Text 40] The Sacrifice Performed by Daksa 253

brahmovaca
namas te Srita-sattvaya
dharmadinam ca sutaye
nirgunaya ca yat kastham
naham vedapare ‘pi ca

brahma—the personified Vedas; uvaca—said; namah—respectful obei-
sances; te—unto You; srita-saltvaya—the shelter of the quality of good-
ness; dharma-adinam—of all religion, austerity and penance; ca—and;
sulaye—the source; nirgunaya—transcendental to material qualities; ca—
and; yat—of whom (of the Supreme Lord); kastham—the situation; na—
not; aham—1; veda— know; apare— others; api—cer tainly; ca—and.

TRANSLATION

The personified Vedas said: We offer our respectful obeisances unto
You, the Lord, the shelter of the quality of goodness and therefore
the source of all religion, austerity and penance, for You are nevertheless
transcendental to all material qualities, and no one knows You or Your
actual situation.

PURPORT

In the material world there is the trinity of the three material qualities.
Lord Visnu has accepted the superintendence of the quality of goodness,
which is the source of religion, knowledge, austerity, renunication,
opulence, etc. Because of this, actual peace, prosperity, knowledge and
religion can be attained when the living entities are under the control of
the quality of goodness in the material world. As soon as they are
subjected to the control of the other two qualities, namely passion and
ignorance, their precarious conditional life becomes intolerable. But
Lord Visnu, in His original position, is always nirguna, which means
transcendental to these material qualities. Guna means quality, and nir
means negation. This does not indicate, however, that He has no qualities;
He has transcendental qualities by which He appears and manifests His
pastimes. The positive transcendental qualitative manifestation is unknown
to the students of the Vedas as well as to the great stalwart demigods like
Brahma and Siva. Actually, the transcendental qualities are manifested
only to the devotees. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gitaé, simply by dis-
charging devotional service one can understand the transcendental
position of the Supreme Lord. Those who are in the mode of goodness
can partially enter into the transcendental understanding, but it is advised
