Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.14.14

nārāyaṇas tvaḿ na hi sarva-dehinām

ātmāsy adhīśākhila-loka-sākṣī

nārāyaṇo 'ńgaḿ nara-bhū-jalāyanāt

tac cāpi satyaḿ na tavaiva māyā

SYNONYMS

nārāyaṇaḥ — the Supreme Lord Nārāyaṇa; tvam — You; na — not; hi — whether; sarva — of all; dehinām — embodied living beings; ātmā — the Supersoul; asi — You are; adhīśa — O supreme controller; akhila — of all; loka — planets; sākṣī — the witness; nārāyaṇaḥ — Lord Śrī Nārāyaṇa; ańgam — the expanded plenary portion; nara — from the Supreme Personality; bhū — originating; jala — of the water; ayanāt — because of being the manifesting source; tat — that (expansion); ca — and; api — indeed; satyam — true; na — not; tava — Your; eva — at all; māyā — illusory energy.

TRANSLATION

Are You not the original Nārāyaṇa, O supreme controller, since You are the Soul of every embodied being and the eternal witness of all created realms? Indeed, Lord Nārāyaṇa is Your expansion, and He is called Nārāyaṇa because He is the generating source of the primeval water of the universe. He is real, not a product of Your illusory Māyā.

PURPORT

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, Chapter Two, Text 30, Śrīla Prabhupāda comments on this verse as follows: "This statement was spoken by Lord Brahmā in his prayers to Lord Kṛṣṇa after the Lord defeated him by displaying His mystic powers. Brahmā had tried to test Lord Kṛṣṇa to see if He was really the Supreme Personality of Godhead playing as a cowherd boy. Brahmā stole all the other boys and their cows from the pasturing grounds, but when he returned to the pastures he saw that all the boys and cows were still there, for Lord Kṛṣṇa had created them all again. When Brahmā saw this mystic power of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he admitted defeat and offered prayers to the Lord, addressing Him as the proprietor and seer of everything in the creation and as the Supersoul who is within each and every living entity and is dear to all. Lord Kṛṣṇa is Nārāyaṇa, the father of Brahmā, because Lord Kṛṣṇa's plenary expansion Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, after placing Himself on the Garbha Ocean, created Brahmā from His own body. Mahā-Viṣṇu in the Causal Ocean and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the Supersoul in everyone's heart, are also transcendental expansions of the Supreme Truth."

In his commentary on this verse, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī has elaborately explained the expansion of the Viṣṇu, or Nārāyaṇa, incarnations from the original form of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The essence is that although Lord Brahmā was born from Lord Nārāyaṇa, Brahmā now understands that Nārāyaṇa is Himself a mere expansion of the original Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

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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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