उरुगायगुणोदाराः सतां स्युर्हि समागमे ॥१६॥
vaiyÄsakiÅ› ca bhagavÄn
vÄsudeva-parÄyaṇaḥ
urugÄya-guṇodÄrÄḥ
satÄá¹ syur hi samÄgame
vaiyÄsakiḥ - the son of VyÄsadeva; ca - also; bhagavÄn - full in transcendental knowledge; vÄsudeva - Lord Kṛṣṇa; parÄyaṇaḥ - attached to; urugÄya - of the Personality of Godhead ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa, who is glorified by great philosophers; guṇa-udÄrÄḥ - great qualities; satÄm - of the devotees; syuḥ - must have been; hi - as a matter of fact; samÄgame - by the presence of.
Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, the son of VyÄsadeva, was also full in transcendental knowledge and was a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva. So there must have been discussion of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is glorified by great philosophers and in the company of great devotees.
The word satÄm is very important in this verse. SatÄm means the pure devotees, who have no other desire than to serve the Lord. Only in the association of such devotees are the transcendental glories of Lord Kṛṣṇa properly discussed. It is said by the Lord that His topics are all full of spiritual significance, and once one properly hears about Him in the association of the satÄm, certainly one senses the great potency and so automatically attains to the devotional stage of life. As already described, MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it was a great devotee of the Lord from his very birth, and so was Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«. Both of them were on the same level, although it appeared that MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it was a great king accustomed to royal facilities whereas Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« was a typical renouncer of the world, so much so that he did not even put a cloth on his body. Superficially, MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it and Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« might seem to be opposites, but basically they were both unalloyed, pure devotees of the Lord. When such devotees are assembled together, there can be no topics save discussions of the glories of the Lord, or bhakti-yoga. In the Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ also, when there were talks between the Lord and His devotee Arjuna, there could not be any topic other than bhakti-yoga, however the mundane scholars may speculate on it in their own ways. The use of the word ca after vaiyÄsakiḥ suggests, according to ÅšrÄ«la JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ«, that both Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« and MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it were of the same category, settled long before, although one was playing the part of the master and the other the disciple. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa is the center of the topics, the word vÄsudeva-parÄyaṇaḥ, or “devotee of VÄsudeva,†suggests devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the common aim. Although there were many others who assembled at the place where MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it was fasting, the natural conclusion is that there was no topic other than the glorification of Lord Kṛṣṇa, because the principal speaker was Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« and the chief audience was MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it. So ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, as it was spoken and heard by two principal devotees of the Lord, is only for the glorification of the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa.
