Bhagawat

SKANDHA I, ADHYAYA I

1. On Him we fix our thoughts from whom are birth and being and death, who knoweth the chain of things and their separate truth, King and Free, who [to] the earliest seer disclosed the Veda through his heart, which even illuminated minds find hard to understand,

In whom like interchange of water, earth and light the triple creation stands free from falsehood, for by His inherent lustre He casts out always the glamour of the worlds, — to Him we turn, that Highest Truth of things.

2. Here shall ye find highest religion in which all trickery has been eschewed, here the one substantial thing that is utterly true, that hearts free from jealousy and wickedness may know, that is a fountain of blessing and peace, that is an uprooting of the threefold sorrow of the world,

In this holy Bhagawat that the great Thinker has made. When by its power even others can imprison the Lord in their hearts so soon, the fulfilled in nature who love to hear it shall seize Him the moment that they hear.

3. This is the fruit fallen from the tree of Veda which giveth men every desire, — come, all you that are lovers of God on the earth and sensible to His delight, drink from the mouth of Shuka the Bhagawat's delightful juice into which wine of immortality has been poured, drink and drink again until the end of things.

4. In Naimisha, field of the Timeless Lord, the sages, Shaunaka and the rest, sat down to millennial sacrifice for the bringing of the kingdom of heaven.

5. And one day at dawn the Wise Ones having cast their offerings into the eater of the sacrifice asked with eagerness of the Suta as welcomed in their midst he sat.

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6. By thee, O pure of blemish, have the Traditions and Histories been studied, by thee recited, which are institutes of the Way of life,

7. Those that the Lord Badarayan knoweth, chief of the Veda Wise; and the other sages to whom these low things and those high are known.

8. Thou knowest it all, O gracious one, in its essential truth by Vyasa's grace; verily, to the loving disciple the Masters will tell even the secret thing.

9. What thou, O long of life, hast distinguished decisively in this book and in that to be utterly the best for men, we would have thee announce to us.

10. For thou knowest, O cultured soul, that usually in this age of the Kali men are short of days, poor in spirit, poor in sense, poor in fate, assailed by ills,

11. And numerous are the scriptures that have to be studied, full of multitudinous laws of conduct and divided into many parts, — therefore drawing out from them by thy thought whatever is the essence of all these, tell us as to men of faith that which makes the soul clear and glad.

12. And, O Suta, since thou knowest for what purpose the Lord, the Prince of the Satwatas was born to Vasudeva in Devaki's womb,

13. Be pleased to narrate it to our expectant ears, — whose descent into mortal life is for the bliss and increase of created things;

14. Whose name if one fallen into the dread whirl uttereth aloud even without his will, at once he is delivered therefrom, — the name of which Fear itself is afraid;

15. By dependence on whom, O Suta, the seers that follow the way of Peace purify by their first touch, but the waters of the mystic stream only after the soul has bathed in them often and long.

16. For who that longeth after purity would not listen to the glory destroying Kali's darkness of that divine Lord whose actions are adored by souls of virtuous fame?

17. Tell us, for we believe, his noble deeds hymned by illumined

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seers when by reason of His world-sport He manifests His aspects in the world.

18. Then tell us the blessed incarnations of Hari when the Lord of Creation ordereth variously at His unfettered pleasure and by the play of His own Glamour, His sport in human forms.

19. We are not satiated however often we hear the mightiness of that most glorious Being, for at every step sweetness is added to sweetness for those who can feel its beauty when they hear.

20. High were the heroic deeds Keshava did with Rama for His aid and beyond mortal strength, for this was the hidden Lord disguised as a man.

21. Because we knew that Kali had come upon the world, we in this region holy to Vishnu have sat down to long sacrifice & leisure vast have we to hear of the Lord.

22. It is Providence then that has shown thee to us who desire to cross safe over the difficult Kali, destroyer of the purer energy in men, as appears a sudden pilot to those who would voyage through the difficult sea.

23. Say, when the Master of the Yoga, full of holiness, Krishna, armour of the Dharma, passed to His Divine Summit, with whom did the Dharma take sanctuary then?

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