SB 7.4.40

Srimad-Bhagavatam - Seventh Canto - Chapter 4: Hiraṇyakaśipu Terrorizes the Universe

SB 7.4.39 - SB 7.4.41

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

TEXT 40

nadati kvacid utkaṇṭho

vilajjo nṛtyati kvacit

kvacit tad-bhāvanā-yuktas

tanmayo 'nucakāra ha

SYNONYMS

nadati — exclaims loudly (addressing the Lord, "O Kṛṣṇa"); kvacit — sometimes; utkaṇṭhaḥ — being anxious; vilajjaḥ — without shame; nṛtyati — he dances; kvacit — sometimes; kvacit — sometimes; tat-bhāvanā — with thoughts of Kṛṣṇa; yuktaḥ — being absorbed; tat-mayaḥ — thinking as if he had become Kṛṣṇa; anucakāra — imitated; ha — indeed.

TRANSLATION

Sometimes, upon seeing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Prahlāda Mahārāja would loudly call in full anxiety. He sometimes lost his shyness in jubilation and began dancing in ecstasy, and sometimes, being fully absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa, he felt oneness and imitated the pastimes of the Lord.

PURPORT

Prahlāda Mahārāja sometimes felt that the Lord was far away from him and therefore called Him loudly. When he saw that the Lord was before him, he was fully jubilant. Sometimes, thinking himself one with the Supreme, he imitated the Lord's pastimes, and in separation from the Lord he would sometimes show symptoms of madness. These feelings of a devotee would not be appreciated by impersonalists. One must go further and further into spiritual understanding. The first realization is impersonal Brahman, but one must go still further to realize Paramātmā and eventually the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is worshiped by the transcendental feelings of a devotee in a relationship of śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya or mādhurya. Here the feelings of Prahlāda Mahārāja were in the mellow of vātsalya, filial love and affection. As a child cries when left by his mother, when Prahlāda Mahārāja felt that the Lord was away from him he began to cry (nadati). Again, a devotee like Prahlāda sometimes sees that the Lord is coming from a long distance to pacify him, like a mother responding to a child, saying, "My dear child, do not cry. I am coming." Then the devotee, without being ashamed due to his surroundings and circumstances, begins to dance, thinking, "Here is my Lord! My Lord is coming!" Thus the devotee, in full ecstasy, sometimes imitates the pastimes of the Lord, just as the cowherd boys used to imitate the behavior of the jungle animals. However, he does not actually become the Lord. Prahlāda Mahārāja achieved the spiritual ecstasies described herein by his advancement in spiritual understanding.

SB 7.4.39 - SB 7.4.41