214
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 4]
independent of the Lord. The material scientists can merely observe the reactions of the material nature without understanding the direction behind such activities, as the child can see the action of electricity without any knowledge of the powerhouse engineer. This imperfect knowledge of the material scientist is due to a poor fund of knowledge. The Vedic knowledge was therefore first impregnated within Brahmā, and it appears that Brahmā distributed the Vedic knowledge. Brahmā is undoubtedly the speaker of the Vedic knowledge, but actually he was inspired by the Lord to receive such transcendental knowledge, as it directly descends from the Lord. The  Vedas  are therefore called  apauruṣeya , or not imparted by any created being. Before the creation the Lord was there ( nārāyaṇaḥ paro'vyaktāt ), and therefore the words spoken by the Lord are vibrations of transcendental sound. There is a gulf of difference between the two qualities of sound, namely  prakṛta  and  aprakṛta . The physicist can only deal with the  prakṛta  sound or sounds vibrated in the material sky, and therefore we must know that the Vedic sounds recorded in symbolic expressions cannot be understood by anyone within the universe unless and until one is inspired by the vibration of supernatural ( aprakṛta ) sound, which descends in the chain of discipline succession from the Lord to Brahmā, from Brahmā to Nārada, from Nārada to Vyāsa and so on. No mundane scholar can translate or reveal the true import of the Vedic  mantras  (hymns). They cannot be understood unless one is inspired or initiated by the authorized spiritual master. The original spiritual master is the Lord Himself, and the succession comes down through the sources of  paramparā , as is clearly stated in the Fourth Chapter of the  Bhagavad-gītā . So unless one receives the transcendental knowledge from the authorized  paramparā , one should be considered useless ( viphala-mataḥ ), even though one may be greatly qualified in the mundane advancements of arts or science.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī is praying from the Lord by dint of being inspired from within by the Lord so that he could rightly explain the facts and figures of creation as inquired by Mahārāja Parīkṣit. A spiritual master is not a theoretical speculator, like the mundane scholar, but is  śrotriyam brahmaniṣṭham .
TEXT 23
भूतैर्महद्भिर्य इमाः पुरो त्रिभु-
र्निर्माय शेते यदमूषु पूरुषः।
भुङ्क्ते गुणान् षोडश षोडशात्मकः
सोऽलङ्कृषीष्ट भगवान् वचांसि मे ॥२३॥