Canto 1: Creation | Chapter 11: Lord Kṛṣṇa's Entrance into Dvārakā |
Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.11.8
aho sanāthā bhavatā sma yad vayaḿ
traiviṣṭapānām api dūra-darśanam
prema-smita-snigdha-nirīkṣaṇānanaḿ
paśyema rūpaḿ tava sarva-saubhagam
SYNONYMS
aho — oh, it is our good luck; sa-nāthāḥ — to be under the protection of the master; bhavatā — by Your good self; sma — as we have become; yat vayam — as we are; traiviṣṭa-pānām — of the demigods; api — also; dūra-darśanam — very rarely seen; prema-smita — smiling with love; snigdha — affectionate; nirīkṣaṇa-ānanam — face looking in that mode; paśyema — let us look; rūpam — beauty; tava — Your; sarva — all; saubhagam — auspiciousness.
TRANSLATION
Oh, it is our good luck that we have come again today under Your protection by Your presence, for Your Lordship rarely visits even the denizens of heaven. Now it is possible for us to look into Your smiling face, which is full of affectionate glances. We can now see Your transcendental form, full of all auspiciousness.
PURPORT
The Lord in His eternal personal form can be seen only by the pure devotees. The Lord is never impersonal, but He is the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead, possible to be visited by devotional service face to face, which is impossible to be done even by the denizens of higher planets. When Brahmājī and other demigods want to consult Lord Viṣṇu, the plenary portion of Lord Kṛṣṇa, they have to wait on the shore of the ocean of milk where Lord Viṣṇu is lying on White Land (Śvetadvīpa). This ocean of milk and the Śvetadvīpa planet are the replica of Vaikuṇṭhaloka within the universe. Neither Brahmājī nor the demigods like Indra can enter into this island of Śvetadvīpa, but they can stand on the shore of the ocean of milk and transmit their message to Lord Viṣṇu, known as Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. Therefore, the Lord is rarely seen by them, but the inhabitants of Dvārakā, because of their being pure devotees without any tinge of the material contamination of fruitive activities and empiric philosophical speculation, can see Him face to face by the grace of the Lord. This is the original state of the living entities and can be attained by reviving our natural and constitutional state of life, which is discovered by devotional service only.
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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness