Just as the vital airs sustain the body, yet move according to your will, O Lord, so too did the great elements—beginning with cosmic fire—bring forth the cosmic egg by your grace. All beings, from food upwards, are your manifestation in this world, and yet you remain beyond both the real and the unreal; whatever endures is but your immortal nature. Those with limited vision, treading the lesser path among the sages, focus their meditation on the subtle space within the heart. From that sacred center, O Infinite One, your supreme abode arises above the head, and those who attain it never again fall into the jaws of death. You enter the countless wondrous wombs as their very cause, manifesting in varying degrees—like fire appearing in many forms—according to the actions performed. Yet, in those who have cast off false identification, your supreme abode is realized equally. The pure-minded perceive only you, abandoning all diversity for the one taste. 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, the wise, having examined the path of men and the culmination of the Vedas, worship your feet on earth, their trust placed in you alone. Some, longing to know the self—so difficult to grasp—do not even seek liberation, O Lord. Laboring in the ocean of your immortal deeds, they abandon home and seek the company of swan-like devotees at your lotus feet, desiring nothing else. Following your path, embodied beings move among kin, friends, and beloveds as if these were their fulfillment. Yet, when they turn to you, their true well-wisher and self, they find true satisfaction. Alas, those who delight in false worship, harming themselves, wander in suffering, burdened by heavy bodies due to attachment. Those sages who, with controlled breath, mind, and senses, practice steadfast yoga and worship you in their hearts—even their enemies attain you by remembrance. Women whose minds are absorbed in the embrace of the serpent king, and we ourselves, are equal, having tasted the nectar of your lotus feet. Who here truly knows the beginning, end, or the course of the One from whom the sage sprang, and after whom the gods, celestial and otherwise, follow? Therefore, 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, remembering only the apparent. The notion that the person is made of the three qualities arises from ignorance; in you, and beyond you, such distinctions vanish in the experience of true knowledge. Just as gold, though taking many forms, is never abandoned by those who know its essence, so too the knowers of the self see all as the self, considering everything as their own being, and do not reject the transformations, for all is pervaded by you. Those who move 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, and those who have befriended you are truly purified, unlike 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; they act 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 could be no rule of authority over them—yet this is not so. And if what is born is made of the unborn, then unless that is released, the controller would remain, even as one accepts equality in all; but to reject this is mistaken 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—likened to 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 own portion is lost? On earth, the sages—purified by visiting holy places and abodes, whose hearts are washed by 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 claims, "This arises from the existent," then 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 who are dulled by 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 know the play of the mind is false and its nectar is illusory. When the soul, by association with the unborn, takes on qualities through contact with the uncreated, it attains similarity to that. Then, freed from death, it is released from its portion. You, too, cast off that form, as a snake sheds its skin, and in your supreme, immeasurable glory, you are eightfold greater and beyond all measure. If 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 said: Thus, having heard this teaching from Brahma, his sons, the Siddhas, honored Sanandana, who knew the path of the Self. In this way, the essence of all the Vedas, Puranas, and Upanishads was drawn out by the great souls of earlier times, traveling through the sky. And you, O heir of Brahma, having received this teaching of the Self with faith, live upon this earth as you wish, burning away the desires of men. Śrī Śuka continued: Thus, having received the instruction from the sage with faith and self-control, the muni Vīravrata, full and learned, spoke. Śrī Nārada said: Salutations to that Blessed Lord, Kṛṣṇa, of spotless fame, who bears all the powers of creation and destruction of all beings. Thus, 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 us—how the mind may dwell upon Brahman, who is beyond definition and without qualities. He 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, one should meditate constantly. 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. Then, the king inquired: Among gods, demons, and humans, those who worship the inauspicious as auspicious are mostly wealthy rulers, but not devotees of Hari, the Lord of Lakṣmī. We wish to understand this, for we have great doubt: why do those who worship two lords of opposing natures attain opposite results? Śuka replied: Śiva, always united with power, is threefold, enveloped by the guṇas—he is of the nature of sattva, rajas, and tamas; thus, I am threefold. From him arose various transformations, sixteen in number, and, assuming the forms of all manifestations, he attains the state of all. Hari, however, is directly beyond the guṇas, the Supreme Person, transcendent to nature; he is the witness of all, the overseer—by worshipping him, one becomes free from the guṇas.