Text 20]
Vidura Approaches Maitreya
137
sa evam ārādhita-pāda-tīrthād- adhīta-tattvātma-vibodha-mārgaḥ praṇamya pādau parivṛtya devam ihāgato 'ham virahāturātmā
saḥ—so myself; evam—thus; ārādhita—worshiped; pāda-tīrthāt—the Personality of Godhead; adhīta—studied; tattva-ātma—self-knowledge; vibodha—understanding; mārgaḥ—path; praṇamya—after saluting; padau—at His lotus feet; parivṛtya—after circumambulating; devam—the Lord; iha—at this place; āgatah—reached; aham—I; viraha—separation; ātura-ātmā—aggrieved in self.
TRANSLATION
I have studied the path of understanding self-knowledge from my spiritual master, the Personality of Godhead, and thus after circumambulating Him I have come to this place, very much aggrieved due to separation.
PURPORT
Śrī Uddhava's actual life is the direct symbol of the “ Catuḥślokī Bhāgavatam ” enunciated first to Brahmājī by the Personality of Godhead. These four very great and important verses from  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  are particularly taken out by the Māyāvādī speculators, who construe a different purport to suit their impersonal view of monism. Here is the proper answer to such unauthorized speculators. The verses of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  are purely theistic science understandable by the postgraduate students of  Bhagavad-gītā . The unauthorized dry speculators are offenders at the lotus feet of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because they distort the purports of  Bhagavad-gītā  and  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  to mislead the public and prepare a direct path to the hell known as  andha-tāmisra . As confirmed in  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 16.20) such envious speculators are without knowledge and are surely condemned life after life. They unnecessarily take shelter of Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya, but he was not so drastic as to commit an offense at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. According to Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya preached the Māyāvādī philosophy for a particular purpose. Such a philosophy was necessary to defeat the Buddhist philosophy of the nonexistence of the spirit soul, but it was never meant for perpetual acceptance. It was an emergency. Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa was accepted by Śaṅkarācārya as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in his commentation on  Bhagavad-gītā . Since he was a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he did not dare write any commentary on  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  because that would have been a direct offense at the lotus feet of the