SB 10.14.18 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

अद्यैव त्वद‍ृतेऽस्य किं मम न ते मायात्वमादर्शित- मेकोऽसि प्रथमं ततो व्रजसुहृद्वत्सा: समस्ता अपि । तावन्तोऽसि चतुर्भुजास्तदखिलै: साकं मयोपासिता- स्तावन्त्येव जगन्त्यभूस्तदमितं ब्रह्माद्वयं शिष्यते ॥ १८ ॥

Verse text

adyaiva tvad ṛte ’sya kiṁ mama na te māyātvam ādarśitam eko ’si prathamaṁ tato vraja-suhṛd-vatsāḥ samastā api tāvanto ’si catur-bhujās tad akhilaiḥ sākaṁ mayopāsitās tāvanty eva jaganty abhūs tad amitaṁ brahmādvayaṁ śiṣyate

Synonyms

adya — today ; eva — just ; tvat ṛte — apart from You ; asya — of this universe ; kim — what ; mama — to me ; na — not ; te — by You ; māyātvam — the basis in Your inconceivable potency ; ādarśitam — shown ; ekaḥ — alone ; asi — You are ; prathamam — first of all ; tataḥ — then ; vraja — suhṛt — Your cowherd boyfriends of Vṛndāvana ; vatsāḥ — and the calves ; samastāḥ — all ; api — even ; tāvantaḥ — of the same number ; asi — You became ; catuḥ — bhujāḥ — four-handed forms of Lord Viṣṇu ; tat — then ; akhilaiḥ — by all ; sākam — together with ; mayā — myself ; upāsitāḥ — being worshiped ; tāvanti — of the same number ; eva — also ; jaganti — universes ; abhūḥ — You became ; tat — then ; amitam — the unlimited ; brahma — Absolute Truth ; advayam — one without a second ; śiṣyate — You now remain .

Translation

Have You not shown me today that both You Yourself and everything within this creation are manifestations of Your inconceivable potency? First You appeared alone, and then You manifested Yourself as all of Vṛndāvana’s calves and cowherd boys, Your friends. Next You appeared as an equal number of four-handed Viṣṇu forms, who were worshiped by all living beings, including me, and after that You appeared as an equal number of complete universes. Finally, You have now returned to Your unlimited form as the Supreme Absolute Truth, one without a second.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Have You not shown me today that both You Yourself and everything within this creation are manifestations of Your inconceivable potency? First You appeared alone, and then You manifested Yourself as all of Vṛndāvana's calves and cowherd boys, Your friends. Next You appeared as an equal number of four-handed Viṣṇu forms, who were worshiped by all living beings, including me, and after that You appeared as an equal number of complete universes. Finally, You have now returned to Your unlimited form as the Supreme Absolute Truth, one without a second. KB 10.14.18 He continued: “My dear Lord, leaving aside all other things and just considering today’s happenings—what I have seen—are they not all due to Your inconceivable energies? First of all I saw You alone; thereafter You expanded Yourself as Your cowherd boyfriends, the calves and the whole existence of Vṛndāvana; then I saw You and all the boys and calves as four-handed Viṣṇus, and They were being worshiped by all elements and all demigods, including myself. Again They were all wound up, and You remained alone, as You were before. Does this not mean that You are the Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa, the origin of everything, that everything emanates from You and again enters into You, leaving You the same as before?

Purport

As stated in the Vedic literature, sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma: everything that exists is an expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus everything is ultimately part and parcel of the Lord’s spiritual existence. By Lord Kṛṣṇa’s causeless mercy, Lord Brahmā personally experienced that all existence, being the potency of God, is nondifferent from Him.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The universe you displayed within your belly and the universe displayed outside that you showed to your mother, and all the unlimited universes passing in and out of the pores of your karanodakasayi form, are all produced by your material energy and are therefore designated as mayika. This I have already understood. But today I have realized the existence of thousands upon thousands of spiritual universe formed through your inconceivably powerful svarupa sakti. What object exists independent of you in the thousands of universes that you have shown to be today? Nothing, for everything is emanating from you. You have shown to me not the material nature of the thousands of universes, but their spiritual basis. How? First, you were alone. Then, by your svarupa sakti, you expanded as all the cowherd boys and calves of Vraja. Then by yogamaya you covered all the cowherd boys and calves and revealed the countless four handed forms composed of your svarupa sakti. What type of forms were these? These forms were worshiped by all conscious entities from the blades of grass to all the Brahmas. Then you became all the universes of all the countless Brahmas. Then yogamaya, by your desire, covered all this and revealed the one form (advayam) of the pure perfect Brahman with immeasurable incomparable beauty. For my benefit you remain uncovered before my eyes through the potency of yoga maya.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

