SB 1.5.8 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्रीनारद उवाच भवतानुदितप्रायं यशो भगवतोऽमलम् । येनैवासौ न तुष्येत मन्ये तद्दर्शनं खिलम् ॥ ८ ॥

Verse text

śrī-nārada uvāca bhavatānudita-prāyaṁ yaśo bhagavato ’malam yenaivāsau na tuṣyeta manye tad darśanaṁ khilam

Synonyms

śrī — nāradaḥ — Śrī Nārada ; uvāca — said ; bhavatā — by you ; anudita — prāyam — almost not praised ; yaśaḥ — glories ; bhagavataḥ — of the Personality of Godhead ; amalam — spotless ; yena — by which ; eva — certainly ; asau — He (the Personality of Godhead) ; na — does not ; tuṣyeta — be pleased ; manye — I think ; tat — that ; darśanam — philosophy ; khilam — inferior .

Translation

Śrī Nārada said: You have not actually broadcast the sublime and spotless glories of the Personality of Godhead. That philosophy which does not satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord is considered worthless.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Nārada said: You have not sufficiently described the glories of the spotless Lord Kṛṣṇa. Because your mind could never be satisfied with Vedānta, I think that writing the Vedānta-sūtras is insufficient.

Purport

The eternal relation of an individual soul with the Supreme Soul Personality of Godhead is constitutionally one of being the eternal servitor of the eternal master. The Lord has expanded Himself as living beings in order to accept loving service from them, and this alone can satisfy both the Lord and the living beings. Such a scholar as Vyāsadeva has completed many expansions of the Vedic literatures, ending with the Vedānta philosophy, but none of them have been written directly glorifying the Personality of Godhead. Dry philosophical speculations even on the transcendental subject of the Absolute have very little attraction without directly dealing with the glorification of the Lord. The Personality of Godhead is the last word in transcendental realization. The Absolute realized as impersonal Brahman or localized Supersoul, Paramātmā, is less productive of transcendental bliss than the supreme personal realization of His glories. The compiler of the Vedānta-darśana is Vyāsadeva himself. Yet he is troubled, although he is the author. So what sort of transcendental bliss can be derived by the readers and listeners of Vedānta which is not explained directly by Vyāsadeva, the author? Herein arises the necessity of explaining Vedānta-sūtra in the form of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by the self-same author.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

You have not described much at all (anudita-prāyam) about the spotless glories of the Lord—the superior position of bhagavān’s forms above all other forms, and the supreme attractiveness of his pastimes and bhakti. “But I have produced the brahma-mīmāṁsa scripture, the vedānta-darṣana.” “I consider that darśana scripture to be deficient (khilam). You are the writer of Vedānta and if your mind is dissatisfied with this, then how will those who continually study this darśana be satisfied? You are the proof that this darśana is insufficient.”