Shloka 23
Puruṣa-sūkta Logic of the Virāṭ: Cosmic Anatomy, Sacrifice, and the Lord’s Transcendence
यदास्य नाभ्यान्नलिनादहमासं महात्मन: । नाविदं यज्ञसम्भारान् पुरुषावयवानृते ॥ २३ ॥
yadāsya nābhyān nalinād aham āsaṁ mahātmanaḥ nāvidaṁ yajña-sambhārān puruṣāvayavān ṛte
เมื่อข้าพเจ้าเกิดจากดอกบัวที่พระนาภีของมหาบุรุษ มหา-วิษณุ ข้าพเจ้าไม่มีเครื่องประกอบพิธีบูชายัญใดๆ นอกจากอวัยวะแห่งพระวรกายของพระบุคคลสูงสุดนั้นเอง
Lord Brahmā, the creator of the cosmic manifestation, is known as Svayambhū, or one who is born without father and mother. The general process is that a living creature is born out of the sex combination of the male father and the female mother. But Brahmā, the firstborn living being, is born out of the abdominal lotus flower of the Mahā-Viṣṇu plenary expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The abdominal lotus flower is part of the Lord’s bodily limbs, and Brahmā is born out of the lotus flower. Therefore Lord Brahmā is also a part of the Lord’s body. Brahmā, after his appearance in the gigantic hollow of the universe, saw darkness and nothing else. He felt perplexity, and from his heart he was inspired by the Lord to undergo austerity, thereby acquiring the ingredients for sacrificial performances. But there was nothing besides the two of them, namely the Personality of Mahā-Viṣṇu and Brahmā himself, born of the bodily part of the Lord. For sacrificial performances many ingredients were in need, especially animals. The animal sacrifice is never meant for killing the animal, but for achieving the successful result of the sacrifice. The animal offered in the sacrificial fire is, so to speak, destroyed, but the next moment it is given a new life by dint of the Vedic hymns chanted by the expert priest. When such an expert priest is not available, the animal sacrifice in the fire of the sacrificial altar is forbidden. Thus Brahmā created even the sacrificial ingredients out of the bodily limbs of the Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, which means that the cosmic order was created by Brahmā himself. Also, nothing is created out of nothing, but everything is created from the person of the Lord. The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8) , ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: “Everything is made from My bodily limbs, and I am therefore the original source of all creations.”
FAQs
This verse says Brahmā understood the components of yajña only by seeing them as the limbs of the Puruṣa—showing that sacrifice is fundamentally an offering to, and dependent on, the Lord.
Because at the beginning of creation he lacked practical knowledge of cosmic order; he received clarity by relating all sacrificial elements to the Supreme Person’s universal body, establishing the Lord as the basis of dharma and ritual.
See all resources and actions as belonging to God and use them in service—turning daily work, offerings, and gratitude into a simple form of yajña centered on devotion.