Devotional Service Surpasses All Liberation 43
devotees of the Lord. It is understood that such persons are very
rare and almost never to be seen, so I am astonished that Vrtrasura
has become such a devotee!”’

In the above verse, the most important thing to be noted is that
there may be many liberated persons who might have merged into
the existence of the impersonal Brahman, but a devotee of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, is very, very rare.
Even out of millions of liberated persons, only one is fortunate
enough to become a devotee.

In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, 7th Chapter, Queen
Kunti is praying to Lord Krsna at the time of His departure: ““My
dear Krsna, You are so great that You are inconceivable even to great
stalwart scholars and paramahamsas [fully liberated souls]. So if
such great sages, who are transcendental to all the reactions of
material existence, are unable to know You, then as far as we are
concerned, belonging to the less intelligent woman class, how is it
possible for us to know Your glories? How can we understand You?”
In this verse, the particular thing to be noted is that the Personality
of Godhead is not understood by great liberated persons, but only
by devotees such as Queen Kunti in her humbleness. Although
she was a woman and considered less intelligent than a man, still
she realized the glories of Krsna. That is the purport of this verse.

Another passage which is very important is in the Srimad-
Bhagavatam, First Canto, 6th Chapter, 10th verse, and is called the
“atmarama verse.”” In this atmarama verse it is stated that even those
who are completely liberated from material contamination are at-
tracted by the transcendental qualities of Lord Krsna.* The purport
of this verse is that a liberated soul has absolutely no desire at all for
material enjoyment; he is wholly freed from all kinds of material
desires, yet still he is irresistibly attracted by the desire to hear and
understand the pastimes of the Lord. We can therefore conclude that
the glories and pastimes of the Lord are not material. Otherwise, how

*This dtmarama verse was once nicely explained by Lord Caitanya to Sanatana
Gosvami. There is a detailed explanation of this verse in the author’s Teachings
of Lord Caitanya.
