The great sage Maitreya continued: Vi jitāśva, the eldest son of Mahārāja Pṛthu, who had a reputation like his father’s, became em peror and gave his younger brothers different directions of the world to govern, for he was very affectionate toward his brothers (1).Mahārāja Vijitāśva offered the eastern part of the world to his brother Haryakṣa, the south ern part to Dhūmrakeśa, the western part to Vṛka and the northern part to Draviṇa (2).For merly, Mahārāja Vijitāśva pleased the King of heaven, Indra, and from him received the title Antardhāna. His wife’s name was Śikhaṇḍinī, and by her he begot three good sons (3).
The three sons of Mahārāja Antardhāna were named Pāvaka, Pavamāna and Śuci. Formerly these three personalities were the demigods of fire, but due to the curse of the great sage Vasiṣṭha, they became the sons of Mahārāja Antardhāna. As such, they were as powerful as the fire-gods, and they attained the destination of mystic yoga power, being again situated as the demigods of fire (4). Mahārāja Antardhāna had another wife, named Nabhasvatī, and by her he was happy to beget another son, named Havirdhāna. Since Mahārāja Antardhāna was very liberal, he did not kill Indra while the demigod was stealing his father’s horse at the sacrifice (5).Whenever Antardhāna, the supreme royal power, had to exact taxes, punish his citizens or fine them se verely, he was not willing to do so. Conse quently he retired from the execution of such duties and engaged himself in the performance of different sacrifices (6).
Although Mahārāja Antardhāna was engaged in performing sacri fices, because he was a self-realizedsoul he very intelligently rendered devotional service to the Lord, who eradicates all the fears of His devotees. By thus worshiping the Supreme Lord, Mahārāja Antardhāna, rapt in ecstasy, at tained His planet very easily (7). Havirdhāna, the son of Mahārāja Antardhāna, had a wife named Havirdhānī, who gave birth to six sons, named Barhiṣat, Gaya, Śukla, Kṛṣṇa, Satya and Jitavrata (8).The great sage Maitreya continued: My dear Vidura, Havirdhāna’s very powerful son named Barhiṣat was very expert in performing various kinds of fruitive sacrifices, and he was also expert in the practice of mystic yoga. By his great qualifications, he became known as Prajāpati (9). Mahārāja Barhiṣat executed many sacrifices all over the world. He scattered kuśa grasses and kept the tops of the grasses pointed eastward (10).
Mahārāja Barhiṣat henceforward known as Prācīnabarhi was ordered by the supreme dem igod Brahmā to marry the daughter of the ocean named Śatadruti. Her bodily features were completely beautiful, and she was very young. She was decorated with the proper garments, and when she came into the marriage arena and began circumambulating it, the fire-god Agni became so attracted to her that he desired her company, exactly as he had formerly desired to enjoy Śukī (11).While Śatadruti was thus being married, the demons, the denizens of Gandhar valoka, the great sages, and the denizens of Sid dhaloka, the earthly planets and Nāgaloka, alt hough highly exalted, were all captivated by the tinkling of her ankle bells (12).King Prācīnabarhi begot ten children in the womb of Śatadruti. All of them were equally endowed with religiosity, and all of them were known as the Pracetās (13).
When all these Pracetās were ordered by their father to marry and beget chil dren, they all entered the ocean and practiced austerities and penances for ten thousand years. Thus they worshiped the master of all austerity, the Supreme Personality of Godhead (14).When all the sons of Prācīnabarhi left home to execute austerities, they met Lord Śiva, who, out of great mercy, instructed them about the Absolute Truth. All the sons of Prācīnabarhi meditated upon the instructions, chanting and worshiping them with great care and attention (15). Vidura asked Maitreya: My dear brāhmaṇa, why did the Pracetās meet Lord Śiva on the way? Please tell me how the meeting happened, how Lord Śiva became very pleased with them and how he instructed them. Cer tainly such talks are important, and I wish that you please be merciful upon me and describe them (16).
