on-giving Isana nobody would then adore my own self. The ordinances I
set are followed by all the worlds. Those ordinances should always be
adored, and it is, therefore, that I adore them. He who knows Rudra knows
myself, and he who knows myself knows Rudra. He who follows Rudra follows
me, Rudra is Narayana. Both are one; and one is displayed in two
different forms. Rudra and Narayana, forming one person, pervade all
displayed things and cause them to act. No one else than Rudra is
competent to grant me a boon, O son of Pandu. Having settled this in my
mind, I adored in days of yore the ancient and puissant Rudra, for
obtaining the boon of a son. In adoring Rudra thus I adored my own self.
Vishnu never bows his head unto any deity except his own self. It is for
this reason that I adore Rudra, (Rudra being, as I have already told
thee, my own self). All the deities, including Brahma and Indra and the
deities and the great Rishis, adore Narayana, that foremost of deities,
otherwise called by the name of Hari. Vishnu is the foremost of all
Beings past, present, or future, and as such should always be adored and
worshipped with reverence. Do thou bow thy head unto Vishnu. Do thou bow
thy head unto Him who gives protection to all. Do thou bow, O son of
Kunti, unto that great boon-giving deity, that foremost of deities, who
eats the offerings made unto him in sacrifices. I have heard that there
are four kinds of worshippers, viz., those who are eager for a religious
life, those who are enquirers, those who strive to comprehend what they
learn and those who are wise. Among them all, they that are devoted to
realising the self and do not adore any other deity, are the foremost. I
am the end they seek, and though engaged in acts, they never seek the
fruits thereof. The three remaining classes of my worshippers are those
that are desirous of the fruits of their acts. They attain to regions of
great felicity, but then they have to fall down therefrom upon the
exhaustion of their merits. Those amongst my worshippers, therefore, that
are fully awakened (and, as such, that know that all happiness is
terminable except what is attainable by persons that become identified
with me) obtain what is foremost (and invaluable).[1852] Those that are
awakened and whose conduct displays such enlightenment, may be engaged in
adoring Brahman or Mahadeva or the other deities that occur in heaven but
they succeed at least in attaining to myself. I hav