Text 20] Vidura Approaches Maitreya 137

sa evam aradhita-pada-tirthad-
adhita-tattvatma-vibodha-margah
pranamya padau parivrtya devam
thagato “ham virahadturatma
sah—so myself; evam—thus; aradhita—worshiped; pada-tirthat—the Per-
sonality of Godhead; adhita—studied; . tattva-atma—self-knowledge;
vibodha—understanding; margah—path; pranamya—after saluting; padau—
at His lotus feet; parivrtya—after circumambulating; devam—the Lord; tha—
at this place; agatah—reached; aham—I; viraha—separation; atura-atma—
aggrieved in self.

TRANSLATION

I have studied the path of understanding self-knowledge from my
spiritual master, the Personality of Godhead, and thus after circum-
ambulating Him I have come to this place, very much aggrieved due to
separation.

PURPORT

Sri Uddhava’s actual life is the direct symbol of the “Catuhsloki
Bhagavatam” enunciated first to Brahmaji by the Personality of Godhead.
These four very great and important verses from Srimad-Bhagavatam are
particularly taken out by the Mayavadi speculators, who construe a
different purport to suit their impersonal view of monism. Here is the
proper answer to such unauthorized speculators. The verses of Srimad-
Bhagavatam are purely theistic science understandable by the postgraduate
students of Bhagavad-gita. The unauthorized dry speculators are offenders
at the lotus feet of the Lord Sri Krsna because they distort the purports
of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam to misléad the public and prepare
a direct path to the hell known as andha-tamisra. As confirmed in
Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 16.20) such envious speculators are without knowledge
and are surely condemned life after life. They unnecessarily take shelter
of Sripada Sankaracarya, but he was not so drastic as to commit an
offense at the lotus feet of Lord Krsna. According to Lord Si Caitanya
Mahaprabhu, Sripada Sankaracarya preached the Mayavadi philosophy for
a particular purpose. Such a philosophy was necessary to defeat the
Buddhist philosophy of the nonexistence of the spirit soul, but it was never
meant for perpetual acceptance. It was an emergency. Thus Lord Krsna
was accepted by Sankaracarya as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in
his commentation on Bhagavad-gita. Since he was a great devotee of Lord
Krsna, he did not dare write any commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam
because that would have been a direct offense at the lotus feet of the
