27 verses
Sūta Gosvāmī said: The Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa, the friend of Nara, was satisfied by the glorification offered by the intelligent sage Mārkaṇòeya, the excellent descendant of Bhṛgu.
The Supreme Lord said: My dear Mārkaṇòeya, you are the best of all learned brāhmaṇas. You have perfected your life by practicing fixed meditation, by undeviating bhakti to me, along with austerities, study of the Vedas and adherence to regulative principles.
We are completely satisfied with your practice of lifelong celibacy. Please choose whatever benediction you desire, since I can grant your wish. May you enjoy all good fortune.
The plural number is used because later it will be seen that Śiva and Umā were also pleased.
The sage said: O Lord of lords! You have all excellent qualities! O Lord Acyuta, remover all distress for the surrendered! That I have seen you is enough of a benediction.
Jitam te means you have all excellent qualities.
Such devatās as Lord Brahmā achieved success by seeing your lotus feet in their minds by mature yoga practice. And now, my Lord, you have appeared before my eyes.
Having seen your lotus feet, Brahmā and others became successful. The verb should be supplied.
O lotus-eyed Lord! O crest jewel of renowned persons! I wish to see your illusory potency, by whose influence the entire world, together with the devatās, know the various effects arising from prakṛti.
I desire to see (drakṣye). Sad-bhidam means the various effects arising from the cause (sat). Or it can mean the destruction of the existing world.
Sūta Gosvāmī said: O wise Śaunaka! Thus satisfied by Mārkaṇòeya's praise and worship, the Supreme Lord, smiling, replied, "So be it," and then departed for his hermitage at Badarikāśrama.
The Lord smiled. Seeing māyā is only a cause of experiencing grief. If you want that, then I will give it, since I must give you a boon. You must realize I do not like this experience of seeing māyā. Otherwise your desire to experience it will not go away. Therefore by experiencing its suffering you will give it up. It is like a father who orders his son to give up some action which the stubborn son does, even though the act will cause the son suffering. But for his devotee in order to have him give up this desire, the Lord would also give him bliss by showing him his baby form within the experience of suffering. Thus the Lord smiled.
dhyāyan sarvatra ca hariṁ bhāva-dravyair apūjayat kvacit pūjāṁ visasmāra prema-prasara-samplutaḥ
Thinking always of his desire to see the Lord's illusory energy, the sage remained in his āśrama, meditating constantly upon the Lord within fire, the sun, the moon, water, the earth, air, lightning and his own heart, and worshiping him with paraphernalia conceived in his mind. But sometimes, overwhelmed by waves of love for the Lord, Mārkaṇòeya would forget to perform his regular worship.
He thought of seeing māyā (tam artham). Bhāva-dravaiḥ means with articles produced in the mind.
O brāhmaṇa Śaunaka, best of the Bhṛgus! One day while Mārkaṇòeya was performing his evening worship on the bank of the Puṣpabhadrā, a great wind suddenly began to blow.
The display of māyā begins.
That wind created a terrible sound. After that, fearsome, thick clouds appeared, accompanied by lightning and roaring thunder, and poured down on all sides torrents of rain as heavy as chariot wheels.
The torrents were as heavy as wheels of a chariot.
Then the four great oceans, filled with crocodiles, fearful whirlpools and ominous rumblings, appeared on all sides, swallowing up the surface of the earth with their wind-tossed waves.
The sage saw all the inhabitants of the universe, including himself, tormented within and without by the harsh rays of the sun, bolts of lightning, and great waves rising beyond the sky. As the whole earth flooded, he grew perplexed and fearful.
Ati-dyubhiḥ adbhiḥ means by water reaching to the sky. Kharaiḥ means by the harsh suns rays. Śatahradābhiḥ means by lightning. The long ā is poetic license.
While Mārkaṇòeya watched, the rain pouring down from the clouds filled the ocean more and more until that great sea, its waters violently whipped into terrifying waves by hurricanes, covered up all the earth's islands, mountains and continents.
The water inundated the earth, outer space, heaven, all the planets and the three worlds, in all directions. Only Mārkaṇòeya remained. His matted hair scattered, the great sage wandered about alone in the water as if dumb and blind.
Sa-bhā-gaṇam means with the planets.
Having fallen into insurmountable darkness, tormented by hunger and thirst, attacked by monstrous makaras and timiḍgila fish. and battered by the wind and waves, he moved aimlessly. As he grew increasingly exhausted, he lost all sense of direction and could not tell the sky from the earth.
He was beaten by wind with waves. Īṣitaḥ means attained. It comes from the root īṣ, meaning to go.
kvacic chokaṁ kvacin mohaṁ kvacid duḥkhaṁ sukhaṁ bhayam kvacin mṛtyum avāpnoti vyādhy-ādibhir utārditaḥ
At times he was engulfed by the great whirlpools, sometimes he was beaten by the mighty waves, and at other times the aquatic monsters threatened to devour him as they attacked one another. Sometimes he felt lamentation, bewilderment, misery, happiness or fear, and at other times he experienced such terrible pains that he felt himself dying.
Countless millions of years passed as Mārkaṇòeya wandered about in that deluge, his mind bewildered by the illusory energy of Lord Viṣṇu.
Once, while wandering in the water, the brāhmaṇa Mārkaṇòeya saw a small island, upon which stood a young banyan tree, radiant with leaves and fruits.
