Text 1: Sūta said: First of all, the Supreme Lord accepted the form of the eternal first puruṣa full like the moon for creating the universes from mahā-tattva and other elements.

Text 2-3: After Garbhodakaśāyī-viṣṇu lay on the water and went into trance, Brahmā, lord of the universal creation, appeared from the lotus in the water of his navel. The expanse of planets is imagined to be situated at various places on his limbs. This form of the Lord is pure sattva, unmixed with rajas and tamas, and is composed of eternity, knowledge and bliss.

Text 4: With spiritual eyes, the devotees see this amazing form with thousands of legs and arms, thousands of heads, ears, eyes and noses, shining with thousands of crowns, earrings and clothes.

Text 5: He is the indestructible source of various avatāras. His expansion is Brahmā and Brahmā’s expansions are Marīci and others. Through them the Lord creates the devatās, animals and human beings.

Text 6: Garbhodakaśāyī first made his appearance in the Kumāras. Becoming brāhmaṇas, they undertook continuous, severe vows of brahmacarya.

Text 7: Secondly the Lord of sacrifice, lifting up the earth from Rasātala, for its welfare, took the form of the boar.

Text 8: The Lord, making his appearance among the sages as Nārada, produced the Pañcarātra scriptures from which one learns how devotional activities free one from the bondage of karma.

Text 9: Fourth, appearing in the wife of Dharma, he became Nara-nārāyaṇa, and performed severe austerities which give peace to the soul.

Text 10: Fifth, he became Kapila, best of the perfected beings, and spoke to Āsuri brāhmaṇa the philosophy of Sāṅkhya, which defines the various principles of existence, which had become lost with time.

Text 11: Being requested by Anasūyā, the wife of Atri, the Lord became her son as Dattātreya and taught knowledge of the soul to Alarka, Prahlāda and others.

Text 12: Seventh, Yajña appeared as the son of Ruci in his wife Akūtī. He protected the reign of Svāyambhuva-manu with the devatās called Yamas. .

Text 13: Eighth, the Lord was born to Nābhi and his wife Merudevī as Ṛṣabha. He shows the path of the wise worshipped by all āśramas.

Text 14: Ninth, requested by the sages the Lord took the form of King Pṛthu. Because he milked herbs from the earth, he is considered the most desirable of the avatāras.

Text 15: When there was an inundation after the period of the Cākṣuṣa Manu the Lord accepted the form of a fish and protected Vaivasvata Manu, placing him on a boat formed from the earth.

Text 16: In the eleventh appearance, the Lord, in the form of a tortoise, held up on his back Mandara Mountain for the devatās and demons churning the ocean.

Text 17: The Lord took the form of Dhanvantari as the twelfth avatāra and taking the thirteenth form as the woman Mohinī he let the devatās drink nectar and bewildered the demons.

Text 18: Taking the form of Narasiṁha as the fourteenth avatāra, he pierced the chest of the strong king of the demons with his nails just as a wood cutter breaks erakā grass.

Text 19: Taking the form of Vāmana as fifteenth avatāra, the Lord went to sacrifice of Bali, begging three steps of land, but desiring to steal the heavenly kingdom from him.

Text 20: The Lord, appearing as Parāśurāma, the sixteenth avatāra, seeing the kings harassing the brāhamaṇas, became angry and twenty-one times annihilated the kṣatriyas from the earth.

Text 21: The Lord, born from Parāśara in the womb of Satyavatī as the seventeenth avatāra, seeing the meager intelligence of the people, divided up the tree of the Vedas.

Text 22: The Lord, taking the divine human form of Rāma, performed brave actions such as controlling the ocean with a desire to help the devatās.

Text 23: The Lord appeared in the Vṛṣṇi dynasty in the two forms of Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa as the nineteenth and twentieth avatāras and relieved the burden of the earth.

Text 24: Then when Kali-yuga starts Buddha, the son of Añjanā, will appear in the province of Gayā for bewildering the demons.

Text 25: At the junction of the yugas when the kings are almost criminal, the Lord of the universe Kalki will be born as the son of Viṣṇu-yaśas.

Text 26: Unlimited avatāras arise from the Lord, the treasure house of pure goodness, just as thousands of small rivers flow from an inexhaustible lake.

Text 27: All sages, Manus, devatās, powerful humans (sons of Manu), along with Brahmā’s sons, are also considered to be vibhūtis of the Lord.

Text 28: All avatāras mentioned and not mentioned here, who are portions of Mahāviṣṇu or empowered jīvas, create happiness in the world whenever it is afflicted by the demons and their ideas. But Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate form of Bhagavān.

Text 29: The pure person who chants with devotion the glories of the Lord’s appearance, which is mysterious, becomes free from all sorrows.

Text 30: This material realm, composed of the material guṇas and the elements from mahat-tattva to earth and wtih the Paramātmā as its basis, is a material form of the Lord who has a spiritual form of consciousness and is devoid of a material form.

Text 31: Just as unintelligent people attribute clouds to be the sky and particles of dust are attributed to be the air, so unintelligent people see the universe, the visible form of the Lord as the Lord.

Text 32: Superior to the gross universal form is that form which is invisible, devoid of the specific bodily parts, since it cannot be seen or heard. This is like the subtle body of the jīva, which in the instrument of rebirth for the jīva.

Text 33: When the gross and subtle material forms, which are impositions on the soul in ignorance, are removed by the realization of the devotees, one can realize brahman.

Text 34: When māya or ignorance weakens, the Lord bestows his mercy on the jīva. The jīva becomes endowed with this treasure. The wise understand that, being situated in this glorious position, this person is worthy of worship.

Text 35: Thus, rejecting the two versions of the universal form, the wise glorify the highest subject of the Vedas--the birth and birth and activities of the Supreme Lord, who resides in the hearts of all beings (unlike the universal form), who has no material birth and no material activities (unlike the jīva).,

Text 36: The independent Lord, who has spotless pastimes, who has entered into all beings, creates, maintains and destroys this universe. Being the master of the six senses, he contacts the six sense objects ((sound, touch, form, taste, smell and thought) without being affected.

Text 37: The falsely intelligent person, with skill in jñāna or yoga cannot understand using their mind and words the pastimes, names and forms of the Lord who distributes these whenever he descends, just as an ignorant person cannot appreciate the performance of an actor.

Text 38: He who worships the scent of the lotus feet of the Lord, sincerely, continuously, and with favorable attitude, knows the greatness of the holder of the cakra, the possessor of infinite prowess.

Text 39: O men of knowledge! You are the most fortunate in this world, because when people concentrate their minds exclusively on Kṛṣṇa, the lord of all the worlds, by asking such questions, they cease painful repetition of birth.

Text 40: The Suprreme Lord Vyāsa wrote the greatest, most auspicious Purāṇa called Bhāgavatam, which bestows all human goals, is non-different from Kṛṣṇa, and describes the activities and qualities of the Lord, for the highest benefit of the world.

Text 41: Vyāsa had his son Śukadeva, best of the self-controlled, study this scripture, which is the very essence of all the Vedas and histories.

Text 42: Śukadeva spoke it (the Bhāgavatam) to King Parīkṣit, who was surrounded by great sages, as he sat fasting till death on the bank of the Gaṅgā.

Text 43: Though Kṛṣṇa left Dvārakā, arrived at Prabhāsa, and then disappeared along with his six great qualities, this Purāṇa, another form of the sun, has now risen in Kali-yuga for those who have lost their knowledge.

Text 44: Seated in the assembly, out of his great mercy, I learned this scripture from the powerful Śukadeva, who recited it there. I will teach you this scripture as I learned it, according to Śukadeva’s realization.