Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 10 Chapter 23:44-52

Book 10: Twenty-three Chapter (First Half)

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 10: Chapter 23: Verses 44-52 Oh, the Lord (who is the mainstay and the goal of the virtuous) awakened through the words of the cowherd boys us, who were surely deluded in the matter of our (real) self-interest and whose judgment had been vitiated by our household activities ! Otherwise what could He gain through us, who are subject to His control-He who has all His desires fulfilled and who is capable of bestowing all blessings, the highest of them being final beatitude ? And His begging food of us (too) was a mere imitation. Supplication (for boiled rice) on the part of the Lord-whom Sri (the goddess of beauty and prosperity) constantly waits upon with the hope of securing the touch of His feet, renouncing all others (Brahma and so on, who sought Her favour) and giving up Her own faults of fickleness etc.-deludes the (common) people. We have actually heard that the selfsame Lord Visnu, the Ruler of (all) masters of Yoga-who constitutes the time and place of performing a sacrifice, the diverse substances (intended for being offered to the sacrificial fire), the mystic formulae (employed for invoking the various deities and recited while pouring oblations into the sacred fire), the procedure of conducting a sacrifice, the priests officiating at a sacrifice, the sacrificial fires, the divinities (sought to be propitiated through a sacrifice), the sacrificer, the act of sacrifice (itself) and the religious merit (flowing from a sacrificial performance)-has Himself appeared in the race of the Yadus; yet we could not recognize Him, fools that we are. Oh most blessed are we, in whose lot have fallen such wives as these, through whose devotion our mind (too) has been irrevocably fixed on Sri Hari.. Hail to You, the almighty Lord Sri Krsna, whose intellect knows no obstruction. It is (only) because our judgment has been clouded by your Maya (deluding potency) that we are wandering in the alleys of Karma. May that most ancient Person be pleased as a matter of fact to forgive the transgression on our part, who did not know His glory, infatuated as we were by His Maya." Recalling thus their own offence again and again the aforesaid Brahmanas, who had shown disrespect to Sri Krsna (by turning a deaf ear to His request for being supplied with boiled rice), did not stir out, afraid as they were of Kamsa, though eager to behold the two immortal Brothers. Thus ends the twenty-third discourse entitled "The Redemption of the wives of some Brahmanas engaged in a sacrifice", in the first half of Book Ten of the great and glorious Bhagavata-Purana, otherwise known as the Paramahamsa-Samhita.