Kurma Purana — Purva Bhaga, Shloka 14
Sūrya-vaṃśa Genealogy and the Supremacy of Tapas: Gāyatrī-Japa, Rudra-Darśana, and Śatarudrīya Upadeśa
गौतम उवाच आराध्य पूर्वपुरुषं नारायणमनामयम् / अनादिनिधनं देवं धार्मिकं प्राप्नुयात् सुतम्
gautama uvāca ārādhya pūrvapuruṣaṃ nārāyaṇamanāmayam / anādinidhanaṃ devaṃ dhārmikaṃ prāpnuyāt sutam
Gautama sprach: Wer Nārāyaṇa verehrt — den uranfänglichen Purusha, frei von allem Leid, den Gott ohne Anfang und ohne Ende, den Hüter des Dharma — erlangt einen Sohn, der rechtschaffen ist und dem Dharma treu folgt.
Sage Gautama
Primary Rasa: shanta
Secondary Rasa: adbhuta
FAQs
By describing Nārāyaṇa as the “primeval Person,” beginningless and endless, the verse points to the Supreme as an unconditioned, timeless reality—beyond decay and affliction—who is the ultimate ground of being.
The verse emphasizes ārādhana (devotional worship/steady propitiation) as a disciplined spiritual practice—an applied form of bhakti-sādhana aligned with dharma—where focused reverence toward the eternal Lord yields both inner merit and dhārmic outcomes.
While explicitly praising Nārāyaṇa, it reflects the Kurma Purana’s broader synthetic theology in which devotion to the Supreme Lord (whether approached as Vishnu/Nārāyaṇa or in Shaiva frames elsewhere) is upheld as dharma-supporting and spiritually efficacious.