SB 2.5.6 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

नाहं वेद परं ह्यस्मिन्नापरं न समं विभो । नामरूपगुणैर्भाव्यं सदसत् किञ्चिदन्यत: ॥ ६ ॥

Verse text

nāhaṁ veda paraṁ hy asmin nāparaṁ na samaṁ vibho nāma-rūpa-guṇair bhāvyaṁ sad-asat kiṣcid anyataḥ

Synonyms

na — do not ; aham — myself ; veda — know ; param — superior ; hi — for ; asmin — in this world ; na — neither ; aparam — inferior ; na — nor ; samam — equal ; vibho — O great one ; nāma — name ; rūpa — characteristics ; guṇaiḥ — by qualification ; bhāvyam — all that is created ; sat — eternal ; asat — temporary ; kiṣcit — or anything like that ; anyataḥ — from any other source .

Translation

Whatever we can understand by the nomenclature, characteristics and features of a particular thing — superior, inferior or equal, eternal or temporary — is not created from any source other than that of Your Lordship, thou so great.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

O Lord! I do not know from where else everything can arise whether it is superior, inferior or medium, produced with name, form and qualities, gross or subtle.

Purport

The manifested world is full of varieties of created beings in 8,400,000 species of life, and some of them are superior and inferior to others. In human society the human being is considered to be the superior living being, and amongst the human beings there are also different varieties: good, bad, equal, etc. But Nārada Muni took for granted that none of them has any source of generation besides his father, Brahmājī. Therefore he wanted to know all about them from Lord Brahmā.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Whatever is superior, inferior or medium in this world, created (bhāvyam) with names such as human, forms such as two legged forms, and qualities such as white color, whatever is gross and subtle (sad-asat), I do not know from where else it can come. I think that everything comes from you alone.