Text 30]
Vidura Approaches Maitreya
149
Padma Purāṇa  it is said,  ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ . The name and form of the Lord cannot be perceived by the material senses, but when He appears within the vision of the mundane people He assumes the form of the  virāṭa-rūpa . This is an additional material exhibition of form and is supported by the logic of a subject and its adjectives. In grammar, when an adjective is taken away from the subject, the subject it modifies does not change. Similarly, when the Lord quits His  virāṭa-rūpa , His eternal form does not change, although there is no material difference between Himself and any one of His innumerable forms. In the Fifth Canto it will be seen how the Lord is worshiped in different planets in His different forms, even now, and how He is worshiped in different temples of this earth also.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākur have very elaborately explained this incidence of the Lord's disappearance in their commentaries, quoting various authentic versions of Vedic literatures. We purposely do not include them all here to avoid an increase in the volume of this book. The entire matter is explained in  Bhagavad-gītā , as quoted above: the Lord reserves the right of not being exposed to everyone. He always keeps Himself out of the vision of the nondevotees, who are devoid of love and devotion, and thus He puts them still further away from the Lord. The Lord appeared on the invitation of Brahmā, who prayed before the Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, and therefore when the Lord appeared, all the forms of Viṣṇu amalgamated with Him, and when the mission was fulfilled, all of them disintegrated from Him in the usual course.
TEXT 30
अस्माल्लोकादुपरते मयि ज्ञानं मदाश्रयम् । अर्हत्युद्धव एवाद्धा सम्प्रत्यात्मवतां वरः ॥३०॥
asmāl lokād uparate mayi jñānam mad-āśrayam arhaty uddhava evāddhā sampraty ātmavatām varaḥ
asmāt—from this (universe); lokāt—earth; uparate—having disappeared; mayi—of Myself; jñānam—knowledge; mat-āśrayam—concerning Myself; arhati—deserves; uddhavaḥ—Uddhava; eva—certainly; addhā—directly; samprati—at the present moment; ātmavatām—of the devotees; varaḥ—foremost.