2016-10-22 Srimad Bhagavatam 10.87.01 - Relationship of Soul and Lord (download mp3) by Ras Mandal Prabhu at ISKCON Chowpatty www.iskcondesiretree.com SB 10.87.1sri-pariksid uvacabrahman brahmany anirdesye nirgune guna-vrttayahkatham caranti srutayah saksat sad-asatah pare Translation: Sri Pariksit said: O brahmana, how can the Vedas directly describe the Supreme Absolute Truth, who cannot be described in words? The Vedas are limited to describing the qualities of material nature, but the Supreme is devoid of these qualities, being transcendental to all material manifestations and their causes. Purport: Before beginning his commentary on this chapter, Srila Sridhara Svami prays: vag-isa yasya vadane laksmir yasya ca vaksasiyasyaste hrdaye samvit tam nrsimham aham bhaje “I worship Lord Nrsimha, within whose mouth reside the great masters of eloquence, upon whose chest resides the goddess of fortune, and within whose heart resides the divine potency of consciousness.” sampradaya-visuddhy-artham sviya-nirbandha-yantritahsruti-stuti-mita-vyakhyam karisyami yatha-mati “Desiring to purify my sampradaya and being bound by duty, I will briefly comment on the prayers of the personified Vedas, to the best of my realization.” srimad-bhagavatam purvaih saratah sannisevitammaya tu tad-upasprstam ucchistam upaciyate “In as much as Srimad-Bhagavatam has already been perfectly honored by my predecessors’ explanations, I can only gather together the remnants of what they have honored.” Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti offers his own invocation: mama ratna-vanig-bhavam ratnany aparicinvatahhasantu santo jihremi na sva-svanta-vinoda-krt “The saintly devotees may laugh at me for becoming a jewel merchant though I know nothing about precious jewels. But I feel no shame, for at least I may entertain them.” na me ’sti vaidusy api napi bhaktir virakti-raktir na tathapi laulyatsu-durgamad eva bhavami veda- stuty-artha-cintamani-rasi-grdhnuh “Though I have no wisdom, devotion or detachment, I am still greedy to take the philosopher’s stone of the Vedas’ prayers from the fortress in which it is being kept.” mam nicatayam aviveka-vayuh pravartate patayitum balac cetlikhamy atah svami-sanatana-sri- krsnanghri-bha-stambha-krtavalambah “If the wind of indiscretion — my failure to acknowledge my lowly position — threatens to knock me down, then while writing this commentary I must hold on to the effulgent pillars of the feet of Sridhara Svami, Sanatana Gosvami and Lord Sri Krsna.” pranamya sri-gurum bhuyah sri-krsnam karunarnavamloka-natham jagac-caksuh sri-sukam tam upasraye “Repeatedly bowing down to my divine spiritual master and to Lord Sri Krsna, the ocean of mercy, I take shelter of Sri Sukadeva Gosvami, the protector of the world and its universal eye.” At the end of the preceding chapter, Sukadeva Gosvami told Pariksit Maharaja: evam sva-bhaktayo rajan bhagavan bhakta-bhaktimanusitvadisya san-margam punar dvaravatim agat “Thus, O King, the Personality of Godhead, who is the devotee of His own devotees, stayed for some time with His two great devotees, teaching them how perfect saints behave. Then He returned to Dvaraka.” In this verse the word san-margam can be understood in at least three ways. In the first, sat is taken to mean “devotee of the Supreme Lord,” and thus san-margam means “the path of bhakti-yoga, devotional service.” In the second, with sat meaning “a seeker of transcendental knowledge,” san-margam means “the philosophical path of knowledge,” which has impersonal Brahman as its object. And in the third, with sat referring to the transcendental sound of the Vedas, san-margam means “the process of following Vedic injunctions.” Both the second and the third of these interpretations of san-margam lead to the question of how the Vedas can describe the Absolute Truth. Srila Sridhara Svami elaborately analyzes this problem in terms of the traditional discipline of Sanskrit poetics: We should consider that words have three kinds of expres