Devanagari
क इह नु वेद बतावरजन्मलयोऽग्रसरं
यत उदगादृषिर्यमनु देवगणा उभये ।
तर्हि न सन्न चासदुभयं न च कालजव:
किमपि न तत्र शास्त्रमवकृष्य शयीत यदा ॥ २४ ॥
Verse text
ka iha nu veda batāvara-janma-layo ’gra-saraṁ
yata udagād ṛṣir yam anu deva-gaṇā ubhaye
tarhi na san na cāsad ubhayaṁ na ca kāla-javaḥ
kim api na tatra śāstram avakṛṣya śayīta yadā
Synonyms
kaḥ
—
who
;
iha
—
in this world
;
nu
—
indeed
;
veda
—
knows
;
bata
—
ah
;
avara
—
recent
;
janma
—
whose birth
;
layaḥ
—
and annihilation
;
agra
—
saram — who came first
;
yataḥ
—
from whom
;
udagāt
—
arose
;
ṛṣiḥ
—
the learned sage, Brahmā
;
yam anu
—
following whom (Brahmā)
;
deva
—
gaṇāḥ — the groups of demigods
;
ubhaye
—
both (those who control the senses and those who live in the regions above the heavenly planets)
;
tarhi
—
at that time
;
na
—
no
;
sat
—
gross matter
;
na
—
no
;
ca
—
also
;
asat
—
subtle matter
;
ubhayam
—
that which is comprised of both (namely, the material bodies)
;
na ca
—
nor
;
kāla
—
of time
;
javaḥ
—
the flow
;
kim api na
—
none at all
;
tatra
—
there
;
śāstram
—
authoritative scripture
;
avakṛṣya
—
withdrawing
;
śayīta
—
(the Supreme Lord) lies down
;
yadā
—
when .
Translation
Everyone in this world has recently been born and will soon die. So how can anyone here know Him who existed prior to everything else and who gave rise to the first learned sage, Brahmā, and all subsequent demigods, both lesser and greater? When He lies down and withdraws everything within Himself, nothing else remains — no gross or subtle matter or bodies composed of these, no force of time or revealed scripture.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Everyone in this world has recently been born and will soon die. So how can anyone here know Him who existed prior to everything else and who gave rise to the first learned sage, Brahmā, and all subsequent demigods, both lesser and greater? When He lies down and withdraws everything within Himself, nothing else remains—no gross or subtle matter or bodies composed of these, no force of time or revealed scripture.
KB 10.87.24
The personified Vedas stated that persons born after the creation of this material world cannot understand the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by manipulating their material knowledge. Just as a person born in a particular family cannot understand the position of his great-grandfather, who lived before the birth of the recent generation, we are unable to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, who exists eternally in the spiritual world. In the Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said that the Supreme Person, who lives eternally in the spiritual kingdom of God (sanātana-dhāma), can be approached only by devotional service.
As for the material creation, Brahmā is the first created person. Before Brahmā there was no living creature within this material world; it was void and dark until Brahmā was born on the lotus flower that sprouted from the abdomen of Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is an expansion of Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu is an expansion of Saṅkarṣaṇa, and Saṅkarṣaṇa is an expansion of Balarāma, who is an immediate expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa. After the creation of Brahmā, the two kinds of demigods were born: demigods like the four brothers Sanaka, Sanātana, Sanandana and Sanat-kumāra, who are representatives of renunciation of the world, and demigods like Marīci and their descendants, who are meant to enjoy this material world. From these two kinds of demigods were gradually manifested all other living entities, including the human beings. Thus all living creatures within this material world, including Brahmā, all the demigods and all the Rākṣasas, are to be considered modern. This means that they were all born recently. Therefore, just as a person born recently in a family cannot understand the situation of his distant forefather, no one within this material world can understand the position of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world, because the material world has only recently been created. Although they have a long duration of existence, all the manifestations of the material world—namely the time element, the living entities, the Vedas and the gross and subtle material elements—are created at some point. Thus any process manufactured within this created situation as a means for understanding the original source of creation is to be considered modern.
Therefore by the process of self-realization or God realization through fruitive activities, philosophical speculation or mystic yoga, one cannot actually approach the supreme source of everything. When the creation is completely terminated—when there is no existence of the Vedas, no existence of material time, and no existence of the gross and subtle material elements, and when all the living entities are in the nonmanifested stage, resting within Nārāyaṇa—then all these manufactured processes become null and void and cannot act. Devotional service, however, is eternally going on in the eternal spiritual world. Therefore the only factual process of self-realization or God realization is devotional service, and one who takes to this process takes to the real process of God realization.
In this regard, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has composed a verse which conveys the idea that the supreme source of everything, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is so great and unlimited that it is not possible for the living entity to understand Him by any material acquisition. One should therefore pray to the Lord to be engaged in His devotional service eternally, so that by the grace of the Lord one can understand the supreme source of creation. The supreme source of creation, the Supreme Lord, reveals Himself only to the devotees. In the Fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says to Arjuna, “My dear Arjuna, because you are My devotee and because you are My intimate friend, I shall reveal to you the process of understanding Me.” In other words, the supreme source of creation, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, cannot be understood by our own endeavor. We have to please Him with devotional service, and then He will reveal Himself to us. Then we can understand Him to some extent.
