The Bhagavata Purana

by G. V. Tagare | 1950 | 780,972 words | ISBN-10: 8120838203 | ISBN-13: 9788120838208

This page describes Description of the Virat Purusha—Exposition of the Purusha Sukta which is chapter 6 of the English translation of the Bhagavata Purana, one of the eighteen major puranas containing roughly 18,000 metrical verses. Topics include ancient Indian history, religion, philosophy, geography, mythology, etc. The text has been interpreted by various schools of philosophy. This is the sixth chapter of the Second Skandha of the Bhagavatapurana.

Chapter 6 - Description of the Virāṭ Puruṣa—Exposition of the Puruṣa Sūkta

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

[Note: This chapter presents the epic concept of the Cosmic Man which was first elaborated in Ṛg Veda Saṃhitā. 10-90 (the Puruṣa-Sūkta). This is not exactly a commentary on the Puruṣa-Sūkta but it is an elaboration of the Vedic concept of the Cosmic Man. Naturally, as pointed out by B. Bhattacarya in the Philosophy of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavaīa, Vol. 1, 130-38, 305-306 etc., this epic concept is philosophically much more advanced than the Vedic concept.]

1. The mouth of the Cosmic Man (Virāṭ Puruṣa) is the place, i. e. the source of the speech organs and its presiding deity the Fire. The seven essential ingredients (dhātu) such as saliva, blood, flesh, fat, bones and others of his body are the bases of the seven Vedic metres, (viz., Gāyatrī, Uṣṇik, Anuṣṭubh, Bṛhatī, Paṅkti, Triṣṭubh and Jagatī). His tongue is the source of food, viz., Havya (the food oblated to gods), Kavya (the food given to the manes—Pitṛs), Amṛta (the food remaining after having offered to gods and manes), and all flavours (viz. sweet, sour, pungent, bitter, saline and astringent)—and Varuṇa, their presiding deity.

2. His nostrils are the best places or abodes of all vital airs and of (their presiding deity) Vāyu. His organ of smell is the abode of the two Aśvini-kumāras (the physicians of gods), medicinal herbs and plants, general and special smells.

3. His cognitive sense of sight is the source of forms, colours and lights manifesting them, while the sky and the sun are produced in the pupils of his eyes. His ears are the bases of directions and holy places, while his sense of hearing is the source of the ether (the sky) and (its guṇa) sound (śabda).

4. His body is the base of the essences of all things and their beauty. His skin or organ of touch is the source of touch, Vāyu and all kinds of sacrifices.

5. His hair (on the body) are at the root of all the trees, herbs and plants, supplying the material for sacrifices, while his hair, beard and nails produce rocks, iron, clouds and lightning.

6. His arms are the support of the presiding deities of the cardinal points whose duty is to protect the world. His paces—footsteps—are the support of the three worldsBhūr, Bhuvaḥ, Svar and of security (protection of the possession) and refuge (protection from danger).

7-8. The feet of Hari are the abode of the seekers of all desired objects. His penis is the source of waters, seminal fluid, creation, rain and Prajāpati. His organ of generation is the source of the gratification (satisfaction) culminating in the joy of the offspring. His anus is the base of Yama, of Mitra (the Sun) and the act of discharging (the faeces), oh Nārada.

9. His rectum is stated to be the source of violence or harm, goddess of misfortune (Alakṣmī), of death and hell. His back-side is the source of defeat, irreligion and Tamas (ignorance).

10-11. His arteries and veins (blood vessels) are the source of rivers, big and small. And his skeleton of bones, that of mountains and hills. His belly is known to be the source or place of the unmanifested primordial matter (pradhāna), the essence in food, oceans and the destruction of all beings. His heart is the source of the mind, i. e. of the subtle body (Liṅga Śarīra). The ātman, i.e. citta (reason) of the Supreme Man is the ultimate source of religion, of myself, of yourself, of the four boy-(celibate) sages (Sanaka, Sanandana etc.), Śiva, of knowledge and of Sattva (the quality of goodness).

12-17.[1] Myself, yourself, Rudra, the elders (Sanaka, Sanandana etc.) and sages (e.g. Marīci and others), Gods, demons, men, Nāgas (elephants), birds, deer and reptiles, demigods like Gandharvas, Yakṣas, Apsaras (celestial damsels), Rākṣasas, goblins, serpents, beasts, manes (Pitṛs), Siddhas, Vidyādharas, Cāraṇas and trees and other various kinds of beings living in water, on land and in the air, planets, stars, comets, lightning and thundering, clouds—all are nothing but the manifestation of this Supreme Man. The universe of the past, present and future has been enveloped (encompassed) by him, and he still stands in the span-ful portion in the heart, Just as Prāṇa, i. e. Āditya, the Sun-god, illuminates his own sphere as well as outside (the world beyond it.) so the Supreme Man enlightens (the inside and outside of) the universe (the Virāṭ Śarīra). He is the ruler of Lord of mokṣa—liberation or immortality which is free from fear, and hence he renounced (i.e. he is above) the mortal (and hence momentary) enjoyment of the fruits of action. He is not only within all but is a lord of immortality and his own bliss.

