810
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 21]
TRANSLATION
Adorned with a crown and earrings, He held His characteristic conch, disc and mace in three of His hands and a white lily in the fourth. He glanced about in a happy, smiling mood whose sight captivates the hearts of all devotees.
TEXT 11
विन्यस्तचरणाम्भोजमंसदेशे गरुत्मतः । दृष्ट्वा खेऽवस्थितं वक्षःश्रियं कौस्तुभकन्धरम् ॥१॥
vinyasta-caraṇāmbhojam aṁsa-deśe garutmataḥ dṛṣṭvā khe 'vasthitaṁ vakṣaḥ- śriyaṁ kaustubha-kandharam
vinyasta—having been placed; caraṇa-ambhojam—lotus feet; aṁsa-deśe—on the shoulders; garutmataḥ—of Garuḍa; dṛṣṭvā—having seen; khe—in the air; avasthitam—standing; vakṣaḥ—on His chest; śriyam—auspicious mark; kaustubha—the Kaustubha gem; kandharam—neck.
TRANSLATION
A golden streak on His chest, the famous Kaustubha gem suspended from His neck, He stood in the air with His lotus feet placed on the shoulders of Garuḍa.
PURPORT
The descriptions in verses 9-11 of the Lord in His transcendental eternal form are understood to be descriptions from the authoritative Vedic version. These descriptions are certainly not the imagination of Kardama Muni. The decorations of the Lord are beyond material conception, as admitted even by impersonalists like Śaṅikarācārya: Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has nothing to do with material creation. The varieties of the transcendental Lord—His body, His form, His dress, His instruction, His words—are not manufactured by the material energy, but are all confirmed in the Vedic literature. By performance of  yoga  Kardama Muni actually saw the Supreme Lord as He is. There was no point in seeing an imagined form of God after practicing  yoga  for 10,000 years. The perfection of  yoga , therefore, does not terminate in voidness or impersonalism; on the contrary, the perfection of  yoga  is attained when one actually