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Kashyapa said:"—To him whose foot-falls are mighty,²⁹³ who is the nascent cause of the universe, who is the Supreme, who is the creator of the world (potent cause), who is attained only through virtue (Dharma), who is the Lord of grace (_i.e._, metes out grace to them who worship and adore him), who is Self-controlled and endued with divine energy—I bow down to that illustrious lord of the universe (29). He is the lord of the celestials. He is the destroyer of sin. Through his instrumentality the universe extends, He being the cause nascent and potential. The image of His intelligence, the sacred waters hold.²⁹⁴ I seek refuge with the Supreme ruler of the universe (30). He, who under the semblance of a self-controlled ascetic, slew the uncontrolled who were ignorant of the doctrines of the Vedanta and tried to do away with the friendly qualities, He, whose semblance is delightful, and whose origin is sacred, I seek the protection of that lord of the universe with my (bent) head (31). That great and undisputed Master of the universe, who takes under his benign protection the advanced (_i.e._, that is morally and religiously) section of worldly beings, He who is the Light of all lights. He, who is identified with the semblance of Brahma known by the designation of Sukrita—is immutable and indomitable; that bestower of boons on those sages who perform penances living upon the juice of the Soma plant and the beams of the moon; may that Being nourish me with his Eternal Energy! (32) He who is demonstrated in the Atharva Veda; He whose heads²⁹⁵ are beautiful, He who is the origin of the beings, who is accomplished, heroic, and destroyer of the Danavas; He who in sacrifices is the sanctified sacrificial burnt offering;—I do seek the refuge of that Divine Being, the Lord of the universe (33). He in whom this illusory universal net is woven; He who is the universe and its soul; He who discovers happiness for his votaries and travels in a vehicle that soars high in the heavens; may that Lord of the universe be ever graciously pleased with me, (or be the source of constant happiness to me) (34). I do bow down to the furious Mahādeva who wanders in our hearts, who is Absolute Intelligence whose branches (the Vedas that have come out of Him) are all beautiful, who is the highly powerful leader of virtue, worshipful, thousand-eyed, distributer of fruits of actions done in a hundred different ways, and who is the creator of the worlds (35). He that is pure (unconsorted) attainable through Yoga, praised in the Vedas, beyond the reach of sin, the cause of destruction, the source of the world's weal and woe, the Lord of all creation, the upholder of the burden of the universe, the master of the senses, and the resort of the destructive agencies (such as time, &c.,) I do approach, with a bent head, that god whose forehead is beautified with a crescent (36). He who wields the trident, who gives fruition (of acts) soon, who reduces the influence of the evil passions and increases such qualities as quietude, &c., who is identical with such pious acts as sacrifices, &c., who is that quality of religious merit through which sins dwindle away soon, who is the recipient of the fruits of religious merit consequent on deeds performed with sanctity and the principle of goodness, who is the real essence of all, and who has taken the vow (of purity)—I do seek protection from him (37). He who is infinite in energy, who is the upholder of all actions, the Primary Being, who is (unlike other gods) free from sacrificial modes, and is endowed with knowledge—He who is the cause of the commencement of sacrifices by sacrificial priests, the eater of sacrificial _Havis_; who is the first-born in the universe, and the eldest of creation, and who is like a Brāhmana among the pious—I do seek his refuge (38). He who transcends the _Gunas_ (the elements of creation), who is like Vishnu the son of Prisni, who transcends the illusory creation—and agitates the universe through his beatitude, whose semblance is charming; who is of pure self, who is also—but intelligence, who practises _Maya_ in dealing with the wicked—I bow down to him (39). I bow down to Him who is the Omkara of half syllables of the Yogis who is free from harmful acts and the identity of Virtue, who is firm in vow, and in (handing) the bow, who is the act of throwing, who is heroic, accomplished in bowmanship, beyond the reach of weapons and the Lord of the living creation, and its destroyer (40). He who is without a second (sole matchless) the