TEXT 1
"ॐ नमॊ भगवते वासुदेवाय
जन्माधस्य यतोऽन्वयादितरतश्र्वाथे॔ष्वभिज्ञः स्वराट्
तेने ब्रह्म ह्रदा य आदिकवयॆ मुह्रन्ति यत्सूरयः ।
तेजोवारिमृदां यथा विनिमयो यत्र त्रिसगो॔ऽमृषा
धाम्ना स्वेन सदा निरस्तकुहकं सत्यं परं घीमहि ॥१॥ "
"om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
janmady asya yato'nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah sva-rat
tene brahma hrda ya adi-kavaye muhyanti yat surayah
tejo-vari-mrdam yatha vinimayo yatra tri-sargo'mrsa
dharmna svena sada nirasta-kuhakam satyam param dhimahi. ||1||"
om- O my Lord; namah-offering my obeisances; bhagavate-unto the Personality of Godhead; vasudevaya-unto Vasudeva(the son of Vasudeva), or Lord Krsna, the Primeval Lord; janma-adi-creation, sustenance and destruction; asya-of the manifested universe;yatah-from whom; anva-yat-directly; itaratah-indirectly; ca-and; arthesu-purposes; abhijnah-fully cognizant; sva-rat-fully independent; tene-imparted; brahma-the Vedic knowledge; hrda-consciousness of the heart; yah- one who; adi-kavaye-unto the original created being; muhyanti-are illusioned; yat-about whom; surayah-great sages and demigods; tejah-fire; vari-water; mrdam-earth; yatha-as much as; vinimayah-action and reaction; yatra-whereupon; tri-sargah-three modes of creation, creative faculties; amrsa-almost factual; dhamna-along with the transcendental paraphernalia; svena-self-sufficiently; sada-always; nirasta- negation by absence; kuhakam-illusion;satyam-truth; param-absolute; dhimahi-I do meditate upon.
TRANSLATION
I offer my obeisances unto Lord Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, who is the supreme all-pervading Personality of Godhead. I meditate upon Him, the transcendent reality, who is the primeval cause of all causes, from whom all manifested universe arise, in whom they dwell and by whom they are destroyed. I meditate upon that eternally effulgent Lord who is directly and indirectly consious of all manifestations and yet is beyond them. It is He only who first imparted Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahma, the first created being. Through Him this world, like a mirage, appears real even to great sages and demigods. Because of Him, the material universes, created by the three modes of nature, appear to be factual, although they are unreal. I meditate therefore upon Him, the Absolute Truth, who is eternally existent in His transcendental abode, and who is forever free of illuison.
PURPORT
Obeisances unto the Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, directly indicate Lord Sri Krsna, who is the divine son of Vasudeva and Devaki. This fact will be more explicitly explained in the text of this work. Sri Vysadeva asserts herein that Sri Krsna is the original Personality of Godhead, and all others are His direct or indirect plenary portions or portions of the portion. Srila Jiva Gosvami has even more explicitly explained the subject matter in his Krsna-sandarbha. And Brahma, the original living being, had explained the subject of Sri Krsna sustantially in his treatise named Brahma-samhita. In the Sama-veda Upanisad, it is also stated that Lord Sri Krsna is the divine son of Devaki. Therefore, in this prayer, the first proposition holds that Lord Sri Krsna is the primeval Lord, and if any transcendental nomenclature is to be understood as belonging to the Absolute Personality of Godhead, it must be the name indicated by the word Krsna, which means the all-attractive. In Bhagavad-gita, in many places, the Lord asserts Himself to be the original Personality of Godhead, and this is confirmed by Arjuna, and also by great sages like Narada, Vyasa, and many others. In the Padma Purana, it is also stated that out of the innumerable names of the Lord, the name of Krsna is the principal one. Vasudeva indicates the plenary portion of the Perosnality of Godhead, and all the different forms of the Lord, being identical with Vasudeva, are indicated in this text. The name Vasudeva particularly indicates the divine son of Vasudeva and Devaki. Sri Krsna is always meditated upon by the paramahamsas who are the perfected ones among those in the renounced order of life.
Vasudeva, or Lord Sri Krsna, is the cause of all causes. Everything that exists emantes from the Lord. How this is so is expained in later chapters of this work. This work is described by Mahaprabhu Sri Caintaya as the spotless Purana because it contains the transcendental narration of the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna. The history of the Srimad-Bhagavatam is also very glorious. It was complied by Sri Vyasadeva after he had attained maturity in transcendental knowledge. He wrote this under the instructions of Sri Naradaji, his spiritual master. Vyasadeva compiled all Vedic literatures containing the four divisions of the Vedas, the Vedanta-sutras or the Brahma-sutras, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, and so on. But nevertheless he was not satisifed. His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and thus Narada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of Lord Sri Krsna. These transcendental activities are described specifically in the Tenth Canto of this work. But, in order to reach to the very sustance, one must proceed gradually by developing knowledge of the categories.
