Chapter 10. The Opulence
of the Absolute
TEXT 2
na me viduh sura-ganah
prabhavam na maharsayah
aham adir hi devanam
maharsinam ca sarvasah
SYNONYMS
na--never;
me--My; viduh--knows; sura-ganah--demigods; prabhavam--opulences;
na--never; maha-rsayah--great sages; aham--I am; adih--the
origin; hi--certainly; devanam--of the demigods; maha-rsinam--of
the great sages; ca--also; sarvasah--in all respects.
TRANSLATION
Neither the
hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin, for, in every respect,
I am the source of the demigods and the sages.
PURPORT
As stated in
the Brahma-samhita, Lord Krsna is the Supreme Lord. No one is greater
than Him; He is the cause of all causes. Here it is also stated by the
Lord personally that He is the cause of all the demigods and sages. Even
the demigods and great sages cannot understand Krsna; they can understand
neither His name nor His personality, so what is the position of the so-called
scholars of this tiny planet? No one can understand why this Supreme God
comes to earth as an ordinary human being and executes such commonplace
and yet wonderful activities. One should know, then, that scholarship is
not the qualification necessary to understand Krsna. Even the demigods
and the great sages have tried to understand Krsna by their mental speculation,
and they have failed to do so. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam also it
is clearly said that even the great demigods are not able to understand
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They can speculate to the limits of
their imperfect senses and can reach the opposite conclusion of impersonalism,
of something not manifested by the three qualities of material nature,
or they can imagine something by mental speculation, but it is not possible
to understand Krsna by such foolish speculation.
Here the
Lord indirectly says that if anyone wants to know the Absolute Truth, "Here
I am present as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I am the Supreme."
One should know this. Although one cannot understand the inconceivable
Lord who is personally present, He nonetheless exists. We can actually
understand Krsna, who is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge, simply by
studying His words in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam.
The impersonal Brahman can be conceived by persons who are already in the
inferior energy of the Lord, but the Personality of Godhead cannot be conceived
unless one is in the transcendental position.
Because
most men cannot understand Krsna in His actual situation, out of His causeless
mercy He descends to show favor to such speculators. Yet despite the Supreme
Lord's uncommon activities, these speculators, due to contamination in
the material energy, still think that the impersonal Brahman is the Supreme.
Only the devotees who are fully surrendered unto the Supreme Lord can understand,
by the grace of the Supreme Personality, that He is Krsna. The devotees
of the Lord do not bother about the impersonal Brahman conception of God;
their faith and devotion bring them to surrender immediately unto the Supreme
Lord, and out of the causeless mercy of Krsna, they can understand Krsna.
No one else can understand Him. So even great sages agree: What is atma,
what is the Supreme? It is He whom we have to worship.
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