SrimadBhagavatam Episode 257: The Pracetās glorify Lord Srihari… contd.

The Pracetās continued,

“Asāv eva varo ’smākam īpsito jagataḥ pate Prasanno bhagavān yeṣām apavarga-gurur gatiḥ

O Lord of the universe! You are the one who grants liberation. You are the one who directs the aspirant towards the path of liberation. We surrender completely to You. May You, the Supreme Lord, be pleased with us!

You are beyond Nature. As Your transcendental glories are limitless, You are extolled as Ananta. Just as a bee does not approach an ordinary tree when Kalpavriksha (wish-fulfilling) tree is visible to it, why should we chase trivial desires, when Your lotus feet are directly available to us?

Yāvat te māyayā spṛṣṭā bhramāma iha karmabhiḥ Tāvad bhavat-prasaṅgānāṁ saṅgaḥ syān no bhave bhave

Due to the illusion cast by You we are deluded and are engrossed in performing fruitive actions seeking resultant fruits. Trapped in this we are rotating endlessly in the cycle of repeated births and deaths. O Lord, we seek that in every birth of ours we should be fortunate to associate with Your dearest devotees.

The joys of heaven and liberation fade in front of the small fractional amount of time spent in the company of pure, ardent devotees of the Lord. This being the case, is there any special necessity to mention the insignificance of trivial worldly pleasures enjoyed by humans?

During satsang with holy devotees, transcendental stories of the Supreme Lord are narrated. Due to its influence, those who participate in satsangs develop dispassion towards worldly bondages. Side by side feelings of enmity, fear, anxiety etc. are driven away from the mind. During this narration, at periodic intervals, You will be glorified.

Lord Srihari is the destination for even supreme renunciates. Desirous of purifying holy sacred places, your ardent devotees walk to those places. Is it possible for a person, who is terrified of repeated cycle of re-births, to not enjoy the association of such holy Mahatmas?

O Lord, we were fortunate to spend a moment’s time with Shiva, Your dearest friend. Treating the disease called repeated cycle of births and death is an arduous and nearly impossible task. Yet, due to friendship with Shiva, we could surrender to You, the doctor for this disease.

O Iśwara! We have diligently studied the Vedas. At all times we have duly abided by the dictates of our Gurus, elders and Vedic scholars and thus have pleased them. We have offered respects not only to brothers, friends and elderly persons but to all living beings in the creation without finding faults in them. For a long period of time we have stood in the waters and undertaken intense penance abstaining from food. May You, the Supreme Godhead and the Lord who resides within every being, be pleased with our efforts! This is all we seek.

Not only Swāyambhuva Manu, Lords Brahma, Shiva and others who are totally purified due to penance and other austerities and who are totally established in You fail to understand Your divine glories. Even then, based on their individual capacities, they glorify You. For this reason we too praise You.

Namaḥ samāya śuddhāya puruṣāya parāya ca Vāsudevāya sattvāya tubhyaṁ bhagavate namaḥ

You are the pure consciousness who exists equally within every living being. You are the inner dweller. You are totally pure and beyond all material existence. You are transcendental. You are Vāsudeva. O Lord, we offer obeisance to You, the personification of goodness”.

In this way, Pracetās extolled the Supreme Lord. Srihari has fatherly love towards those who have totally surrendered to Him. He thus fulfilled their desire. Even after having His darshan for a long time, they were not contented and wished to remain in that state forever and ever watching Him. They did not wish the Lord to move from there. But yet, the Lord returned to His residence.

Pracetās now came out of the ocean waters. They saw that the entire earth filled with trees so tall that they appeared to be touching the skies. They were infuriated to see that trees had covered the entire earth. Seeking to free the earth from trees, they emitted fire and wind from their mouths. When the trees were being reduced to ashes, Lord Brahma arrived. Through pleasing words He pacified them and put an end to their attempts. He protected trees. He reassured the remaining trees that were trembling in fear.

Thereafter abiding by his order, the trees gave their daughter to Pracetās in marriage.

Trivikramāya namah