18-19.[1] Oh Brahman! The greatness and power of the Cosmic Man are boundless. They (the knowers) understand that all beings are abiding in the three worlds—Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svar—which are the feet, i.e. the feet-like aṃśas of the Cosmic Man who is (hence called) sthiti-pād. He has placed amṛta (deathlessness), kṣema (absence of troubles) and abhaya[2] (state of freedom from fear, mokṣa) respectively in the three worlds, viz. Jana, Tapas and Satya which are situated above the Maharloka. The three āśramas (states of life; which do not procreate children, i.e. Brahmacarya, Vānaprastha and Sannyāsa are his three feet which are outside the three worlds (viz. Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svar), while the other state of life, viz. that of householders who do not observe strict celebacy are within the three worlds (viz. Bhūḥ, etc.).

20. The Supreme Man as kṣetrajña (individual Soul) crossed both the paths, viz. the one characterised by aviḍyā or ignorance and karma leading to worldly enjoyments, and the other, by vidyā or knowledge and its means, viz., upāsanā (religious meditation). But the Cosmic Man is the support of both the paths.

21.[3] God is transcendental to the matter from which the Cosmic egg (Brahmāṇḍa) and the Virāṭ consisting of bhūtas (gross elements like the earth etc. or created beings), indriyas (sense organs) and guṇas (objects of sense organs) are born, just as the Sun, which warms and illumines the universe, is distinct from it.

22. When I was born out of the lotus in the navel of this Supreme Man, I did not know the materials needed for performing the sacrifices except the limbs of this Man.

23-26. These materials for the sacrifice were collected by me as they were procured from his limbs: sacrificial animals along with the trees required for sacrificial posts, the kuśa grass, specific piece of land for sacrifice, the most auspicious time (e.g. the Spring), things (utensils, spoons, etc. required for sacrifice), herbs and other vegetable products (e.g. rice), ghee, honey and other sweet liquids, metals such as gold etc., (different kinds of) earths, water, the texts of the Ṛgveda, the Yajurveda and the Sāmaveda, Vedic ceremony called cāturhotra, names of sacrifices like the Jyotiṣṭoma, the Mantras from Ṛgveda etc. (followed by svāhā), dakṣiṇā (gifts to Brāhmaṇas at the end of sacrifice), vratas (special observances), the specific order and special invocation of deities, kalpa (procedure of performing sacrificial acts), saṅkalpa (the formal statement of undertaking the sacrifice etc.) and the technique of performing sacrifice, movements such as Viṣṇukrama at the end of sacrifice, contemplations of deities, expiatory ceremony for mistakes of omission and commission, and offering everything to God as his own.

27-28. In this way, I who collected materials for sacrifice, from the limbs of the Puruṣa, worshipped the great God, a personification of Yajña, by performing sacrifice to propitiate him. Then your brothers, these nine progenitors of subjects (prajāpatis) worshipped, with perfect concentration of mind, the Puruṣa, (though himself unmanifested, but) manifested as Indra etc.

29. Then Manus and other sages, manes (Pitṛs), gods, demons, and men, in their own times, propitiated the Omnipresent God, by performing sacrifices.

30. This universe is placed, i.e. rested on the glorious Nārāyaṇa who, though attributeless, assumes by his Māyā qualities at the beginning of the creation.

31. Under his direction, I create (the universe); Hara or Śiva who is under his power, dissolves it, and he, in the form of Puruṣa i.e. Viṣṇu, protects it by means of his Māyā.

32. Oh child I In this way, I have narrated to you whatever you have asked me. In creation, which is of a causal nature (or which is manifest and unmanifest) there is nothing wherein he does not exist.

33. As I have meditated upon the lord with intensely devoted heart, my speech is never observed to be untrue, nor my mind goes to paths other than the truth, nor my sense organs leave the proper path (go to the path of untruth).

34. Though I am regarded as Veda incarnate (full of Vedic knowledge), and full of penance (tapas), and I am greatly respected as the chief of Prajāpatis, and though following yogic practice, I am perfect in meditation, I have not understood from whom I am born.

35. I bow to his feet which destroy the saṃsāra of those who resort to them (feet)—the feet which bring happiness and are very auspicious. He has not thoroughly comprehended the power or capacity of his own Māyā, just as the sky does not know its end. How can others comprehend?

