न ब्रह्मपुत्रा मुनयः सुरेशाः ।
विदाम यस्येहितमंशकांशका
न तत्स्वरूपं पृथगीशमानिनः ॥३२॥
nÄhaá¹ viriñco na kumÄra-nÄradau
na brahma-putrÄ munayaḥ sureÅ›Äḥ
vidÄma yasyehitam amÅ›akÄmÅ›akÄ
na tat-svarÅ«paá¹ pá¹›thag-Ä«Å›a-mÄninaḥ
na - not; aham - I (Lord Åšiva); viriñcaḥ - Lord BrahmÄ; na - nor; kumÄra - the AÅ›vinÄ«-kumÄras; nÄradau - the great saint NÄrada; na - nor; brahma-putrÄḥ - the sons of Lord BrahmÄ; munayaḥ - great saintly persons; sura-Ä«Å›Äḥ - all the great demigods; vidÄma - know; yasya - of whom; Ä«hitam - activity; amÅ›aka-amÅ›akÄḥ - those who are parts of the parts; na - not; tat - His; sva-rÅ«pam - real personality; pá¹›thak - separate; Ä«Å›a - rulers; mÄninaḥ - who consider ourselves to be.
Neither I [Lord Åšiva], nor BrahmÄ, nor the AÅ›vinÄ«-kumÄras, nor NÄrada or the other great sages who are BrahmÄ’s sons, nor even the demigods can understand the pastimes and personality of the Supreme Lord. Although we are part of the Supreme Lord, we consider ourselves independent, separate controllers, and thus we cannot understand His identity.
Brahma-saá¹hitÄ (5.33) states:
advaitam acyutam anÄdim ananta-rÅ«pam
Ädyaá¹ purÄṇa-puruá¹£aá¹ nava-yauvanaá¹ ca
vedeá¹£u durlabham adurlabham Ätma-bhaktau
govindam Ädi-puruá¹£aá¹ tam ahaá¹ bhajÄmi
“I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, who is the original person. He is absolute, infallible and beginningless, and although expanded into unlimited forms, He is still the same original person, the oldest person, who always appears as a fresh youth. The eternal, blissful, all-knowing forms of the Lord cannot be understood even by the best Vedic scholars, but they are always manifest to pure, unalloyed devotees.†Lord Śiva places himself as one of the nondevotees, who cannot understand the identity of the Supreme Lord. The Lord, being ananta, has an unlimited number of forms. Therefore, how is it possible for an ordinary, common man to understand Him? Lord Śiva, of course, is above the ordinary human beings, yet he is unable to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Lord Śiva is not among the ordinary living entities, nor is he in the category of Lord Viṣṇu. He is between Lord Viṣṇu and the common living entity.
