Text 33|
The Killing of the Demon Hiraṇyākṣa
747
just a plaything. This has been narrated by me as I heard it from my predecessor spiritual master.
PURPORT
Here the sage Maitreya admits that he explained the incident of the killing of Hiraṇyākṣa by the Supreme Personality of Godhead as a straight narration; he did not manufacture anything or add interpretation, but explained whatever he had heard from his spiritual master. Thus he accepted as bona fide the system of  paramparā , or receiving the transcendental message in disciplinary succession. Unless received by this bona fide process of hearing from a spiritual master, the statement of an  ācārya  or preceptor cannot be valid.
It is also stated here that although the demon Hiraṇyākṣa was unlimited in prowess, he was just like a doll for the Lord. A child breaks so many dolls without real endeavor. Similarly, although a demon may be very powerful and extraordinary in the eyes of an ordinary man in the material world, to the Lord, killing such a demon is no difficulty. He can kill millions of demons as simply as a child plays with dolls and breaks them.
TEXT 33
सूत उवाच
इति कौषारवाख्यातामाश्रुत्य भगवत्कथाम् ।
क्षत्ताऽऽनन्दं परं लेभे महाभागवतो द्विज ॥३३॥
sūta uvāca
iti kauṣāravākhyātām
āśrutya bhagavat-kathām
kṣattānandam param
lebhe mahā-bhāgavato dvija
sūtaḥ—Sūta Gosvāmī; uvāca—said; iti—thus; kauṣārava—from Maitreya (son of Kuṣāru); ākhyātām—told; āśrutya—having heard; bhagavat-kathām—the narration about the Lord; kṣattā—Vidura; ānandam—bliss; param—transcendental; lebhe—achieved; mahā-bhāgavataḥ—the great devotee; dvija—O brāhmaṇa (Śaunaka).
TRANSLATION
Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī continued: My dear brāhmaṇa, Kṣattā [Vidura], the great devotee of the Lord, achieved transcendental bliss by hearing the