SRI BRAHMA-SAMHITA

Verse 1

isvarah paramah krsnah sachchidananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govinda sarva-karana-karanam [1]

Translation: The Supreme Lord, the embodiment of truth, consciousness and joy, is Govinda Krishna. He is beginningless, the origin of all that be, and the cause of all causes.

Purport: With His personal eternal Name, eternal form, eternal qualities and eternal pastimes, Krishna alone shines resplendent above all other entities as the Supreme. The Name ‘Krishna’ is His eternal Name that proclaims Him to be the supreme existence by His characteristic of attracting the Love of all beings. His form of concentrated truth (sat), consciousness (chit) and joy (ananda), of two-armed humanlike feature and charming heavenly dark blue (Shyamasundar) hue, holding the flute (Muralidhar), is His personal eternal character.

By the power of His own inconceivable potency, despite His almighty majestic nature, in His charming medium-sized form He attracts all that be; in that eternal form, His nature as the autocrat possessing miraculous transcendental qualities, senses, etc., is unique with all-embracing harmony. Truth, immortal consciousness and divine ecstasy have their full glory in Him, with absolute concentrated intensity.

Paramatma, the omnipresent Supersoul, the almighty God, or Isvar—Vishnu the Preserver—is but the portion of His intrinsic self, manifest within the mundane world. Therefore Krishna is the one and only Supreme Godhead, or Paramesvar (isvarah paramah krsnah). Although His infinite transcendental senses and qualities are all clearly distinct from one another, by His inconceivable potency they are perfectly situated, eternally appearing in the one absolutely charming, unrivalled transcendental form. That divine form is the self of Krishna, and the self of Krishna is that divine form. His divine form is the entity of absolute concentrated intensity of being, cognizance and ecstasy; and so the attributeless, formless Spirit, or Brahman, the unconcentrated principle of being, cognizance and bliss, is merely the bodily effulgence of that entity of absolute concentrated intensity.

The divine intrinsic form of Krishna is in itself without origin, and it is the origin of Brahman and Paramatman. That selfsame Krishna, who is served by Sri, the original Goddess of Fortune, is Govinda—who may be viewed according to His pastimes as Gopati, the Lord of the cows; Gopapati, the Lord of the cowherds; Gopipati, the Lord of the cowherd damsels; Gokulapati, the Lord of the divine village on Earth where cows flourish; and Golokapati, the Lord of the divine abode of cows. As both predominator and predominated, He is the cause of all causes: incited by the glance of His fractional predominative descent (purusavatara) form of Paramatman, His predominated inferior potency creates the material world. The unlimited individual souls, or jivas, are the manifest marginal potency rays of effulgence emanating from that Paramatman.

This holy book establishes the supremacy of Lord Krishna, and thus the auspicious invocation to the book is accomplished by chanting His Name.

• For Reader's Appreciation
• Feelings of Appreciation
• Prologue
• Translator's Note
• Illumination
• Verse 1
• Verse 2
• Verse 3
• Verse 4
• Verse 5
• Verse 6
• Verse 7
• Verse 8
• Verse 9

• Verse 11
• Verse 12
• Verse 13
• Verse 14
• Verse 15
• Verse 16
• Verse 17
• Verse 18
• Verse 19

• Verse 20
• Verse 21
• Verse 22
• Verse 23
• Verse 24
• Verse 25
• Verse 26
• Verse 27
• Verse 28
• Verse 29

• Verse 30
• Verse 31
• Verse 32
• Verse 33
• Verse 34
• Verse 35
• Verse 36
• Verse 37
• Verse 38
• Verse 39

• Verse 40
• Verse 41
• Verse 42
• Verse 43
• Verse 44
• Verse 45
• Verse 46
• Verse 47
• Verse 48
• Verse 49

• Verse 50
• Verse 51
• Verse 52
• Verse 53
• Verse 54
• Verse 55
• Verse 56
• Verse 57
• Verse 58
• Verse 59

• Verse 60
• Verse 61
• Verse 62

• Verse Contents

Download (epub)
Download (pdf)