Srimad Bhagavatam
17 Sep '11 18:04TEXT 1 Canto 5 Srimad Bhagavatam
sri-suka uvaca
tasya mula-dese trimsad-yojana-sahasrantara aste ya vai kala bhagavatas
tamasi samakhyatananta iti satvatiya drastr-drsyayoh sankarsanam aham ity
abhimana-laksanam yam sankarsanam ity acaksate.
SYNONYMS
sri-sukah uvaca--Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said; tasya--of the planet
Patala; mula-dese--in the region beneath the base; trimsat--thirty;
yojana--eight-mile units of measurement; sahasra-antare--at an interval
of one thousand; aste--remains; ya--which; vai--indeed; kala--an
expansion of an expansion; bhagavatah--of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead; tamasi--related to darkness; samakhyata--called; anantah--
Ananta; iti--thus; satvatiyah--the devotees; drastr-drsyayoh--of matter
and spirit; sankarsanam--the drawing together; aham--I; iti--thus;
abhimana--by self-conception; laksanam--symptomized; yam--whom;
sankarsanam--Sankarsana; iti--thus; acaksate--learned scholars describe.
TRANSLATION
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said to Maharaja Pariksit: My dear King,
approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet Patala lives another
incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the expansion of
Lord Visnu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Sankarsana. He is always in the
transcendental position, but because He is worshiped by Lord Siva, the
deity of tamo-guna or darkness, He is sometimes called tamasi. Lord
Ananta is the predominating Deity of the material mode of ignorance as
well as the false ego of all conditioned souls. When a conditioned living
being thinks, "I am the enjoyer, and this world is meant to be enjoyed by
me," this conception of life is dictated to him by Sankarsana. Thus the
mundane conditioned soul thinks himself the Supreme Lord.
PURPORT
There is a class of men akin to Mayavadi philosophers who misinterpret
the aham brahmasmi and so'ham Vedic mantras to mean, "I am the Supreme
Brahman" and "I am identical with the Lord." This kind of false
conception, in which one thinks himself the supreme enjoyer, is a kind of
illusion. It is described elsewhere in Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.8): janasya
moho 'yam aham mameti. As explained in the above verse, Lord Sankarsana
is the predominating Deity of this false conception. Krsna confirms this
in
Bhagavad-gita (15.15):
sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
"I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance,
knowledge and forgetfulness." The Lord is situated in everyone's heart as
Sankarsana, and when a demon thinks himself one with the Supreme Lord,
the Lord keeps him in that darkness. Although such a demoniac living
entity is only an insignificant part of the Supreme Lord, he forgets his
true position and thinks he is the Supreme Lord. Because this
forgetfulness is created by Sankarsana, He is sometimes called tamasi.
The name tamasi does not indicate that He has a material body. He is
always transcendental, but because He is the Supersoul of Lord Siva, who
must perform tamasic activities, Sankarsana is sometimes called tamasi.
sri-suka uvaca
tasya mula-dese trimsad-yojana-sahasrantara aste ya vai kala bhagavatas
tamasi samakhyatananta iti satvatiya drastr-drsyayoh sankarsanam aham ity
abhimana-laksanam yam sankarsanam ity acaksate.
SYNONYMS
sri-sukah uvaca--Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said; tasya--of the planet
Patala; mula-dese--in the region beneath the base; trimsat--thirty;
yojana--eight-mile units of measurement; sahasra-antare--at an interval
of one thousand; aste--remains; ya--which; vai--indeed; kala--an
expansion of an expansion; bhagavatah--of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead; tamasi--related to darkness; samakhyata--called; anantah--
Ananta; iti--thus; satvatiyah--the devotees; drastr-drsyayoh--of matter
and spirit; sankarsanam--the drawing together; aham--I; iti--thus;
abhimana--by self-conception; laksanam--symptomized; yam--whom;
sankarsanam--Sankarsana; iti--thus; acaksate--learned scholars describe.
TRANSLATION
Sri Sukadeva Gosvami said to Maharaja Pariksit: My dear King,
approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet Patala lives another
incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the expansion of
Lord Visnu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Sankarsana. He is always in the
transcendental position, but because He is worshiped by Lord Siva, the
deity of tamo-guna or darkness, He is sometimes called tamasi. Lord
Ananta is the predominating Deity of the material mode of ignorance as
well as the false ego of all conditioned souls. When a conditioned living
being thinks, "I am the enjoyer, and this world is meant to be enjoyed by
me," this conception of life is dictated to him by Sankarsana. Thus the
mundane conditioned soul thinks himself the Supreme Lord.
PURPORT
There is a class of men akin to Mayavadi philosophers who misinterpret
the aham brahmasmi and so'ham Vedic mantras to mean, "I am the Supreme
Brahman" and "I am identical with the Lord." This kind of false
conception, in which one thinks himself the supreme enjoyer, is a kind of
illusion. It is described elsewhere in Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.8): janasya
moho 'yam aham mameti. As explained in the above verse, Lord Sankarsana
is the predominating Deity of this false conception. Krsna confirms this
in
Bhagavad-gita (15.15):
sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
"I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance,
knowledge and forgetfulness." The Lord is situated in everyone's heart as
Sankarsana, and when a demon thinks himself one with the Supreme Lord,
the Lord keeps him in that darkness. Although such a demoniac living
entity is only an insignificant part of the Supreme Lord, he forgets his
true position and thinks he is the Supreme Lord. Because this
forgetfulness is created by Sankarsana, He is sometimes called tamasi.
The name tamasi does not indicate that He has a material body. He is
always transcendental, but because He is the Supersoul of Lord Siva, who
must perform tamasic activities, Sankarsana is sometimes called tamasi.
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