Text 10] Manifestation of Brahma from Garbhodakaéayi Visnu 311

PURPORT

The great sage of the name Pulastya is the father of all demoniac
descendants. Once upon a time Parasara began a sacrifice in which‘all the
demons were to be burnt to death because his father had been killed and
devoured by one of them. The great sage Vasistha Muni arrived at the
sacrifice and requested Parasgara to stop the deadly action, and Parasara
could not deny the request because of Vasistha’s position and respect in
the community of sages. Parasara having stopped the sacrifice, Pulastya,
the father of the demons, appreciated his brahminical temperament and
gave the blessing that in the future he would be a great speaker on the
Vedic literatures called the Puranas, the supplements of the Vedas.
Parasara’s action was appreciated by Pulastya because he forgave the
demons out of his brahminical power of forgiveness. Parasara was able to
demolish all the demons in the sacrifice, but he considered: ‘‘Demons are
so made that they devour living creatures, men and animals, but why on
that account should I withdraw my brahminical qualification of forgive-
ness?”’ As the great speaker of the Puranas, Parasara first of all spoke on
the Srimad-Bhagavata Purana because it is the foremost of all the
Puranas. Maitreya Muni desired to narrate the same Bhagavatam which he
had heard from ParaSara, and Vidura was qualified to hear it because of his
faithfulness and his following the instructions received from superiors. So
Srimad-Bhagavatam was being narrated from time immemorial by the
disciplic succession, even before the time of Vyasadeva. The so-called
historians calculate the Puranas to be only a few hundred years old, but
factually the Puranas existed from time immemorial, before all historical
calculations by the mundaners and speculative philosophers.

TEXT 10

saved fafae aaissatz
afamMiferce, aniteag |
MRIS OR
BTIT: AAT Pate: oll
udaplutam visvam idam tadasid
yannidrayamilitadrn nyamilayat
ahindra-talpe ’dhisayana ekah
krtaksanah svatma-ratau nirthah

uda—water; adplutam—submerged in; visvam—the three worlds; idam—
this; tada—at that time; dsit—it so remained; yat—in which; nidraya—in
