and which we may devote for the purpose of comprehending him, and by knowing whom every one becomes freed from grief or sorrow.  I worship him, O Purandara, who is conversant with the creation of all elements and the thought of all living creatures, and who is the original cause of the existence or creation of all creatures, who is omnipresent, and who has the puissance to give everything.[48] I solicit boons from Him who cannot be comprehended by argument, who represents the object of the Sankhya and the Yoga systems of philosophy, and who transcends all things, and whom all persons conversant with the topics of enquiry worship and adore.[49] I solicit boons from Him, O Maghavat, who is the soul of Maghavat himself, who is said to be the God of the gods, and who is the Master of all creatures.  I solicit boons from Him who it is that first created Brahma, that creator of all the worlds, having filled Space (with His energy) and evoked into existence the primeval egg.[50] Who else than that Supreme Lord could be creator of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Space, Mind, and that which is called Mahat?  Tell me, O Sakra, who else than Siva could create Mind, Understanding, Consciousness or Ego, the Tanmatras, and the senses?  Who is there higher than Siva?[51] The wise say that the Grandsire Brahma is the creator of this universe.  Brahma, however, acquired his high puissance and prosperity by adoring and gratifying Mahadeva, that God of gods.  That high puissance (consisting of all the three attributes of creation, protection, and destruction), which dwells in that illustrious Being who is endowed with the quality of being one, who created Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra, was derived from Mahadeva.  Tell me who is there that is superior to the Supreme Lord?[52] Who else than that God of gods is competent to unite the sons of Diti with lordship and puissance, judging by the sovereignty and the power of oppressing conferred upon the foremost of the Daityas and Danavas?[53] The different points of the horizon, Time, the Sun, all fiery entities, planets, wind, water, and the stars and constellations,—­these, know thou, are from Mahadeva.  Tell us who is higher than the Supreme Lord?  Who else is there, except Mahadeva, in the matter of the creation of Sacrifice and the destruction of Tripura?  Who else except Mahadeva, the grinder of the foes, has offered lordship to the principal?[54] What need, O Purandara, of many well-sounding statements fraught with spacious sophisms, when I behold thee of a thousand eyes, O best of the deities,—­thee that art worshipped by Siddhas and Gandharvas and the deities and the Rishis?  O best of the Kusikas, all this is due to the grace of that God of gods viz., Mahadeva.  Know, O Kesava, that this all, consisting of animate and inanimate existences with heaven and other unseen entities, which occur in this world, and which has the all-pervading Lord for their soul, has flowed from Maheswara and has been created (by him) for enjoyment by Jiva.[55] In the worlds that