Sukadeva Goswami's prayers to the Lord before explaining the science of creation to Mahara Pariksit

From 2nd Canto 4th Chapter:

Sukadeva Goswami offers respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead and glorifies Him. His prayers can be categorized as follows:

Lord’s relation with the material world, Lord’s role as the Supersoul, Lord’s unparalled opulence, Lord’s dealings with the conditioned souls, Lord’s devotional service and finally prayers requesting Lord’s mercy upon his service of explaining about creation.

Lord’s relation with the material world:

• 1.      For the creation of the material world, the Lord accepts the three modes of nature – three purushavataras namely Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.
• 2.      Lord Himself first entered the vaccum of the material universe, and thus all things gradually developed one after another. The sixteen principal creative elements are first developed by the Lord Himself and were thereby shared by all living entities.

Lord’s role as the Supersoul:

• 1.      He is complete whole residing within everyone – as Ksirodakasayi Vishnu He enters into the body of every living being and is the complete whole.
• 2.      Lord as Supersoul awards intelligence to living entities according to their previous activities. Hence is called as dhiyam-pati or the Lord of intelligence.

Lord’s unparalled opulence:

• 1.      He is the complete form of all existence, both material and spiritual.
• 2.      He has a transcendental form - not impersonal, not a material form
• 3.      In the spiritual sky His opulence is immeasurable, therefore no one is equal to Him – Lord resides in all the innumerable Vaikuntha planets by expanding His plenary portions.
• 4.      He is the supreme enjoyer of both the material and spiritual worlds, yet He enjoys His own abode in the spiritual sky.
• 5.      Lord Sri Krsna is the beloved husband of all goddesses of fortune. As all favors of sacrifices are given by goddess of fortune, Lord being her husband, is the Lord of all sacrifices. He is enjoyer of all sacrifices as well. Lord is maintainer of all living beings.
• 6.      Lord is proprietor of all planets – material or spiritual. Everything is but the creation of the Lord.

Lord’s dealings with the conditioned souls:

• 1.      Lord delivers His devotees from all distresses. He also protects pious men who follow vedas.
• 2.      Lord is an associate of His devotees esp members of yadu dynasty. For mundaners / nondevotees however Lord and His abode will always remain a myth or a mysterious problem.
• 3.      Although, He is the Lord of all followers of different paths of self-realization (i.e results are awarded by Him only), is knowable only by those who are above all pretensions i.e only by pure devotees who alone are desireless.
• 4.      The Lord never reveals Himself to mental speculators who endeavor on their own to realize the Absolute truth. The pure devotee however following the ways of previous acaryas can see the Supreme Lord through the transparent medium of a bona fide spiritual master. Being satisfied by the devotee’s service attitude, Lord reveals Himself to the devotee.
• 5.      Lord descends by His own energy to reestablish the eternal relation of the conditioned souls with Him.
• 6.      Nondevotees who do not follow vedas are checked in their progress of demoniac activities.
• 7.      Lord awards specific destinations to both impersonalists and devotees, they are brahmajyoti and the Lord’s abode respectively.

Lord’s devotional service:

• 1.      Lords glorification, remembrance, audience, prayers, hearing and worship can at once cleanse the effects of all sins of the performer. However these devotional services need to be performed offenselessly (without willfully performing sins) and under expert guidance.
• 2.      Intelligent simply surrender to the Lord’s lotus feet and by dint of pure devotional service, at once attain perfection of human life, which is spiritual existence (form as good as the Lord and service in the eternal Vaikuntha planets)
• 3.      The Lord, being all-powerful, can, under any and every circumstance, accept anyone from any part of the world (Kirata, Huna, Andhra etc), either personally or through His bona fide manifestation as the spiritual master. Though they are addicted to sinful acts, Lord purifies them.
• 4.      His ways are inconceivable – Empiric philosophers and mystic yogis cannot conceive of the Personality of Godhead. One can approach the Lord only through bhakti-yoga.
• 5.      Advancement of learning, a charitable disposition, political, social or religious leadership of human society, philosophical speculations, the practice of the yoga system, expertise in the Vedic rituals, and all similar high qualities in man serve one in the attainment of perfection only when they are employed in the service of the Lord for His pleasure. Without such dovetailing, all such qualities become sources of trouble for people in general.

Prayers requesting Lord’s mercy upon his service of explaining about creation:

• 1.      Knowledge is revealed to one from within by the Lord as Lord Brahma was inspired with full knowledge at the beginning of the creation. Sukhadeva Goswami is praying to the Lord so he may be able to explain the facts and figures of creation as inquired by Maharaja Parikshit.
• 2.      Sukhadeva Goswami invokes the pleasure of the Lord so that his statements may be successful and be appreciated by the hearers. Realizing he is an instrument, he wants to move by the direction of the Supreme Lord, who inspired Brahma to speak the Vedic wisdom.
• 3.      All material manifestations are made possible only by Lord’s energy, and the living entity can only pray to the Lord to understand it properly. Sukhadeva Goswami therefore prays to the Lord to help others to whom he would like to speak.
• Sukhadeva Goswami offers his obeisances unto Srila Vyasadeva, who compiled Vedic literatures to revive the lost memory of the conditioned souls with respect to their eternal relation with the Lord.