Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Uddhava-Gita | Manifestations of Divine Glory
2. The knowers of the Veda see and worship Thee in all that is high and low. This is beyond the understanding of impure and immature minds.
3. Deign to speak to Me all those aspects in which the great rishis adore Thee and attain to perfection.
4. Oh Creator! Thou, the all-pervading one, move in all beings, unseen and unclear. Because of the clouding of their vision by Thee, they do not see Thee, the seer of everything.
5. Oh Thou rich in divine attributes! Deign to tell me of whatever there is on
the earth, in the heaven, or in rasatala occurring as Thy far-famed glorious
manifestations, which are specially fortified by Thy power. My salutations to
Thy holy feet, the seat of all sanctity!
7. Thinking that the slaughter of one’s own kith and kin in battle for the sake of a Kingdom is sinful, he wanted to withdraw from the battle. For, he was overcome by the ordinary ignorant man’s idea, ‘I am the killer and he is the killed’.
8. When I restored in him the hero’s balance of mind by rational instructions, he put to Me in that battlefield the same question you have now raised.
9. Oh Uddhava! I am the Atman (the Essence), the well-wisher, and the master of all beings. I am the All-formed, and I am simultaneously the One from whom all creations spring, by whom all beings are sustained and in whom they all dissolve.
10. I am the power of movement in all moving creatures; I am Time among all forces that attract all; among gunas I am sattva; and among the virtuous I am their natural virtue.
11. Of all the products of the gunas, I am the Sutratman, the spirit that runs as a thread through all; and of all-comprehending entities, I am the Mahattattva, the primeval category from which all things have evolved. Of subtle entities, I am the Jiva; and of the unconquerable ones, I am the mind.
12. Among the propagators of the Veda, I am Hirangarbha (Brahma). Among mantras, I am the sound symbol ‘AUM’ which combines in itself the three sound syllables a, u and m. Among letters, I am the letter A; and among Vedic metres, Gayatri.
13. Among Devas, I am Indra; and among the eight Vasus, I am Agni (the fire-deity), the transmitter of sacrificial offerings. Among the Adtiyas, I am Vishnu; and among Rudras I am Nilalohita, the blue-throated one.
14. Among brahmarishis, I am Bhrigu; among rajarishis (royal sages) I am Manu; among celestial sages, I am Narada; and among cows, I am Kamadhenu.
15. Among the master-siddhas (adepts), I am Kapila; among the birds, Garuda; among the prajapatis, Daksha; and among pitris (manes), Aryama.
16. Know, Oh Uddhava, that I am Prahlada among daityas; Soma, their King, among the stars and the planets; and Kubera, their ruler, among the rakshas and the yakshas.
17. Among the great elephants, I am Airavata; among dwellers of the water, Varuna, their Lord; among the hot and brilliant bodies, the sun; and among men, the king.
18. Know Me to be Uchchaisravas among horses; gold among metals; Yama among disciplinarians; and Vasuki among serpents.
19. Among the great nagas, I am Ananta; among animals having horns and fangs, their king the lion. Among the various stations of life, I am the sannyasa, and among varnas, the brahmana.
20. I am Ganga (the Ganges) among the holy rivers, and the ocean among lakes; among the weapons, I am the bow, and among wielders of the bow, Parameswara, the destroyer of the Tripuras.
21. Among the places providing residence, I am Meru; and among the regions difficult of access, I am the Himalaya. Among trees, I am Aswattha, and barley among cereals.
22. I am Vasista among the priests, and Brihaspati among the knowers of the meaning (bhashya) of the Veda. Among generals, I am Skanda, and among workers for righteousness, Brahma.
23. Among sacrifices, I am the sacrifice of japa, and among vows, the vow of non-injury. Among purifying agents, I am the purifier in the shape of air, fire, sun, water and the words of holy men.
