Text 16] Vidura Approaches Maitreya 133
PURPORT

Pure devotees of the Lord are not very much concerned with philosophi-
cal speculation in regard to transcendental knowledge of the Lord. Nor is
it possible to acquire complete knowledge of the Lord. Whatever little
knowledge they have about the Lord is sufficient for them because devotees
are simply satisfied in hearing and chanting about the transcendental
pastimes of the Lord. This gives them all transcendental bliss. But some
of the pastimes of the Lord appear contradictory, even to such pure
devotees, and thus Uddhava asked the Lord about some of the contra-
dictory incidences in His pastimes. The Lord is described as having nothing
to do personally, and il is actually so because even in the creation and
sustenance of the material world, the Lord has nothing to do. It seems
contradictory, then, to hear that the Lord personally lifts the Govardhana
Hill for the protection of His unalloyed devotees. The Lord is the Supreme
Brahman, the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead appearing like
a man, but Uddhava had doubts whether He could have so many
transcendental activities.

There is no difference between the Personality of Godhead and the
impersonal Brahman. How then can the Lord have so many things to do,
whereas the impersonal Brahman is stated to have nothing to do either
materially or spiritually? If the Lord is ever unborn, how then is He born
as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki? He is fearful even to kala, the supreme
fear, and yet the Lord is afraid of fighting Jarasandha and takes shelter in a
fort. How can one who is full in Himself take pleasure in the association of
many women? How can He take wives and, just like a houscholder, take
pleasure in the association of family members, children, relatives and
parents? All these apparently contradictory happenings bewilder even the
greatest learned scholars, who, thus bewildered, cannot understand whether
inactivity is a fact or whether His activities are only imitations.

The solution is that the Lord has nothing to do with anything mundane.
All His activities are transcendental. This cannot be understood by the
mundane speculators. For the mundane speculators there is certainly a kind
of bewilderment, but for the transcendental devotees there is nothing
astonishing in this. The Brahman conception of the Absolute Truth is
certainly the negation of all mundane activities, but the Param Brahman
conception is full with transcendental activities. One who knows the
distinctions between the conception of Brahman and the conception of
Supreme Brahman is certainly the real transcendentalist. There is no
bewilderment for such transcendentalists. The Lord Himself also declares
in Bhagavad-gita, ““Even the great sages and demigods can know hardly
