Verse 12

⁸Asked in this way by the chief of his own servants, the Bhagavan Hari was pleased, and spoke the everlasting dharma, for the safety of mortals. ⁹Bhagavan said: This question of yours keeps to dharma, and it makes for the highest good of men who keep to their class and their stage. Learn it from me, Uddhava. ¹⁰In the beginning, in the Krta age, the one class of men was known as the swan. People were born with what they had to do already done, and so they call it the age of the done. ¹¹At the first the Veda was Om alone, and I was Dharma, wearing the form of a bull. Those set firm in austerity, with their stain gone, served me as the swan.

¹²At the opening of the Treta, greatly favoured one, the threefold knowledge came out of my heart by way of my breaths, and out of that knowledge I became the sacrifice with its three fires.