Text 24] The Lord Slays the King of the Demons 143

a aq fhe ag aaaiy
SAIN WF TAT TA: Rev!

alaksito ‘gnau patitah patarigamo
yatha nrsimhayasi so ’suras tada

na tad vicitram khalu sattva-dhamani
sva-tejasa yo nu purdpibat tamah

alaksitah—invisible, agnau—in the fire; patitah—fallen;
patangamah—an insect; yathé—just as; nrsimha—of Lord
Nrsithhadeva; ojasi—in the effulgence; sah—he; asurah—
Hiranyakasipu; tadd—at that time; na—not; tat—that; vicitram—won-
derful; khalu—indeed; sattva-dhamani—in the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, who is situated in pure goodness; sva-tejasi—by His own
effulgence; yah—He who (the Lord); nu—indeed; pura—formerly;
apibat—swallowed up; tamah—the darkness within the material cre-
ation.

TRANSLATION

Just as a small insect falls forcefully into a fire and the insignifi-
cant creature becomes invisible, when Hiranyakasipu attacked the
Lord, who was full of effulgence, HiranyakaSipu became invisible.
This is not at all astonishing, for the Lord is always situated in pure
goodness. Formerly, during creation, He entered the dark uni-
verse and illuminated it by His spiritual effulgence.

PURPORT

The Lord is situated transcendentally, in pure goodness. The material
world is generally controlled by tamo-guna, the quality of ignorance, but
the spiritual world, because of the presence of the Lord and His
effulgence, is free from all contamination by darkness, passion or con-
taminated goodness. Although there is a tinge of goodness in this
material world in terms of the brahminical qualifications, such qualifica-
tions sometimes become invisible because of the strong prevalence of the
modes of passion and ignorance. But because the Lord is always transcen-
dentally situated, the material modes of passion and ignorance cannot
