet is still being searched for in the Vedic mantras. (34) My mind becomes bewildered just trying to think of what reward other than You could be found anywhere. You are the embodiment of all benedictions, which You bestow upon these residents of the cowherd community of Vṛndāvana. You have already arranged to give Yourself to Pūtanā and her family members in exchange for her disguising herself as a devo tee. So what is left for You to give these devo tees of Vṛndāvana, whose homes, wealth, friends, dear relations, bodies, children and very lives and hearts are all dedicated only to You? (35) My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, until people become Your devotees, their material attach ments and desires remain thieves, their homes remain prisons, and their affectionate feelings for their family members remain foot-shackles. (36)

My dear master, although You have noth ing to do with material existence, You come to this earth and imitate material life just to ex pand the varieties of ecstatic enjoyment for Your surrendered devotees. (37) There are people who say, “I know every thing about Kṛṣṇa.” Let them think that way. As far as I am concerned, I do not wish to speak very much about this matter. O my Lord, let me say this much: As far as Your opulences are concerned, they are all beyond the reach of my mind, body and words. (38) My dear Kṛṣṇa, I now humbly request permission to leave. Actu ally, You are the knower and seer of all things. Indeed, You are the Lord of all the universes, and yet I offer this one universe unto You. (39)

My dear Śrī Kṛṣṇa, You bestow happiness upon the lotuslike Vṛṣṇi dynasty and expand the great oceans consisting of the earth, the demi gods, the brāhmaṇas and the cows. You dispel the dense darkness of irreligion and oppose the demons who have appeared on this earth. O Su preme Personality of Godhead, as long as this universe exists and as long as the sun shines, I will offer my obeisances unto You. (40) Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Having thus of fered his prayers, Brahmā circumambulated his worshipable Lord, the unlimited Personality of Godhead, three times and then bowed down at His lotus feet. The appointed creator of the uni verse then returned to his own residence. (41) After granting His son Brahmā permission to leave, the Supreme Personality of Godhead took the calves, who were still where they had been a year earlier, and brought them to the riverbank, where He had been taking His meal and where His cowherd boyfriends remained just as before. (42)

O King, although the boys had passed an entire year apart from the Lord of their very lives, they had been covered by Lord Kṛṣṇa’s illusory potency and thus consid ered that year merely half a moment. (43) What indeed is not forgotten by those whose minds are bewildered by the Lord’s illusory potency? By that power of Māyā, this entire universe re mains in perpetual bewilderment, and in this at mosphere of forgetfulness no one can under stand his own identity. (44) The cowherd boyfriends said to Lord Kṛṣṇa: You have returned so quickly! We have not eaten even one morsel in Your absence. Please come here and take Your meal without distrac tion. (45) Then Lord Hṛṣīkeśa, smiling, fin ished His lunch in the company of His cowherd friends. While they were returning from the for est to their homes in Vraja, Lord Kṛṣṇa showed the cowherd boys the skin of the dead serpent Aghāsura. (46)

Lord Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental body was decorated with peacock feathers and flowers and painted with forest minerals, and His bamboo flute loudly and festively re sounded. As He called out to His calves by name, His cowherd boyfriends purified the whole world by chanting His glories. Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa entered the cow pasture of His fa ther, Nanda Mahārāja, and the sight of His beauty at once produced a great festival for the eyes of all the cowherd women. (47) As the cowherd boys reached the village of Vraja, they sang, “Today Kṛṣṇa saved us by killing a great serpent!” Some of the boys described Kṛṣṇa as the son of Yaśodā, and others as the son of Nanda Mahārāja. (48) King Parīkṣit said: O brāhmaṇa, how could the cowherd women have developed for Kṛṣṇa, someone else’s son, such unprecedented pure love, love they never felt even for their own children? Please explain this. (49) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King, for every created being the dear most thing is cer tainly his own self. The dearness of everything else children, wealth and so on is due only to the dearness of the self. (50)

For this reason, O best of kings, the embodied soul is self-cen tered: he is more attached to his own body and self than to his so-called possessions like chil dren, wealth and home. (51) Indeed, for persons who think the body is the self, O best of kings, those things whose importance lies only in their relationship to the body are never as dear as the body itself. (52) If a person comes to the stage of considering the body “mine” instead of “me,” he will certainly not consider the body as dear as his own self. After all, even as the body is growing old and useless, one’s desire to con tinue living remains strong. (53) Therefore, it is his own self that is most dear to every embod ied living being, and it is simply for the satis faction of this self that the whole material cre ation of moving and nonmoving entities exists. (54)

You should know Kṛṣṇa to be the original Soul of all living entities. For the benefit of the whole universe, He has, out of His causeless mercy, appeared as an ordinary human being. He has done this by the strength of His internal potency. (55) Those in this world who under stand Lord Kṛṣṇa as He is see all things, whether stationary or moving, as manifest forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such enlightened persons recognize no reality apart from the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. (56) The original, unmanifested form of material nature is the source of all material things, and the source of even that subtle material nature is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. What, then, could one ascertain to be separate from Him? (57) For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is fa mous as Murāri, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s hoof-print. Their goal is paraṁ padam, Vaikuṇṭha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step. (58)

Since you inquired from me, I have fully de scribed to you those activities of Lord Hari that were performed in His fifth year but not cele brated until His sixth. (59) Any person who hears or chants these pastimes Lord Murāri per formed with His cowherd friendsthe killing of Aghāsura, the taking of lunch on the forest grass, the Lord’s manifestation of transcenden tal forms, and the wonderful prayers offered by Lord Brahmāis sure to achieve all his spiritual desires. (60) In this way the boys spent their childhood in the land of Vṛndāvana playing hide-and-go-seek, building play bridges, jump ing about like monkeys and engaging in many other such games. (61)