CHAPTER FOUR
The Hamsa-guhya Prayers Offered to the Lord by Prajāpati Dakṣa
After Mahārāja Parikṣit appealed to Śukadeva Gosvāmī to describe in further detail the creation of the living entities within this universe, Śukadeva Gosvāmī informed him that when the Pracetās, the ten sons of Prācīnabarhi, entered the sea to execute austerities, the planet earth was neglected because of the absence of a king. Naturally many weeds and unnecessary trees grew, and no food grains were produced. Indeed, all the land became like a forest. When the ten Pracetās came out of the sea and saw the entire world full of trees, they were very angry with the trees and decided to destroy them all to rectify the situation. Thus the Pracetās created wind and fire to burn the trees to ashes. Soma, however, the king of the moon and the king of all vegetation, forbade the Pracetās to destroy the trees, since the trees are the source of fruit and flowers for all living beings. Just to satisfy the Pracetās, Soma gave them a beautiful girl born of Pramlocā Apsarā. By the semina of all the Pracetās, Dakṣa was born of that girl.
In the beginning, Dakṣa created all the demigods, demons and human beings, but when he found the population not increasing properly, he took  sannyāsa  and went to Vindhya Mountain, where he underwent severe austerities and offered Lord Viṣṇu a particular prayer known as  Hamsa-guhya , by which Lord Viṣṇu became very pleased with him. The contents of the prayer were as follows.
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul, Lord Hari, is the controller of both the living entities and the material nature. He is self-sufficient and self-effulgent. As the subject matter of perception is not the cause of our perceiving senses, so the living entity, although within his body, does not cause his eternal friend the Supersoul, who is the cause of creation of all the senses. Because of the living entity’s ignorance, his senses are engaged with material objects. Since the living entity is alive, he can understand the creation of this material world to
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