Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.2

asyapi deva vapusho mad-anugrahasya

sveccha-mayasya na tu bhuta-mayasya ko 'pi

nese mahi tv avasitum manasantarena

sakshat tavaiva kim utatma-sukhanubhuteh

SYNONYMS

asya -- of this; api -- even; deva -- O Lord; vapushah -- the body; mat-anugrahasya -- which has shown mercy to me; sva-iccha-mayasya -- which appears in response to the desires of Your pure devotees; na -- not; tu -- on the other hand; bhuta-mayasya -- a product of matter; kah -- Brahma; api -- even; na ise -- I am not able; mahi -- the potency; tu -- indeed; avasitum -- to estimate; manasa -- with my mind; antarena -- which is controlled and withdrawn; sakshat -- directly; tava -- Your; eva -- indeed; kim uta -- what to speak; atma -- within Yourself; sukha -- of happiness; anubhuteh -- of Your experience.

TRANSLATION

My dear Lord, neither I nor anyone else can estimate the potency of this transcendental body of Yours, which has shown such mercy to me and which appears just to fulfill the desires of Your pure devotees. Although my mind is completely withdrawn from material affairs, I cannot understand Your personal form. How, then, could I possibly understand the happiness You experience within Yourself?

PURPORT

In Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Volume One, Chapter Fourteen, Srila Prabhupada explains that in the present verse Lord Brahma expressed the following prayerful sentiment: "Your appearance as a cowherd child is for the benefit of the devotees, and although I have committed offenses at Your lotus feet by stealing away Your cows, boys and calves, I can understand that You are now showing me Your mercy. That is Your transcendental quality: You are very affectionate toward Your devotees. Yet in spite of Your affection for me, I cannot estimate the potency of Your bodily activities. It is to be understood that when I, Lord Brahma, the supreme personality of this universe, cannot estimate the childlike body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then what to speak of others? And if I cannot estimate the spiritual potency of Your childlike body, then what can I understand about Your transcendental pastimes? Therefore, as it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, anyone who can understand a little of the transcendental pastimes, appearance and disappearance of the Lord immediately becomes eligible to enter the kingdom of God after quitting the material body. This statement is confirmed in the Vedas, and it is stated simply: By understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one can overcome the chain of repeated birth and death. I therefore recommend that people should not try to understand You by their speculative knowledge."

When Brahma disrespected the supreme status of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna first bewildered him by exhibiting the Lord's own transcendental power. Then, having humbled His devotee Brahma, Krishna gave him His personal audience.

According to Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Lord Krishna's transcendental body can also function through the agency of His plenary expansions, called vishnu-tattva. As stated by Brahma himself in the Brahma-samhita (5.32): angani yasya sakalendriya-vrittimanti. This verse indicates not only that the Lord can perform any bodily function with any of His limbs but also that He can see through the eyes of His Vishnu expansions or, indeed, through the eyes of any living entity, and similarly that He can hear through the ears of any Vishnu or jiva expansion. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura points out that although the Lord can perform any function with any one of His senses, in His transcendental pastimes as Sri Krishna He generally sees with His eyes, touches with His hands, hears with His ears and so on. Thus He behaves like the most beautiful and charming young cowherd boy.

The Vedic knowledge expands from Lord Brahma, who is described in the first verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam as adi-kavi, the primeval Vedic scholar. Yet Brahma could not understand the transcendental body of Lord Krishna, because it is beyond the reach of ordinary Vedic knowledge. Among all the transcendental forms of the Lord, the two-armed form of Govinda -- Krishna -- is original and supreme. Thus Lord Govinda's pastimes of stealing butter, drinking the gopis' breast-milk, tending the calves, playing His flute and playing childhood sports are extraordinary even in comparison with the activities of the Lord's Vishnu expansions.

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Copyright (c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari