Text 5] Answers by Citing the Lord’s Version 465
spiritualized vision after proper discharge of tapasya or penance in pure
bhakti-yoga. The form of the Lord which was manifested before Brahma
is not one of the forms with which we have experience in the material
world. Brahmaji did not perform such severe types of penance just to see
a form of material production. Therefore the question by Maharaja Pariksit
about the form of the Lord is answered. The form of the Lord is sac-cid-
dnanda, or eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. But the material
form of the living being is neither eternal, nor full of knowledge, nor
blissful. That is the distinction between the form of the Lord and that of
the conditioned soul. The conditioned soul, however, can regain his form
of eternal knowledge and bliss simply by seeing the Lord by means of
bhakti-yoga.

The summary is that due to ignorance the conditioned soul is encaged
in the temporary varieties of material forms. But the Supreme Lord has no
such temporary form like the conditioned souls. He is always possessed of
an eternal form of knowledge and bliss, and that is the difference between
the Lord and the living entity. One can understand this difference by the
process of bhakti-yoga. Brahma was then told by the Lord the gist of
Srimad-Bhagavatam in four original verses. Thus Srimad-Bhagavatam is not
a creation of the mental speculators. The sound of Srimad-Bhagavatam is
transcendental, and the resonance of Srimad-Bhagavatam is as good as that
of the Vedas. Thus the topic of the Srimad-Bhagavatam is the science of
both the Lord and the living entity. Regular reading or hearing of Srimad-
Bhagavatam is also performance of bhakti-yoga, and one can attain the
highest perfection simply by the association of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Both
Sukadeva Gosvami and Maharaja Pariksit attained perfection through the
medium of Srimad-Bhdgavatam.

TEXT 5
a meet sat TW Te
ahrqaram = feared |
at AMTRSZ ETAT AeA
maaan = Aa I
sa ddi-devo jagatam paro guruh
svadhisnyam asthaya sisrksayaiksata
tam nadhyagacchad drsam atra sammatam
prapajica-nirmana-vidhir yaya bhavet
