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Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 10: Chapter 2: Verses 27-33
This beginningless tree of creation indeed has one ground (in the shape of Prakrti or Primordial Matter),a couple of fruits (in the form of pleasure and pain), three roots (in the form of the three modes of Prakrti viz., Sattva, Rajas and Tamas), four kinds of sap (in the form of the four objects of human pursuit, viz., religious merit, earthly possessions, sensuous pleasure and final Beatitude), five media of perception (in the form of the five senses of perception), six states (viz., birth, existence, growth, ripeness, decay and destruction or six forms of anguish, viz., hunger and thirst, grief and infatuation, old age and death), seven layers of barks (in the form of the seven constituents of a body, viz., chyle, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow and semen), eight boughs (in the shape of the five elements-viz., earth, water, fire, air and ether-mind, reason and ego) and nine hollows (in the form of the nine apertures of the body, viz., the two sockets of eyes, the two cavities of ears, the two nostrils, the mouth and the organs of urination and defecation) and a pair of birds (viz., the individual soul and the Inner Controller inhabiting it) and is endowed with ten leaves (in the form of the ten vital airs, viz., Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana, Samana, Naga, Karma, Krkala, Devadatta and Dhananjaya).
You alone are the Cause of the aforesaid tree in the form of the
phenomenal universe; You are its resting-place and you are its preserver (too). Those whose wisdom is clouded by Your Maya (deluding potency) look upon You as many, (but) not so those who are wise. Being the Spirit, which is consciousness itself, . You repeatedly assume (reveal) for the welfare of the mobile and the immobile creation forms constituted of Sattva (unmixed with Rajas and Tamas), which bring delight to the righteous and are harmful (bring destruction) to the wicked. With their mind fixed through concentration on You, the embodiment of pure Sattva, 0 lotus-eyed Lord, the select few (those endowed The Sruti text says:- with intelligence) cross the ocean of mundane existence like the foot-print of a calf with the help of the vessel in the form of Your feet, made available (shown) by the exalted. Having themselves duly crossed the terrible ocean of metempsychosis, (so) very difficult to cross, O self-effulgent Lord, and leaving behind the bark of Your lotus-feet (setting an example of their devotion) here (on this side of the ocean) the aforesaid (wise men), full of unbounded compassion (for the afflicted), have reached the other shore (without any exertion), gracious as You are to the righteous.
Others (those treading the path of Knowledge unmixed with Devotion), who regard themselves as liberated, 0 lotus-eyed One, and whose mind is not very pure due to lack of devotion to You and because they have failed to adore Your feet, fall down from their position even on attaining with (great) difficulty a high state (in the form of noble birth, learning and asceticism, so favourable to Liberation.) Those devotees of Yours, who have fastened their (deep) affection on You, 0 Spouse of Lakmi, do not, under any circumstance, stray in that way from the path (of Devotion). Protected on all sides by You and therefore rid of all fear (on the other hand), 0 Lord, they move about freely, setting their foot on the heads of the commanders of gods presiding over obstacles.
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