The Garuda Purana

GARUDA PURANA

Hari the Remover of Sorrows, Vishnu the Pervader, and Jishnu the Victorious—he is the one with the lotus-navel and is without a physical body. He is purity itself and the very source of all purification. He is both the impersonal, supreme Self and the individual soul; he is the great Ishwara Supreme Lord who unites all souls within himself. In him, all worlds and elements exist, and into him, they eventually return. All the gunas the fundamental qualities of nature and the elements exist within that Lord of elements, just as pearls are held together by a single thread.

He possesses a thousand eyes, a thousand heads, a thousand thighs, and a most beautiful face. He is the smallest of the small, the firmest of the firm, the heaviest of the heavy, and the finest of all that is good. In sacred words, letters, and both the primary and secondary holy scriptures, and in the true Saman the chants of the Sama Veda, he is praised as the ultimate Truth and the author of all true deeds.

He is called the ancient Purusha the Cosmic Person and is known as Brahma the Creator among the "twice-born" This refers to the dvija, or members of the three upper social classes who have undergone spiritual initiation.. In the act of destruction, he is called Sankarshana the aspect of the Divine that draws the universe back into himself. I therefore adore him, in whom all these worlds shine just as the Shakula fishes a type of trout or carp mentioned in ancient texts glimmer in the water.

He is the Divine Law, the sacred syllable Om, the Creator, the "That" original: "Tat." A reference to the ultimate, indescribable reality., the existent and the non-existent, and the Supreme. The celestials, the Yakshas nature spirits, the Rakshasas The original OCR reads "Kakshasas," likely a transcription error for Rakshasas, or guardian/demonic spirits., and the Pannagas serpent-deities all adore him.

Fire is his mouth, the heavens are his head, the sky is his navel, and the earth constitutes his feet; the sun and moon are his two eyes. I meditate upon him. I meditate on that deity whose breath is the wind, in whose belly the three worlds exist, and whose arms are the very divisions of time. I meditate on that deity in whose hair the clouds reside, and in the joints of whose body the four oceans are found. I meditate on that deity who exists beyond time, beyond sacrifice, and beyond the concepts of existence and non-existence—he who is the beginning and the end of the universe.

I meditate on that deity from whose mind the moon was born, from whose eyes the sun emerged, and from whose mouth fire was produced. I meditate on that deity from whose feet the earth was created, from whose ears the cardinal directions were formed, and from whose head the Div the celestial or heavenly realm originated. I meditate on that deity from whom have proceeded the works of primary and secondary creation, the various races of beings, the Manwantaras the vast cyclical ages of humanity, and the histories of the great families.