ବ୍ରହ୍ମ କୃତ ସୂର୍ଯ ସ୍ତୁତିଃ

Brahmā's praise of the Sun from the thirty-first chapter of the Brahma Purāṇa. It begins by making him first rather than one among many — first of the gods, first maker of beings, and the life of gods, gandharvas and rākṣasas, of sages, kinnaras and siddhas, of serpents and birds alike — and then folds the pantheon into him: you are Brahmā, you are Mahādeva, you are Viṣṇu and Prajāpati, Vāyu and Indra and Soma and Varuṇa. Its most striking turn is a ladder built past its own summit: beyond Īśvara is knowledge, beyond knowledge is Śiva, and beyond Śiva is you. A run of verses then declines to describe him at all and salutes instead 'that form of yours' — unbearable to look upon even for the lords of the gods, unknowable, without beginning or end — and the whole closes in eight successive salutations.