Source
Texts:
Akrûra's
Prayers
Text
1
S'rî
Akrûra said: 'I
bow down to You, o Cause of All Causes, Lord
Nârâyana, o Original Inexhaustible Person from
whose navel generated the lotus on the whorl of which Lord
Brahmâ appeared from whom came about this
world.
S'rî
Akrûra said: I bow down to You, the cause of all
causes, the original and inexhaustible Supreme Person,
Nârâyana. From the whorl of the lotus born from
Your navel, Brahmâ appeared, and by his agency this
universe has come into being.
Text
2
Earth,
water, fire, air, ether and where that is from [the false
ego]; the mystifying totality of matter [see
footnote
10.13: ***]
and her origin [the spirit], the mind, the senses, the
objects of all the senses and the demigods are all the
[separate secondary] causes of the universe that have
generated from Your [transcendental]
body.
Earth;
water; fire; air; ether and its source, false ego; the
mahat-tattva, the total material nature and her source, the
Supreme Lord's purusha expansion; the mind; the senses; the
sense objects; and the senses' presiding deities - all these
causes of the cosmic manifestation are born from Your
transcendental body.
Text
3
They,
under the direction of the material realm, do because of its
inertia not know the true identity of the Supreme Self, the
Soul of You indeed; the unborn one [Brahmâ]
seized by the modes of material nature is bound to follow them;
he does not know Your true form superior to the modes [see
also 10.13:
40-56].
The
total material nature and these other elements of creation
certainly cannot know You as You are, for they are
manifested in the realm of dull matter. Since You are beyond
the modes of nature, even Lord Brahma, who is bound up in
these modes, does not know Your true identity.
Text
4
It
is certainly for You, the Supreme Personality and Controller
with oneself, with others, with the greater of nature and with
the saints, that the yogîs perform
sacrifice.
Pure
yogîs worship You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
by conceiving of You in the threefold form comprising the
living entities, the material elements that constitute the
living entities' bodies, and the controlling deities of
those elements.
Text
5
Some
brahmins in respect of the three sacred
[agni-traya]
fires worship You by means of the mantras and the three Vedas
elaborately with various rituals for demigods of different
names and forms.
Brâhmanas
who follow the regulations concerning the three sacred fires
worship You by chanting mantras from the three Vedas and
performing elaborate fire sacrifices for the various
demigods, who have many forms and names.
Text
6
Some
in the pursuance of knowledge in resignation of all fruitive
actions attain peace by the sacrifice of cultivating knowledge
in worship of the embodiment of knowledge [the guru, the
Lord; see e.g. B.G. 4:
28;
17:
11-13;
18:
70].
In
pursuit of spiritual knowledge, some persons renounce all
material activities and, having thus become peaceful,
perform the sacrifice of philosophic investigation to
worship You, the original form of all knowledge.
Text
7
And
others, whose intelligence is purified through the principles
[the vidhi]
that You offer, worship You filled with thoughts about You as
the one form that has many forms.
And
yet others - those whose intelligence is pure - follow the
injunctions of Vaishnava scriptures promulgated by You.
Absorbing their minds in thought of You, they worship You as
the one Supreme Lord manifesting in multiple forms.
Text
8
Yet
others worship also You, the Supreme Lord, by following the
different presentations of many teachers to the form of S'iva
in treading the path layed out by Lord S'iva.
There
are still others, who worship You, the Supreme Lord, in the
form of Lord S'iva. They follow the path described by him
and interpreted in various ways by many teachers.
Text
9
They
all, even though they as devotees of other divinities have
their attention elsewhere, do worship You who as the Controller
comprises all the gods
[see B.G. 9:
23].
But
all these people, my Lord, even those who have turned their
attention away from You and are worshiping other deities,
are actually worshiping You alone, O embodiment of all the
demigods.
Text
10
Like the rivers
that filled by the rain springing from the mountains from all
sides enter the ocean, o master, do similarly all these paths
[of the demigods] finally lead to You [see B.G.
2:
70;
9:
23-25,
10:
24 and
11:
28]
As
rivers born from the mountains and filled by the rain flow
from all sides into the sea, so do all these paths in the
end reach You, O master.