36. Neither I, nor you, nor God Śiva or Vāmadeva could understand his real nature. How can other celestial beings know it? We, whose intellects are stupefied by his Māyā, think that we comprehend the universe created (by Māyā) according to our capacity of knowledge.

37. I bow to the glorious lord whose incarnations and deeds we and others sing, but we do not know his essential or real nature.

38.[4] This is the first Puruṣa, the unborn, who in every Kalpa creates himself with himself as the substratum, and the instrument (lit. he creates ātman within the receptacle of himself through himself) and protects it and destroys it.

39.[5] His real nature is absolute, real knowledge which is pure (unrelated to viṣaya or object), underlying the interior of all, accurate (and hence above doubt), changeless and attributeless. Being the Truth, it is perfect, full, beginningless and endless (with no changes like birth, death, increase, decrease etc.), eternal and alone (without a second).

40. Oh sage! Sages realize him, when their minds, senses and reason become serene and pure. But the Truth disappears from their sight when it is attacked by the reasoning of nonbelievers.

41-43. Puruṣa (the inspirer of Prakṛti, described as ‘thousand-headed etc. in the Puruṣa Sūkta) is the first incarnation of the Supreme Spirit.

43b.[6] Time, nature, (Prakṛti’s form) of causal relation, the mind (mahat), self-sense (ahaṃkāra), attributes, the body, five gross elements, movables and immovables, Myself, Śiva, Viṣṇu, the progenitors (Prajāpatis) like Dakṣa and others, yourself and others, the rulers of the heaven (Svarloka), and the protectors of the world of birds, Garuḍa and others, the rulers of the human world and those of the subterranean regions, Rulers of demigods like Gandharvas, Vidyādharas, Cāraṇas and those of Yakṣas. Rākṣasas and Uragas (reptiles) and Nāgas, the leaders of Sages, Manes (Pitṛs), Daityas, Siddhas and Dānavas and others, who rule over ghosts, Piśācas, Kūṣmāṇḍas, aquatic animals, beasts and birds.

44. In this world whatever is endowed with great authority (or six powers of Bhagavān), energy, mental power and capacity of senses, dexterity and strength, endurance, personal charm, modesty, prosperity, intellectual faculty, fascinating colour (or complexion), whether with form or without form, (all are nothing but God, the ultimate reality).[7]

45. Oh sage! Give ear unto my narration of the blessed incarnations of the Great Puruṣa (especially of) those which are regarded as his chief incarnation-sports (līlāvatāras). As I narrate to you these in a series, let these fascinating accounts which are like nectar and which remove the defects of (i.e. sins committed by) ears, be drunk by you.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

VV. 17, 18, 19, 20. The SK. text is an echo of Ṛg Veda Saṃhitā. X. 90. 2-4.

[2]:

Padaratnāvalī explains amṛta as anantāsana (the seat formed by Śeṣa), Kṣema (that which annihilates the trouble of death, i.e., Vaikuṇṭha) while abhaya is Cosmic Waters of Nārāyaṇa, i.e. Nārāyaṇa himself or Śvetadvīpa. Hari has supported these regions on his three heads. He (Padaratnāvalī) offers another explanation: Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara are His three heads which support the regions called Satya, Vaikuṇṭha and Kailāsa wherein are placed amṛta etc. These are outside the three worlds, viz. the earth (bhu) and others and are abodes of god Brahmā who has not begotten any son. Bhāgavata Candrikā however briefly sums up that the three outer regions (feet) are for the liberated ones who are beyond the jurisdiction of Prakṛti, while the fourth foot is inside the three worlds and is meant for householders.

[3]:

According to Padaratnāvalī, Hari originally created the Cosmic Egg, from which Virāṭ, viz. Brahmā, was born. He was the support of bhūtas, indriyas and guṇas.

[4]:

According to Padaratnāvalī, it is this same Puruṣa who is ātman, i.e. Nārāyaṇa, the first of all and has no birth like other beings. According to his own will, he incarnates as Matsya, Kūrma from age to age. He protects gods and men devoted to him on his own support and he destroys the daityas.

[5]:

Padaratnāvalī explains: The knowledge is pure (defectless), absolute (not depending upon others), within all and facing all, well-established, i.e. above doubts, eternally blissful, perfect from the point of space, time and attributes, beginningless and endless, free from sattva and other qualities, eternal (hence devoid of change) and non-dual.

[6]:

Bhāvāratha Dīpikā says that though the list of avatāras is indiscriminately arranged, it can be thus classified: (i) From time to mind (mahat) etc. are the effects (ii) Brahmā and others are the guṇāvatāras and (iii) Dakṣa and others are Vibhūtis.

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