(Continued from page 13)
yannAbhi-sindhu-ruha-kAncana-loka-padma-
garbhe-dyumAn bhagavate praNato'smi tasmai //
I prostrate before the Lord, the Purusha, who is fixed in His own Self, who absorbs the entire universe at the end of the kalpa in His own stomach, who sleeps on the folds of AdiSesha, his friend, and in Whose navel rises the stem of the Golden Lotus from which Brahma came out.
The phenomenon of the Lord withdrawing everything unto Himself at the end of the kalpa and releasing them at the beginning of the next morning of Brahma is mentioned in all the Hindu scriptures. cf. Gita: 9 - 7:
sarva-bhUtAni kaunteya prakRtiM yAnti mAmikAM /
kalpa-kshaye punastAni kalpAdau visRjAmy-ahaM //
All beings go into My prakRti at the end of a kalpa;
I send them forth again at the beginning of the (next) kalpa.
For explanation of kalpa see Cosmic Day of Brahma
For explanation of prakRti go to Essay on prakRti
The words kAncana-loka-padma-garbe are significant. The Creator Brahma woke up in the stem of the golden lotus which sprang from the navel of the Lord. For this reason he is also called hiraNya-garbha (Golden Conception). As HiraNya-garbha He has a great charge, namely, the charge of the golden container representing the reservoir of all our vAsanAs. This is the one that brings forth our repeated births in the transmigratory cycle, so that we may exhaust our vAsanAs. But instead of exhausting them we add further to the reservoir. And naturally the true phase of Reality is hidden from us because of the opaqueness of the reservoir of our vAsanAs. The ISa-Upansihad therefore contains almost as its last verse a prayer to the Sun-God, who represents this hiraNya-garbha, to give us the vision to transcend our individuality brought on us by our vAsanAs. A meaning of significance of this prayer is contained in Raghavendra.
Verse No.10
tvaM nitya-mukta-pariSuddha-vibuddha AtmA
kUtastha Adi-purusho bhagavAn-stryadhISaH/
yad-buddhy-avasthitim-akhaNDitayA svadRshTyA
drashTA sthitA-vadhimakho vyatirikta Asse //
© Copyright V. Krishnamurthy July 15, '99 Home Contents NEXT
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