SB 8.3.12
TEXT 12
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TEXT
नमः शान्ताय घोराय मूढाय गुणधर्मिणे ।
निर्विशेषाय साम्याय नमो ज्ञानघनाय च ॥ १२ ॥ namah santaya ghoraya
mudhaya guna-dharmine
nirvisesaya samyaya
namo jnana-ghanaya ca
namah-all obeisances; santaya-unto He who is above all material qualities and completely peaceful, or unto Vasudeva, the Supersoul in every living entity; ghoraya-unto the fierce forms of the Lord like Jamadagnya and Nrsimhadeva; mudhaya-the form of the Lord as an animal, such as the boar; guna-dharmine-who accepts different qualities within the material world; nirvisesaya-who is without material qualities, being fully spiritual; samyaya-Lord Buddha, the form of nirvana, wherein the material qualities stop; namah-I offer my respectful obeisances; jnana-ghanaya-who is knowledge or the impersonal Brahman; ca-also.
TRANSLATION
I offer my respectful obeisances to Lord Vasudeva, who is all-pervading, to the Lord's fierce form as Lord Nrsimhadeva, to the Lord's form as an animal [Lord Varahadeva], to Lord Dattatreya, who preached impersonalism, to Lord Buddha, and to all the other incarnations. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who has no material qualities but who accepts the three qualities goodness, passion and ignorance within this material world. I also offer my respectful obeisances unto the impersonal Brahman effulgence.
PURPORT
In the previous verses it has been described that although the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no material form, He accepts innumerable forms to favor His devotees and kill the demons. As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam, there are so many incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that they are like the waves of a river. The waves of a river flow incessantly, and no one can count how many waves there are. Similarly, no one can calculate when and how the different incarnations of the Lord appear according to the necessities of time, place and candidates. The Lord appears perpetually. As Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita (4.7):
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself." In the material world there is always the possibility of deviation from Krsna consciousness, and therefore Krsna and His devotees always act in various forms to curb such godlessness.
Even impersonalists who stress the knowledge feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead want to merge in the effulgence of the Lord. Therefore, here the word jnana-ghanaya indicates that for atheists who disbelieve in the form and existence of the Lord, all these various incarnations appear. Since the Lord comes to teach in so many forms, no one can say that there is no God. The word jnana-ghanaya is especially used here to refer to those whose knowledge has become solidified by dint of their searching for the Lord through speculative philosophical understanding. Superficial knowledge is useless for understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when one's knowledge becomes extremely intense and deep, one understands Vasudeva (vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah). A jnani attains this stage after many, many births. Therefore the word jnana-ghanaya is used here. The word santaya indicates that Lord Vasudeva is situated in everyone's heart but does not act with the living entity. Impersonalist jnanis realize Vasudeva when they are fully mature in knowledge (vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah).
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