334 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 7
PURPORT

According to Brahma-vaivarta Purana, Srila Sukadeva Gosvami was a
liberated soul even within the womb of his mother. Srila Vyasadeva knew
that the child, after his birth, would not stay at home. Therefore he
(Vyasadeva) impressed upon him the synopsis of the Bhdgavatam so that
the child could be made attached to the transcendental activities of the
Lord. After his birth, the child was still more educated in the subject of
the Bhagavatam by recitation of the actual poems.

The idea is that generally the liberated souls are attached to the feature
of impersonal Brahman with a monistic view of becoming one with the
supreme whole. But by the association of pure devotees like Vyasadeva,
even the liberated soul becomes attracted to the transcendental qualities
of the Lord. By the mercy of Sri Narada, Srila Vyasadeva was able to
narrate the great epic of Srimad-Bhdgavatam, and by the mercy of
Vyasadeva, ora Sukadeva Gosvami was able to grasp the import. The
transcendental qualities of the Lord are so attractive that Srila Sukadeva
Gosvami became detached from being completely absorbed in impersonal
Brahman and positively took up the personal activity of the Lord.

Practically he was thrown from the impersonal conception of the
Absolute, thinking within himself that he had simply wasted so much time
in devoting himself to the impersonal feature of the Supreme, or in other
words, he realized more transcendental bliss with the personal feature than
the impersonal. And from that time, not only he himself became very
dear to the Visnu-jana or the devotees of the Lord, but also the Visnu-jana
became very dear to him. The devotees of the Lord, who do not wish to
kill the individuality of the living entities and who desire to become
personal servitors of the Lord, do not very much like the impersonalists,
and similarly the impersonalists, who desire to become one with the
Supreme, are unable to evaluate the devotees of the Lord. Thus from time
immemorial these two transcendental pilgrims have sometimes been com-
petitors. In other words, each of them likes to keep separate from the other
because of the ultimate personal and impersonal realizations. Therefore it
appears that Srila Sukadeva Gosvami also had no liking for the devotees.
But since he himself became a saturated devotee, he desired always the
transcendental association of the Visnu-jana, and the Visnu-jana also liked
his association since he became a personal Bhdgavata. Thus both the son
and the father were completely cognizant of the transcendental knowledge
in Brahman, and afterwards both of them became absorbed in the personal
features of the Supreme Lord. The question as to how Sukadeva Gosvami
