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Chapter 4. Transcendental Knowledge TEXT 4 arjuna uvaca
SYNONYMS  arjunah uvaca--Arjuna
said; aparam--junior; bhavatah--Your; janma--birth;
param--superior;
janma--birth; vivasvatah--of the sun-god; katham--how;
etat--this; vijaniyam--shall I understand; tvam--You;
adau--in the beginning; proktavan--instructed;
iti--thus.
TRANSLATION Arjuna said:
The sun-god Vivasvan is senior by birth to You. How am I to understand
that in the beginning You instructed this science to him?
PURPORT Arjuna is an
accepted devotee of the Lord, so how could he not believe Krsna's words?
The fact is that Arjuna is not inquiring for himself but for those who
do not believe in the Supreme Personality of Godhead or for the demons
who do not like the idea that Krsna should be accepted as the Supreme Personality
of Godhead; for them only Arjuna inquires on this point, as if he were
himself not aware of the Personality of Godhead, or Krsna. As it will be
evident from the Tenth Chapter, Arjuna knew perfectly well that Krsna is
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the fountainhead of everything and
the last word in transcendence. Of course, Krsna also appeared as the son
of Devaki on this earth. How Krsna remained the same Supreme Personality
of Godhead, the eternal, original person, is very difficult for an ordinary
man to understand. Therefore, to clarify this point, Arjuna put this question
before Krsna so that He Himself could speak authoritatively. That Krsna
is the supreme authority is accepted by the whole world, not only at present,
but from time immemorial, and the demons alone reject Him. Anyway, since
Krsna is the authority accepted by all, Arjuna put this question before
Him in order that Krsna would describe Himself without being depicted by
the demons who always try to distort Him in a way understandable to the
demons and their followers. It is necessary that everyone, for his own
interest, know the science of Krsna. Therefore, when Krsna Himself speaks
about Himself, it is auspicious for all the worlds. To the demons, such
explanations by Krsna Himself may appear to be strange because the demons
always study Krsna from their own standpoint, but those who are devotees
heartily welcome the statements of Krsna when they are spoken by Krsna
Himself. The devotees will always worship such authoritative statements
of Krsna because they are always eager to know more and more about Him.
The atheists, who consider Krsna an ordinary man, may in this way come
to know that Krsna is superhuman, that He is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha--the
eternal form of bliss and knowledge--that He is transcendental, and that
He is above the domination of the modes of material nature and above the
influence of time and space. A devotee of Krsna, like Arjuna, is undoubtedly
above any misunderstanding of the transcendental position of Krsna. Arjuna's
putting this question before the Lord is simply an attempt by the devotee
to defy the atheistic attitude of persons who consider Krsna to be an ordinary
human being, subject to the modes of material nature.
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