मुनय: साधु पृष्टोऽहं भवद्भिर्लोकमङ्गलम् ।
यत्कृत: कृष्णसम्प्रश्नो येनात्मा सुप्रसीदति ॥
munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo’haṁ bhavadbhir loka-maṅgalam |
yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṇa-sampraśno yenātmā suprasīdati ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 1.2.5)
“O sages, I have been excellently questioned [by you all], since this inquiry in regard to Kṛṣṇa made by you all, by which the self [i.e., the mind] becomes fully satisfied, is beneficial for the world.”
Commentary
tad-bhajana-mātrasya māhātmyam upakramata eva yathā—munayaḥ … | tatraitad vaktavyaṁ—pūrvaṁ manasaḥ suprasāda-hetuḥ pṛṣṭaḥ | anena tu śrī-kṛṣṇa-praśna-mātrasya tad-dhetutoktā | na tu ‘sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ’ ity-ādinā tadīyānantara-prakaraṇe—yathā mahatā prayatnena karmārpaṇam ārabhya bhakti-niṣṭhā-paryanta eva jāte, prādurbhāvāntara-bhajanasya tad-dhetutoktā, tatheti | ata evāvatārāntara-kathāyā api tad-abhiniveśa eva phalam ity āha—harer adbhuta-vīryasya kathā loka-sumaṅgalāḥ | kathayasva mahābhāga yathāham akhilātmani || kṛṣṇe niveśya niḥsaṅgaṁ manas tyakṣye kalevaram | iti | hares tad-avatāra-rūpasya | akhilātmani sarvāṁśini kṛṣṇe śrīmad-arjuna-sakhe ||
(Excerpted from Bhakti Sandarbha: 325)
“The greatness of worship (bhajana) of him [i.e., Śrī Kṛṣṇa] is [stated] from the outset [of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam] as follows: munayaḥ … [i.e., SB 1.2.5 is spoken]. Therein [i.e., in the aforementioned verse], what is being said [i.e., the point Sūta Gosvāmī, the speaker, wishes to convey] is this: ‘I was previously questioned [by you all] about the cause of full satisfaction of the mind.’ By this [i.e., by the reply Sūta Gosvāmī then makes], however, simply inquiry into Śrī Kṛṣṇa being the cause of that [i.e., of full satisfaction of the mind] is stated [i.e., just inquiring about Śrī Kṛṣṇa is in and of itself the cause of the complete satisfaction of the mind], and not, rather, is it as in the section thereafter beginning with [the verse] sa vai puṁsām paro dharmaḥ [i.e., SB 1.2.6–22] related to that [i.e., it is not as in the ensuing response to that inquiry] wherein worship (bhajana) beginning by offering karma with great effort and culminating specifically in fixity in bhakti is stated to be the cause of that [i.e., of full satisfaction of the mind; in other words, unlike simply inquiry related specifically to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, which in and of itself is a cause of full satisfaction of the mind, bhakti to forms of Bhagavān other than Śrī Kṛṣṇa becomes a cause of the full satisfaction of the mind only when it reaches the state being manifest with fixity in the mind of a bhakta]. Therefore, he [i.e., Parīkṣit Mahārāja] says [in SB 2.8.3–4] that the result even of [hearing] descriptions of other avatāras [i.e., avatāras other than Śrī Kṛṣṇa] is absorption in him [i.e., Śrī Kṛṣṇa]: ‘O you of the greatest fortune [i.e., O Śukadeva], please narrate descriptions of Hari, he of astonishing potency, most beneficial for the world, so that I shall give up the body as I absorb the mind, free from all [other] attachment, in Kṛṣṇa, he who is the Self of all.’ ‘In Kṛṣṇa, he who is the Self of all’ (Akhilātmani Kṛṣṇe) refers to the beautiful friend of Arjuna, who is the source of all aṁśas [i.e., avatāras], and ‘of Hari’ (Hareḥ) refers to the forms of the avatāras of him [i.e., of Kṛṣṇa].”