The great sage Vidura continued: O best of the brāhmaṇas, it is very difficult for liv ing entities encaged within this material body to have personal contact with Lord Śiva. Even great sages who have no material attachments do not contact him, despite their always being absorbed in meditation to attain his personal contact (17).Lord Śiva, the most powerful dem igod, second only to Lord Viṣṇu, is self-suffi cient. Although he has nothing to aspire for in the material world, for the benefit of those in the material world he is always busily engaged everywhere and is accompanied by his danger ous energies like the goddess Kālī and the god dess Durgā (18). The great sage Maitreya continued: My dear Vidura, because of their pious nature, all the sons of Prācīnabarhi very seriously ac cepted the words of their father with heart and soul, and with these words on their heads, they went toward the west to execute their father’s order (19).
While traveling, the Pracetās hap pened to see a great reservoir of water which seemed almost as big as the ocean. The water of this lake was so calm and quiet that it seemed like the mind of a great soul, and its inhabitants, the aquatics, appeared very peaceful and happy to be under the protection of such a watery res ervoir (20).In that great lake there were differ ent types of lotus flowers. Some of them were bluish, and some of them were red. Some of them grew at night, some in the day and some, like the indīvara lotus flower, in the evening. Combined together, the lotus flowers filled the lake so full that the lake appeared to be a great mine of such flowers. Consequently, on the shores there were swans and cranes, cakravākas, kāraṇḍavas and other beautiful wa ter birds standing about (21).
There were vari ous trees and creepers on all sides of the lake, and there were mad bumblebees humming all about them. The trees appeared to be very jolly due to the sweet humming of the bumblebees, and the saffron, which was contained in the lo tus flowers, was being thrown into the air. These all created such an atmosphere that it ap peared as though a festival were taking place there (22).The sons of the King became very much amazed when they heard vibrations from various drums and kettledrums along with other orderly musical sounds pleasing to the ear (23). The Pracetās were fortunate to see Lord Śiva, the chief of the demigods, emerging from the water with his associates. His bodily luster was just like molten gold, his throat was bluish, and he had three eyes, which looked very mer cifully upon his devotees. He was accompanied by many musicians, who were glorifying him. As soon as the Pracetās saw Lord Śiva, they im mediately offered their obeisances in great amazement and fell down at the lotus feet of the lord (24-25).
Lord Śiva became very pleased with the Pracetās because generally Lord Śiva is the protector of pious persons and persons of gentle behavior. Being very much pleased with the princes, he began to speak as follows (26). Lord Śiva said: You are all the sons of King Prācīnabarhi, and I wish all good fortune to you. I also know what you are going to do, and therefore I am visible to you just to show my mercy upon you (27).Lord Śiva continued: Any person who is surrendered to the Supreme Per sonality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, the controller of everything material nature as well as the living entity is actually very dear to me (28). A per son who executes his occupational duty properly for one hundred births becomes qual ified to occupy the post of Brahmā, and if he becomes more qualified, he can approach Lord Śiva. A person who is directly surrendered to Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu, in unalloyed devotional service is immediately promoted to the spiritual planets. Lord Śiva and other demigods attain these planets after the destruction of this mate rial world (29).
You are all devotees of the Lord, and as such I appreciate that you are as respect able as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. I know in this way that the devotees also respect me and that I am dear to them. Thus no one can be as dear to the devotees as I am (30).Now I shall chant one mantra which is not only transcendental, pure and auspicious, but is the best prayer for anyone who is aspiring to attain the ultimate goal of life. When I chant this mantra, please hear it carefully and atten tively (31). The great sage Maitreya continued: Out of his causeless mercy, the exalted personality Lord Śiva, a great devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, continued to speak to the King’s sons, who were standing with folded hands (32). Lord Śiva addressed the Supreme Per sonality of Godhead with the following prayer: O Supreme Personality of Godhead, all glories unto You. You are the most exalted of all self-realized souls. Since You are always auspicious for the self-realized, I wish that You be auspicious for me. You are worshipable by virtue of the all-perfect instructions You give. You are the Supersoul; therefore I offer my obeisances unto You as the supreme living be ing (33).
My Lord, You are the origin of the cre ation by virtue of the lotus flower which sprouts from Your navel. You are the supreme control ler of the senses and the sense objects, and You are also the all-pervading Vāsudeva. You are most peaceful, and because of Your self-illumi nated existence, You are not disturbed by the six kinds of transformations (34). My dear Lord, You are the origin of the subtle material ingredients, the master of all integration as well as the master of all disintegration, the predom inating Deity named Saṅkarṣaṇa, and the mas ter of all intelligence, known as the predomi nating Deity Pradyumna. Therefore, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You (35).My Lord, as the supreme directing Deity known as Aniruddha, You are the master of the senses and the mind. I therefore offer my obeisances unto You again and again. You are known as Ananta as well as Saṅkarṣaṇa because of Your ability to destroy the whole creation by the blazing fire from Your mouth (36).
My Lord, O Aniruddha, You are the authority by which the doors of the higher planetary systems and lib eration are opened. You are always within the pure heart of the living entity. Therefore I offer my obeisances unto You. You are the possessor of semen which is like gold, and thus, in the form of fire, You help the Vedic sacrifices, be ginning with cātur-hotra. Therefore I offer my obeisances unto You (37). My Lord, You are the provider of the Pitṛlokas as well as all the demigods. You are the predominating deity of the moon and the master of all three Vedas. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You be cause You are the original source of satisfac tion for all living entities (38).My dear Lord, You are the gigantic universal form which con tains all the individual bodies of the living en tities. You are the maintainer of the three worlds, and as such You maintain the mind, senses, body, and air of life within them. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You (39).
My dear Lord, by expanding Your transcendental vibrations, You reveal the actual meaning of everything. You are the all-pervad ing sky within and without, and You are the ul timate goal of pious activities executed both within this material world and beyond it. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances again and again unto You (40).My dear Lord, You are the viewer of the results of pious activities. You are inclination, disinclination and their result ant activities. You are the cause of the misera ble conditions of life caused by irreligion, and therefore You are death. I offer You my re spectful obeisances (41).My dear Lord, You are the topmost of all bestowers of all benediction, the oldest and supreme enjoyer amongst all en joyers. You are the master of all the worlds’ metaphysical philosophy, for You are the su preme cause of all causes, Lord Kṛṣṇa. You are the greatest of all religious principles, the su preme mind, and You have a brain which is never checked by any condition. Therefore I re peatedly offer my obeisances unto You (42).
My dear Lord, You are the supreme controller of the worker, sense activities and results of sense activities [karma]. Therefore You are the controller of the body, mind and senses. You are also the supreme controller of egotism, known as Rudra. You are the source of knowledge and the activities of the Vedic in junctions (43). My dear Lord, I wish to see You exactly in the form that Your very dear devotees worship. You have many other forms, but I wish to see Your form that is especially liked by the devo tees. Please be merciful upon me and show me that form, for only that form worshiped by the devotees can perfectly satisfy all the demands of the senses (44).The Lord’s beauty resembles a dark cloud during the rainy season. As the rainfall glistens, His bodily features also glis ten. Indeed, He is the sum total of all beauty. The Lord has four arms and an exquisitely beautiful face with eyes like lotus petals, a beautiful highly raised nose, a mind-attracting smile, a beautiful forehead and equally beauti ful and fully decorated ears (45-46).
The Lord is superexcellently beautiful on account of His open and merciful smile and His sidelong glance upon His devotees. His black hair is curly, and His garments, waving in the wind, appear like flying saffron pollen from lotus flowers. His glittering earrings, shining helmet, bangles, garland, ankle bells, waist belt and various other bodily ornaments combine with conchshell, disc, club and lotus flower to in crease the natural beauty of the Kaustubha pearl on His chest (47-48). The Lord has shoul ders just like a lion’s. Upon these shoulders are garlands, necklaces and epaulets, and all of these are always glittering. Besides these, there is the beauty of the Kaustubha-maṇi pearl, and on the dark chest of the Lord there are streaks named Śrīvatsa, which are signs of the goddess of fortune. The glittering of these streaks excels the beauty of the golden streaks on a gold-test ing stone. Indeed, such beauty defeats a gold testing stone (49).
