SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM: CANTO 2

(-) My obeisances unto the Supreme Lord Vâsudeva. (1) S'rî S'uka said: 'This inquiry of yours for the good of all is the best thing you can do, because this subject of study o King, carries the approval of the transcendentalists and constitutes the supreme of all that is worth the attention. (2) There are countless of subject matters to hear about in human society, o Emperor, that are the interest of those materially engrossed who are blind to the reality of the soul. (3) They spend their lives with sleeping and having sex during the night and with making money and taking care of their family during the day, o King.(4) All too attached to the fallible allies of the body, the children, the wife and everything thereto, do they despite of their experience, not see the finality of these matters. (5) For this reason, o descendant of Bharata, must He be discussed, glorified and remembered who is the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality, who as the controller and vanquishing Lord frees the ones of desire from their anxieties. (6) All this analyzing in the knowledge of yoga of one's particular nature and on how a person after being born should attain to the full awareness of the Supreme, in the end only concerns the remembrance of Nârâyana [Krishna as the Supreme Personality]. (7) It are generally those sages who went beyond the sphere of prescriptions and restrictions o King, that are the ones who take pleasure in especially describing the glories of the Lord.

(8) This story called the Bhâgavatam contains the essence of the Vedas and was by me, at the end of this Dvâpara-yuga [the age of honoring monarchs], studied under the guidance of my father Dvaipâyana Vyâsa.. (9) Fully realized as I was in transcendence was my attention drawn towards the enlightened verses on the [Lord His] pastimes o saintly King, and so I studied the narration. (10) I will recite it to you, because you, o goodness, are a most sincere devotee. They who give full respect and attention will very soon realize an unflinching faith in Mukunda [Krishna as the Lord granting liberation]. (11) For as well those who are free from material desires as for those who are desirous as also for all who being free from fear and doubts are united within [the yogis] o King, is the, according the tradition, repeated singing of the Lord His holy name the approved method. (12) What use is it to spend as an ignoramus one's years in this world without having [this] experience? Better is the hour that one deliberatey spends in service of the higher cause. (13) The saintly king known as Khatvânga, when he knew that he had but a moment to live longer in this world, set aside everything and experienced the full security of the Lord. (14) O member of the Kuru-family, therefore should also your life's duration that is limited to seven days, inspire you to perform everything that traditionally belongs to the rituals for a next life. (15) Seeing the end of one's life one should be free from the fear of death in cutting, by means of the weapon of non-attachment, with all desires, as well as with everybody associated with them. (16) Piously self-controlled having left one's home for a sacred place, one should, properly cleansed and purified, seat oneself poised, in solitude according the regulations. (17) The mind should be set to the practice of the three transcendental letters [A-U-M], and thus one attains, without forgetting the seed of the absolute [Brahman, the impersonal spirit], to the control of the Supreme by regulating the breath. (18) For the sake of the virtue, being fixed in meditation, withdraw the mind from the senses their engagement, for, being absorbed in fruitive labor, the intelligence tends to be driven by the mind. (19) Concentrating, without losing sight of the complete, the mind thereafter on the different parts and divisions [of the body as also of the logic], one should consequently not think of anything but the feet of that Supreme Vishnu, the reconciler of the mind. (20) By the passion and inertia of nature the mind is always agitated and bewildered, but one will find that rectified in the concentration of the pacified that destroys all the wrong done. (21) Being fixed in the habit of such systematic remembrance the mystics holding on to this devotion will soon attain to success in the shelter of the yoga that sees this as all-good.

(22) The king, attentive to what was said, asked: 'O brahmin, what is in short the idea of where and how a person must engage in or hold on to, to escape without delay from a polluted mind?'

(23) S'rî S'uka said: 'From the controlled sitting and breathing, one's association to the senses about the gross matter of the Supreme Lord His features, must engage the thinking intelligently.

(24) His individual body is this gross material world wherein we experience all past, the present and future of this universe its existence. (25) This outer shell of the universe known as a body with seven coverings [fire, water, earth, sky, ego, noumenon and phenomenon, see also kos'as], is the conception of the object of the Universal Form of the purusha as the Supreme Lord. (26) The lower worlds are recognized by the ones who studied it as the soles of His feet [called Pâtâla] to which His heels and toes are called Rasâtala, His ankles Mahâtala while the shanks of the gigantic person are called the Talâtala worlds. (27) The two knees of the Universal Form are called Sutala, the thighs Vitala and Atala and the hips are named Mahîtala, o King, while outer space is taken to be the depression of His navel. (28) The higher illumined worlds are of His chest, with above it the neck called Mahar, His mouth called Jana while Tapas is the name of the worlds of the forehead with Satyaloka [the world of Truth] as the uppermost of the [middle] worlds of the Original Personality who has a thousand heads. (29) The gods headed by Indra are His arms, the four directions are His ears and sound is His sense of hearing. The nostrils of the Supreme are the As'vinî-Kumâras [a type of demigods], while fragrance is His sense of smell and His mouth the blazing fire. (30) The sphere of outer space are the pits of His eyes, while the eyeball of the sun is making up His seeing. The eyelids of Vishnu are the day and night, the movements of His eyebrows are the supreme entity [Brahmâ and other demigods], His palate is the director of water [Varuna] and His tongue is verily the nectarine juice. (31) They say that the vedic hymns are the thought process of the Unlimited One, that His jaws make up Yamarâja [the Lord of death], His teeth are His affection and that His smile is the most alluring unsurpassable material energy [mâyâ]; the material creation is but the casting of His glance. (32) Modesty is His upper lip, His chin for sure the hankering, religion is His breast, and the way of irreligion His back. Brahmâ is His genitals, His testicles are the Mitrâ-varunas [the friends], His waist the oceans and the stack of His bones are the mountains. (33) His veins are the rivers and the plants and trees are the hairs on the body of the Universal Form, o King. The air is His omnipotent breathing, the passing ages are His movement and the reactions of the modes of material nature are His activities. (34) Let me tell you that the hairs on the head of the Supreme Controller are the clouds, o best of the Kurus, and that the intelligence of the Almighty is the prime cause of the material creation, so one says. His mind, the reservoir of all changes, is known as the moon. (35) The material principle constitutes His consciousness, so one says, while Lord S'iva is the cause within (His ego, His self). The horse, mule, camel and elephant are His nails, and all other game and quadrupeds are represented in the region of His belt. (36) The singing of the birds is His artistic sense and Manu, the father of man forms the contents of His thought with humanity as His residence. The angelic and celestial beings [the Gandharvas, Vidyâdharas and Caranas] constitute His musical rhythm while the remembrance of terrorizing soldiers represents His prowess. (37) With the intellectuals [brahmins] for the face and the rulers [kshatriyas] for the grip of the Universal Form, are the traders [vais'yas] the thighs and the laborers [s'ûdras, the dark or 'krishna'-class] those who are protected by His feet. Through the various names of the demigods He overtakes with the provision of feasible goods [that appease Him] through the performance of sacrifices.

(38) I explained all these locations in the Form of the Supreme Lord to you so that anyone who may concentrate the mind on this virâth-rûpa Universal Form can attain through intelligence, as beyond Him as such there is nothing else to be found in the gross of matter. (39) He who from all realization knows everyone as the Supersoul as much as a dreamer sees it, is the one and only Supreme Truth and ocean of bliss. Towards Him one should never worship anything else or else see oneself degraded by attachments.'