Devanagari
श्रीशुक उवाच
सम्प्रदिश्यैवमजनो जनानां परमेष्ठिनम् ।
पश्यतस्तस्य तद् रूपमात्मनो न्यरुणद्धरि: ॥ ३८ ॥
Verse text
śrī-śuka uvāca
sampradiśyaivam ajano
janānāṁ parameṣṭhinam
paśyatas tasya tad rūpam
ātmano nyaruṇad dhariḥ
Synonyms
śrī
—
śukaḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said
;
sampradiśya
—
fully instructing Brahmājī
;
evam
—
thus
;
ajanaḥ
—
the Supreme Lord
;
janānām
—
of the living entities
;
parameṣṭhinam
—
unto the supreme leader, Brahmā
;
paśyataḥ
—
while he was seeing
;
tasya
—
His
;
tat rūpam
—
that transcendental form
;
ātmanaḥ
—
of the Absolute
;
nyaruṇat
—
disappeared
;
hariḥ
—
the Lord, the Personality of Godhead .
Translation
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said to Mahārāja Parīkṣit: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, after being seen in His transcendental form, instructing Brahmājī, the leader of the living entities, disappeared.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Śuka said: The Lord who is beyond the material world, having instructed Brahmā, the creator of the progeny, then made his form disappear while Brahmā watched.
Purport
In this verse it is clearly mentioned that the Lord is
ajanaḥ,
or the Supreme Person, and that He was showing His transcendental form (
ātmano rūpam
) to Brahmājī while instructing him in the summarization of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
in four verses. He is
ajanaḥ,
or the Supreme Person, amongst
janānām,
or all persons. All living entities are individual persons, and amongst all such persons Lord Hari is supreme, as confirmed in the
śruti-mantra, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām.
So there is no place for impersonal features in the transcendental world as there are impersonal features in the material world. Whenever there is
cetana,
or knowledge, the personal feature comes in. In the spiritual world everything is full of knowledge, and therefore everything in the transcendental world, the land, the water, the tree, the mountain, the river, the man, the animal, the bird — everything — is of the same quality, namely
cetana,
and therefore everything there is individual and personal.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
gives us this information as the supreme Vedic literature, and it was personally instructed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to Brahmājī so that the leader of the living entities might broadcast the message to all in the universe in order to teach the supreme knowledge of
bhakti-yoga.
Brahmājī in his turn instructed Nārada, his beloved son, the same message of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
and Nārada, in his turn, taught the same to Vyāsadeva, who again taught it to Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Through Śukadeva Gosvāmī’s grace and by the mercy of Mahārāja Parīkṣit we are all given
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
perpetually to learn the science of the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Parameṣṭhinam refers to the creator, Brahmā. Ātmano rūpam means the form of the Lord and Vaikuṇṭha as well. Nyaruṇad means “made (his form) disappear.”