As the darkness of night gave way to the gentle light of dawn, the attendants, like skilled bards awakening a sleeping king with praises of his valor, approached and roused the Lord with noble hymns. Their voices rose in reverence, and the Vedas themselves spoke forth: “Victory, victory! O Unborn, O Unconquered One, cast off the faults acquired through the play of qualities! By your very nature, all powers reside perfectly within you. You are the awakening force behind all energies, manifest and unmanifest. Though the Vedas strive to follow you, they cannot reach you when you move by your own inscrutable will.” The Vedas continued, declaring, “This vast universe, though perceived as real, is understood by the wise as ultimately insubstantial, just as the rise and fall of forms are in clay and not in the forms themselves. Therefore, sages fix their minds, words, and actions on you—how, then, could the fleeting marks of men on earth be considered real?” “O Lord of the three worlds,” they proclaimed, “the wise, having plunged into the nectar-ocean of your stories—which destroy all impurities—abandon even their austerities. What then of those who, purified of all desires and the passage of time, dwell in your own realm and worship your supreme abode, experiencing unbroken bliss?” They reflected on how, just as the vital airs sustain the body according to your will, so too did the great elements, beginning with cosmic fire, create the cosmic egg by your grace. From food onward, all beings manifest as your play, yet you are beyond both the real and the unreal; whatever remains is your immortal nature. Some, with limited vision, worship the lower path among the sages and meditate on the heart as the way, seeking the subtle space within. From there, O Infinite One, your supreme abode arises above the head, and those who reach it never fall again into death’s mouth. You, the cause of all wondrous wombs, shine forth in various degrees—like fire taking many forms—according to the actions performed. Yet, in those free from false identification, your supreme abode is realized equally; the pure-minded follow you, the one taste, abandoning all diversity. Within these bodies—your own creation, both inner and outer—you are known as the Person, the bearer of all powers, present in every part. Thus, having examined the path of men and the end of the Vedas, the wise worship your feet on earth, placing their trust in you. Some, desiring to know the truth of the self—a truth hard to grasp—labor in the ocean of your immortal deeds, not even seeking liberation. They abandon their homes for the company of swan-like devotees at your lotus feet, desiring nothing else. Following your path, embodied beings move among kin, friends, and beloveds, yet, when they turn to you, their true well-wisher and self, they find fulfillment. Alas, those who delight in false worship, harming themselves, wander in suffering, bearing heavy bodies because of attachment. Yet, those sages who, with controlled breath, mind, and senses, practice firm yoga and worship you within their hearts—even their enemies attain you by remembrance. Women, whose minds are attached to the serpent king’s embrace, and we too, are equal, having tasted the nectar of your lotus feet. Who here truly knows the beginning, end, or course of the One from whom the sage arose, and after whom the gods, celestial and otherwise, follow? Thus, he is neither existent nor non-existent, nor both; nor is he subject to time. When he lies thus, no scripture can reach him. Those who teach that the soul is born, dies, or is different from the body, speak from ignorance, seeing only the apparent. The idea that the person is made of the three qualities arises from ignorance; in you, and beyond you, such distinctions have no place in the experience of true knowledge. Just as gold, though appearing in many forms, is not abandoned by those who know its essence, so too the knowers of the self perceive all as the self, considering everything as their own being. They do not reject the transformations, for all is pervaded by you. Those who move about as your companions, as the abode of all beings, tread fearlessly—even upon the head of death. You, O Lord, gather even the gods as a herdsman gathers cattle; those who have befriended you are truly purified, but not those who turn away. You are actionless, self-ruling, bearer of all creative powers. The gods, ever wakeful, offer you tribute and serve you equally, just as the arms serve the universal sovereign. The creators of the worlds, assigned by you, act with awe in your presence. All moving and unmoving species arise from the union of causes and the unborn, acting under your gaze, O Free One. Yet, when freed from that, there is no other, nor a second for the Supreme—just as space, bearing all things, remains incomparable and empty. If embodied beings were truly unlimited and all-pervading, there would be no rule of authority over them—but that is not so. And if what is born is made of the unborn, then without releasing that, the controller would remain, even as one accepts the equality of all; but to reject this view is to err in understanding. There can be no real