Brahmā’s Stotra to Kṛshṇa after the Calves Were Hidden

The Brahma Stotra is the hymn Brahmā offered to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa at the end of the Brahma Vimohana Līlā. It is found in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 14. Brahmā had hidden the gopa-boys and calves. Then he saw Kṛshṇa become every one of them as a four-armed Vishṇu, with the whole cosmic court around each. He fell into a swoon, and when he woke he sang this long stotra, which names Kṛshṇa as Parabrahman. It is one of the richest hymns of the Bhāgavata in philosophy.

The setting

Brahmā is the four-faced, self-born creator. He had hidden all the gopa-boys and calves to test the child who had so easily destroyed Aghāsura. He came back after a full human year. He found every boy and every calf shining as a four-armed Vishṇu, with the whole cosmic court in attendance. He was overcome and fell into a swoon. When he woke, he bowed down before Kṛshṇa and offered this stotra.

The stotra

The form of the cowherd child

“O praiseworthy one! Your body is like a rain cloud. You wear garments yellow like lightning. Your face is adorned with kuṇḍalas (earrings) of gurivinda seeds and circled with peacock feathers. You wear a garland of wild forest flowers. In your hands you hold a ball of anna (food), a daṇḍa (baton), a śṛṅga (horn) and a veṇu (flute). The Śrīvatsa mark is on your chest. You are the son of Nanda the gopāla, O Nandagopa-suta! I bow to you, to your form as a cowherd child.”

His greatness cannot be known

“O Deva! This avatāra of yours is not prākṛta (material). Even I, Brahmā, cannot know the greatness of your body, even with a mind turned inward (antarmukha manas). What can I say of the mahimā (greatness) of your saccidānanda anubhūti (experience of being, knowing and bliss)? My speech and mind cannot reach there.”

Bhakti as the highest path

“O Prabhu Kṛshṇa! There are people who stay where they are and listen with mind, speech and body (manasa-vāk-kāya) to your kathā (story) sung by the sādhus. In these three worlds, they may even win you. They keep far away the jñāna-prayāsa (the effort of mere intellectual knowledge). But those who give up your bhakti and follow śushka-jñāna (dry knowledge) have only kleśa (trouble). They are like people who pound empty rice husks.”

Brahmā’s own mistake

“O Acyuta! I was born of rajo-guṇa. I thought I had a power of my own before you, and I was full of ahaṃkāra (pride of self). I came to test you as if I could judge the Supreme. O Ananta! Before you I am nothing, like a spark before a fire.

“My whole body is enclosed within your prakṛti, mahattattva, ahaṃkāra, ākāśa, vāyu, agni, jala and pṛthivī. Where is my body, seven feet tall? And where are the countless brahmāṇḍas (universes) that turn in the pores of your hair, like specks of dust in a sunbeam?

“O Hari! The senses cannot reach your svarūpa (true form). A child kicking in the womb does not offend its mother. Is any offence against you truly possible? Is there anything at all, from the inside of your belly to the outside, that is not you?”

The Nārāyaṇa-tattva

“You are Nārāyaṇa. You are the āśraya (support) of all nāras (living beings). You are the pravarttaka (activator) of all nāras. You are the sākshī-caitanya (witness-consciousness) in all nāras. Nāras means waters, and waters are jīvas. You are their support in all three senses. Even the appearing of Nārāyaṇa on the first waters is only your own aṃśa-līlā (play as a part), not the full truth of what you are.”

Māyā and mithyā

“This whole jagat (world) is like a dream. It seems real, but it has no independent existence. Its sattāsphurti (shining of being) comes only from the reflection of Īśvara. Avināśī Brahman alone is satya (true). Through ajñāna (ignorance) this jagat appears to be satya. A rope looks like a snake in the dark, and the snake goes away when the rope is seen. In the same way the jagat dissolves back into Ātman for the jñānī (the knower). Bandha (bondage) and moksha are both names born of ajñāna. Ātman is nitya-jñāna-svarūpa (by nature eternal knowledge), advitīya (without a second) and prakṛtātīta (beyond prakṛti).”

The great fortune of Gokula

“Āhā! What fortune for the people of Nanda’s Gokula! The eternal, beginningless, complete Parabrahman, who is sarvātiśayi ānanda (bliss beyond all) himself, has become their mitra (friend).

“And what of us, the eleven indriyādhishṭhāna-devatās (the devas that rule the senses; Rudra as ahaṃkāra, Brahmā as buddhi, Candra as manas, and so on)? We too are mahābhāgyavantas (greatly fortunate). Through the senses of these people of Gokula we taste the honey of your lotus feet again and again.

“Even one birth as a blade of grass in Gokula, which might receive the pāda-dhūli (foot-dust) of a single gopāla, is the highest fortune. The Vedas themselves still seek the dust of your feet.”

Pūtanā

“O Deva! Even Pūtanā wore the guise of a pious woman only on the outside, and she reached you together with her kula (family line). For these people of Gokula, their house is for you. Their wealth is for you. Their dearest person is for you. Their dearest possession is for you. Their body is for you. Their children are for you. Their prāṇa is for you. Their antaḥkaraṇa (inner instrument) is for you. Everything is only for you.”

The closing prayer

“O Prabhu Kṛshṇa! You are beyond the world, yet you copy the world to increase the joy of those who have taken refuge in you (śaraṇāgatas). O Kṛshṇa, who know what is to be known, let only those who truly know you, know you. How can I describe you in many words? Your vaibhava (glory) is beyond my manas and vāk (mind and speech).

“O Śrī Kṛshṇa! You make the Vṛshṭi-vaṃśa-padma (the lotus of the Vṛshṇi line) bloom like the sun. You nourish the ocean of bhūmī-devatās (the brāhmaṇas, the earth’s devas), vedavids (knowers of the Veda) and paśus (cows) like the moon. You destroy the darkness of adharma that appears as dharma, like the rising sun. I bow to you without end, until the end of all kalpas.”

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 14