464 Srimad Bhagavatam [Canto 2, Ch. 9

atma-tattvam—the science of God or that of the living entity; visuddhi—
purification; artham—goal; yat—that which; dha—said; bhagavan—the Per-
sonality of Godhead; rtam—in reality; brahmane—unto Lord Brahma;
darsayan—by showing; ripam—eternal form; avyalika— without any decep-
tive motive; vrata—vow; ddrtah—worshiped.

TRANSLATION

O King, the Personality of Godhead, being very much pleased with Lord
Brahma because of his nondeceptive penance in bhakti-yoga, presented
His eternal and transcendental form before Brahma. And that is the
objective goal for purifying the conditioned soul.

PURPORT

Atma-tattvam is the science of both God and the living entity. Both the
Supreme Lord and the living entity are known as adtma. The Supreme Lord
is called Paramatma or Parambrahma, and the living entity is called the
dtma or the brahma or the jiva. Both the Paramatma and the jivatma, being
transcendental to the material energy, are called atma. So Sukadeva
Gosvami explains this verse with the aim of purifying the truth of both
the Paramatma and the jivatma. Generally people have many wrong con-
ceptions about both of them. The wrong conception of the jivadtma is to
identify the material body with the pure soul, and the wrong conception
of Paramatma is to think Him on an equal level with the living entity. But
both misconceptions can be removed by one stroke of bhakti-yoga, just as
in the sunlight both the sun and the world and everything within the sun-
light are properly seen. In the darkness no one can see the sun, nor himself,
nor the world. But in the sunlight one can see the sun, himself and the
world around him. Srila Sukadeva Gosvami therefore says that for purifi-
cation of both wrong conceptions, the Lord presented His eternal form
before Brahmaji, being fully satisfied by Brahma’s nondeceptive vow of
discharging bhakti-yoga. Except for bhakti-yoga, any method for realization
of atma-tattva, or the science of atma, will prove deceptive in the long run.

In the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord says that only by bhakti-yoga can one
know Him perfectly, and then one can enter into the science of God.
Brahmaji undertook great penance in performing bhakti-yoga, and thus he
was able to see the transcendental form of the Lord. His transcendental
form is one hundred percent spiritual, and one can see Him only by