Text
11
All the
conditioned living beings from the immobile up to Lord
Brahmâ are in this entangled in the qualities
[gunas] of goodness [sattva],
passion [rajas] and slowness
[tamas] of Your material nature [see B.G.
ch
14].
Goodness,
passion and ignorance, the qualities of Your material
nature, entangle all conditioned living beings, from
Brahmâ down to the nonmoving creatures.
Text
12
My obeisances
to You, aloof in Your vision, who as the consciousness and Soul
of everyone and as the Witness to the flow of the material
modes as constituted by your lower energy, makes Your way among
those presenting themselves as gods, humans and
animals.
I
offer My obeisances to You, who as the Supreme Soul of all
beings witness everyone's consciousness with unbiased
vision. The current of Your material modes, produced by the
force of ignorance, flows strongly among the living beings
who assume identities as demigods, humans and
animals.
Text
13-14:
One
thinks of fire as Your face, earth as Your feet, the sun as
Your eye, the sky as Your navel and the directions as Your
sense of hearing; heaven is Your head, the ruling demigods are
Your arms, the ocean is your abdomen and the wind Your vital
air and physical strength. The trees and the plants are the
hairs on Your body, the clouds are the hair on Your head, the
mountains are the bones and nails of the Supreme of You, day
and night are the blinking of Your eye, the founding father is
Your genitals and the rain is considered Your semen [see
e,g, also 2.6:
1-11].
Fire
is said to be Your face, the earth Your feet, the sun Your
eye, and the sky Your navel. The directions are Your sense
of hearing, the chief demigods Your arms, and the oceans
Your abdomen. Heaven is thought to be Your head, and the
wind Your vital air and physical strength. The trees and
plants are the hairs on Your body, the clouds the hair on
Your head, and the mountains the bones and nails of You, the
Supreme. The passage of day and night is the blinking of
Your eyes, the progenitor of mankind Your genitals, and the
rain Your semen.
Text
15
Within You,
their Inexhaustible One Personality comprising all mind and
senses, originated together with their rulers the worlds
including the many souls that crowd them just like the aquatics
that move about in the water or the small insects in an
udumbara fig.
All
the worlds, with their presiding demigods and teeming
populations, originate in You, the inexhaustible Supreme
Personality of Godhead. These worlds travel within You, the
basis of the mind and senses, just as aquatics swim in the
sea or tiny insects burrow within an udumbara fruit.
Text
16
For the sake of
Your pastimes in this world You manifest various forms by whom
the people, cleansed with them of their unhappiness, full of
joy sing Your glories.
To
enjoy Your pastimes You manifest Yourself in various forms
in this material world, and these incarnations cleanse away
all the unhappiness of those who joyfully chant Your
glories.
Text
17-18
My respects to
You the Original Cause who in the form of Matsya [the fish,
see 8.24]
moved about in the ocean of dissolution and to Hayagrîva
[the horsehead, see 5.18:
6]; my
obeisances to You, the slayer of Madhu and Kaithaba; to the
huge master tortoise [Kûrma, see 8.7
& 8]
who held the mountain Mandara my reverence and all hail to You
in the form of the boar [Varâha, see
3.13]
whose pleasure it was to lift up the earth from the
ocean.
I
offer my obeisances to You, the cause of the creation, Lord
Matsya, who swam about in the ocean of dissolution, to Lord
Hayagrîva, the killer of Madhu and Kaithabha, to the
immense tortoise [Lord Kûrma], who supported
Mandara Mountain, and to the boar incarnation [Lord
Varâha], who enjoyed lifting the earth. absorbed
in Acyuta.
Text
19
Obeisances to
You the amazing lion [Nrsimha, see 7.8
& 9] ,
o Remover of the fear of the saintly wherever they are and to
You who as the dwarf [Vâmana, see
8.18-21]
stepped over the three worlds.
Obeisances
to You, the amazing lion [Lord Nrisimha], who remove
Your saintly devotees' fear, and to the dwarf Vâmana,
who stepped over the three worlds.
Text
20
All honor to
You, the Lord of the descendants of Bhrigu
[Paras'urâma, see 9.15
& 16]
who cut down the forest of conceited nobles and my obesicances
to You the best of the Raghu-dynasty [Lord Râma, see
9.10
& 11]
who has put an end to Râvana.
