Verse Text
tatraiva śrī-veda-stutau—
duravagamātma-tattva-nigamāya tavātta-tanoś
carita-mahāmṛtābdhi-parivarta-pariśramaṇāḥ |
na parilaṣanti kecid apavargam apīśvara te
caraṇa-saroja-haṁsa-kula-saṅga-visṛṣṭa-gṛhāḥ ||40||
Translation
The personified Vedas pray as follows: My Lord, some fortunate souls have gotten relief from the fatigue of material life by diving into the vast nectar ocean of Your pastimes, which You enact when You manifest Your personal forms to propagate the unfathomable science of the self. These rare souls, indifferent even to liberation, renounce the happiness of home and family because of their association with devotees who are like flocks of swans enjoying at the lotus of Your feet. SB 10.87.21
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
O Lord! The truth about You (ātma-tattva) is hard to understand (duravagama), since the true nature of Your form, qualities and pastimes are covered by the bliss of brahman. For broadcasting (nigamāya) that truth, You have assumed Your spiritual form (atta-tanoḥ) in this material world. Some souls, who appear rarely (kecid), giving up the fatigue of material existence (pariśramanāḥ) by swimming (parivarta) in the sweet ocean of Your pastimes (caritam), do not desire (parilaṣanti) liberation (apavargam). What type of people are these? Even those who were at first engaged in family affairs have given up their households (viśṛṣṭa-gṛhāḥ) through association with the disciplic line (kula) of great devotees (haṁsa) serving Your lotus feet. May such great devotees and their disciples remain doing this!
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
There is a similar statement in the Tenth Canto, Eighty-seventh Chapter, verse 21, wherein the Śrutis, the Vedas personified, pray to the Lord as follows: “Dear Lord, it is very difficult to understand spiritual knowledge. Your appearance here, just as You are, is to explain to us this most difficult subject of knowledge of the spirit. As such, Your devotees who have left their domestic comforts to associate with the liberated ācāryas [teachers] are now fully merged in the devotional service of Your Lordship, and thus they do not care for any so-called liberation.”
In explaining this verse it should be noted that spiritual knowledge means understanding the self and the Supersoul, or Superself. The individual soul and the Supersoul are qualitatively one, and therefore both of them are known as Brahman, or spirit. But knowledge of Brahman is very difficult to understand. There are so many philosophers engaged in the matter of understanding the soul, but they are unable to make any tangible advancement. It is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā that out of many millions of persons, only one may try to understand what is spiritual knowledge, and out of many such persons who are trying to understand, only one or a few may know what is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So this verse says that spiritual knowledge is very difficult to achieve, and so in order to make it more easily attainable, the Supreme Lord Himself comes in His original form as Śrī Kṛṣṇa and gives His instruction directly to an associate like Arjuna, just so that the people in general may take advantage of this spiritual knowledge. This verse also explains that liberation means having completely given up all the material comforts of life. Those who are impersonalists are satisfied by simply being liberated from the material circumstances, but those who are devotees can automatically give up material life and also enjoy the transcendental bliss of hearing and chanting the wonderful activities of Lord Kṛṣṇa.