Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.6.40

yato 'prāpya nyavartanta

vācaś ca manasā saha

ahaḿ cānya ime devās

tasmai bhagavate namaḥ

SYNONYMS

yataḥ — from whom; aprāpya — being unable to measure; nyavartanta — cease to try; vācaḥ — words; ca — also; manasā — with the mind; saha — with; aham ca — also the ego; anye — other; ime — all these; devāḥ — demigods; tasmai — unto Him; bhagavate — unto the Personality of Godhead; namaḥ — offer obeisances.

TRANSLATION

Words, mind and ego, with their respective controlling demigods, have failed to achieve success in knowing the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, we simply have to offer our respectful obeisances unto Him as a matter of sanity.

PURPORT

The froggish calculator may raise the objection that if the Absolute is unknowable even by the controlling deities of speech, mind and ego, namely the Vedas, Brahmā, Rudra and all the demigods headed by Bṛhaspati, then why should the devotees be so interested in this unknown object? The answer is that the transcendental ecstasy enjoyed by the devotees in delineating the pastimes of the Lord is certainly unknown to nondevotees and mental speculators. Unless one relishes transcendental joy, naturally one will come back from his speculations and concocted conclusions because he will see them as neither factual nor enjoyable. The devotees can at least know that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu, as the Vedic hymns confirm: oḿ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaḿ padaḿ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ. Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) also confirms this fact: vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ. By culture of Vedic knowledge one must know Lord Kṛṣṇa and should not falsely speculate on the word aham, or "I." The only method for understanding the Supreme Truth is devotional service, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (18.55): bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ. Only by devotional service can one know that the ultimate truth is the Personality of Godhead and that Brahman and Paramātmā are only His partial features. This is confirmed in this verse by the great sage Maitreya. With devotion he offers his sincere surrender, namaḥ, to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, bhagavate. One has to follow in the footsteps of great sages and devotees like Maitreya and Vidura, Mahārāja Parīkṣit and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and engage in the transcendental devotional service of the Lord if one would know His ultimate feature, which is above Brahman and Paramātmā.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Third Canto, Sixth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled "Creation of the Universal Form."

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