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sa—those topics of Krsna, or krsna-katha; sraddadhanasya—of one who is anxious to hear; vivardhamana—gradually increasing; viraktim—indifference; anyatra—in other things (than such topics); karoti—does; pumsah—of one who is so engaged; hareh—of the Lord; pada-anusmrti—constant remembrance of the lotus feet of the Lord; nirvrtasya—one who has achieved such transcendental bliss; samasta-duhkha—all miseries; apyayam—vanquished; asu—without delay; dhatte—executes.

For one who is anxious to engage constantly in hearing such topics, krsna-katha gradually increases his indifference towards all other things. Such constant remembrance of the lotus feet of Lord Krsna by the devotee who has achieved transcendental bliss vanquishes all his miseries without delay.

We must certainly know that on the absolute plane krsna-katha and Krsna are one and the same. The Lord is the Absolute Truth, and therefore His name, form, quality, etc., which are all understood to be krsna-katha, are nondifferent from Him. Bhagavad-gita, being spoken by the Lord, is as good as the Lord Himself. When a sincere devotee reads Bhagavad-gita, this is as good as seeing the Lord face to face in his personal presence, but this is not so for the mundane wrangler. All the potencies of the Lord are there when one reads Bhagavad-gita, provided it is read in the way recommended in the Gita by the Lord Himself. One cannot foolishly manufacture an interpretation of Bhagavad-gita and still bring about transcendental benefit. Anyone who tries to squeeze some artificial meaning or interpretation from Bhagavad-gita for an ulterior motive is not sraddadhana-pumsah (one engaged anxiously in bona fide hearing of krsna-katha). Such a person cannot derive any benefit from reading Bhagavad-gita, however great a scholar he may be in the estimation of a layman. The sraddadhana, or faithful devotee, can actually derive all the benefits of Bhagavad-gita because by the omnipotency of the Lord he achieves the transcendental bliss which vanquishes attachment and nullifies all concomitant material miseries. Only the devotee, by his factual experience, can understand the import of this verse spoken by Vidura. The pure devotee of the Lord enjoys life by constantly remembering the lotus feet of the Lord by hearing krsna-katha. For such a devotee there is no such thing as material existence, and the much advertised bliss of brahmananda is like a fig for the devotee who is in the midst of the transcendental ocean of bliss.

SB3.5.14

TEXT 14

tan chocya-socyan avido ’nusoce

hareh kathayam vimukhan aghena

ksinoti devo ’nimisas tu yesam

ayur vrtha-vada-gati-smrtinam

tan—all those; socya—pitiable; socyan—of the pitiable; avidah—ignorant; anusoce—I pity; hareh—of the Lord; kathayam—to the topics of; vimukhan—averse; aghena—because of sinful activities; ksinoti—decaying; devah—the Lord; animisah—eternal time; tu—but; yesam—of whom; ayuh—duration of life; vrtha—uselessly; vada—philosophical speculations; gati—ultimate goal; smrtinam—of those following different rituals.

O sage, persons who because of their sinful activities are averse to the topics of Transcendence and thus ignorant of the purpose of the Mahabharata [Bhagavad-gita] are pitied by the pitiable. I also pity them because I see how their duration of life is spoiled by eternal time while they involve themselves in presentations of philosophical speculation, theoretical ultimate goals of life, and different modes of ritual.

According to the modes of material nature, there are three kinds of relationships between human beings and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who are in the modes of ignorance and passion are averse to the existence of God, or else they formally accept the existence of God in the capacity of an order supplier. Above them are those who are in the mode of goodness. This second class of men believe the Supreme Brahman to be impersonal. They accept the cult of bhakti, in which hearing of krsna-katha is the first item, as a means and not the end. Above them are those who are pure devotees. They are situated in the transcendental stage above the mode of material goodness. Such persons are decidedly convinced that the name, form, fame, qualities, etc., of the Personality of Godhead are nondifferent from one another on the absolute plane. For them, hearing of the topics of Krsna is equal to meeting with Him face to face. According to this class of men, who are situated in pure devotional service to the Lord, the highest goal of human life is purusartha, devotional service to the Lord, the real mission of life. The impersonalists, because they engage in mental speculation and have no faith in the Personality of Godhead, have no business hearing the topics of Krsna. Such persons are pitiable for the first-class pure devotees of the Lord. The pitiable impersonalists pity those who are influenced by the modes of ignorance and passion, but the pure devotees of the Lord take pity on them both because both waste their most valuable time in the human form of life in false pursuits, sense enjoyment and mental speculative presentations of different theories and goals of life.

