Śrīmad Devī Bhāgavatam

Vyāsa said: O King! I am now recounting the detailed glory of Māyā, heard by me from Nārada.

Again I asked sage Nārada who is the most omniscient of all, after hearing the story of that sage in the female body.

O Nārada! Tell me! What did Hari say at that time? Where did Mādhava the lord of the universe go along with you?

Nārada said: After saying thus, in that beautiful lake, the lord made up his mind to go to Vaikuntha, mounting on Garuda.

Mahāvisnu, the consort of Lakṣmi, told me. O Nārada! go as you wish. Or come to my world. Do as you wish.

After taking leave of Madhusūdana, I went to Brahmaloka. Viṣṇu the lord of Devas, seated on Garuda, went to Vaikuntha quickly, in a happy manner after directing me. When Janārdana was gone, I went to the region of my father (i.e., Brahmā).

Then king about all the wonderful miseries and the joys undergone, I went to my father and after prostrating to him, stood before him.

Then seeing me tormented by thoughts, my father Brahmā asked: O great one! Where had you gone? Son! Why are you troubled by thoughts?

O great sages! I do not see your mind happy today. You have been deceived by some body. Or you have seen some wonder.

O Son! How can I see you sad and devoid of discrimination? Nārada said: Thus I was asked by my father. I sat on the seat. I told him my story arising out of the power of Māyā. O father! I have been cheated by the powerful Mahāvisnu.

I was made to attain the state of a woman for many many years. Extreme misery arising out of death of son was experienced by me.

I was instructed by him by nectarine sweet words about my real nature. Again after taking bath in that tank. I became a man (the old) Nārada.

O Brahman! What is the reason that I attained delusion at that time? Earlier knowledge was forgotten. I became identified with that female form, so quickly.

O Brahman! This is the strength of Māyā, which is difficult to cross. It is beyond my understanding. It destroyed all my knowledge. It was a clear cause of delusion.

I experienced it (power of Māyā) well. All good and bad were known. Of father! How did you attain victory over it? Tell me that clue.

O Muni! When my Father learnt the cause of my cares, he smiled and spoke to me in sweet words :--

“O Child! The Devas, the high-souled Munis, the wise ascetics and the Yogis subsisting on air only are not able to conquer this Māyā. O Nārada! The power of Māyā is so very great that I, Viṣṇu and Śambhu, the Lord of Umā, none are able to know Her power.

That Mahāmāyā is creating, preserving and dissolving this world by Time, Karma, and Nature and other efficient causes.

O Child! Know Her to be inconceivable and unapproachable. O Intelligent One! Do not be sorry nor should you be surprised about Māyā’s great strength, for we all are deluded by Her.

O Dvaipāyan! Thus advised by my Father, my wonder disappeared. I then asked permission of my Father Padma Yoni (Lotus-born) and went out on tour round the sacred places of pilgrimages and on my way, seeing by and by the chief Tīrthas, I have now come here.

Therefore, O Muni! Dost thou relinquish your sorrows for the extinction of the Kuru’s family and remain here and pass your time in great joy and happiness. One must bear the fruits of one’s Karma, good or bad; knowing this fully roam at your will wherever you like.

Vyāsa said :-- O King! Maharṣi Nārada thus kindling knowledge in me, went away; I also thought over his words.

On the banks of the river Sarasvatī, I composed this Devī Bhāgavat to pass away my time during the excellent period of Sārasvata Kalpa.

This Purāṇam is excellent; it is composed on the authority of the the Vedas; all doubts are removed by it; many nice events are narrated here.

Therefore, O King! Not the least doubt should be entertained. As a magician makes the wooden dolls dance in his hands at his will, so this world-enchanting Māyā is making this world, moving and non-moving, dance from Brahmā down to the blades of grass and all human beings.

O King! Know Māyā’s triple Guṇas to be the cause of this mind consisting of five organs of senses, that follows the Chitta (mind, buddhi and Ahamkāra).

