SB 2.4.12 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्री शुक उवाच नम: परस्मै पुरुषाय भूयसे सदुद्भवस्थाननिरोधलीलया । गृहीतशक्तित्रितयाय देहिना- मन्तर्भवायानुपलक्ष्यवर्त्मने ॥ १२ ॥

Verse text

śrī-śuka uvāca namaḥ parasmai puruṣāya bhūyase sad-udbhava-sthāna-nirodha-līlayā gṛhīta-śakti-tritayāya dehinām antarbhavāyānupalakṣya-vartmane

Synonyms

śrī — śukaḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said ; namaḥ — offering obeisances ; parasmai — the Supreme ; puruṣāya — Personality of Godhead ; bhūyase — unto the complete whole ; sad — udbhava — the creation of the material world ; sthāna — its maintenance ; nirodha — and its winding up ; līlayā — by the pastime of ; gṛhīta — having accepted ; śakti — power ; tritayāya — three modes ; dehinām — of all who possess material bodies ; antaḥ — bhavāya — unto He who resides within ; anupalakṣya — inconceivable ; vartmane — one who has such ways .

Translation

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who, for the creation of the material world, accepts the three modes of nature. He is the complete whole residing within the body of everyone, and His ways are inconceivable.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Śukadeva said: I offer my respects to the supreme person Kṛṣṇa, whose powerful expansion is Mahā-viṣṇu, performing pastimes of creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe through accepting the three guṇas, whose second and third expansions act as the inner soul of the universe and the jīvas, and who can be realized by the path of bhakti, but cannot be realized by other paths.

Purport

This material world is a manifestation of the three modes goodness, passion and ignorance, and the Supreme Lord, for the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material world, accepts three predominating forms as Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śaṅkara (Śiva). As Viṣṇu He enters into every body materially created. As Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu He enters into every universe, and as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu He enters the body of every living being. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, being the origin of all viṣṇu-tattvas, is addressed here as paraḥ pumān, or Puruṣottama, as described in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.18) . He is the complete whole. The puruṣāvatāras are therefore His plenary expansions. Bhakti-yoga is the only process by which one can become competent to know Him. Because the empiric philosophers and mystic yogīs cannot conceive of the Personality of Godhead, He is called anupalakṣya-vartmane, the Lord of the inconceivable way, or bhakti-yoga.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

He offers respects in thirteen verses. I offer my respects to the supreme person, Kṛṣṇa. First he speaks of the power of Kṛṣṇa. I offer respects to the unlimited power of the puruṣāvatāras (bhūyase). He then describes a pastime of the first puruṣāvatāra: creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe using the three guṇas or sattva, rajas and tamas (gṛhīta-śakti-tritayāya). He then describes the second and third puruṣas. He is the antaryāmī of the whole universe and all the living beings within (antarbhavāya). He can be realized by bhakti, but is unknown to the yogīs (anupalakṣya-vartmane).