The Lord’s abdomen is beau tiful due to three ripples in the flesh. Being so round, His abdomen resembles the leaf of a banyan tree, and when He exhales and inhales, the movement of the ripples appears very, very beautiful. The coils within the navel of the Lord are so deep that it appears that the entire uni verse sprouted out of it and yet again wishes to go back (50).The lower part of the Lord’s waist is dark and covered with yellow garments and a belt bedecked with golden embroidery work. His symmetrical lotus feet and the calves, thighs and joints of His legs are extraordinarily beautiful. Indeed, the Lord’s entire body ap pears to be well built (51).
My dear Lord, Your two lotus feet are so beautiful that they appear like two blossoming petals of the lotus flower which grows during the autumn season. Indeed, the nails of Your lotus feet emanate such a great effulgence that they immediately dissipate all the darkness in the heart of a conditioned soul. My dear Lord, kindly show me that form of Yours which always dissipates all kinds of darkness in the heart of a devotee. My dear Lord, You are the supreme spiritual master of everyone; therefore all conditioned souls cov ered with the darkness of ignorance can be en lightened by You as the spiritual master (52). My dear Lord, those who desire to purify their existence must always engage in medita tion upon Your lotus feet, as described above. Those who are serious about executing their oc cupational duties and who want freedom from fear must take to this process of bhakti-yoga (53).
My dear Lord, the king in charge of the heavenly kingdom is also desirous of obtaining the ultimate goal of life devotional service. Similarly, You are the ultimate destination of those who identify themselves with You [ahaṁ brahmāsmi]. However, it is very difficult for them to attain You, whereas a devotee can very easily attain Your Lordship (54).My dear Lord, pure devotional service is even difficult for lib erated persons to discharge, but devotional ser vice alone can satisfy You. Who will take to other processes of self-realization if he is actu ally serious about the perfection of life? (55) Simply by expansion of His eyebrows, invinci ble time personified can immediately vanquish the entire universe. However, formidable time does not approach the devotee who has taken complete shelter at Your lotus feet (56).
If one by chance associates with a devotee, even for a fraction of a moment, he no longer is subject to attraction by the results of karma or Jnana. What interest then can he have in the benedic tions of the demigods, who are subject to the laws of birth and death?(57) My dear Lord, Your lotus feet are the cause of all auspicious things and the destroyer of all the contamina tion of sin. I therefore beg Your Lordship to bless me by the association of Your devotees, who are completely purified by worshiping Your lotus feet and who are so merciful upon the conditioned souls. I think that Your real benediction will be to allow me to associate with such devotees (58).The devotee whose heart has been completely cleansed by the pro cess of devotional service and who is favored by Bhaktidevī does not become bewildered by the external energy, which is just like a dark well. Being completely cleansed of all material contamination in this way, a devotee is able to understand very happily Your name, fame, form, activities, etc (59).
My dear Lord, the im personal Brahman spreads everywhere, like the sunshine or the sky. And that impersonal Brah man, which spreads throughout the universe and in which the entire universe is manifested, is You (60). My dear Lord, You have manifold energies, and these energies are manifested in manifold forms. With such energies You have also cre ated this cosmic manifestation, and although You maintain it as if it were permanent, You ultimately annihilate it. Although You are never disturbed by such changes and altera tions, the living entities are disturbed by them, and therefore they find the cosmic manifesta tion to be different or separated from You. My Lord, You are always independent, and I can clearly see this fact (61).My dear Lord, Your universal form consists of all five elements, the senses, mind, intelligence, false ego (which is material) and the Paramātmā, Your partial ex pansion, who is the director of everything. Yogīs other than the devotees namely the karma-yogī and Jnana-yogī worship You by their respective actions in their respective posi tions. It is stated both in the Vedas and in the śāstras that are corollaries of the Vedas, and in deed everywhere, that it is only You who are to be worshiped. That is the expert version of all the Vedas (62).
