240
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 4, Ch. 7]
the list of offenders. Ignorant personalities, or conditioned souls, have no choice but to accept their precarious condition under material nature. The only remedy is to surrender to Viṣṇu and always pray to be excused. One should depend only on the causeless mercy of the Lord for deliverance and not even slightly on one's own strength. That is the perfect position of a Kṛṣṇa conscious person. The Lord is everyone's friend, but He is especially friendly to the surrendered soul. The simple process is, therefore, that a conditioned soul should remain surrendered to the Lord, and the Lord will give him all protection to keep him out of the clutches of material contamination.
TEXT 31
मसोवाच 
  नैतस्सरुपं भवतोऽसौ पदार्थ- 
  मेदग्रहैः पुरुषो यावदीक्षेत् । 
  ज्ञानस्य चार्थस्य गुणस्य चाश्रयो 
  मायामयाद् व्यतिरिक्तो मतस्त्वम्॥३१॥
brahmovāca  
 naitat svarūpam bhavato 'sau padārtha-  
 bheda-grahaiḥ puruṣo yāvad īkṣet  
 jñānasya cārthasya guṇasya cāśrayo  
 māyā-mayād vyatirikto matas tvam
brahmā uvāca —Lord Brahmā said;  na —not;  etat —this;  svarūpam —eternal form;  bhavataḥ —Your;  asau —that other;  pada-artha —knowledge;  bheda —different;  grahaiḥ —by the acquiring;  puruṣaḥ —person;  yāvat —as long as;  īkṣet —wants to see;  jñānasya —of knowledge;  ca —also;  arthasya —of the objective;  guṇasya —of the instruments of knowledge;  ca —also;  āśrayaḥ —the basis;  māyā-mayāt —from being made of material energy;  vyatiriktaḥ —distinct;  mataḥ —regarded;  tvam —You.
TRANSLATION
Lord Brahmā said: My dear Lord, Your personality and eternal form cannot be understood by any person who is trying to know You through the different processes of acquiring knowledge. Your position is always transcendental to the material creation, whereas the empiric attempt to understand You is material, as are its objectives and instruments.