Verse Text
saccidānanda-sāndrāṅga ātmārāma-śiromaṇiḥ |
paramātmā paraṁ brahma śamo dāntaḥ śucir vaśī ||9||
sadā svarūpa-samprāpto hatāri-gati-dāyakaḥ |
vibhur ity ādi guṇavān asminn ālambano hariḥ ||10||
Translation
The ālambana (viṣaya) in śānta-rasa is the Lord with an eternal form of knowledge and bliss, most attractive to the ātmārāmas. He is the Paramātmā, the param brahman, free from all passions, tolerant, pure, sense-controlled, eternally fixed in spiritual form, who rewards even the enemies He kills, and who is greater than the whole universe.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
This appreciation of Lord Viṣṇu by saintly persons is an instance of situation in śānta-rasa, or the neutral stage of devotional service. In the beginning, those who are aspiring for salvation try to get out of the material entanglement by performing painful austerities and penances, and ultimately they come to the impersonal status of spiritual realization. At this brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20] stage of liberation from material entanglement, the symptoms, as explained in Bhagavad-gītā, are that one becomes joyous beyond any hankering or lamentation and gains a universal vision. When the devotee is situated in the śānta-rasa, or neutral stage of devotional service, he appreciates the Viṣṇu form of the Lord.
Actually, all Vedic culture is aiming at understanding Lord Viṣṇu. In the Ṛg Veda one mantra says that any advanced saintly person is always aspiring to be fixed in meditation upon the lotus feet of Viṣṇu.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that the foolish do not know that Viṣṇu is the ultimate goal of life. According to the conclusion of all authoritative Vedic scriptures, when a person comes to the stage of appreciating Viṣṇu, he is at the beginning of devotional service. If one cultivates devotional service further and further, under proper guidance, other features of devotional service will gradually become manifest. At this stage of śānta-rasa, one can see Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the deliverer of even the demons. The Lord is appreciated by such would-be devotees as the eternal transcendental form, the chief of all self-realized souls, the Supersoul and the Supreme Brahman. He is also appreciated as being completely peaceful, completely controlled and pure, merciful to the devotees and untouched by any material condition. This appreciation of Lord Viṣṇu in awe and veneration by the saintly is to be understood as the sign that they are situated in the śānta-rasa, or the neutral stage of devotional service.