Srimad Bhagavatam — Dvitiya Skandha, Shloka 32
The First Step in God Realization: The Glory of Hearing and the Virāṭ-Rūpa Meditation
व्रीडोत्तरौष्ठोऽधर एव लोभो धर्म: स्तनोऽधर्मपथोऽस्य पृष्ठम् । कस्तस्य मेढ्रं वृषणौ च मित्रौ कुक्षि: समुद्रा गिरयोऽस्थिसङ्घा: ॥ ३२ ॥
vrīḍottarauṣṭho ’dhara eva lobho dharmaḥ stano ’dharma-patho ’sya pṛṣṭham kas tasya meḍhraṁ vṛṣaṇau ca mitrau kukṣiḥ samudrā girayo ’sthi-saṅghāḥ
La pudeur est la partie supérieure de Ses lèvres, et la convoitise est Son menton. La religion (dharma) est la poitrine du Seigneur, et l’irréligion (adharma) est Son dos. Brahmā, qui engendre les êtres dans le monde matériel, est Ses organes génitaux, et Mitra et Varuṇa sont Ses deux testicules. L’océan est Sa taille, et les collines et montagnes sont les amas de Ses os.
The Supreme Lord is not impersonal, as misconceived by less intelligent thinkers. Rather, He is the Supreme Person, as confirmed in all authentic Vedic literatures. But His personality is different from what we can conceive. It is stated here that Brahmājī acts as His genitals and that the Mitrā-varuṇas are His two testicles. This means that as a person He is complete with all bodily organs, but they are of different types with different potencies. When the Lord is described as impersonal, therefore, it should be understood that His personality is not exactly the type of personality found within our imperfect speculation. One can, however, worship the Lord even by seeing the hills and mountains or the ocean and the sky as different parts and parcels of the gigantic body of the Lord, the virāṭ-puruṣa. The virāṭ-rūpa, as exhibited by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna, is a challenge to the unbelievers.
FAQs
This verse continues the Bhagavatam’s meditation on the Virāṭ-puruṣa, mapping features of the cosmos and moral principles (dharma/adharma) onto the Lord’s universal form to help practitioners contemplate the Supreme’s presence everywhere.
Śukadeva teaches Parīkṣit an accessible method of God-realization—meditation on the universal form—so the mind can become steady and devotional by seeing the entire creation as connected to the Supreme.
Train the mind to see sacred order in the world: cultivate modesty over greed, choose dharma over adharma, and remember that nature and the cosmos are not separate from the Divine governance.