Srimad Bhagavatam – day 190
Understand the depth of essence hidden within every prayer.
Lord Indra prayed, “O indestructible Lord! O Srihari! In this form You are ruling the world. You are deathless. You appear as if akin to everything in this creation You too are subject to destruction. The truth is that You are beyond destruction.
Equipped with weapons in all Your 8 hands, You are destroying the demons who despise the Devatas. This transcendental form of Yours is pleasing to the eyes and mind”. He thus praised the complete form of the Lord.
The wives of the priests prayed, “O Padmanābha! You are the personification of Yagna! Brahma created Yagna so that people could worship You through this process. Daksha decided to begin one such Yagna. However his anger turned out to be an obstacle for the Yagna. Angered at Daksha’s behavior, Shiva destroyed the Yagna. All the activities in this sacrificial hall have come to an end due to this destruction and now this place resembles a crematorium. O Lord, with Your lotus eyes please glance once at this sacrificial hall and thus purify the area”.
Thereafter the Maharishis prayed,
Ananvitaṁ te bhagavan viceṣṭitaṁ
Yad ātmanā carasi hi karma nājyase
Vibhūtaye yata upasedur īśvarīṁ
Na manyate svayam anuvartatīṁ bhavān
O Supreme Lord! Your glories are unsurpassed and wonderful! This is because although through the medium of a body You are eternally engrossed in actions, You do not have the feeling that ‘You’ are performing the action. Neither do you expect any resultant fruit for your action. You are unattached to Your actions.
Desiring wealth, people worship Goddess Lakshmi. Such Goddess Lakshmi always follows You. Even then You are unattached towards wealth or towards Goddess Lakshmi. You do not have pride that You are her husband”.
Siddhas prayed, “O Lord, it is impossible to tie this mind, which is like an enormous elephant. Perhaps it could be possible to tie down an elephant, but it is impossible to control this mind. This mind is tormented by afflictions known as spiritual ignorance (avidya), egoism, likes-dislikes and fear of death, due to which, it cannot be contained.
It is excessively driven towards fulfilling desires. It eternally desires to sleep, eat and enjoy bodily luxuries and comforts of all kinds. It wants to enjoy tasty food. It loves desires and anger. It seeks all forms of wealth. It wants to own limitless buildings and properties. When the mind is enveloped with such desires it becomes impossible to tie it down.
Tormented by huge forest fire, the elephant becomes thirsty. It refuses to return from the river and settles comfortably in those flowing waters. Likewise O Lord, our mind is seated comfortably in the river known as Your divine stories. Due to the power contained in Your stories, our minds have become strengthened and we are no longer tormented by impurities.
Our minds are now totally focused upon You. Hence we are absolved from the fear that we could slip down. We are happy and contented and thus are unable to remember our troubles. Lost in listening to Your delightful stories, we forget the world and all its troubles. This is the benefit of seeking shelter in Your lotus feet.
A person who has tasted nectar cannot relish any other taste. Likewise the person who surrenders totally to Your feet, can never remember any worldly trouble.
To reach this stage, first of all dedicated efforts should be put in by the person. He should make attempts to remember the Lord’s feet at all time! The more he focuses, the less will be the worldly memories and pain.
Keshavāya namah