SB3.5.15

TEXT 15

tad asya kausarava sarma-datur

hareh katham eva kathasu saram

uddhrtya puspebhya ivarta-bandho

sivaya nah kirtaya tirtha-kirteh

tat—therefore; asya—His; kausarava—O Maitreya; sarma-datuh—of one who awards good fortune; hareh—of the Lord; katham—topics; eva—only; kathasu—of all topics; saram—the essence; uddhrtya—by quoting; puspebhyah—from the flowers; iva—like that; arta-bandho—O friend of the distressed; sivaya—for welfare; nah—of us; kirtaya—kindly describe; tirtha—pilgrimage; kirteh—of glorious.

O Maitreya, O friend of the distressed, the glories of the Supreme Lord can alone do good for people all over the world. Therefore, just as bees collect honey from flowers, kindly describe the essence of all topics—the topics of the Lord.

There are many topics for different persons in different modes of material nature, but the essential topics are those in relationship with the Supreme Lord. Unfortunately, materially affected conditioned souls are all more or less averse to topics of the Supreme Lord because some of them do not believe in the existence of God and some of them believe only in the impersonal feature of the Lord. In both cases there is nothing for them to say of God. Both the nonbelievers and the impersonalists deny the essence of all topics; therefore, they engage in topics of relativity in various ways, either in sense gratification or in mental speculation. For the pure devotees like Vidura, the topics of both the mundaners and the mental speculators are useless in all respects. Thus Vidura requested Maitreya to talk of the essence only, the talks of Krsna, and nothing else.

SB3.5.16

TEXT 16

sa visva-janma-sthiti-samyamarthe

krtavatarah pragrhita-saktih

cakara karmany atipurusani

yanisvarah kirtaya tani mahyam

sah—the Personality of Godhead; visva—universe; janma—creation; sthiti—maintenance; samyama-arthe—with a view to perfect control; krta—accepted; avatarah—incarnation; pragrhita—accomplished with; saktih—potency; cakara—performed; karmani—transcendental activities; ati-purusani—superhuman; yani—all those; isvarah—the Lord; kirtaya—please chant; tani—all those; mahyam—unto me.

Kindly chant all those superhuman transcendental activities of the supreme controller, the Personality of Godhead, who accepted incarnations fully equipped with all potency for the full manifestation and maintenance of the cosmic creation.

Vidura was undoubtedly very eager to hear about Lord Krsna in particular, but he was overwhelmed because Lord Krsna had just passed away from the visible world. He therefore wanted to hear about Him in His purusa incarnations, which He manifests with full potencies for the creation and maintenance of the cosmic world. The activities of the purusa incarnations are but an extension of the activities of the Lord. This hint was given by Vidura to Maitreya because Maitreya could not decide which part of the activities of Lord Krsna should he chanted.

SB3.5.17

TEXT 17

sri-suka uvaca

sa evam bhagavan prstah

ksattra kausaravo munih

pumsam nihsreyasarthena

tam aha bahu-manayan

sri-sukah uvaca—Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said; sah—he; evam—thus; bhagavan—the great sage; prstah—being requested; ksattra—by Vidura; kausaravah—Maitreya; munih—the great sage; pumsam—for all people; nihsreyasa—for the greatest welfare; arthena—for that; tam—unto him; aha—narrated; bahu—greatly; manayan—honoring.

Sukadeva Gosvami said: The great sage Maitreya Muni, after honoring Vidura very greatly, began to speak, at Vidura’s request, for the greatest welfare of all people.

