Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 1 Chapter 6:17-30

Book 1: Chapter 6

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 1: Chapter 6: Verses 17-30 The rest of the story of Narada's previous birth Even as I meditated on His lotus-feet with a mind overpowered by love, tears rushed to my eyes as a result of eagerness to behold Sri Hari, who gradually appeared on the screen of my heart. The hair of my body stood on end due to an outburst of love, and my heart experienced a thrill of excessive joy and tranquillity. Immersed in a flood of ecstasy, O sage, I lost consciousness of both myself and the object of my perception (Sri Hari). Even as I failed to perceive that indescribable form of the Lord, which was enrapturing to the heart and dispelled all grief, I felt disturbed and sprang on my feet like one troubled at heart. Longing to behold it once more, I fixed the mind on my heart and looked for it, but could not see it. Now I felt miserable like one whose desire had not been sated. To me thus struggling in that lonely forest, the Lord, who is beyond words, spoke in sublime yet soft words, as if to soothe my grief "Alas ! in this birth you are unfit to behold Me; for I am difficult of perception for those who have not attained perfection in Yoga (Devotion), and the impurities of whose heart have not yet been wholly-burnt. It was only to arouse in you a burning desire to see Me that I have once revealed My form to you. One who longs to see Me shakes off gradually but completely all one' s latent desires. Through services rendered by you to the saints even for a short period your thought has been irrevocably fixed on Me. Therefore, casting off this reprehensible (material) body you will attain to the position of my own attendant. The thought you have thus fixed on Me shall never cease. And by My grace you will continue to remember Me even when the whole creation has perished:" Having said this much, that great invisible Being, the Ruler of all and omnipresent as ether, stopped short. Realizing His unique grace I for my part bowed my head to Him, the greatest of the great. Shaking off all shyness I now began to repeat the mysterious and auspicious names and fixed my thoughts on the exploits of the infinite Lord. Rid of all cravings, free from vanity and jealousy and contented at heart, I roamed about on the globe awaiting my end. To me, who had my thoughts fixed on Sri Krsna, who was free from attachment and whose heart was thus purified, death came at the appointed hour like a flash of lightning, O holy sage. When I was about to be translated to the immaterial form of an attendant of the Lord, my material body fell, the Prarabdha that had been responsible for it having been reaped. At the end of the preceding Kalpa, when Lord Narayana slept on the waters of the universal Deluge, having reabsorbed the whole creation into Himself, and when Brahma was going to enter His body and sleep there, I too (my subtle body) entered His body with the ingoing breath.