Srimad Bhagavatam — Dvitiya Skandha, Shloka 1
Puruṣa-sūkta Logic of the Virāṭ: Cosmic Anatomy, Sacrifice, and the Lord’s Transcendence
ब्रह्मोवाच वाचां वह्नेर्मुखं क्षेत्रं छन्दसां सप्त धातव: । हव्यकव्यामृतान्नानां जिह्वा सर्वरसस्य च ॥ १ ॥
brahmovāca vācāṁ vahner mukhaṁ kṣetraṁ chandasāṁ sapta dhātavaḥ havya-kavyāmṛtānnānāṁ jihvā sarva-rasasya ca
Brahmā dit : La bouche du Virāṭ-Puruṣa est le centre d’où naît la parole, et sa divinité régente est Agni. Sa peau et six autres enveloppes sont les foyers d’où procèdent les mètres védiques ; et sa langue est le centre producteur des offrandes havya et kavya, de l’amṛta, et des nourritures et saveurs destinées aux devas, aux ancêtres et aux hommes.
The opulences of the universal form of the Lord are described herein. It is said that His mouth is the generating center of all kinds of voices, and its controlling deity is the fire demigod. And His skin and other six layers of bodily construction are the representative generating centers of the seven kinds of Vedic hymns, like the Gāyatrī. Gāyatrī is the beginning of all Vedic mantras, and it is explained in the first volume of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Since the generating centers are the different parts of the universal form of the Lord, and since the form of the Lord is transcendental to the material creation, it is to be understood that the voice, the tongue, the skin, etc., suggest that the Lord in His transcendental form is not without them. The material voice, or the energy of taking in foodstuff, is generated originally from the Lord; such actions are but perverted reflections of the original reservoirs — the transcendental situation is not without spiritual variegatedness. In the spiritual world, all the perverted forms of material variegatedness are fully represented in their original spiritual identity. The only difference is that material activities are contaminated by the three modes of material nature, whereas the potencies in the spiritual world are all pure because they are engaged in the unalloyed transcendental loving service of the Lord. In the spiritual world, the Lord is the sublime enjoyer of everything, and the living entities there are all engaged in His transcendental loving service without any contamination of the modes of material nature. The activities in the spiritual world are without any of the difficulties of the material world, but there is no question of impersonal voidness on the spiritual platform, as suggested by the impersonalists. Devotional service is defined in the Nārada-pañcarātra as follows:
FAQs
This verse links speech and the mouth to Agni, showing that offerings and sacred recitation function through the ‘mouth-fire’ principle, where Vedic meters sustain the sacrificial act.
Brahmā is mapping cosmic functions onto the sacrificial and bodily system: through the tongue and mouth, offerings are presented—havya for the devas and kavya for the ancestors—along with all nourishments.
Use speech and the tongue in sacred service—truthful words, mantra-japa, kīrtana, and honoring sanctified food (prasāda)—so daily acts of speaking and eating become offerings.