Srimad Bhagavatam — Dvitiya Skandha, Shloka 33
The First Step in God Realization: The Glory of Hearing and the Virāṭ-Rūpa Meditation
नद्योऽस्य नाड्योऽथ तनूरुहाणि महीरुहा विश्वतनोर्नृपेन्द्र । अनन्तवीर्य: श्वसितं मातरिश्वा गतिर्वय: कर्म गुणप्रवाह: ॥ ३३ ॥
nadyo ’sya nāḍyo ’tha tanū-ruhāṇi mahī-ruhā viśva-tanor nṛpendra ananta-vīryaḥ śvasitaṁ mātariśvā gatir vayaḥ karma guṇa-pravāhaḥ
Ô roi, les rivières sont les veines de Son corps cosmique, les arbres en sont les poils, et l’air tout-puissant est Son souffle. Le cours des âges est Son mouvement, et Ses actes apparaissent comme les réactions du flot des trois guṇa.
The Personality of Godhead is not a dead stone, nor is He inactive, as is poorly thought by some schools. He moves with the progress of time, and therefore He knows all about the past and future, along with His present activities. There is nothing unknown to Him. The conditioned souls are driven by the reactions of the modes of material nature, which are the activities of the Lord. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.12) , the modes of nature act under His direction only, and as such no natural functions are blind or automatic. The power behind the activities is the supervision of the Lord, and thus the Lord is never inactive as is wrongly conceived. The Vedas say that the Supreme Lord has nothing to do personally, as is always the case with superiors, but everything is done by His direction. As it is said, not a blade of grass moves without His sanction. In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.48) , it is said that all the universes and the heads of them (the Brahmās) exist only for the duration of His breathing period. The same is confirmed here. The air on which the universes and the planets within the universes exist is nothing but a bit of the breath of the unchallengeable virāṭ-puruṣa. So even by studying the rivers, trees, air and passing ages, one can conceive of the Personality of Godhead without being misled by the formless conception of the Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (12.5) it is stated that those who are much inclined to the formless conception of the Supreme Truth are more troubled than those who can intelligently conceive of the personal form.
FAQs
This verse explains the Virat Rupa through sacred correspondences: rivers as His veins, trees as His bodily hairs, wind as His breath, and time as the force that carries movement, aging, action, and the flow of the modes.
To guide Parikshit in a concrete meditation on the Lord’s cosmic manifestation, showing how all aspects of nature and time are integrated within the Supreme’s universal body.
It cultivates reverence and responsibility: viewing rivers, trees, and air as sacred encourages gratitude, humility, and dharmic living, while remembering time’s flow helps prioritize spiritual practice.