My dear Lord, You are the only Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. Before the creation of this material world, Your mate rial energy remains in a dormant condition. When Your material energy is agitated, the three qualities namely goodness, passion and ignorance act, and as a result the total material energy egotism, ether, air, fire, water, earth and all the various demigods and saintly persons becomes manifest. Thus the material world is created (63).My dear Lord, after creating by Your own potencies, You enter within the cre ation in four kinds of forms. Being within the hearts of the living entities, You know them and know how they are enjoying their senses. The so-called happiness of this material crea tion is exactly like the bees’ enjoyment of honey after it has been collected in the honey comb (64).
My dear Lord, Your absolute authority can not be directly experienced, but one can guess by seeing the activities of the world that every thing is being destroyed in due course of time. The force of time is very strong, and everything is being destroyed by something else just as one animal is being eaten by another animal. Time scatters everything, exactly as the wind scatters clouds in the sky (65).My dear Lord, all living entities within this material world are mad after planning for things, and they are al ways busy with a desire to do this or that. This is due to uncontrollable greed. The greed for material enjoyment is always existing in the living entity, but Your Lordship is always alert, and in due course of time You strike him, just as a snake seizes a mouse and very easily swal lows him (66).My dear Lord, any learned per son knows that unless he worships You, his en tire life is spoiled. Knowing this, how could he give up worshiping Your lotus feet? Even our father and spiritual master, Lord Brahmā, un hesitatingly worshiped You, and the fourteen Manus followed in his footsteps (67).
My dear Lord, all actually learned persons know You as the Supreme Brahman and the Supersoul. Alt hough the entire universe is afraid of Lord Ru dra, who ultimately annihilates everything, for the learned devotees You are the fearless desti nation of all (68). My dear sons of the King, just execute your occupational duty as kings with a pure heart. Just chant this prayer fixing your mind on the lotus feet of the Lord. That will bring you all good fortune, for the Lord will be very much pleased with you (69).Therefore, O sons of the King, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is situated in everyone’s heart. He is also within your hearts. Therefore chant the glories of the Lord and always meditate upon Him con tinuously (70). My dear princes, in the form of a prayer I have delineated the yoga system of chanting the holy name. All of you should take this important stotra within your minds and promise to keep it in order to become great sages. By acting silently like a great sage and by giving attention and reverence, you should practice this method (71).
This prayer was first spoken to us by Lord Brahmā, the master of all creators. The creators, headed by Bhṛgu, were instructed in these prayers because they wanted to create (72).When all the Prajāpatis were or dered to create by Lord Brahmā, we chanted these prayers in praise of the Supreme Person ality of Godhead and became completely free from all ignorance. Thus we were able to create different types of living entities (73).A devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa whose mind is always absorbed in Him, who with great attention and reverence chants this stotra [prayer], will achieve the greatest perfection of life without delay (74).In this material world there are different types of achievement, but of all of them the achieve ment of knowledge is considered to be the high est because one can cross the ocean of nesci ence only on the boat of knowledge. Otherwise the ocean is impassable (75).
Although render ing devotional service to the Supreme Person ality of Godhead and worshiping Him are very difficult, if one vibrates or simply reads this stotra [prayer] composed and sung by me, he will very easily be able to invoke the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (76).The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the dear most objective of all auspicious benedictions. A human being who sings this song sung by me can please the Supreme Personality of God head. Such a devotee, being fixed in the Lord’s devotional service, can acquire whatever he wants from the Supreme Lord (77).A devotee who rises early in the morning and with folded hands chants these prayers sung by Lord Śiva, and gives facility to others to hear them, cer tainly becomes free from all bondage to fruitive activities (78).My dear sons of the King, the prayers I have recited to you are meant for pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul. I advise you to recite these pray ers, which are as effective as great austerities. In this way, when you are mature, your life will be successful, and you will certainly achieve all your desired objectives without fail (79).
Deepen your Bhakti-yoga practice, harmonize relationships, and receive guided coaching — all at Vedavarsity.com
