Devanagari
विदुरोऽप्युद्धवाच्छ्रुत्वा कृष्णस्य परमात्मन: ।
क्रीडयोपात्तदेहस्य कर्माणि श्लाघितानि च ॥ ३३ ॥
Verse text
viduro ’py uddhavāc chrutvā
kṛṣṇasya paramātmanaḥ
krīḍayopātta-dehasya
karmāṇi ślāghitāni ca
Synonyms
viduraḥ
—
Vidura
;
api
—
also
;
uddhavāt
—
from the source of Uddhava
;
śrutvā
—
having heard
;
kṛṣṇasya
—
of Lord Kṛṣṇa
;
parama
—
ātmanaḥ — of the Supersoul
;
krīḍayā
—
for the sake of pastimes in the mortal world
;
upātta
—
extraordinarily accepted
;
dehasya
—
of the body
;
karmāṇi
—
transcendental activities
;
ślāghitāni
—
most glorious
;
ca
—
also .
Translation
Vidura also heard from Uddhava about the appearance and disappearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supersoul, in the mortal world, which is a subject matter sought after with great perseverance by the great sages.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O Parīkṣit! Hearing from Uddhava the glorious activities of Kṛṣṇa, Paramātmā, who has a body for pastimes, and hearing of disappearance of the Yadus which increases the faith of the intelligent and is incomprehensible to unintelligent person who are like animals, Vidura, overcome with love for the Lord, thinking that he was remembered by the Kṛṣṇa, began to weep when Uddhava had departed.
Kṛṣṇa has permanently accepted (upa ātta) a body because of his pastimes. He is dependent on his līlā-śakti. By that śakti his body appears and disappears. By means of this śakti, the bodies of the Yadus (dhīrānām) were offered (nyāsam) to the unmanifest form of Dvārakā. And also hearing about giving up bodies in Prabhāsa (indicated by the word ca), Vidura became firm in heart (dhairya-vardhanam). Or dhairya-vardhanam can mean the disappearance caused him to lose self-control, since vardha means to cut. These disappearances are difficult to understand for others who are not devotees, such as yogīs. The yogīs cannot understand how the Lord can disappear in one place and a giving up his bodies in another place as a show for the common people. Because those people are not devotees they are called animals. Viklavātmanām means those with disturbed minds.
Purport
The subject matter of the appearance and disappearance of the Supersoul, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is a mystery even for the great sages. The word
paramātmanaḥ
is significant in this verse. An ordinary living being is generally called the
ātmā,
but Lord Kṛṣṇa is never an ordinary living being because He is
paramātmā,
the Supersoul. Yet His appearance as one of the human beings and His disappearance again from the mortal world are subject matters for the research workers who execute research work with great perseverance. Such subject matters are certainly of increasing interest because the researchers have to search out the transcendental abode of the Lord, which He enters after finishing His pastimes in the mortal world. But even the great sages have no information that beyond the material sky is the spiritual sky where Śrī Kṛṣṇa eternally resides with His associates, although at the same time He exhibits His pastimes in the mortal world in all the universes one after another. This fact is confirmed in
Brahma-saṁhitā
(5.37)
:
goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ.
“The Lord, by His inconceivable potency, resides in His eternal abode, Goloka, yet at the same time, as the Supersoul, He is present everywhere — in both the spiritual and material skies — by His multivarieties of manifestation.” Therefore His appearance and disappearance are simultaneously going on, and no one can say definitely which of them is the beginning and which is the end. His eternal pastimes have no beginning or end, and one has to learn of them from the pure devotee only and not waste valuable time in so-called research work.