Actions arise from the causes thereof; there is no doubt in this; what doubt, then, there can arise that all these creatures of different temperaments will come out of the different Guṇas of Māyā. Peaceful, terrible and stupid become the persons in contact with the Mayic Guṇas.

How, then, can they exist, bereft of them? As the cloth cannot exist without threads, so the embodied beings cannot exist in the world without the triple Guṇas of Māyā. There is no doubt in this. As a pot cannot be made without clay, so these bodies, Devas, human or birds, cannot be created without the Guṇas. Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, too, are possessed of those three Guṇas and therefore they become sometimes happy and satisfied, sometimes unhappy and dissatisfied and sometimes they become sad and remorseful as they are then under the influence of one Guṇa or the other.

Brahmā happens at times to be full of wisdom and knowledge, his temper peaceful, sweet and pleasant and his soul rapt in Samādhi, when he becomes possessed of Sāttva Guṇa; again when he is void of Sāttva and filled with Rājo Guṇa, His temper becomes unpleasant and his appearance gets dark and awful everywhere; and when he becomes grossly Tāmasic, He becomes sorrowful and bereft entirely of intelligence.

Viṣṇu, when resting in Sāttva, becomes peaceful, sweet-tempered, and full of knowledge; when Rājo Guṇa preponderates in Him, He becomes void of sweetness and becomes awful to all the beings.

The whole world is under the control of Māyā; the Devas, men and all other beings. None should doubt on this point. All the embodied beings labour under the directions of Māyā; never can they work independently.

This Māyā is again always residing in the Highest Essence, the Samvit or the Universal Pure Consciousness. Thus Māyā is dependent on the Highest Goddess, Who is of the nature of Samvit, and, stimulated by Her, resides in the hearts of all the Jīvas.

Therefore one ought to meditate, worship and bow down before the Bhagavatī, the Creatrix of Māyā and Who is of the nature of Samvit, Pure Existence, Intelligence and Bliss.

Thus She becomes gracious and merciful and liberates the Jīvas, giving them Her realisation and drawing together Her own Māyā away from them.

This whole cosmos is nothing but Māyā and the Consciousness (Samvit) of the nature of Brāhmaṇ is the Lord of Māyā. For this reason that Beautiful One in the triple worlds, the Devī Bhagavatī is known by the name Bhuvaneśvarī, the Great Lady of the worlds.

O King! If the Jīvas can fix their hearts on that Samvit, then Māyā, born of the real and unreal, is quite unable to do any harm to them.

No other Deva than the Bhuvaneśvarī, of the nature of pure existence, intelligence and bliss is able to remove this Māyā. O King! Darkness cannot destroy darkness; the Sun, Moon, Lightning or Fire can destroy it.

Therefore it is highly iñcumbent on us to worship the Lady of Māyā, the Samvit, the Mother with a cheerful heart to remove the Māyā and Her Guṇas. O King! Now I have narrated to you all the events concerning the killing of Vritrāsura that you asked.

What more do you want to hear now. O One devoted to vows! I have now described the first half of that Purāṇa, which describes in detail the glory of Śrī Devī Bhagavatī. This Purāṇa, the secret of this Mother of the whole Universe, is not to be disclosed indiscriminately to anybody.

Those that are peaceful, self-restrained, devoted, and possessed of Bhakti to the Devī, the disciples that are devoted to their Gurus and the eldest son, those are the fit recipients thereof.

Whoever reads or hears with greatest devotion this Mahāpurāṇam, equivalent to the Vedas, fraught with sound proofs and the essence of all talks, becomes, in this world, possessed of great wealth, becomes wise and passes his time in the greatest happiness. There is no doubt in this. Here ends the Thirty-first Chapter on the Sixth Book on the glory of Māyā in the Mahāpurāṇam Śrī Mad Devī Bhāgavatam of 18,000 verses by Maharṣi Veda Vyāsa.