946
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 18]
adabhra —fixed;  buddhiḥ —intelligence;  jñānena —by knowledge;  vaiyāsaki —the son of Vyāsa;  śabditena —vibrated by;  bheje —taken to;  khagendra —Garuḍa, the king of the birds;  dhvaja —flag;  pāda-mūlam —soles of the feet.
TRANSLATION
O Sūta Gosvāmī, please describe those topics of the Lord by which Mahārāja Parīkṣit, whose intelligence was fixed on liberation, attained the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of Garuḍa, the king of birds. Those topics were vibrated by the son of Vyāsa [Śrīla Śukadeva].
PURPORT
There is some controversy amongst the students on the path of liberation. Such transcendental students are known as impersonalists and devotees of the Lord. The devotee of the Lord worships the transcendental form of the Lord, whereas the impersonalist meditates upon the glaring effulgence or the bodily ray of the Lord, known as the  brahmajyoti . Here in this verse it is said that Mahārāja Parīkṣit attained the lotus feet of the Lord by instructions in knowledge delivered by the son of Vyāsadeva, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Śukadeva Gosvāmī was also an impersonalist in the beginning, as he has admitted himself in the  Bhāgavatam  (2.1.9), but later on he was attracted by the transcendental pastimes of the Lord and thus became a devotee. Such devotees with perfect knowledge are called  mahā-bhāgavata , or first-class devotees. There are three classes of devotees, namely the  prakṛta ,  madhyam , and  mahā-bhāgavata . The  prakṛta  or third-class devotees are temple worshipers without specific knowledge of the Lord and the Lord's devotees. The  madhyam , or the second-class devotee, knows well the Lord, the Lord's devotee, the neophytes, and the nondevotees also. But the  mahā-bhāgavata , or the first-class devotee, sees everything in relation with the Lord and the Lord present in everyone's relation. The  mahā-bhāgavata , therefore, does not make any distinction, particularly between a devotee and nondevotee. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was such a  mahā-bhāgavata  devotee because he was initiated by a  mahā-bhāgavata  devotee, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He was equally kind, even to the personality of Kali, and what to speak of others.
So there are many instances in the transcendental histories of the world of an impersonalist who has later become a devotee. But a devotee has never become an impersonalist. This very fact proves that on the transcendental steps, the step occupied by a devotee is higher than the step