friend of all, the past and the future, the discoverer of _Havi_, (sacrificial burnt offerings), in the shape of fire, the destroyer of all passions as lust, &c., the slayer of Rākshasas, who is undivisible, and the divider,—may that illustrious God protect me (41). That one Lord of the worlds, who though one—enters into every thing of the universe, that one who gave the vital breaths (Maruts) their life, breath, (i.e., he who is the life of life), he who, out of his innate harmlessness, is ever attended upon by friendliness and amiability, may that god of good actions lead me to-day to blessings and happiness (42). He, who in the shape of Brahmā, created the Satyaloka together with the essence of goodness, and the entire illusory universe, who is all-cognizant and the knower of Brahma and is endowed with six excellences, whose semblance is numerous, in his different enemy-destroying incarnations, may that god protect me! (43) He who is the revealer of the supersensuous and the sensuous objects, who is increate and self-sufficient, who is entire and undivided who is in contact with the sense-objects, the granter of prosperities, the giver of life, the wearer of deer-skin, who is Supreme Ecstacy, the life of the blowing winds, the receptacle of conception, the creator of happiness—may that Lord bless me accompanied by his two wives (44). He who posseses three eyes, who gives nourishment, who, to inculcate religion to the twice-born ones, accords boons to the sacrificers, He who is the most excellent of the excellent the winner of victory in battles, the Lord, the God of the gods,—I resort to the protection of that Rudra (45). He that is the mouth of the gods in the shape of fire, the destroyer of the evil doers, who is the _Soma_ sacrifice, the annihilator of the tree of Mundane Existence, the witness of all the actions, the source of dissolution of all things,—I seek refuge with that Lord of Beings, Rudra, the knower of the _Gunas_ and their repository (46). He who is prideless, the performer of sacrifices, the beginning, the middle and the end of the worlds, the condition of peace and unification,—he who is sung in the sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas as numerous different gods, and He who is the regulator even of the celestial world, I seek refuge with that Rudra (47). He who is the wearer of the elephant-skin, the performer of vows and observances, who is decorated with a zone, who is easily pleasable, the controller of anger free from sin, ever-existent, and the Supreme Soul, who is immanent in Nature, the wearer of matted locks, I bow, down to that Lord, the adorable of the adorable (48). The god of gods, the holy of holies, the sacrifice of sacrifices, the greatest of the great, He of hundred (infinite) semblances, the Master of all the masters of the senses, (i.e., eye of eyes, ear of ears, &c.,) the ever-praised one, I seek refuge with him. (49). He who is the wonder of all hearts, the Purusha of mysterious appellation, the self-manifest _Pranava_, who is revealed even in the absence of such revealing agencies as light and the eyes, &c., and He, who is the potent cause of the divine image known as _Jiva_, I bow down to that god endued with the qualities and the repository of all bliss (50). He who is the producer of the both (matter and mind) but is himself unproduced, (or He from whom matter and mind have been born but who did not produce them, He transcending all causes) who is subtle (inconceivable) and simultaneously the same with and different from all created beings (unified and differentiated) who is self-existent, the place of dissolution of existence, the benign Giver who is sweetness, ecstacy and beatitude, may He protect me (51). He who is near to every body, and revealed to those who are possessed of _Sadhana_, who is the bestower of such knowledge as 'I am absolute', to those who reverentially believe in Him, the presiding Deity of the great and the good actions, He who is fulfiller of the desires and the fulfillment of the Six Excellences, may that Lord protect me (52). He who is destroyer of the mental and physical sources of pain, the efficient as well as the material cause, the evolver (of the passions) may that God of gods, that one possessed of Supreme Energy, cut off the cause of pain of me and of the pious, wielding his potent weapons (53). By whom in the days of yore the guileful Danavas who used to give much pain to the gods, were cut with dreadful arrows and eradicated as so many thorns, may that upholder of the water of the universe, that Supreme Lord, protect me! (54)