The great sage Maitreya Muni is described here as bhagavan because he surpassed all ordinary human beings in learning and experience. Thus his selection of the greatest welfare service for the world is considered authoritative. The all-inclusive welfare service for the entire human society is devotional service to the Lord, and, as requested by Vidura, the sage described the same very appropriately.

SB3.5.18

TEXT 18

maitreya uvaca

sadhu prstam tvaya sadho

lokan sadhv anugrhnata

kirtim vitanvata loke

atmano ’dhoksajatmanah

maitreyah uvaca—Sri Maitreya said; sadhu—all good; prstam—I am asked; tvaya—by you; sadho—O good one; lokan—all the people; sadhu anugrhnata—showing mercy in goodness; kirtim—glories; vitanvata—broadcasting; loke—in the world; atmanah—of the self; adhoksaja—the Transcendence; atmanah—mind.

Sri Maitreya said: O Vidura, all glory unto you. You have inquired from me of the greatest of all goodness, and thus you have shown your mercy both to the world and to me because your mind is always absorbed in thoughts of the Transcendence.

Maitreya Muni, who was experienced in the science of Transcendence, could understand that Vidura’s mind was fully absorbed in Transcendence. Adhoksaja means that which transcends the limits of sense perception or sensuous experience. The Lord is transcendental to our sense experience, but He reveals Himself to the sincere devotee. Because Vidura was always absorbed in thought of the Lord, Maitreya could estimate Vidura’s transcendental value. He appreciated the valuable inquiries of Vidura and thus thanked him with great honor.

SB3.5.19

TEXT 19

naitac citram tvayi ksattar

badarayana-viryaje

grhito ’nanya-bhavena

yat tvaya harir isvarah

na—never; etat—such inquiries; citram—very wonderful; tvayi—in you; ksattah—O Vidura; badarayana—of Vyasadeva; virya-je—born from the semen; grhitah—accepted; ananya-bhavena—without deviation from the thought; yat—because; tvaya—by you; harih—the Personality of Godhead; isvarah—the Lord.

O Vidura, it is not at all wonderful that you have so accepted the Lord without deviation of thought, for you were born from the semen of Vyasadeva.

The value of great parentage and noble birth is evaluated here in connection with the birth of Vidura. The culture of a human being begins when the father invests his semen in the womb of the mother. According to his status of work, a living entity is placed in a particular father’s semen, and because Vidura was not an ordinary living entity, he was given the chance to be born from the semen of Vyasa. The birth of a human being is a great science, and therefore reformation of the act of impregnation according to the Vedic ritual called Garbhadhana-samskara is very important for generating good population. The problem is not to check the growth of the population, but to generate good population on the level of Vidura, Vyasa and Maitreya. There is no need to check the growth of population if the children are born as human beings with all precautions regarding their birth. So-called birth control is not only vicious but also useless.

SB3.5.20

TEXT 20

mandavya-sapad bhagavan

praja-samyamano yamah

bhratuh ksetre bhujisyayam

jatah satyavati-sutat

mandavya—the great rsi Mandavya Muni; sapat—by his curse; bhagavan—the greatly powerful; praja—one who is born; samyamanah—controller of death; yamah—known as Yamaraja; bhratuh—of the brother; ksetre—in the wife; bhujisyayam—kept; jatah—born; satyavati—Satyavati (the mother of both Vicitravirya and Vyasadeva); sutat—by the son (Vyasadeva).

I know that you are now Vidura due to the cursing of Mandavya Muni and that formerly you were King Yamaraja, the great controller of living entities after their death. You were begotten by the son of Satyavati, Vyasadeva, in the kept wife of his brother.

