Devanagari
यतोऽप्राप्य न्यवर्तन्त वाचश्च मनसा सह ।
अहं चान्य इमे देवास्तस्मै भगवते नम: ॥ ४० ॥
Verse text
yato ’prāpya nyavartanta
vācaś ca manasā saha
ahaṁ cānya ime devās
tasmai bhagavate namaḥ
Synonyms
yataḥ
—
from whom
;
aprāpya
—
being unable to measure
;
nyavartanta
—
cease to try
;
vācaḥ
—
words
;
ca
—
also
;
manasā
—
with the mind
;
saha
—
with
;
aham ca
—
also the ego
;
anye
—
other
;
ime
—
all these
;
devāḥ
—
demigods
;
tasmai
—
unto Him
;
bhagavate
—
unto the Personality of Godhead
;
namaḥ
—
offer obeisances .
Translation
Words, mind and ego, with their respective controlling demigods, have failed to achieve success in knowing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, we simply have to offer our respectful obeisances unto Him as a matter of sanity.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
I offer respects to that Supreme Lord whom words, along with mind, the devatās such as Bṛhaspati, Rudra, and others, could not understand and gave up.
Establishing that the Lord cannot be completely understood Maitreya offers respects. The end of the Lord’s glories cannot be reached (aprāpya). The power of speech of the universal form and all the individual jīva (vācaḥ) along with their minds retreated from the Lord. Or the words emanating from Brahmā’s mouth, along with his mind, retreated. Rudra the presiding deity of ahaṅkāra (aham) and the devatās such as Bṛhaspati retreated from him. Why? They retreated because they could not completely comprehend the sweetness of his name, form and pastimes, and could find no end to them. Thus the Lord is aprapya. Śruti says yato vāco nivarttante aprāpya manasā saha: words, along with the mind, turn back from the Lord, who cannot be fully understood. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.4.1), The intention of this verse is to show that it impossible to measure the Lord because of his infinity, and thus words and mind are both mentioned. Words and other senses cannot at all realize the Lord. But the same should not be said about knowing the Lord through the vision of ātmā. (Thus the Lord can be known to some extent when ātmā is employed.) Vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedā: I am to be known by the Vedas. (BG 15.15) There is no incongruity with śruti:
manasaivānudraṣṭavyam …..etad ameyaṁ dhruvam
That immeasurable, unchanging Lord should be understood by the mind. Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.19-20
tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ
The devotees always see that supreme form of Viṣṇu. Ṛg Veda 1.22.20
Thus ends the commentary on Sixth Chapter of the Third Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
Chapter Seven
Vidura’s Questions
Purport
The froggish calculator may raise the objection that if the Absolute is unknowable even by the controlling deities of speech, mind and ego, namely the
Vedas,
Brahmā, Rudra and all the demigods headed by Bṛhaspati, then why should the devotees be so interested in this unknown object? The answer is that the transcendental ecstasy enjoyed by the devotees in delineating the pastimes of the Lord is certainly unknown to nondevotees and mental speculators. Unless one relishes transcendental joy, naturally one will come back from his speculations and concocted conclusions because he will see them as neither factual nor enjoyable. The devotees can at least know that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, as the Vedic hymns confirm:
oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ.
Bhagavad-gītā
(15.15)
also confirms this fact:
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ.
By culture of Vedic knowledge one must know Lord Kṛṣṇa and should not falsely speculate on the word
aham,
or “I.” The only method for understanding the Supreme Truth is devotional service, as stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(18.55)
:
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ.
Only by devotional service can one know that the ultimate truth is the Personality of Godhead and that Brahman and Paramātmā are only His partial features. This is confirmed in this verse by the great sage Maitreya. With devotion he offers his sincere surrender,
namaḥ,
to the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
bhagavate.
One has to follow in the footsteps of great sages and devotees like Maitreya and Vidura, Mahārāja Parīkṣit and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and engage in the transcendental devotional service of the Lord if one would know His ultimate feature, which is above Brahman and Paramātmā.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Third Canto, Sixth Chapter, of the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
entitled “Creation of the Universal Form.”