Text 18] Bhisma’s Passing Away 459

esa vai bhagavan saksad
adyo narayanah puman

mohayan mayaya lokam
gudha$s carati ursnisu

esah—this; vai—positively; bhagavan—the Personality of Godhead; sak sat
—original; ddyah—the first; nara@yanah—the Supreme Lord (who lies down
on the water); puman—the supreme enjoyer; mohayan—bewildering;
mayaya—by His self-created energy; lokam—the planets: giidhah—incon-
ceivable; carati— moves; ursnisu—among the Vrsni family.

TRANSLATION

This Sri Krsna is no other than the original Personality of Godhead.
He is the first Narayana, the supreme enjoyer. But He is moving amongst
the descendants of King Vrsni, just like one of us, and He is bewildering us
with His Self-created energy.

PURPORT

The Vedic system of acquiring knowledge is the deductive process. The
Vedic knowledge is received perfectly by disciplic succession from
authorities. Such knowledge is never dogmatic, as is ill-conceived by less
intelligent persons. The mother is the authority to verify the identity of
the father. She is the authority for such confidential knowledge. Therefore,
authority is not dogmatic. In the Bhagavad-gita this truth is confirmed in
the Fourth Chapter (Bg. 4.2), and the perfect system of learning is to
receive it from authority. The very same system is accepted universally
as truth, but only the false arguer speaks against this system. For example,
modern spacecraft fly in the sky, and they say that they travel to the other
side of the moon, and men believe these stories blindly because they have
accepted the modern scientists as authorities. The authorities speak, and
the people in general believe them. But in the case of Vedic truths, they
have been taught not to believe. Even if they accept them they give a
different interpretation. Each and every man wants a direct perception of
Vedic knowledge, but foolishly they deny it. This means that the
misguided man can believe one authority, the scientist, but will reject the
authority of the Vedas. The result is that people have degenerated.

Here is an authority speaking about Sri Krsna as the original Personality
of Godhead and the first Narayana. Even an impersonalist like Acarya
Satikara has said in the beginning of his commentation on the Bhagavad-
