Text 37] What Prahlada Learned in the Womb 91

of Godhead, for one’s remaining merged in the Brahman effulgence is
not always assured. As it is said, druhya krcchrena param padar tatah
patanty adho ’nddrta-yusmad-arghrayah: one may merge in the
Brahman feature of the Absolute Truth, but there is a chance that one
may fall because of not being acquainted with Adhoksaja, or Vasudeva.
Of course, such brahma-sukha undoubtedly eliminates material happi-
ness, but when one advances through impersonal Brahman and localized
Paramatma to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead in relation-
ship with Him as a servant, friend, parent or conjugal lover, one’s happi-
ness becomes all-pervading. Then one automatically feels transcendental
bliss, just as one becomes happy seeing the shining of the moon. One ac-
quires natural happiness upon seeing the moon, but when one can see the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, one’s transcendental happiness in-
creases hundreds and thousands of times. As soon as one is very in-
timately connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one surely
becomes free from all material contamination. Yé nirurtis tanu-bhrtam.
This cessation of all material happiness is called nirurti or nirvana. Srila

Ripa Gosvami says in Bhakti-rasdmrta-sindhu (1.1.38):

brahmanando bhaved esa
cet pardrdha-gunikrtah
naiti bhakti-sukhambhodheh

paramanu-tulam api

“If brahmananda, the bliss of merging in the Brahman effulgence, were

multiplied one hundred trillion times, it would still not equal even an

atomic fragment of the ocean of transcendental bliss felt in devotional
s 29

service.

brahma-bhitah prasannatma
na Socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhiitesu

mad-bhaktim labhate param

“One who is transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme
Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments nor desires to have