Purport
Here the
śrutis
express the difficulty of knowing the Supreme. Devotional service, or
bhakti-yoga,
as described in these prayers of the personified
Vedas,
is the surest and easiest path to knowledge of the Lord and to liberation. In comparison, the philosophic search for knowledge, known as
jṣāna-yoga,
is very difficult, favored though it is by those who are disgusted with material life but still unwilling to surrender to the Lord. As long as the finite soul remains envious of the Lord’s supremacy, the Lord does not reveal Himself. As He states in
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.25)
:
nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūdho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam
“I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore they do not know that I am unborn and infallible.” And in the words of Lord Brahmā,
panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo
vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānām
so ’py asti yat-prapada-sīmny avicintya-tattve
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the
yogīs,
who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to
prāṇāyāma
by drilling the respiration; or by the
jṣānīs,
who search out the undifferentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.” (
Brahma-saṁhitā
5.34
)
Brahmā, the first-born living being in this universe, is also the foremost sage. He is born from Lord Nārāyaṇa, and from him appear the hosts of demigods, including both the controllers of earthly activities and the rulers of heaven. All these powerful and intelligent beings are relatively recent productions of the Lord’s creative energy. As the first speaker of the
Vedas,
Lord Brahmā should know their purport at least as well as any other authority, but even he knows the Personality of Godhead only to a limited extent. As
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
states (1.3.35),
veda-guhyāni hṛt-pateḥ:
“The Lord of the heart hides Himself deep within the confidential recesses of the Vedic sound.” If Brahmā and the demigods born from him cannot easily know the Supreme Lord, how then can mere mortals expect success in their independent pursuit of knowledge?
As long as this creation lasts, living beings face many obstacles on the path of knowledge. Because of identifying themselves with their material coverings, consisting of body, mind and ego, they acquire all sorts of prejudices and misconceptions. Even if they have the divine scripture to guide them and the opportunity to execute the prescribed methods of
karma,
jṣāna
and
yoga,
the conditioned souls have but little power for gaining knowledge of the Absolute. And when the time of annihilation comes, the Vedic scriptures and their regulative injunctions become unmanifest, leaving the dormant
jīvas
completely in darkness. Therefore we should abandon our futile endeavors for knowledge without devotion and simply surrender ourselves to the Supreme Lord’s mercy, heeding the advice of Lord Brahmā:
jṣāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gataṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ
ye prāyaśo jita jito ’py asi tais tri-lokyām
“Those who, even while remaining situated in their established social positions, throw away the process of speculative knowledge and with their body, words and mind offer all respects to descriptions of Your personality and activities, dedicating their lives to these narrations, which are vibrated by You personally and by Your pure devotees, certainly conquer Your Lordship, although You are otherwise unconquerable by anyone within the three worlds.” (
Bhāg.
10.14.3
)
In this regard, the
Taittirīya Upaniṣad
(2.4.1) refers to the Supreme as
yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha,
“where words cease, and where the mind cannot reach.” The
Īśopaniṣad
(4)
states:
anejad ekaṁ manaso javīyo
naitad devā āpnuvan pūrvam arśat
tad dhāvato ’nyān atyeti tiṣṭhat
tasmin apo mātariśvā dadhāti
“Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is more swift than the mind and can overcome all others running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.” And in the
Ṛg Veda
(3.54.5) we find this
mantra:
ko ’ddhā veda ka iha pravocat
kuta āyātāḥ kuta iyaṁ visṛṣṭiḥ
arvāg devā visarjanenā-
thā ko veda yata ā babhūva
“Who in this world actually knows, and who can explain, whence this creation has come? The demigods, after all, are younger than the creation. Who, then, can tell whence this world has come into being?”
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī thus prays:
kvāhaṁ buddhy-ādi-saṁruddhaḥ
kva ca bhūman mahas tava
dīna-bandho dayā-sindho
bhaktiṁ me nṛ-hare diśa
“What am I, a being entrapped by the material coverings of worldly intelligence and so on? And what are Your glories by comparison, O almighty one? O friend of the fallen, O ocean of mercy, Lord Nṛhari, please bless me with Your devotional service.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
"Therefore bhakti is the best process, easily executed. On the other hand, knowledge of you, who are the object of worship in bhakti, is always difficult to perform. O Lord! In the world, who with recent births and deaths fully knows you, who are born before all?
For it is from you that the Vedas (rsih), which to some small extent informs us about you, first arose. Even the Vedas seek out you, "veda guhyani hrt pateh" (you are hidden in the Vedas. sb 1.3.35.) and after the Vedas, the devatas of the senses, like the directions, vayu and the sun, and the devatas of the planets like Brahma appeared. Those who are more recent than them certainly do not know you. When you destroy everything and lie down, the gross elements like akasa, the subtle elements like mahat tattva, the body generated by them, even the subtle disturbance of time which is the cause of those bodies, and senses, prana and even scriptures cease to exist."
