Chapter Four
The Hamsa-guhya Prayers Offrered to the Lord by Prajapati Daksa
1-2. The blessed King said to Sukadeva Gosvami: My dear lord, the demigods, demons, human beings, Nagas, beasts and birds were created during the reign of Svayambhuva Manu. You have spoken about this creation briefly [in the Third Canto]. Now I wish to know about it elaborately. I also wish to know about the potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by which He brought about the secondary creation.
3. Suta Gosvami said: O great sages [assembled at Naimisaranya], after the great yogi Sukadeva Gosvami heard King Pariksit’s inquiry, he praised it and thus replied.
4. Sukadeva Gosvami said: When the ten sons of Pracinabarhi emerged from the waters, in which they were performing austerities, they saw that the entire surface of the world was covered by trees.
5. Because of having undergone long austerities in the water, the Pracetas were very angry at the trees. Desiring to burn them to ashes, they generated wind and fire from their mouths.
6. My dear King Pariksit, when Soma, the king of the trees and predominating deity of the moon, saw the fire and wind burning all the trees to ashes, he felt great sympathy because he is the maintainer of all herbs and trees. To appease the anger of the Pracetas, Soma spoke as follows.
7. O greatly fortunate ones, you should not kill these poor trees by burning them to ashes. Your duty is to wish the citizens [prajas] all prosperity and to act as their protectors.
8. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Hari, is the master of all living entities, including all the prajapatis, such as Lord Brahma. Because He is the all-pervading and indestructible master, He has created all these trees and vegetables as eatables for other living entities.
9. By nature’s arrangement, fruits and flowers are considered the food of insects and birds; grass and other legless living entities are meant to be the food of four-legged animals like cows and buffalo; animals that cannot use their front legs as hands are meant to be the food of animals like tigers, which have claws; and four-legged animals like deer and goats, as well as food grains, are meant to be the food of human beings.
10. O pure-hearted ones, your father, Pracinabarhi, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead have ordered you to generate population. Therefore how can you burn to ashes these trees and herbs, which are needed for the maintenance of your subjects and descendants?
11. The path of goodness traversed by your father, grandfather and great-grandfathers is that of maintaining the subjects [prajas], including the men, animals and trees. That is the path you should follow. Unnecessary anger is contrary to your duty. Therefore I request you to control your anger.
12. As the father and mother are the friends and maintainers of their children, as the eyelid is the protector of the eye, as the husband is the maintainer and protector of a woman, as the householder is the maintainer and protector of beggars, and as the learned is the friend of the ignorant, so the king is the protector and giver of life to all his subjects. The trees are also subjects of the king. Therefore they should be given protection.
13. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is situated as the Supersoul within the cores of the hearts of all living entities, whether moving or nonmoving, including men, birds, animals, trees and, indeed, all living entities. Therefore you should consider every body a residence or temple of the Lord. By such vision you will satisfy the Lord. You should not angrily kill these living entities in the forms of trees.
14. One who inquires into self-realization and thus subdues his powerful anger—which awakens suddenly in the body as if falling from the sky—transcends the influence of the modes of material nature.
15. There is no need to burn these poor trees any longer. Let whatever trees still remain be happy. Indeed, you should also be happy. Now, here is a beautiful, well-qualified girl named Marisa, who was raised by the trees as their daughter. You may accept this beautiful girl as your wife.
16. Sukadeva Gosvami continued: My dear King, after thus pacifying the Pracetas, Soma, the king of the moon, gave them the beautiful girl born of Pramloca Apsara. The Pracetas all received Pramloca’s daughter, who had high, very beautiful hips, and married her according to the religious system.
17. In the womb of that girl the Pracetas all begot a son named Daksa, who filled the three worlds with living entities.
18. Sukadeva Gosvami continued: Please hear from me with great attention how Prajapati Daksa, who was very affectionate to his daughters, created different types of living entities through his semen and through his mind.
19. With his mind, Prajapati Daksa first created all kinds of demigods, demons, human beings, birds, beasts, aquatics and so on.
20. But when Prajapati Daksa saw that he was not properly generating all kinds of living entities, he approached a mountain near the Vindhya mountain range, and there he executed very difficult austerities.
21. Near that mountain was a very holy place named Aghamarsana. There Prajapati Daksa executed ritualistic ceremonies and satisfied the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, by engaging in great austerities to please Him.
22. My dear King, I shall fully explain to you the Hamsa-guhya prayers, which were offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead by Daksa, and I shall explain how the Lord was pleased with him for those prayers.
23. Prajapati Daksa said: The Supreme Personality of Godhead is transcendental to the illusory energy and the physical categories it produces. He possesses the potency for unfailing knowledge and supreme willpower, and He is the controller of the living entities and the illusory energy. The conditioned souls who have accepted this material manifestation as everything cannot see Him, for He is above the evidence of experimental knowledge. Self-evident and self-sufficient, He is not caused by any superior cause. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.
24. As the sense objects [form, taste, touch, smell and sound] cannot understand how the senses perceive them, so the conditioned soul, although residing in his body along with the Supersoul, cannot understand how the supreme spiritual person, the master of the material creation, directs his senses. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto that Supreme Person, who is the supreme controller.
25. Because they are only matter, the body, the life airs, the external and internal senses, the five gross elements and the subtle sense objects [form, taste, smell, sound and touch] cannot know their own nature, the nature of the other senses or the nature of their controllers. But the living being, because of his spiritual nature, can know his body, the life airs, the senses, the elements and the sense objects, and he can also know the three qualities that form their roots. Nevertheless, although the living being is completely aware of them, he is unable to see the Supreme Being, who is omniscient and unlimited. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.
26. When one’s consciousness is completely purified of the contamination of material existence, gross and subtle, without being agitated as in the working and dreaming states, and when the mind is not dissolved as in susupti, deep sleep, one comes to the platform of trance. Then one’s material vision and the memories of the mind, which manifests names and forms, are vanquished. Only in such a trance is the Supreme Personality of Godhead revealed. Thus let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is seen in that uncontaminated, transcendental state.
