544
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 9]
janmādyasya. Janmādyasya  is the beginning, yet the four verses in which it is said that the Lord is the root of everything that be, beginning from the creation up to the supreme abode of the Lord, naturally explain the ten characteristics. One should not misunderstand by wrong interpretations that the Lord spoke only four verses, and therefore all the rest of the 17,994 verses are all useless. The ten characteristics, as will be explained in the next chapter, require so many verses just to explain them properly. Brahmājī also advised Nārada previously that he should expand the idea that he had heard from Brahmājī. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructed this to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in a nutshell, but the disciple Rūpa Gosvāmī expanded this very elaborately, and the same subject was further expanded by Jīva Gosvāmī and even further by Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākur. We are just trying to follow in the footsteps of all these authorities. So  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is not like ordinary fiction or mundane literature. It is unlimited in strength, and however one may expand it to one's own capacity,  Bhāgavatam  still cannot be finished by such expansion.  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , being the sound representation of the Lord, is simultaneously explained in four verses, as well as in four billions of verses all the same, inasmuch as the Lord is smaller than the atom and bigger than the unlimited sky. Such is the potency of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam .
TEXT 45
नारदः प्राह मुनये सरस्वत्यास्तटे नृप । 
    श्यायते ब्रह्म परमं न्यासायामिततेजसे । ४५।
nāradaḥ prāha munaye 
    sarasvatyās taṭe nṛpa 
    dhyāyate brahma paramaṁ 
    vyāsāyāmita-tejase
nāradaḥ —the great sage Nārada;  prāha —instructed;  munaye —unto the great sage;  sarasvatyāḥ —of the River Sarasvatī;  taṭe —on the bank;  nṛpa —O King;  dhyāyate —unto the meditative;  brahma —Absolute Truth;  paramaṁ —the Supreme;  vyāsāya —unto Śrīla Vyāsadeva;  amita —unlimited;  tejase —unto the powerful.