SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM: CANTO 2

Sûta said: "Just having realized what S'ukadeva Gosvâmî thus spoke about the verification of the reality of the soul, the chaste son of Uttarâ [Parîkchit] concentrated himself upon Lord Krishna.

Sûta Gosvâmî said: Mahârâja Parîkshit, the son of Uttarâ, after hearing the speeches of S'ukadeva Gosvâmî, which were all about the truth of the self, applied his concentration faithfully upon Lord Krishna. (Vedabase)

Text 2

In order not to be constantly disturbed, he gave up his deep-rooted affinity with his body, his wife, his son, his treasury and all his relatives and friends in the kingdom.

Mahârâja Parîkshit, as a result of his wholehearted attraction for Lord Krishna, was able to give up all deep-rooted affection for his personal body, his wife, his children, his palace, his animals like horses and elephants, his treasury house, his friends and relatives, and his undisputed kingdom. (Vedabase)

Text 3-4:

The great soul in full faith inquired for the purpose of this exactly the way you are asking me, o great sages. Being informed of his death he renounced his fruitive activity according the three principles [of self-realization: renouncing religious acts, economic development and sense gratification] and everything thereto and thus firmly fixed he achieved the attraction of love for the Supreme Lord Vâsudeva.

O great sages, the great soul Mahârâja Parîkshit, constantly rapt in thought of Lord Krishna, knowing well of his imminent death, renounced all sorts of fruitive activities, namely acts of religion, economic development and sense gratification, and thus fixed himself firmly in his natural love for Krishna and asked all these questions, exactly as you are asking me. (Vedabase)

Text 5

The king said: 'What you said is perfectly right, o learned one; being without contaminations you know it all and make the darkness of ignorance gradually disappear as you are speaking on the topics concerning the Lord.

Mahârâja Parîkshit said: O learned brâhmana, you know everything because you are without material contamination. Therefore whatever you have spoken to me appears perfectly right. Your speeches are gradually destroying the darkness of my ignorance, for you are narrating the topics of the Lord. (Vedabase)

Text 6

Furthermore, I would like to learn how the Supreme Lord by His personal energies creates this phenomenal world of the universe so inconceivable for even the great masters of meditation.

I beg to know from you how the Personality of Godhead, by His personal energies, creates these phenomenal universes as they are, which are inconceivable even to the great demigods. (Vedabase)

Text 7

And please tell me also about the way the powerful one maintains His energies and winds them up again, as the all-powerful Supreme Personality arriving at His expansions, involving them as also being involved Himself, enacting them and causing them to act.

Kindly describe how the Supreme Lord, who is all-powerful, engages His different energies and different expansions in maintaining and again winding up the phenomenal world in the sporting spirit of a player. (Vedabase)

Text 8

Even the highly learned in spite of their endeavors for Him, fall short, dear brahmin, in explaining the wonderful, inconceivable acts of the Supreme Lord.

O learned brâhmana, the transcendental activities of the Lord are all wonderful, and they appear inconceivable because even great endeavors by many learned scholars have still proved insufficient for understanding them. (Vedabase)

Text 9

Even though He acts through His different incarnations is He the One and Supreme, whether He acts by the modes, is there simultaneously in the material energy or is manifesting in many forms consecutively.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is one, whether He alone acts with the modes of material nature, or simultaneously expands in many forms, or expands consecutively to direct the modes of nature. (Vedabase)

Text 10

Please clear up these questions asked by me; since you, being as good as the Supreme Lord, are as well of the oral tradition with the vedic literatures as of full realization in transcendence'."

Kindly clear up all these doubtful inquiries, because you are not only vastly learned in the Vedic literatures and self-realized in transcendence, but are also a great devotee of the Lord and are therefore as good as the Personality of Godhead. (Vedabase)

Text 11

Sûta said: "Upon thus being requested by the king to describe the transcendental attributes of Lord Hrishîkes'a [Krishna as the master of the senses] S'uka, in order to reply properly, proceeded methodically.

Sûta Gosvâmî said: When S'ukadeva Gosvâmî was thus requested by the King to describe the creative energy of the Personality of Godhead, he then systematically remembered the master of the senses [S'rî Krishna], and to reply properly he spoke thus. (Vedabase)

Text 12

S'rî S'uka said: 'My obeisances to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who for the maintenance as well as the winding up of the complete whole of the material creation, by His pastimes assumed the power of the three modes while residing within as the One whose ways are inconceivable.

S'ukadeva Gosvâmî said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead who, for the creation of the material world, accepts the three modes of nature. He is the complete whole residing within the body of everyone, and His ways are inconceivable. (Vedabase)

Text 13

Again my obeisances to Him who frees the truthful from the distressing controversies of the ones of untruth and again unto Him who is the form of pure goodness, granting all that is sought by those situated in the status of the highest stage of spiritual perfection [the paramahamsas].

I again offer my respectful obeisances unto the form of complete existence and transcendence, who is the liberator of the pious devotees from all distresses and the destroyer of the further advances in atheistic temperament of the nondevotee-demons. For the transcendentalists who are situated in the topmost spiritual perfection, He grants their specific destinations. (Vedabase)

Text 14

Let me offer my obeisances unto the great associate of the Yadu-dynasty who, keeping far from mundane wrangling, vanquishes the nondevotees. I bow down to Him who is of the same greatness of enjoying in opulences as in enjoying in His own abode the spiritual sky.

Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto He who is the associate of the members of the Yadu dynasty and who is always a problem for the nondevotees. He is the supreme enjoyer of both the material and spiritual worlds, yet He enjoys His own abode in the spiritual sky. There is no one equal to Him because His transcendental opulence is immeasurable. (Vedabase)

Text 15

Of Him whose glorification, remembrance, audience, prayers, hearing and worship forthwith cleanses the effects of sin of all people; unto Him of whom one hears as being the all-auspicious one, I bring my due obeisances again and again.

Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-auspicious Lord S'rî Krishna, about whom glorification, remembrances, audience, prayers, hearing and worship can at once cleanse the effects of all sins of the performer. (V e dabase)

Text 16

The bright ones who by simply dedicating themselves to His lotus feet give up all attachments for a present or future existence completely, for sure realize without difficulty the progress of the heart and the soul towards the spiritual existence; unto that renown all-auspicious One my obeisances again and again.

Let me offer my respectful obeisances again and again unto the all-auspicious Lord S'rî Krishna. The highly intellectual, simply by surrendering unto His lotus feet, are relieved of all attachments to present and future existences and without difficulty progress toward spiritual existence. (Vedabase)

Text 17

The great sages, the great performers of charity, the most distinguished, the great thinkers, the great mantra chanters and the strict followers will never attain to tangible results without being dedicated to Him, unto Him so auspicious to hear about I offer my obeisances again and again.

Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-auspicious Lord S'rî Krishna again and again because the great learned sages, the great performers of charity, the great workers of distinction, the great philosophers and mystics, the great chanters of the Vedic hymns and the great followers of Vedic principles cannot achieve any fruitful result without dedication of such great qualities to the service of the Lord. (Vedabase)

Text 18:

The People of old Bharata [India], Europe, southern India, Greece, Pulkas'a [a province], Âbhîra [part of old Sind], S'umbha [another province], Turkey, Mongolia and yet others also addicted to sin who take to the shelter of the Lord His devotees at once get purified; towards Him, the powerful Lord Vishnu, my respectful obeisances.

Kirâta, Hûna, Ândhra, Pulinda, Pulkas'a, Âbhîra, S'umbha, Yavana, members of the Khasa races and even others addicted to sinful acts can be purified by taking shelter of the devotees of the Lord, due to His being the supreme power. I beg to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him. (Vedabase)

Text 19:

He is the soul and Lord of the selfrealized; the personification of the Vedas, the religious literatures and austerity; the one held in awe by the Unborn One [Brahmâ], Lord S'iva and those above all pretensions; o Supreme Lord, may Your kindness be with me.

He is the Supersoul and the Supreme Lord of all self-realized souls. He is the personification of the Vedas, religious scriptures and austerities. He is worshiped by Lord Brahmâ and S'iva and all those who are transcendental to all pretensions. Being so revered with awe and veneration, may that Supreme Absolute be pleased with me. (Vedabase)

Text 20:

Of all opulence the owner, the director of all sacrifices, the leader of all living entities, the master of the intelligent, the ruler of all worlds, the supreme head of the planet Earth as well as the destination of the kings of the Yadu-dynasty in being the first among them; o Supreme Lord, master of all the devotees, be merciful upon me.

May Lord S'rî Krishna, who is the worshipable Lord of all devotees, the protector and glory of all the kings like Andhaka and Vrishni of the Yadu dynasty, the husband of all goddesses of fortune, the director of all sacrifices and therefore the leader of all living entities, the controller of all intelligence, the proprietor of all planets, spiritual and material, and the supreme incarnation on the earth. (the supreme all in all), be merciful upon me. (Vedabase)

Text 21:

It is said that thinking of His lotus feet, at each moment absorbed, gives, purifying, following the authorities, for sure the pure knowledge of the ultimate reality of the soul and also that it makes the scholars describe Him the way they want; O Mukunda, my Supreme Lord, may Your grace always be with me.

It is the Personality of Godhead S'rî Krishna who gives liberation. By thinking of His lotus feet at every second, following in the footsteps of authorities, the devotee in trance can see the Absolute Truth. The learned mental speculators, however, think of Him according to their whims. May the Lord be pleased with me. (Vedabase)

Text 22:

May He who inspired the Goddess of Learning from the beginning and strengthened the first of creation [Lord Brahmâ] with remembrance in the heart about his own nature, while He himself seemed to have been created from his mouth - may He, the Teacher of Teachers, be pleased with me.

May the Lord, who in the beginning of the creation amplified the potent knowledge of Brahmâ from within his heart and inspired him with full knowledge of creation and of His own Self, and who appeared to be generated from the mouth of Brahmâ, be pleased with me. (Vedabase)

Text 23:

He who lies down within the material creation empowering all these bodies made of the material elements while as the purusha causing all to be subjected to the modes of nature with her sixteen divisions [consciousness, the elements of earth, water, fire, air, sky, the five organs of action and the senses]; may that Supreme Lord be the illustration of my statements

May the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who enlivens the materially created bodies of the elements by lying down within the universe, and who in His purusha incarnation causes the living being to be subjected to the sixteen divisions of material modes which are his generator, be pleased to decorate my statements. (Vedabase)

Text 24:

My obeisances unto Him, the great lord of Vâsudeva [Vyâsadeva incarnate], the compiler of the vedic literatures, from whose lotus mouth his adherents drank the nectar of this knowledge.

I offer my respectful obeisances unto S'rîla Vyâsadeva, the incarnation of Vâsudeva who compiled the Vedic scriptures. The pure devotees drink up the nectarean transcendental knowledge dropping from the lotuslike mouth of the Lord. (Vedabase)

Text 25:

The first one [Vyâsadeva; Brahmâ], my dear king, imparted to his son from his birth on, on the request of Nârada the vedic knowledge exactly as it was spoken by the Lord in the heart.

My dear King, Brahmâ, the firstborn, on being questioned by Nârada, exactly apprised him on this subject, as it was directly spoken by the Lord to His own son, who was impregnated with Vedic knowledge from his very birth. (Vedabase)