184 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 2, Ch. 4
Maharaja Pariksit’s statement regarding the working of the creative
energy of the Lord discloses that he knew everything of the process of
creation. Why then did he ask Sukadeva Gosvami for such information?
Maharaja Pariksit, being a great emperor, a descendant of the Pandavas and
a great devotee of Lord Krsna, was quite able to know considerably about
the creation of the world, but that much knowledge was not sufficient. He
said therefore that even greatly learned scholars fail to know about that,
even after great effort. The Lord is unlimited, and His activities are also
unfathomed. Any living being, up to the standard of Brahmaji, the highest
perfect living being within the universe, with a limited source of knowledge
and with imperfect senses can never imagine knowing about the unlimited.
We can know something of the unlimited when it is explained by the
unlimited, as it has been done by the Lord Himself in the unique statements
of the Bhagavad-gitd, and it can also be known to some extent from
realized souls like Sukadeva Gosvami, who learned it from Vyasadeva, a
disciple of Narada, and thus the perfect knowledge can descend by the
chain of disciplic succession only, and not by any form of experimental
knowledge, old or modern.
TEXT 9
A ¢ *
TH YOURS HAITI HATISET AT |
frafi qftaete: saa seafien 8 1
yatha gunams tu prakrter
yugapat kramaso’pi va
bibharti bhirisas tv ekah
kurvan karmani janmabhih
yatha—as they are; gundn—the modes of; tu—but; prakrteh—of the
material energy; yugapat—simultaneously ; kramasah—gradually ; api—also;
va—either; bibharti—maintains; bhirisah—many forms; tu—but; ekah—the
supreme one; kurvan—acting; karmani—activities; janmabhih—by incarna-
tions.
TRANSLATION
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is one, whether He alone acts
with the modes of material nature, or simultaneously expands in many
forms, or expands consecutively to direct the modes of nature.
