Text 19] Bhisma’s Passing Away 461

TEXT 19

FANG ATA a Tard faa: |
: Aare afieat TT USI

asydnubhavam bhugavan
veda guhyatamam sivah

devarsir ndradah sak sad
bhagavan kapilo nrpa

asya—of Him; anubhavam—glories; bhagavan—the most powerful; veda—
knows; guhyatamam—very confidentially; sivah—Lord Siva; devarsih—the
great sage among the demigods; ndradah—Narada; sak sat—directly ; bhagavan
—the Personality of Godhead ;kapilah— Kapila; nrpa—O King.

TRANSLATION

O King, Lord Siva, Narada, the sage amongst the demigods, and
Kapila, the incarnation of Godhead, all know very confidentially about
His glories through direct contact.

PURPORT

Pure devotees of the Lord are all bhavas, or persons who know the
glories of the Lord in different transcendental loving services. As the Lord
has innumerable expansions of His plenary form, similarly there are
innumerable pure devotees of the Lord who are engaged in the exchange of
service of different humors. Ordinarily there are twelve great devotees of
the Lord, namely Brahma, Narada, Siva, Kumara, Kapila, Manu, Prahlada,
Bhisma, Janaka, Sukadeva Gosvami, Bali Maharaja and Yamaraja. Bhisma-
deva, although one of them, has mentioned only three important names
of the twelve who know the glories of the Lord. According to Srila
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur, one of the great acaryas in the modern age,
anubhava, or the glory of the Lord, is first appreciated by the devotee in
ecstasy manifesting the symptoms of perspiring, trembling, weeping, bodily
eruptions, etc., which are further enhanced by steady understanding of
the glories of the Lord. Such different understandings of bhavas are ex-
changed between YaSoda and the Lord (binding the Lord by ropes) and in
the chariot driving by the Lord in the exchange of love with Arjuna, etc.
These glories of the Lord are exhibited in His being subordinated before
His devotees, and that is another feature of the glories of the Lord. Suka-
deva Gosvami and the Kumaras, although situated in the transcendental