Let us forget Yaśodā’s realization. Let us speak of today. The word tvat refers to the direct form of the Lord represented by the calves and boys who became the four-armed forms as described in the following statements. Purovad ābdaṁ krīḍantaṁ dadṛśe sa-kalaṁ harim: Kṛṣṇa was engaged just as before in playing with the boys and calves, who were his expansions. (SB 10.13.40) tāvat sarve vatsa-pālāḥ paśyato ’jasya tat-kṣaṇāt vyadṛśyanta ghana-śyāmāḥ pīta-kauśeya-vāsasaḥ Then, while Lord Brahmā looked on, all the calves and the boys tending them immediately appeared to have complexions the color of bluish rainclouds and to be dressed in yellow silken garments. SB 10.13.46 Satya-jñānānantānanda-mātraika-rasa-mūrtayaḥ: the forms all had eternal, unlimited forms, full of knowledge and bliss, which were one form. (SB 10.13.54) The word asya refers to living beings other than what was mentioned above: ātmādi-stamba-paryantair mūrtimadbhiś carācaraiḥ nṛtya-gītādy-anekārhaiḥ pṛthak pṛthag upāsitāḥ These forms were worshipped by the presiding deities of all moving and non-moving beings including Brahmā with many items such as singing and dancing, according to their respective capacities and ingredients. SB 10.13.51 kāla-svabhāva-saṁskāra- kāma-karma-guṇādibhiḥ sva-mahi-dhvasta-mahibhir mūrtimadbhir upāsitāḥ The personifications of time, the ability to transform, impressions, desire, karma, the guṇas, names and forms, whose powers were dwarfed by Viṣṇu’s powers, worshipped these Viṣṇu forms. SB 10.13.53 Sākam māyā means that the Lord was worshipped by himself and also the whole universe where he lived. Other than your form--the forms of the calves and boys, and the four-armed forms of Viṣṇu--was not everything else I saw, whose glories were defeated by your powers, some creation of māyā? Yes, everything was defeated. Then he describes what he saw: Kṛṣṇa, the boys and calves and the four-armed forms. Everything both māyā and non-māyā that I saw was your form alone, the perfect Brahman. This surpasses mere Brahman. Brahmādvayam śiṣyate means that the Brahman famous in the scriptures cannot be compared to the Brahman standing before me. This is explained in na sthānato ‘pi parasyobhaya-liṅgaṁ sarvatra hi: the Lord though situated in two different places does not undergo change because he exists everywhere simultaneously (Brahma-sūtra 3.2.11) and Brahmā himself says. aho bhāgyam aho bhāgyaṁ nanda-gopa-vrajaukasām yan-mitraṁ paramānandaṁ pūrṇaṁ brahma sanātanam How greatly fortunate are Nanda Mahārāja, the cowherd men and all the other inhabitants of Vrajabhūmi! There is no limit to their good fortune, because the Absolute Truth, the source of transcendental bliss, the eternal Supreme Brahman, has become their friend. SB 10.14.32

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

“If everything is illusory, then my existence here or there is all illusory. Though existing within the universe, you and your devotees are real, and I have directly experienced it now.” Continuing the topic of māyā Brahmā speaks with pride. Did you not show me today the māyā of the material world, different from you, seen with great variety, and existing within this world which is like a dream or fantasy? Yes, you did. How was this? You were first alone. Then you were with the cowherd boys and calves. That was not false. What was you, was all unlimited. Thus the boys and calves though limited by differentiation, were unlimited. Thought they were of great variety, they were one (advayam). Everything was ultimately you (brahma śiṣyate). satya-jñānānantānanda- mātraika-rasa-mūrtayaḥ aspṛṣṭa-bhūri-māhātmyā api hy upaniṣad-dṛśām The forms all had eternal, unlimited forms, full of knowledge and bliss, which were one form. Their great glory could not even to be touched by the ātmā-jñānīs. SB 10.13.54