Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.40.1
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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akhila-hetu-hetum
—
the cause of all causes
Triple compound: akhila (all) + hetu (cause) + hetum (the cause). Jīva Gosvāmī (Bhagavat-sandarbha) reads this as the technical signature of Bhagavān — not one cause among many, but the cause behind every cause prakṛti, kāla, karma can name.
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nārāyaṇam
—
Lord Nārāyaṇa
Nara (water/the totality of jīvas) + ayana (resting place). The Person in whom all beings rest and from whom they emerge. Gauḍīyas read Kṛṣṇa as the source and Nārāyaṇa as His majestic emanation; Akrūra here addresses the puruṣa-avatāra who is non-different from Kṛṣṇa standing before him.
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pūruṣam
—
the Supreme Person
From √pṛ (to fill) — the One who pervades and fills the cosmos. Lengthened vowel pūruṣa (instead of puruṣa) marks the primal Mahā-puruṣa, not a finite person. Personalism is fixed at the door of the prayer.
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ādyam
—
original
From ādi (beginning). Bhagavān has no antecedent; everything else is anu (subsequent). Counter to any Brahman-first reading, Akrūra puts Personhood at the origin.
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avyayam
—
inexhaustible, undiminishing
a- (not) + vyaya (loss). The Lord pours forth universes from His navel-lotus without any decrease in Himself — pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate (Īśopaniṣad).
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aravinda-koṣāt
—
from the whorl of the lotus
Compound: aravinda (lotus) + koṣa (calyx/whorl). The lotus born of Viṣṇu's navel is the Gauḍīya emblem of secondary creation — beautiful, but always downstream of the navel from which it grows.
In the fortieth chapter, Akrura pays respects to Krsna and praises him by glorifying his object of worship and the process of worship. The cause of everything is Brahma and the cause of Brahma is Narayana. That cause of all causes has the form of a person, who is without beginning or end (adyam avyayam), eternal. From him springs Brahma.
He praises Kṛṣṇa as the puruṣa avatāra. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, Akrūra recites this verse in response to Kṛṣṇa saying in a joking manner, in spite of having appeared with four arms, “Why as my paternal uncle are you offering respects to me, a small child?” Akrūra answers by saying Kṛṣṇa is the inexhaustible Lord, the beginningless basis. “Why do you say that? “You are cause of all causes. “Nārāyaṇa is the cause not me. Why do you insist that I am Nārāyaṇa?” This is not praise. It is true. Brahmā has appeared from your navel. Saying this he points with his forefingers at the lotus bud.
Having seen the Lord as Nārāyaṇa seated on Ananta, Akrūra first offers respect to him by praising him with a description of his form. I offer respects to you, the supreme Lord (puruṣam). Brahmā appeared from the lotus of the worlds, which was first in bud form, in his navel. Since Brahmā is a guṇa avatāra of the Lord it is suggested that he is eternal. The eternal nature of avatāras is explained in Bhāgavatāmṛta. Or Brahmā is the form of all jīvas. Thus he is all the planets. Śrīdhara Svāmī explains it as follows. O Kṛṣṇa! Akrūra recognizes this form as Kṛṣṇa. “You are my uncle. Why do you bow to me?” Thus Akrūra describes him in terms of the supreme Lord, with four arms. You are the Lord. There cannot be praise just by mentioning his svarūpa. The highest praise results from describing his great excellence, distinguishing him from others. You are the cause of all causes of the world. You are the shelter of all jīvas (nārāyaṇam). You are first (ādyam), since you exist in the beginning, or since you are the best. You are the lord (puruṣam). As a pot arises from clay, everything arises from you. You have no decrease (avyayam). You are the one cause of all causes. From your navel springs a lotus, which is the fourteen worlds, or which produces the moving and nonmoving beings. Since the lotus comes from you, the lake from which it springs does not decrease.
- Where do you treat the universe as background rather than as something coming from a Person?
- How does acknowledging Nārāyaṇa as source change your relationship to creation?
Picture a single seed from which a vast banyan grows — every branch, every leaf, every other seed traces back through wood and root to that first hidden grain. Akrūra bows not to a branch but to Nārāyaṇa, the seed-Person from whose navel-lotus even Brahmā the cosmic gardener is born. Every cause one can name has Him as its cause behind the cause.
When Brahmā first awoke on the lotus stem rising from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu's navel, he did not know where he was, who he was, or whence he had come. He climbed the stalk for a hundred celestial years, searching for its root, and failed (SB 2.9, 3.8).
Only when he sat in meditation did the Lord reveal Himself, and Brahmā realized he was a creature, not the creator. Akrūra's opening verse echoes that primal recognition: the universe's first secondary cause confesses he is downstream of Nārāyaṇa.
My note
Source: vedabase.io