origin for both Prakriti and Purusha, since both are uncreated; what arises from their union is unstable, like bubbles on water. In you, O Supreme, all these diverse names and qualities dissolve, just as rivers, with all their flavors, merge into the ocean. Among humans, those who recognize the intense delusion caused by your Maya and fix their minds on you, the source of all, develop ever-deepening devotion. How can fear of worldly existence persist for those who follow you, when even a mere frown from you creates fear in those who seek shelter elsewhere, like blades of grass? Those who strive to control the restless mind—like an untamed horse—by force of the senses and breath, but neglect the feet of the Guru, are afflicted by countless miseries, like merchants on the ocean who abandon their helmsman and are lost at sea. When you exist, what value is there in relying on relatives, children, self, spouse, wealth, home, or chariots? For those who, ignorant of this, wander in pursuit of pleasure through union, who indeed finds happiness here, when their own share is denied and their portion is lost? On earth, the sages—purified by visiting holy places and abodes, whose hearts are washed by the water from your lotus feet, who fix their minds even once on you, the eternal bliss within—never again seek the abodes of those who rob men of their true essence. If one says, “This arises from the existent,” such reasoning is flawed, for it is inconsistent and sometimes false, not truly combining both. For practical dealings, distinctions are made, but these are passed down blindly, and speech, with its elaborate forms, confuses those dull-witted from ritual recitation. What did not exist before, and will not exist after dissolution, and is limited in between, appears in you as a mere illusion of one taste. Therefore, it is compared to distinctions of wealth or caste, but the wise understand that the play of the mind is false and its nectar illusory. When the soul, by association with the unborn, takes on qualities through contact with the uncreated, it attains similarity to that, and then, freed from death, is released from its portion. You, too, abandon that form, as a snake sheds its skin, and in your supreme, immeasurable glory, you are eightfold greater and beyond all measure. If the ascetics do not uproot the tangle of desire from the heart, then you, difficult to attain for the unworthy, remain hidden in the heart, like a jewel forgotten at the throat. For those not satisfied in soul, there is suffering on both sides, O Lord, since they have not reached your state, free from death and firmly established. One who does not know you, the source of all auspicious and inauspicious things, cannot discern the qualities and faults arising from you, nor the words of embodied beings. Yet, in every age, O Lord with qualities, you are sung in unbroken succession, and those who hear of you are led toward liberation by human beings. Even the rulers of heaven could not reach your end, O Infinite One, nor could the groups of cosmic eggs, known as Sāvarṇas, that exist between you. Just as dust motes float in the sky with the wind, so too do the Vedas, along with time, pass away; but in you, they bear fruit, and by rejecting the unreal, they find their end in you. The Blessed Lord then spoke: “Thus, having heard this instruction from Brahma, his sons, the Siddhas, honored Sanandana, knowing the path of the Self. The essence of all the Vedas, Puranas, and Upanishads has been drawn out by the great souls of earlier times, traveling through the sky. And you, O heir of Brahma, bearing this instruction of the Self with faith, live on this earth as you wish, burning away the desires of men.” Śuka continued, “Thus, having received the instruction from the sage with faith and self-control, the muni Vīravrata, full and learned, spoke.” Nārada added, “Salutations to that Blessed Lord, Krishna, of spotless fame, who bears all the powers of creation and destruction of all beings. Bowing to the ancient sage and his noble disciples, I then went to the ashram of my father, Dvaipāyana. Honored by the Blessed Lord and having accepted a seat, he narrated to him that which he had heard from the mouth of Nārāyaṇa.” Thus, O King, has been described that which you asked—how the mind may dwell upon Brahman, who is beyond definition and without qualities. One should meditate constantly upon that Hari, who observes the beginning, middle, and end of this universe, who is the Lord of the unmanifest, the living beings, and the rulers; who, having created this world, enters into it and, through the seers, governs it; whom, upon attaining, the embodied soul abandons, just as a sleeping bird leaves its nest—upon that Hari, whose unique existence is untouched by origin and who is fearless. Thus ends the eighty-seventh chapter, entitled “The Prayers of the Vedas,” in the second half of the Tenth Book of the Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa, the scripture for the paramahaṃsas. At this, the king asked, “Among the gods, demons, and humans, those who worship the inauspicious as auspicious are mostly wealthy rulers, but not devotees of Hari, the Lord of Lakṣmī.