Text 19]
Bhīṣma's Passing Away
461
TEXT 19
अस्यानुभावं भगवान् वेद गुह्यतमं शिवः । देवर्षिर्नारदः साक्षाद्भगवान् कपिलो नृप ॥१९॥
asyānubhāvam bhagavān veda guhyatamam śivaḥ devarṣir nāradaḥ sākṣāt bhagavān kapilo nṛpa
asya—of Him; anubhāvam—glories; bhagavān—the most powerful; veda—knows; guhyatamam—very confidentially; śivaḥ—Lord Śiva; devarṣiḥ—the great sage among the demigods; nāradaḥ—Nārada; sākṣāt—directly; bhagavān—the Personality of Godhead; kapilaḥ—Kapila; nṛpa—O King.
TRANSLATION
O King, Lord Śiva, Nārada, the sage amongst the demigods, and Kapila, the incarnation of Godhead, all know very confidentially about His glories through direct contact.
PURPORT
Pure devotees of the Lord are all  bhāvas , or persons who know the glories of the Lord in different transcendental loving services. As the Lord has innumerable expansions of His plenary form, similarly there are innumerable pure devotees of the Lord who are engaged in the exchange of service of different humors. Ordinarily there are twelve great devotees of the Lord, namely Brahmā, Nārada, Śiva, Kumāra, Kapila, Manu, Prahlāda, Bhīṣma, Janaka, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Bali Mahārāja and Yamarāja. Bhīṣmadeva, although one of them, has mentioned only three important names of the twelve who know the glories of the Lord. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākur, one of the great  ācāryas  in the modern age,  anubhāva , or the glory of the Lord, is first appreciated by the devotee in ecstasy manifesting the symptoms of perspiring, trembling, weeping, bodily eruptions, etc., which are further enhanced by steady understanding of the glories of the Lord. Such different understandings of  bhāvas  are exchanged between Yaśodā and the Lord (binding the Lord by ropes) and in the chariot driving by the Lord in the exchange of love with Arjuna, etc. These glories of the Lord are exhibited in His being subordinated before His devotees, and that is another feature of the glories of the Lord. Śukadeva Gosvāmī and the Kumāras, although situated in the transcendental