946 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 18
adabhra—fixed; buddhih—intelligence; jaanena—by knowledge; vaiyasaki—
the son of Vyasa; sabditena—vibrated by; bheje—taken to; khagendra—
Garuda, the king of the birds; dhvaja—flag; pada-mulam—soles of the feet.
TRANSLATION

O Suta Gosvami, please describe those topics of the Lord by which
Maharaja Pariksit, whose intelligence was fixed on liberation, attained the
lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of Garuda, the king of birds.
Those topics were vibrated by the son of Vyasa [Srila Sukadeva].

PURPORT

There is some controversy amongst the students on the path of liberation.
Such transcendental students are known as impersonalists and devotees of
the Lord. The devotee of the Lord worships the transcendental form of
the Lord, whereas the impersonalist meditates upon the glaring effulgence
or the bodily ray of the Lord, known as the brahmajyoti. Here in this
verse it is said that Maharaja Pariksit attained the lotus feet of the Lord by
instructions in knowledge delivered by the son of Vyasadeva, Srila Suka-
deva Gosvami. Sukadeva Gosvami was also an impersonalist in the begin-
ning, as he has admitted himself in the Bhagavatam (2.1.9), but later on
he was attracted by the transcendental pastimes of the Lord and thus
became a devotee. Such devotees with perfect knowledge are called maha-
bhagavata, or first-class devotees. There are three classes of devotees,
namely the prakrta, madhyam, and maha-bhagavata. The prakrta or third-
class devotees are temple worshipers without specific knowledge of the
Lord and the Lord’s devotees. The madhyam, or the second-class devotee,
knows well the Lord, the Lord’s devotee, the neophytes, and the nondevo-
tees also. But the maha-bhdgavata, or the first-class devotee, sees every-
thing in relation with the Lord and the Lord present in everyone’s
relation. The maha-bhagavata, therefore, does not make any distinction,
particularly between a devotee and nondevotee. Maharaja Pariksit was such
a mahda-bhagavata devotee because he was initiated by a maha-bhagavata
devotee, Sukadeva Gosvami. He was equally kind, even to the personality
of Kali, and what to speak of others.

So there are many instances in the transcendental histories of the world
of an impersonalist who has later become a devotee. But a devotee has
never become an impersonalist. This very fact proves that on the transcen-
dental steps, the step occupied by a devotee is higher than the step