Mandavya Muni was a great sage (cf. Bhag. 1.13.1), and Vidura was formerly the controller Yamaraja, who takes charge of the living entities after death. Birth, maintenance and death are three conditional states of the living entities who are within the material world. As the appointed controller after death, Yamaraja once tried Mandavya Muni for his childhood profligacy and ordered him to be pierced with a lance. Mandavya, being angry at Yamaraja for awarding him undue punishment, cursed him to become a sudra (member of the less intelligent laborer class). Thus Yamaraja took birth in the womb of the kept wife of Vicitravirya from the semen of Vicitravirya’s brother, Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva is the son of Satyavati by the great King Santanu, the father of Bhismadeva. This mysterious history of Vidura was known to Maitreya Muni because he happened to be a contemporary friend of Vyasadeva’s. In spite of Vidura’s birth from the womb of a kept wife, because he had otherwise high parentage and great connection he inherited the highest talent of becoming a great devotee of the Lord. To take birth in such a great family is understood to be an advantage for attaining devotional life. Vidura was given this chance due to his previous greatness.

SB3.5.21

TEXT 21

bhavan bhagavato nityam

sammatah sanugasya ha

yasya jnanopadesaya

madisad bhagavan vrajan

bhavan—your good self; bhagavatah—of the Personality of Godhead; nityam—eternal; sammatah—recognized; sa-anugasya—one of the associates; ha—have been; yasya—of whom; jnana—knowledge; upadesaya—for instructing; ma—unto me; adisat—so ordered; bhagavan—the Personality of Godhead; vrajan—while returning to His abode.

Your good self is one of the eternal associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for whose sake the Lord, while going back to His abode, left instructions with me.

Yamaraja, the great controller of life after death, decides the living entities’ destinies in their next lives. He is surely among the most confidential representatives of the Lord. Such confidential posts are offered to great devotees of the Lord who are as good as His eternal associates in the spiritual sky. And because Vidura happened to be among them, the Lord, while returning to Vaikuntha, left instructions for Vidura with Maitreya Muni. Generally the eternal associates of the Lord in the spiritual sky do not come to the material world. Sometimes they come, however, by the order of the Lord—not to hold any administrative post, but to associate with the Lord in person or to propagate the message of God in human society. Such empowered representatives are called saktyavesa-avataras, or incarnations invested with transcendental power of attorney.

SB3.5.22

TEXT 22

atha te bhagaval-lila

yoga-mayorubrmhitah

visva-sthity-udbhavantartha

varnayamy anupurvasah

atha—therefore; te—unto you; bhagavat—pertaining to the Personality of Godhead; lilah—pastimes; yoga-maya—energy of the Lord; uru—greatly; brmhitah—extended by; visva—of the cosmic world; sthiti—maintenance; udbhava—creation; anta—dissolution; arthah—purpose; varnayami—I shall describe; anupurvasah—systematically.

I shall therefore describe to you the pastimes by which the Personality of Godhead extends His transcendental potency for the creation, maintenance and dissolution of the cosmic world as they occur one after another.

The omnipotent Lord, by His different energies, can perform anything and everything He likes. The creation of the cosmic world is done by His yogamaya energy.

SB3.5.23

TEXT 23

bhagavan eka asedam

agra atmatmanam vibhuh

atmecchanugatav atma

nana-maty-upalaksanah

bhagavan—the Personality of Godhead; ekah—one without a second; asa—was there; idam—this creation; agre—prior to the creation; atma—in His own form; atmanam—of the living entities; vibhuh—master; atma—Self; iccha—desire; anugatau—being merged in; atma—Self; nana-mati—different vision; upalaksanah—symptoms.

The Personality of Godhead, the master of all living entities, existed prior to the creation as one without a second. It is by His will only that creation is made possible and again everything merges in Him. This Supreme Self is symptomized by different names.

The great sage here begins to explain the purpose of the four original verses of the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Although they have no access to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the followers of the Mayavada (impersonalist) school sometimes screw out an imaginary explanation of the original four verses, but we must accept the actual explanation given herein by Maitreya Muni because he, along with Uddhava, personally heard it directly from the Lord. The first line of the original four verses runs, aham evasam evagre. The word aham is misinterpreted by the Mayavada school into meanings which no one but the interpreter can understand. Here aham is explained as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not the individual living entities. Before the creation, there was only the Personality of Godhead; there were no purusa incarnations and certainly no living entities, nor was there the material energy, by which the manifested creation is effected. The purusa incarnations and all the different energies of the Supreme Lord were merged in Him only.