This is the intention: at the time of creation, because of the existence of scriptures, and the possibility of sadhana, even if there are many obstructions created by the coverings of material bodies, a little knowledge of you is possible. But at the time of destruction, though there are no longer numerous obstructions, because of absence of scripture, absence of sadhana, there no knowledge of you at all. Therefore giving up the quest of knowledge of you, it is better to practice bhakti towards you.
The srutis speak the same subject.
Ko’ ddha veda ka iha pravocat kuta ayatah kuta iyam visrstah
Arvag deva asya visarjanenatha ko veda yata a babhuva
Who knows directly (addha) where this world has come from? There is no one to give the knowledge. Who spoke it?
After he created everything, the devas arose. Who knows him from who this universe arose?
Rig Veda 3.54.5
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Some śrutis, delighted by what was said, excuse their fault in being ignorant of the matter. Who in the universe knows this (understood from previous verse)? The śrutis who made the statement know. Nu indicates conjecture. Frowning they say this “No one else knows.” It is beyond everyone’s birth and knowledge (agrasaram) because Mahā-viṣṇu (ṛṣih), who manifests the Vedas through his breathing, rose up. Ādyo ’vatāraḥ puruṣaḥ parasya: Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu is the first incarnation of the Supreme Lord. (SB 2.6.42) But ultimately Kṛṣṇa is indicated. Yasyāṁśāṁśāṁśa-bhāgena viśvotpatti-layodayāḥ: O Soul of all that be, the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe are all carried out by a fraction of an expansion of an expansion of your expansion. (SB 10.85.31) After him, the two types of devatās—deities of the senses (directions, sun, wind etc.) and deities of the planets (Brahmā etc) appeared. Eko nārāyaṇa āsīn na brahmā neśāna, tasmād evaite vyajāyante: first there was only Nārāyaṇa, not Brahmā or Śiva and from him they all arose. Thee living entieis are born and die. So who can know him? No one knows him.
The scriptures exist during maintenance, but because of absence of ability to hear and no scriptures at destruction, there is ignorance about you. At the time of universal destruction, the Lord takes the scriptures which praise him to his spiritual abode and pays no attention to the activities of the universe. The jīvas are thus without knowledge of you. At that time there is no gross or subtle matter. There is no sense of time, since there is no creation. The śrutis also say the same thing. Śrīdhara Svāmī quotes this:
ko ’ddhā veda ka iha pravocat
kuta āyātāḥ kuta iyaṁ visṛṣṭiḥ
arvāg devā visarjanenā-
thā ko veda yata ā babhūva
\Who in this world actually knows, and who can explain, whence this creation has come? The demigods, after all, are younger than the creation. Who, then, can tell whence this world has come into being? Ṛg Veda 3.54.5
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Having described the astonishing glories of hearing, chanting and remembering the Lord, the śrutis point out that giving respect to jñāna is not proper. How can any person who is born and dies know this topic of the Lord? No one can, because they are all low (avara). Nu indicates conjecture. Even Brahmā, who lives a long time but must die (laya), is considered low, since it is impossible for him or others to understand. They cannot know because the Lord existed previously (agrasaram) or because the Lord is beyond (agrasaram) the senses. Or no one can know the Lord because Brahma appeared along with the senses (deva-ganāḥ) and the sages inclined to enjoyment or renunciation (ubhaye), and then disappear at night, with no possibility of getting knowledge.
When Brahmā lies down in the lotus in the Navel of Viṣṇu, there are no gross actions of sacrifice (sat) or subtle processes like meditation (asat) or processes which mix these two (ubhayam) or the daily passage of day and night (kāla-javah), and no Vedas (śāstram). They do not function in the three worlds since they are destroyed. Janaloka and other planets above however exist during the night. (Thus there is no means of knowledge).
Or who knows Kṛṣṇa? First the puruṣa arises from him. In the puruṣaḥ arises mahat and other elements which produce a universe. The Lord enters as antaryāmī and lies on the water. From his navel Brahmā is born. Both the ingredients and the devatās like Brahmā (ubhaye) arose. They are all recent. Time was present, indicated by the words tarhi and yadā (when). But its force (javaḥ) was not present. The Vedas were present as the breathing of the Lord, but were not manifested externally. Thus the great Upaniṣads were not manifested externally. But because of this the śrutis began reciting these verses. When the Lord lay down and withdrew (avakṛṣya) all the universes, nothing was manifested.
anantāni tavoktāni yāny aṇḍāni mayā purā
sarvāṇi tāni saṁhṛtya sama-kālaṁ jagat-patiḥ
prakṛtau tiṣṭhati tadā sa rātris tasya kīrtitā
As I have already explained to you, the Lord destroys all the numberless material universes at the same time. Then the universes remain in their unmanifest state within the Supreme Lord (prakṛtau). This is known as the Lord's night. Viṣṇu-dharmottara