24. In ways of spiritual communion, I am samadhi; in those who aspire for victory, I am policy based on proper deliberation; among methods of investigation, I am the discriminative process by which the spirit is differentiated from matter; and among theoreticians on the problems of truth and illusion, I am their persisting differences.
25. Among women, I am Satarupa; among men, Swayambhuva; among munis, Narayana; and among celibates, Sanatkumara.
26. Among the virtuous ways of life, I am sannyasa; among the means of happiness, I am the capacity to make the mind inward-looking. Among the means of keeping secrets, I am silence, and sweet and careful speech. Among the couples of men and women, I am Brahma who was the first to assume the forms of both.
27. Among the wink-less and the vigilant, I am the year; among the seasons, the spring; among the months, the Margasirsha; and among the constellations, the Abhijit.
28. Among yugas, I am Krita-yuga; among the wise and firm-minded, I am Asita and Devala. Among the Vyasas (editors), I am Dvaipayana who rearranged the Vedas; and among the farsighted, I am the Rishi Sukra.
29. Among those who deserve the appellation of Bhagawan, I am Vasudev; and among those to be called bhagavatas (devotees), I am yourself. Among kimpurushas, I am Hanuman; and among vidyadharas, Sudarsana.
30. Among precious jewels, I am the ruby (padmaraga); among the beautiful objects, the lotus; among various kinds of grass, kusa; and among materials for offering in yajna, the ghee derived from the milk of the cow.
31. I am the wealth of the industrious; and I am the deceit of the deceitful gambler. I am the fortitude of the forbearing; and I am the power of the powerful.
32. I am the vigour and the sustaining power of the strong; I am the rites which the pious perform; and I am the first of the nine forms of the deity that vaishnavas worship – Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Narayana, Hayagriva, Varaha, Narasimha and Vamana.
33. Among gandharvas, I am Viswavasu; and among apsaras, Purvachitti. I am the firmness of mountains and the subtle fragrance of the earth.
34. I am the sweet taste of water. Among the heat-producing agents, I am fire. I am the shine of the sun, the moon and the stars, and I am the unmodified sound of akasa.
35. Among those who revere holy men, I am Bali; among heroes, I am Arjuna; and I am the origin, sustenance and dissolution of all beings.
36. I am the functioning of the five organs of action – walking, speech, evacuation, holding and regeneration – and also of the functioning of the five organs of knowledge – touch, sight, taste, hearing and smell. I am, in all the senses, the power that enables them to grasp their objects.
37-38. The seven categories consisting of subtle aspects (tanmatras) of the five elements, the earth, air, sky, fire and water, as also the ego-sense and the Mahattattva; the sixteen categories including the five gross elements and the eleven indriyas (sense faculties); and also the Jiva, the Avyakta (the unmodified Prakrti), the three gunas and the Supreme Being – all these categories, their enumeration, their understanding and the determination of their understanding and the determination of their true nature – all these I am. There is no existence other than Me, the all-inclusive and the all-pervading Being, who am Iswara and the Jiva, the substance and the attribute.
39. It may be possible for Me to count all the fundamental particles of the universe in the course of a vast period of time. But even I cannot exhaustively count and estimate My powers and glories; for out of them crores and crores of world systems are always originating, thus setting no limits to them.
40. Know that a part of Me is present wherever you notice extraordinary manifestation of powers, prosperity, fame, lordliness, modesty, renunciation, attractiveness, luck, courage, endurance and knowledge.
41. I have briefly described to you My glories. They are only mental conceptions clothed in words to help man direct his mind to the Supreme Being.
42. Control the speech, control the mind, control the vital energies, control the senses and control the lower self by the higher self. If this is achieved, there is no more involvement in samsara.
43. If a sannyasin fails to control his speech and his mind, the effects of his spiritual striving by means of vows, austerities and acts of charity will all leak out, like water kept in an unbaked pot.
44. Therefore, one who has resigned oneself to Me should control one’s speech, mind and prana with one’s understanding soaked in devotion to Me. That will lead one to life’s fulfillment.