Zend Avesta Part 01

SR No.: 007671
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1895
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1483

1, 61. VISHNU AND THE GODDESS OF THE EARTH.
II
caying; thou art the producer of the atoms; thou art kind to faithful attendants; thou art the purifier (of sinners); thou art the protector of all the gods ; thou art the protector of the pious.
58. “Thou art also the protector of those who know the Veda, O Purushottama. I have come, O Gagannatha, to the immovable Vâkaspati (the lord of holy speech), the lord;
59. To him, who is very pious; invincible ; Vasushena (who has treasures for his armies); who bestows largesses upon his followers; who is endowed with the power of intense devotion ; who is the germ of the ether; from whom the rays (of the sun and moon) proceed;
60. “To Vasudeva; the great soul of the universe ; whose eyes are like lotuses; who is eternal; the preceptor of the Suras and of the Asuras ; brilliant; omnipresent; the great lord of all creatures ;
61. Who has one body and four faces; who is the producer of (the five grosser elements, ether, air, fire, water, and earth), the producers of the world. Teach me concisely, O Bhagavat, the eternal laws ordained for the aggregate of the four castes,
62. “Together with the customs to be observed by each order and with the secret ordinances.' The chief of the gods, thus addressed by the goddess of the earth, replied to her as follows:
62. According to Nand., the term rahasya, 'secret ordinances or doctrines,' has to be referred either to the laws regarding the occupations lawful for each caste in times of distress (@paddharma, see II, 15), or to the penances (XLVI seq.) The latter interpretation seems to be the more plausible one, with the limitation, however, that rahasya is only used to denote the penances for secret faults, which are termed rahasya in LV, I.
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