Daily Invocations:4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday 22, November 2025, 07:25.
Books
Srimad Bhagavad Gita
Daily Invocations: 
4.The Purusha Sukta
Swami Krishnananda.

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4.The Purusha Sukta:

1.

ōm sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt,

sa bhūmiṁ viśvato vṛtvā'tyatiṣṭaddaśāgulam.

Thousand-headed is the Purusha, thousand-eyed and thousand-legged. Enveloping the earth from all sides, He transcends it by ten fingers' length.

Note:—This is the first mantra of the famous Purusha Sukta of the Veda. Here the transcendent totality of all creation is conceived as the Cosmic Person, the Universal Consciousness animating all manifestation. The word 'earth' is to be understood in the sense of all creation. 'Dasangulam' is interpreted as ten fingers' length, in which case it is said to refer to the distance of the heart from the navel, the former having been accepted as the seat of the Atma and the latter symbolic of the root of manifestation. The word 'ten' is also said to mean 'infinity', as numbers are only up to nine and what is above is regarded as numberless.

2.

puruṣa evedaṁ sarvaṁ yadbhūtaṁ yacca bhavyam,

utāmṛtattvasyeśāno yadannenātirohati.

etāvānasya mahimā ato jyāyāṁśca pūruṣaḥ,

pādo'sya viśvā bhūtāni tripādasyā'mṛtaṁ divi.

All this (manifestation) is the Purusha alone—whatever was and whatever will be. He is the Lord of Immortality, for He transcends all in His Form as food (the universe). Such is His Glory; but greater still is the Purusha. One-fourth of Him all beings are, (while) three-fourth of Him rises above as the Immortal Being.

3.

tripādūrdhva udaitpuruṣaḥ pādo'syehābhavātpunaḥ,

tato viśvaṅ vyakrāmatsāśanānaśane abhi.

tasmādvirāḍajāyata virājo adhipūruṣaḥ,

sa jāto atyaricyata paścādbhūmimatho puraḥ.

That, Three-footed (Immortal) Purusha stood above transcending (all things), and His one foot was this (world of becoming). Then He pervaded (everything) universally, the conscious as well as the unconscious. From That (Supreme Being) did the Cosmic Body (Virat) originate, and in this Cosmic Body did the Omnipresent Intelligence manifest itself. Having manifested Himself, He appeared as all diversity, and then as this earth and this body.

4.

yatpuruṣeṇa haviṣā devā yajñamatanvata,

vasanto asyāsīdājyam grīṣma idhmaḥ śaraddhaviḥ.

taṁ yajaṁ barhiṣi praukśan puruṣaṁ jātamagrataḥ,

tena devā ayajanta sādhyā ṛṣayaśca ye.

When (there being no external material other than the Purusha) the Devas performed a universal sacrifice (in contemplation by mind), with the Purusha Himself as the sacred offering, the spring season was the clarified butter, summer the fuel, autumn the oblation. They set up for sacrifice the Purusha as the object of their meditation—Him who was prior to all creation; and they, the Devas, Sadhyas and Rishis, performed (this first sacrifice).

5.

tasmādyajñātsarvahutaḥ saṁbhṛtaṁ pṛṣadājyam,

paśūṁstāṁścakre vāyavyānāraṇyān grāmyāścaye.

tasmādyajñātsarvahutaḥ ṛcaḥ sāmāni jajñire,

chandāṁsi jajñire tasmātyajustasmādajāyata.

From that (Purusha), who was of the form of a Universal Sacrifice, the sacred mixture of curds and ghee (for oblation) was produced. (Then) He brought forth the aerial beings, the forest-dwelling animals, and also the domestic ones. From that (Purusha), who was the Universal Sacrifice, the Riks and the Samans were produced; from Him the metres (of the mantras) were born; from Him the Yajus was born.

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6.
Continues

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