Obeisances
to You, Lord of the Bhrigus, who cut down the forest of the
conceited royal order, and to Lord Râma, the best of
the Raghu dynasty, who put an end to the demon
Râvana.
Text
21
My obeisances
to You Lord Vâsudeva, my obeisances to the Lord of the
Sâtvatas
and to Lord Sankarshana [His in ego],
Pradyumna
[His in intelligence] and Aniruddha
[His in mind, see further 4.24:
35 &36].
Obeisances
to You, Lord of the Sâtvatas, and to Your forms of
Vâsudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha.
Text
22
My obeisances
to Lord Buddha [He as the awakened], the Pure One, the
bewilderer of the demoniac descendants of Diti and Dânu
and my respects for You in the form of Lord Kalki [the Lord
to come 'for the foul'] the annihilator of the offensive
meat-eaters [mlecchas] posing for kings [see
also 2.7]
Obeisances
to Your form as the faultless Lord Buddha, who will bewilder
the Daityas and Dânavas, and to Lord Kalki, the
annihilator of the meat-eaters posing as kings.
.
Text
23
O Supreme Lord,
the individual souls in this world are bewildered by Your
deluding material energy [mâyâ] and
are to the false conceptions of 'I' and 'mine'
[asmitâ] made to wander along the paths
of fruitive activities [karma].
O
Supreme Lord, the living entities in this world are
bewildered by Your illusory energy. Becoming involved in the
false concepts of "I" and "my," they are forced to wander
along the paths of fruitive work.
Text
24
Also I am,
concerning my body, children, home, wife, wealth, followers and
so on, deluded in foolishly thinking that they, being more like
a dream, would be true, o Mighty One.
I
too am deluded in this way, O almighty Lord, foolishly
thinking my body, children, home, wife, money and followers
to be real, though they are actually as unreal as a
dream.
Text
25
Taking pleasure
in the temporal that is not the real self and in [things
that are factually] sources of misery have I with a mind of
thinking to the contrary lusted in duality and have I, absorbed
in ignorance, failed to recognize You as the One most dear to
me.
Thus
mistaking the temporary for the eternal, my body for my
self, and sources of misery for sources of happiness, I have
tried to take pleasure in material dualities. Covered in
this way by ignorance, I could not recognize You as the real
object of my love.
Text
26
Like a fool
overlooking water covered by the plants growing in it and like
someone running after a mirage, have I the same way turned away
from You.
Just
as a fool overlooks a body of water covered by the
vegetation growing in it and chases a mirage, so I have
turned away from You.
Text
27
I,
with a of desires and profitminded labor pitiable intelligence,
couldn't find the strength to check my disturbed mind that by
the so very powerful, willfull senses was dragged from here to
there [see B.G. B.G.
13: 1-4,
picture
& 5.11: 10].
My
intelligence is so crippled that I cannot find the strength
to curb my mind, which is disturbed by material desires and
activities and constantly dragged here and there by my
obstinate senses.
Text
28
Being so am I
approaching Your feet that - as also is the case with Your
mercy - are impossible to attain for the ones impure, o Lord.
And to that I keep in mind that, when it of a person happens
that his wandering in the material word comes to a stop, the
[stable] consciousness will develop by worship of the
true [the devotees, association, teachers, scriptures and
natural time] of You, whose navel is like a
lotus.
Being
thus fallen, I am approaching Your feet for shelter, O Lord,
because although the impure can never attain Your feet, I
think it is nevertheless possible by Your mercy. Only when
one's material life has ceased, O lotus- naveled Lord, can
one develop consciousness of You by serving Your pure
devotees.
Text
29
My obeisances
to the Embodiment of Wisdom, the Source of All Forms of
Knowledge, to Him. the Absolute Truth of unlimited potencies,
who predominates over the forces that control the
person.
Obeisances
to the Supreme Absolute Truth, the possessor of unlimited
energies. He is the embodiment of pure, transcendental
knowledge, the source of all kinds of awareness, and the
predominator of the forces of nature that rule over the
living being.
Text
30
My reverence
for You the son of Vasudeva, in whom all living beings reside
and my homage o Lord of the Senses to You; please protect me, o
Master, in my being surrendered.
O
son of Vasudeva, obeisances to You, within whom all living
beings reside. O Lord of the mind and senses, again I offer
You my obeisances. O master, please protect me, who am
surrendered unto You.
