Verse 1

¹Pariksit said: Brahmin, how did Vrtra, a wicked one whose own nature was passion and darkness, come to have a mind set firm on Narayana, the Bhagavan? ²Devotion at Mukunda's feet does not commonly come up even in the gods, whose clarity is unmixed, or in the sages, whose selves are without stain. ³Living beings here are as many as the grains of dust of the earth. Of them, only some, human and otherwise, reach for what is good. ⁴Of those, best of the twice-born, only some want release; and of thousands who want release, hardly one is released and comes through. ⁵And among ten million even of the released and the perfected, one wholly given over to Narayana, his self at peace, is very hard to find, great sage.

⁶How then did Vrtra, a wicked man who scorched every world, have a mind so firmly set on Krsna in that terrible fighting? ⁷Our doubt about this is large, lord, and our eagerness to hear is keen — his, who by his own manhood in the fight gave the thousand-eyed one his fill.