Srimad Bhagavatam — Dvitiya Skandha, Shloka 36
Puruṣa-sūkta Logic of the Virāṭ: Cosmic Anatomy, Sacrifice, and the Lord’s Transcendence
नतोऽस्म्यहं तच्चरणं समीयुषां भवच्छिदं स्वस्त्ययनं सुमङ्गलम् । यो ह्यात्ममायाविभवं स्म पर्यगाद् यथा नभ: स्वान्तमथापरे कुत: ॥ ३६ ॥
nato ’smy ahaṁ tac-caraṇaṁ samīyuṣāṁ bhavac-chidaṁ svasty-ayanaṁ sumaṅgalam yo hy ātma-māyā-vibhavaṁ sma paryagād yathā nabhaḥ svāntam athāpare kutaḥ
Darum ist es für mich das Beste, mich Seinen Füßen zu ergeben, die allein vom Elend wiederholter Geburt und Tod befreien; diese Hingabe ist höchst glückverheißend und führt zur Wonne. Selbst der Himmel kann die Grenzen seiner eigenen Ausdehnung nicht ermessen — wie sollten es andere beim Herrn vermögen?
Lord Brahmā, the greatest of all learned living beings, the greatest sacrificer, the greatest observer of the austere life, and the greatest self-realized mystic, advises us, as the supreme spiritual master of all living beings, that one should simply surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord in order to achieve all success, even up to the limit of being liberated from the miseries of material life and being endowed with all-auspicious spiritual existence. Lord Brahmā is known as the pitāmaha, or the father’s father. A young man consults his experienced father about discharging his duties. So the father is naturally a good advisor. But Lord Brahmā is the father of all fathers. He is the father of the father of Manu, who is the father of mankind all over the universal planets. Therefore the men of this insignificant planet should kindly accept the instruction of Brahmājī and would do well to surrender unto the lotus feet of the Lord rather than try to estimate the length and breadth of the Lord’s potencies. His potencies are immeasurable, as confirmed in the Vedas. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca ( Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8). He is the greatest of all, and all others, even the greatest of all living beings, namely Brahmājī, admits that the best thing for us is to surrender unto Him. Therefore only those persons with a very poor fund of knowledge claim that they themselves are lords of all that they survey. And what can they survey? They cannot survey even the length and breadth of a small sky in one small universe. The so-called material scientist says that he would need to live forty thousand years to reach the highest planet of the universe, being carried by a sputnik. This is also utopian because no one can be expected to live forty thousand years. Besides, when the space pilot returned from his travel, none of his friends would be present to receive him back as the greatest astronaut, as has become fashionable for modern bewildered scientific men. One scientific man, who had no belief in God, was very much enthusiastic in making plans for his material existence and therefore opened a hospital to save the living. But after opening the hospital, he himself died within six months. So one should not spoil his human life, which is obtained after many, many changes of bodies in 8,400,000 species of life, simply for the concocted material happiness of life through increasing artificial needs in the name of advancement of economic development and scientific knowledge. Rather, one should simply surrender unto the feet of the Lord to make a solution to all miseries of life. That is the instruction of Lord Kṛṣṇa directly in the Bhagavad-gītā, and that is the instruction of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by Brahmājī, the supreme father of all living beings.
FAQs
This verse calls the Lord’s feet bhava-cchidam—those who approach and surrender there gain the power to cut the bondage of repeated birth and death.
Brahmā uses the sky as an analogy for all-pervasiveness: just as space is present within and around everything, the Lord, by His own potency, pervades all—so nothing can exist independent of Him.
Practice conscious dependence on God—regular prayer, remembrance, and devotional discipline—so anxieties rooted in separateness lessen, and life becomes guided by auspicious purpose (svasty-ayanam).