Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.16.1

śrī-uddhava uvāca

tvaḿ brahma paramaḿ sākṣād

anādy-antam apāvṛtam

sarveṣām api bhāvānāḿ

trāṇa-sthity-apyayodbhavaḥ

SYNONYMS

śrī-uddhavaḥ uvāca — Śrī Uddhava said; tvam — You are; brahma — the greatest; paramam — the supreme; sākṣāt — Himself; anādi — without beginning; antam — without end; apāvṛtam — unlimited by anything else; sarveṣām — of all; api — indeed; bhāvānām — things which exist; trāṇa — the protector; sthiti — the life-giver; apyaya — the destruction; udbhavaḥ — and the creation.

TRANSLATION

Śrī Uddhava said: My dear Lord, You are beginningless and endless, the Absolute Truth Himself, unlimited by anything else. You are the protector and life-giver, the destruction and creation of all things that exist.

PURPORT

Brahma means the greatest of all and the cause of everything. Uddhava here addresses the Lord as the paramam, or supreme brahma, because in His feature as Bhagavān the Lord is the highest feature of the Absolute Truth and the shelter of unlimited spiritual opulences. Unlike those of ordinary living entities, the Lord's opulences cannot be restricted by time, and thus the Lord is anādy-antam, without beginning or end, and apāvṛtam, unhindered by any superior or equal potency. The opulence of the material world is also resting within the Lord, who alone can protect, maintain, create and destroy the material world. In this chapter, Śrī Uddhava inquires from the Lord about His spiritual and material opulences in order to refine his appreciation of the Lord's position as the Absolute Truth. Even Lord Viṣṇu, the ultimate creator of the material world, is an expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and thus Śrī Uddhava wishes to fully appreciate the unique status of his personal friend.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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