Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 12.11.6-8
Sthāna· The universe in orderMeditate on Creation as the Lord’s Body
“This is the representation of the Supreme Lord as the universal person, in which the earth is His feet, the sky His navel, the sun His eyes, the wind His nostrils, the demigod of procreation His genitals, death His anus and the moon His mind. The heavenly planets are His head, the directions His ears, and the demigods protecting the various planets His many arms. The god of death is His eyebrows, shame His lower lip, greed His upper lip, delusion His smile, and moonshine His teeth, while the trees are the almighty Puruṣa’s bodily hairs, and the clouds the hair on His head.”
What the purport teaches
- The earth is represented as the Lord’s feet, the sun as His eyes and the moon as His mind.
- The trees are His bodily hairs, and the clouds are the hair on His head. Various aspects of creation are sustained by limbs of His universal body.
- Because they are sustained in this way, these aspects of creation are considered nondifferent from Him. This description is meant for meditation.
Try this today
Look at a tree today and briefly meditate on its representation as a bodily hair of the almighty Puruṣa.
Ask yourself
How might remembering the Lord’s sustaining presence change the way I look at nature?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.