प्रजापतिपतिः सृष्ट्वा प्रजासर्गे प्रजापतीन् ।
किमारभत मे ब्रह्मन्प्रब्रूह्यव्यक्तमार्गवित् ॥९॥
vidura uvÄca
prajÄpati-patiḥ sṛṣá¹vÄ
prajÄ-sarge prajÄpatÄ«n
kim Ärabhata me brahman
prabrÅ«hy avyakta-mÄrga-vit
viduraḥ uvÄca - Vidura said; prajÄpati-patiḥ - Lord BrahmÄ; sṛṣá¹vÄ - after creating; prajÄ-sarge - for the purpose of creating living beings; prajÄpatÄ«n - the PrajÄpatis; kim - what; Ärabhata - started; me - to me; brahman - O holy sage; prabrÅ«hi - tell; avyakta-mÄrga-vit - knower of that which we do not know.
Vidura said: Since you know of matters inconceivable to us, tell me, O holy sage, what did BrahmÄ do to create living beings after evolving the PrajÄpatis, the progenitors of living beings?
Significant here is the word avyakta-mÄrga-vit, “one who knows that which is beyond our perception.†To know matters beyond one’s perception, one has to learn from a superior authority in the line of disciplic succession. Just to know who is our father is beyond our perception. For that, the mother is the authority. Similarly, we have to understand everything beyond our perception from the authority who actually knows. The first avyakta-mÄrga-vit, or authority, is BrahmÄ, and the next authority in disciplic succession is NÄrada. Maitreya Ṛṣi belongs to that disciplic succession, so he also is avyakta-mÄrga-vit. Anyone in the bona fide line of disciplic succession is avyakta-mÄrga-vit, a personality who knows that which is beyond ordinary perception.
