Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 11 Chapter 3:1-11

Book 11: Chapter3

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Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 11: Chapter 3: Verses 1-11

The king (Nimi) submitted : We wish to know the (true nature of) Maya (the deluding potency) of the supreme Lord Visnu, which bewilders even those who are adepts in Maya (conjuring tricks). You revered sirs may (kindly) tell us of it. I am a mortal sore afflicted by the sorrows of the world. Hearing your words narrating the nectar-like story of Sri Hari, which are the antidote for such afflictions, I do not feel satiated (desire to hear them again and again). Antariksa said : O mighty-armed one, Maya is that energy by which the most ancient Person, figuring as the Source of (the entire) creation, evolved with the help of these gross elements (all) forms of life, great and small, for the enjoyment and emancipation of embodied souls (His particles). Having thus (for the good of the Jivas) entered (as the Inner Controller of) all forms of life evolved by means of the five gross elements, the Supreme Person splits Himself up (and appears first) as one (in the form of the mind) and (further) into ten (in the form of the ten Indriyas) and makes them (the divas) enjoy the (various) pleasures (through them). Enjoying the (various) pleasures of sense by means of the senses illuminated by the (said) Inner Controller, the embodied soul identifies itself with this created body and gets attached to it. Performing with the organs of action actions prompted by interested motives and reaping the agreeable and disagreeable consequences of his varied actions (of past lives), the embodied soul revolves in this whirligig (of mundane life). Thus undergoing (various) forms of existence brought about by his (past) actions and carrying many evils (with them), the soul helplessly goes through (repeated) births and deaths till the final dissolution of creation. When the dissolution of the (five gross) elements is imminent, the Time-Spirit, endless and without beginning, actually draws the manifest universe, consisting of gross and subtle matter, towards the Unmanifest (primordial Matter). (Then) there appears on earth a dreadful drought lasting for a hundred years. The sun with its heat increased by the said Time-Spirit torments the three worlds. A (huge and terrible) fire rising from the (thousand) mouths of Sankarsana (the serpent-god) and, burning everything from the bottom of the subterranean world, shoots up in high flames and, propelled by the wind, spreads in all directions. The host of clouds charged with universal dissolution pour down showers, as thick as the trunk of an elephant, for one hundred years (without pause) with the result that the cosmos is submerged in water.

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