Friday, June 17, 2011

Extraction from Vishnu Puranam

Śrí, the bride of Vishńu, the mother of the world, is eternal, imperishable; in like manner as he is all-pervading, so also is she, oh best of Brahmans, omnipresent.

Vishńu is meaning; she is speech.
Hari is polity (Naya); she is prudence (Níti).
Vishńu is understanding; she is intellect.
He is righteousness; she is devotion.
He is the creator; she is creation.
Śrí is the earth; Hari the support of it.
The deity is content; the eternal Lakshmí is resignation.
He is desire; Śrí is wish.
He is sacrifice; she is sacrificial donation (Dakshiná).
The goddess is the invocation which attends the oblation; Janárddana is the oblation.
Lakshmí is the chamber where the females are present (at a religious ceremony); Madhusúdana the apartment of the males of the family.
Lakshmí is the altar; Hari the stake (to which the victim is bound).
Śrí is the fuel; Hari the holy grass (Kuśa).
He is the personified Sáma veda; the goddess, lotus-throned, is the tone of its chanting.
Lakshmí is the prayer of oblation (Swáhá); Vásudeva, the lord of the world, is the sacrificial fire.
Saurí (Vishńu) is Śankara (Śiva); and Śrí is the bride of Śiva (Gaurí).
Keśava, oh Maitreya, is the sun; and his radiance is the lotus-seated goddess.
Vishńu is the tribe of progenitors (Pitrigana); Padma. is their bride (Swadhá), the eternal bestower of nutriment.
Śrí is the heavens; Vishńu, who is one with all things, is wide extended space.
The lord of Śrí is the moon; she is his unfading light.
She is called the moving principle of the world; he, the wind which bloweth every where.
Govinda is the ocean; Lakshmí its shore.
Lakshmí is the consort of Indra (Indrání); Madhusúdana is Devendra.
The holder of the discus (Vishńu) is Yama (the regent of Tartarus); the lotus-throned goddess is his dusky spouse (Dhúmorná).
Śrí is wealth; Śridhara (Vishńu) is himself the god of riches (Kuvera).
Lakshmí, illustrious Brahman, is Gaurí; and Keśava, is the deity of ocean (Varuna).
Śrí is the host of heaven (Devasená); the deity of war, her lord, is Hari.
The wielder of the mace is resistance; the power to oppose is Śrí.
Lakshmí is the Kásht́há and the Kalá; Hari the Nimesha and the Muhúrtta.
Lakshmí is the light; and Hari, who is all, and lord of all, the lamp.
She, the mother of the world, is the creeping vine; and Vishńu the tree round which she clings.
She is the night; the god who is armed with the mace and discus is the day.
He, the bestower of blessings, is the bridegroom; the lotus-throned goddess is the bride.
The god is one with all male--the goddess one with all female, rivers.
The lotus-eyed deity is the standard; the goddess seated on a lotus the banner.
Lakshmí is cupidity; Náráyańa, the master of the world, is covetousness.
Oh thou who knowest what righteousness is, Govinda is love; and Lakshmí, his gentle spouse, is pleasure.

But why thus diffusely enumerate their presence: it is enough to say, in a word, that of gods, animals, and men, Hari is all that is called male; Lakshmí is all that is termed female: there is nothing else than they.

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