SB 1.6.4 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

प्राक्कल्पविषयामेतां स्मृतिं ते मुनिसत्तम । न ह्येष व्यवधात्काल एष सर्वनिराकृति: ॥ ४ ॥

Verse text

prāk-kalpa-viṣayām etāṁ smṛtiṁ te muni-sattama na hy eṣa vyavadhāt kāla eṣa sarva-nirākṛtiḥ

Synonyms

prāk — prior ; kalpa — the duration of Brahmā’s day ; viṣayām — subject matter ; etām — all these ; smṛtim — remembrance ; te — your ; muni — sattama — O great sage ; na — not ; hi — certainly ; eṣaḥ — all these ; vyavadhāt — made any difference ; kālaḥ — course of time ; eṣaḥ — all these ; sarva — all ; nirākṛtiḥ — annihilation .

Translation

O great sage, time annihilates everything in due course, so how is it that this subject matter, which happened prior to this day of Brahmā, is still fresh in your memory, undisturbed by time?

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Time destroys everything. Why did time not destroy your memories from some previous day of Brahmā?

Purport

As spirit is not annihilated even after the annihilation of the material body, so also spiritual consciousness is not annihilated. Śrī Nārada developed this spiritual consciousness even when he had his material body in the previous kalpa. Consciousness of the material body means spiritual consciousness expressed through the medium of a material body. This consciousness is inferior, destructible and perverted. But superconsciousness of the supramind in the spiritual plane is as good as the spirit soul and is never annihilated.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Na vyavadhāta means “did not separate” but the implication is “time did not separate your from the memory, and did not destroy the memory.” Vyavadhāt without the augment “a” (vyavādhāt) is poetic license. Nirākṛtiḥ means destruction.