Upon a branch of the northeast portion of that tree he saw, lying on a leaf, an infant boy whose effulgence swallowed up the darkness.
śvāsaijad-alakābhātaṁ kambu-śrī-karṇa-dāòimam vidrumādhara-bhāseṣac- choṇāyita-sudhā-smitam
padma-garbhāruṇāpāḍgaṁ
hṛdya-hāsāvalokanam
śvāsaijad-vali-saṁvigna-
nimna-nābhi-dalodaram
cārv-aḍgulibhyāṁ pāṇibhyām
unnīya caraṇāmbujam
mukhe nidhāya viprendro
dhayantaṁ vīkṣya vismitaḥ
The infant's dark-blue complexion was the color of a flawless emerald, his lotus face shone with a wealth of beauty, and his throat bore marks like the lines on a conchshell. He had a broad chest, a finely shaped nose, beautiful eyebrows, and lovely ears decorated with pomegranate flowers, having inner folds like a conchshell's spirals. The corners of his eyes were reddish like the whorl of a lotus, and the effulgence of his coral-like lips slightly reddened the sweet, enchanting smile on his face. As he breathed, his splendid hair trembled and his deep navel moved about along with the deep folds of skin on his abdomen which was shaped like a banyan leaf. The exalted brāhmaṇa watched with amazement as the infant took hold of one of his lotus feet with his graceful fingers, placed a toe within his mouth, and began to suck.
Kakudi means on a raised area. He looked splendid with locks of hair trembling because of his breathing. He had pomegranate flowers decorating his ears whose ear folds had the beauty of conches. His abdomen was shaped like a banyan leaf with a deep navel which quivered, and with deep horizontal skin folds which trembled when he breathed. He held his toe and sucked it, thinking, What is the sweetness of my lotus foot? Since many of my devotees attempt to taste that sweetness, I should also try to taste it.
From seeing the child, all his weariness vanished. Because of joy the lotus of his heart, along with his lotus eyes, fully blossomed, and the hairs on his body stood on end. Confused as to the identity of the wonderful infant, the sage approached him to ask.
He had doubt about that astonishing form (bhāva). It could not be an ordinary child. He approached to ask.
At that moment, the child, by inhaling, drew Mārkaṇòeya within his body like a mosquito. There the sage found the entire universe arrayed as it had been before its dissolution. Seeing this, Mārkaṇòeya was most astonished and perplexed.
Adaḥ means the universe. He saw everything as it was before the devastation (yathā purā).
mahānti bhūtāny atha bhautikāny asau kālaṁ ca nānā-yuga-kalpa-kalpanam yat kiñcid anyad vyavahāra-kāraṇaṁ dadarśa viśvaṁ sa divāvabhāsitam
The sage saw the entire universe: the sky, heavens and earth, the stars, mountains, oceans, great islands, continents, the directions, the saintly and demoniac living beings, the forests, countries, rivers, cities, mines, the agricultural villages, cow pastures, and the occupational and spiritual activities of the various social divisions. He also saw the basic elements of creation along with all their by-products, as well as time itself, which regulates the progression of countless ages within the days of Brahmā. In addition, he saw everything else created for use in material life. He saw in daylight a bright world.
He (saḥ) saw a bright world (avabhāsitam) in daylight (divā for divasaḥ).
He saw before him the Himālaya Mountains, the Puṣpabhadrā River, and his own hermitage, where he had had the audience of the sages Nara-Nārāyaṇa. Then, as Mārkaṇòeya beheld the entire universe, the infant exhaled, expelling the sage and casting him back into the ocean of dissolution.
Puṣpavahām means the Puṣpabhadrā River.
atha taṁ bālakaṁ vīkṣya netrābhyāṁ dhiṣṭhitaṁ hṛdi abhyayād ati-saḍkliṣṭaḥ pariṣvaktum adhokṣajam
In that vast sea he again saw the banyan tree growing on the tiny island and the infant boy lying within the leaf. The child glanced at him from the corner of his eyes with a smile imbued with the nectar of prema, and Mārkaṇòeya took him into his heart through his eyes. Greatly agitated, the sage ran to embrace the transcendental Lord.
At that moment the Supreme Lord, who is the original master of all powers of yoga and who is hidden within everyone's heart, became invisible to the sage, just as the poor mans desire for wealth comes and goes.
Again thrown into the ocean, he wandered about for millions of years, experiencing hardship, and then saw the child on the banyan leaf on the upraised portion of earth. He was glanced upon with a glance endowed with a smile of prema which was like nectar. Again he entered the body of the Lord when he inhaled. It should be understood from later statements that he went in and came out seven times.1 The Lord then became invisible just as desire for wealth of a poor man comes and goes.
O brāhmaṇa! After the Lord disappeared, the banyan tree, the water and the dissolution of the universe all vanished as well, and in an instant Mārkaṇòeya found himself back in his own hermitage, just as before.
Within one instant of time, seven kalpas of time (seven dissolutions) had been contracted, by the inconceivable energy of the Lord. Tirodhāyi is a reflexive verb, in aorist tense.
Thus ends the commentary on Ninth Chapter of the Twelfth Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
The Ninth Chapter describes how Mārkaṇòeya, saddened by seeing māyā, enters within the abdomen of a child lying on a banyan leaf, comes out again and then falls into the ocean of devastation.