bhāgavatācī āratī (marāṭhī)

Eknath's Marathi arati, and what it praises is a book. The Bhagavata is addressed directly — victory to you, Shrimad Bhagavata — and the verses that follow describe it very nearly as a catalogue entry would. It is the essence of the Veda, seen full of savour; it has the ten marks; the play of Hari runs through twelve skandhas; the cowherds are sung in three hundred and thirty-five chapters; eighteen thousand verses are sung and heard by those whose devotion to Hari brings them what they seek. One verse says the whole book is the Gayatri in the form of a mantra, and another that it is the conversation of Parikshit with Shuka. Only in the last does it close the gap: you yourself are God, in the form of the Bhagavata, and it is to you that Eka-Janardana turns the lamps.