It is natural that a philosophical mind wants to know about the origin of the creation. At night he sees the stars in the sky, and he naturally speculates about their inhabitants. Such inquires are natural for man because man has a developed consciouness which is higer than that of the animals. The author of Srimad-Bhagavatam gives a direct answer to such inquiries. He says that the Lord Sri Krsna is the origin of all creations. He is not only the creator of the universe, but the destroyer as well. The manifested cosmic nature is created at a certain period by the will of the Lord. It is maintained for some time, and then it is annihilated by His will. Therefore, the Supreme will is behind all cosmic activities. Of course, there are atheists of various categories who do not believe in the creator, but that is due to a poor fund of knowledge. The modern scientist, for example, has created space satellites, and by some arrangement or other, these satellites are thrown into outer space to fly for some time at the controlof the scientist who is far away. Similarly, all the universes with innumerable stars and planets are controlled by the intelligence of the Personality of Godhead.
In Vedic literatures, it is said that the Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead, is the chief amongst all living personalities. All living beings beginning from the first created being, Brahma, down to the smallest ant and indiviual living beings. And above Brahma, there are even other living being with individual capacities, and the Personality of Godhead is also a similar living being. And He is an indiviual as are the other living beings. But the Supreme Lord or the supreme living being has the greatest intelligence, and He possesses supermost inconceivable energies of all different varieties. If a man's brain can produce a space satellite, one can very easily imagine how brains higher than man can produce similarly wonderful things which are far superior. The reasonable person will easily accept this argument, but there are stubborn atheists who would never agree. Srila Vyasadeva, however, at once accepts the supreme intelligence as the paramesvara. He offers his respectful obeisances unto the supreme intelligence addressed as the para or the paramesvara or the Supreme Persnality of Godhead. And that paramesvara is Sri Krsna, as admitted in Bhagavad-gita and other scriptures deliviered by Sri Vyasadeva and specifically in this Srimad-Bhagavatam. In Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says that there is no other Para-tattva (summum bonum) than Himself. Therefore, Sri Vyasadeva at once worships the Para-tattva, Sri Krsna, whose transcendental activities are described in the Tenth Canto.
Unscrupulous persons go immediately to the Tenth Canto and especially to the five chapter which describe the Lord's rasa dance. This portion of the Srimad-Bhagavatam is the most confidential part of this great literature. Unless one is thoroughly accomplished in the transcendental knowledge of the Lord, one is sure to misunderstand the Lord's worshipable transcendental pastimes called rasa dance and His love affairs with the gopis. This subject matter is highly spiritual, and only the liberated persons who have gradually attained to the stage of paramahamsa can transcendentally relish this rasa dance. Srila Vyasadeva therefore gives the reader the chance to gradually develop spiritual realization before actually relishing the essence of the pastimes of the Lord. Therefore, he purposely invokes a Gayatri mantra, dhimahi. This Gayatri mantra is meant for spiritually advanced people. When one is successful in chanting the Gayatri mantra, he can enter into the transcendental position of the Lord. One must therefore acquire brahminical qualities or be perfectly situated in the quality of goodness in order to chant the Gayatri mantra successfully and then attain to the stage of transcendentally realizing the Lord, His name, His fame, His qualities and so on.
Srimad-Bhagavatam is the narration of the svarupa of the Lord manifested by His internal potency, and this potency is distinguished from the external potency which had manifested the cosmic world, which is within our experience. Srila Vyasadeva makes a clear distinction between the two in this sloka. Sri Vyasadeva says herein that the manifested internal potency is real, whereas the external manifested energy in the form of material existence is only temporary and illusory like the mirage in the desert. In the desert mirage there is no actual water. There is only the appearance of water. Real water is somewhere else. The manifested cosmic creation appears as reality. But reality, of which this is but a shadow, is in the spiritual world. Absolute Truth is in the spiritual sky, not the material sky. In the material sky everything is relative truth. That is to say, one truth depends on something else. This cosmic creation results from interaction of the three modes of nature, and the temporary manifestations are so created as to present an illusion of reality to the bewildered mind of the conditioned soul, who appears in so many species of life, including the higer demigods, like Brahma, Indra, Candra, and so on. In actuality, there is no reality in the manifested world. There appears to be reality, however, because of the true reality which exists in the spiritual world, where the Personality of Godhead eternally exists with His transcendental paraphernalia.