The Personality of Godhead is described herein as the master of all other living entities. He is like the sun disc, and the living entities are like the molecules of the sun’s rays. This existence of the Lord before the creation is confirmed by the srutis: vasudevo va idam agra asit na brahma na ca sankarah, eko vai narayana asin na brahma nesanah. Because everything that be is an emanation from the Personality of Godhead, He always exists alone without a second. He can so exist because He is all-perfect and omnipotent. Everything other than Him, including His plenary expansions, the visnu-tattvas, is His part and parcel. Before the creation there were no Karanarnavasayi or Garbhodakasayi or Ksirodakasayi Visnus, or was there Brahma nor Sankara. The Visnu plenary expansion and the living entities beginning from Brahma are separated parts and parcels. Although the spiritual existence was there with the Lord, the material existence was dormant in Him. By His will only is the material manifestation done and undone. The diversity of the Vaikunthaloka is one with the Lord, just as the diversity of soldiers is one with and the same as the king. As explained in Bhagavad-gita (9.7), the material creation takes place at intervals by the will of the Lord, and in the periods between dissolution and creation, the living entities and the material energy remain dormant in Him.

SB3.5.24

TEXT 24

sa va esa tada drasta

napasyad drsyam ekarat

mene ’santam ivatmanam

supta-saktir asupta-drk

sah—the Personality of Godhead; va—either; esah—all these; tada—at that time; drasta—the seer; na—did not; apasyat—see; drsyam—the cosmic creation; eka-rat—undisputed proprietor; mene—thought like this; asantam—nonexistent; iva—like that; atmanam—plenary manifestations; supta—unmanifested; saktih—material energy; asupta—manifested; drk—internal potency.

The Lord, the undisputed proprietor of everything, was the only seer. The cosmic manifestation was not present at that time, and thus He felt imperfect without His plenary and separated parts and parcels. The material energy was dormant, whereas the internal potency was manifested.

The Lord is the supreme seer because only by His glance did the material energy become active for cosmic manifestation. At that time the seer was there, but the external energy, over which the glance of the Lord is cast, was not present. He felt somewhat insufficient, like a husband feeling lonely in the absence of his wife. This is a poetic simile. The Lord wanted to create the cosmic manifestation to give another chance to the conditioned souls who were dormant in forgetfulness. The cosmic manifestation gives the conditioned souls a chance to go back home, back to Godhead, and that is its main purpose. The Lord is so kind that in the absence of such a manifestation He feels something wanting, and thus the creation takes place. Although the creation of the internal potency was manifested, the other potency appeared to be sleeping, and the Lord wanted to awaken her to activity, just as a husband wants to awaken his wife from the sleeping state for enjoyment. It is the compassion of the Lord for the sleeping energy that He wants to see her awaken for enjoyment like the other wives who are awake. The whole process is to enliven the sleeping conditioned souls to the real life of spiritual consciousness so that they may thus become as perfect as the ever-liberated souls in the Vaikunthalokas. Since the Lord is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], He likes every part and parcel of His different potencies to take part in the blissful rasa because participation with the Lord in His eternal rasa-lila is the highest living condition, perfect in spiritual bliss and eternal knowledge.

SB3.5.25

TEXT 25

sa va etasya samdrastuh

saktih sad-asad-atmika

maya nama maha-bhaga

yayedam nirmame vibhuh

sa—that external energy; va—is either; etasya—of the Lord; samdrastuh—of the perfect seer; saktih—energy; sat-asat-atmika—as both the cause and the effect; maya nama—called by the name maya; maha-bhaga—O fortunate one; yaya—by which; idam—this material world; nirmame—constructed; vibhuh—the Almighty.

The Lord is the seer, and the external energy, which is seen, works as both cause and effect in the cosmic manifestation. O greatly fortunate Vidura, this external energy is known as maya or illusion, and through her agency only is the entire material manifestation made possible.