Text 5]
Answers by Citing the Lord's Version
465
spiritualized vision after proper discharge of  tapasya  or penance in pure  bhakti-yoga . The form of the Lord which was manifested before Brahmā is not one of the forms with which we have experience in the material world. Brahmājī did not perform such severe types of penance just to see a form of material production. Therefore the question by Mahārāja Parīkṣit about the form of the Lord is answered. The form of the Lord is  sac-cidānanda , or eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. But the material form of the living being is neither eternal, nor full of knowledge, nor blissful. That is the distinction between the form of the Lord and that of the conditioned soul. The conditioned soul, however, can regain his form of eternal knowledge and bliss simply by seeing the Lord by means of  bhakti-yoga .
The summary is that due to ignorance the conditioned soul is encaged in the temporary varieties of material forms. But the Supreme Lord has no such temporary form like the conditioned souls. He is always possessed of an eternal form of knowledge and bliss, and that is the difference between the Lord and the living entity. One can understand this difference by the process of  bhakti-yoga . Brahmā was then told by the Lord the gist of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  in four original verses. Thus  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is not a creation of the mental speculators. The sound of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is transcendental, and the resonance of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is as good as that of the  Vedas . Thus the topic of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is the science of both the Lord and the living entity. Regular reading or hearing of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is also performance of  bhakti-yoga , and one can attain the highest perfection simply by the association of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam . Both Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit attained perfection through the medium of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam .
TEXT 5
स आदिदेवो जगतां परो गुरुः
स्वधिष्ण्यमास्थाय सिमुक्ष्यैक्षत ।
तां नाभ्यगच्छद् दशमत्र सम्मतां
प्रपञ्चनिर्माणविधिर्यया भवेत् ॥ ५ ॥
sa ādi-devo jagatām paro guruḥ
svadhiṣṇyam āsthāya siṣṛkṣayaikṣata
tām nādhyagacchad dṛśam atra sammatām
prapañca-nirmāṇa-vidhir yayā bhavet