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Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 4: Chapter 7: Verses 37-45
Completion of Daksa's Sacrifice
The guardians of the spheres said : Can You be seen with our senses, revealing as they do this unreal (illusory) world of matter-You, who witness things from within our heart and by whom all this phenomenal world is seen ? It is Your Maya (conjuring feat), 0 infinite Lord, that though the sixth (transcending the five elements), You appear invested with a material body (consisting of the five elements).
The Masters of Yoga (Sanaka and others) said : No one else is dearer to You than he, 0 Lord, who sees no difference between You, the Soul of the universe, and himself. Nevertheless, be gracious. O Lover of Your devotees, to them (as well) who resort to You with exclusive devotion as to their master. By Your Maya, which exhibits a large variety of Gunas (Sattva etc.), due to the destiny (of the Jivas), You give rise to a sense of diversity (in the people) with regard to Your Self (by assuming a multiplicity of forms such as Brahma, Visnu and Siva) for the creation, preservation and destruction of the universe, although in Your own (absolute) state You have cast off from Your Self all motions of diversity as well as the three Gunas (which are responsible for the same). Obeisance to You.
Brahma (Veda Incarnate) said : Hail to You, who take upon Yourself the quality of Sattva (goodness) in order to yield Dharma (righteousness) and the other objects of human pursuit, and are at the same time destitute of all attributes, and whose real nature neither I nor even others know.
Agni (the god of fire) said : With my flames brightly kindled by Your effulgence I bear (to the gods) the oblations soaked in clarified butter in every good sacrifice. You are Yajna (sacrifice) personified as well as the Protector of sacrifices. You are fivefold in character (in the form of the five varieties[1] of sacrifices) and are duly worshipped with the five kinds of sacrificial formulas [2] occuring in the Yajurveda. I bow low to You. The gods (in a body) said : At the end of the (previous) round of creation and before this creation it was You, the first Person, who reposed on the excellent bed of Sesa (the lord of serpents) on those waters (that submerged all the three worlds). The selfsame You, the way of whose realization is sought after in their heart (even) by the Siddhas (a class of celestial beings naturally endowed with the eight mystic powers such as Anima and so on), have appeared before our eyes today and protect us, Your dependants (servants) !
The Gandharvas (celestial musicians) said : These Mafici and other sages as well as the hosts of divinities such as Brahma (the creator), Indra (the lord of paradise), and others with Rudra at their head, are but rays of Your part manifestations, O shining one. We ever make obeisance to You, infinite Lord, to whom this universe is a mere toy-box. The Vidyadharas (a class of demigods) said : (Even) after attaining the human body, a means of realizing the (highest) object of human pursuit (viz., Moksa or final beatitude), the foolish Jiva (embodied soul) regards it as his own, nay, his very self and, though reproached by his own senses, that have strayed from the path of virtue, he longs only for the unreal (illusory) pleasures of sense. He alone who quaffs the nectar of Your stories is able to shake off completely the infatuation of his mind. The Brahmanas said : You are the sacrifice; You are the offering; You are Yourself the fire (that consumes the offerings poured into it). You are the Mantra (the sacred text recited at the time of pouring the oblations), the sacrificial wood (with which the fire is fed and kept alive), the (sacred) Kusa grass and the (sacrificial) vessels. And You are the priests superintending, and officiating at, the sacrifice, the sacrificer and his wife, the deity (sought to be propitiated through the sacrifice), the act of offering oblations into the sacred fire, the oblation offered to the manes, the juice extracted from the Soma plant (used as a libation to the gods), clarified butter (also poured into the sacred fire as an offering to the gods) and the sacrificial animal.
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