Verse 1

¹Among gods, antigods and men, those who worship Siva, the auspicious one whose ways are inauspicious, are for the most part rich and given to enjoyment, and not those who worship Hari, the husband of Laksmi. ²This we want to know, for there is a great doubt in us here: the two lords are of opposite ways, and opposite is the going of those who worship them. ³Siva is joined with power, always; he carries the three marks; he is wrapped in the strands. I-making is threefold: the one of change, the bright one and the dark one. ⁴From that the sixteen changes came to be. A man running after one or another of these gets the going of all those powers.

⁵Hari is beyond the strands, the Person himself, beyond Nature. He sees everything and looks on; and worshipping him a man would go beyond the strands.