544 Srimad Bhagavatam [Canto 2, Ch. 9
janmddyasya. Janmadyasya is the beginning, yet the four verses in which
it is said that the Lord is the root of everything that be, beginning
from the creation up to the supreme abode of the Lord, naturally
explain the ten characteristics. One should not misunderstand by
wrong interpretations that the Lord spoke only four verses, and therefore
all the rest of the 17,994 verses are all useless. The ten characteristics, as
will be explained in the next chapter, require so many verses just to ex-
plain them properly. Brahmaji also advised Narada previously that he
should expand the idea that he had heard from Brahmaji. Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu instructed this to Srila Ripa Gosvami in a nutshell, but the
disciple Riipa Gosvami expanded this very elaborately, and the same
subject was further expanded by Jiva Gosvami and even further by Sri
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur. We are just trying to follow in the foot-
steps of all these authorities. So Srimad-Bhagavatam is not like ordinary
fiction or mundane literature. It is unlimited in strength, and however one
may expand it to one’s own capacity, Bhagavatam still cannot be finished
by such expansion. Srimad-Bhagavatam, being the sound representation
of the Lord, is simultaneously explained in four verses, as well as in four
billions of verses all the same, inasmuch as the Lord is smaller than the
atom and bigger than the unlimited sky. Such is the potency of Srimad-
Bhagavatam.
TEXT 45
ARG: WE BAT AACR WI
wd Aa TH STArTTITa 1241
naradah praha munaye
sarasvatyas tate nrpa
dhyayate brahma paraman
vyasayamita-tejase

ndradah—the great sage Narada; praha—instructed; munaye—unto the
great sage; sarasvatyah—of the River Sarasvati; tate—on the bank; nrpa—
O King; dhyayate—unto the meditative; brahma— Absolute Truth; paramam
—the Supreme; vydsdya—unto Srila Vyasadeva; amita—unlimited; tejase—
unto the powerful.
