अहो अत्यद्भुतं ह्येतद्दुर्लभैकान्तिनामपि ।
वासुदेवे परे तत्त्वे प्राप्तिश्चैद्यस्य विद्विषः ॥१६॥
Å›rÄ«-yudhiá¹£á¹hira uvÄca
aho aty-adbhutaá¹ hy etad
durlabhaikÄntinÄm api
vÄsudeve pare tattve
prÄptiÅ› caidyasya vidviá¹£aḥ
Å›rÄ«-yudhiá¹£á¹hiraḥ uvÄca - MahÄrÄja Yudhiá¹£á¹hira said; aho - oh; ati-adbhutam - very wonderful; hi - certainly; etat - this; durlabha - difficult to attain; ekÄntinÄm - for the transcendentalists; api - even; vÄsudeve - in VÄsudeva; pare - the supreme; tattve - Absolute Truth; prÄptiḥ - the attainment; caidyasya - of ÅšiÅ›upÄla; vidviá¹£aḥ - envious.
MahÄrÄja Yudhiá¹£á¹hira inquired: It is very wonderful that the demon ÅšiÅ›upÄla merged into the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead even though extremely envious. This sÄyujya-mukti is impossible to attain even for great transcendentalists. How then did the enemy of the Lord attain it?
There are two classes of transcendentalists — the jñÄnÄ«s and the bhaktas. The bhaktas do not aspire to merge into the existence of the Lord, but the jñÄnÄ«s do. ÅšiÅ›upÄla, however, was neither a jñÄnÄ« nor a bhakta, yet simply by envy of the Lord he attained an exalted position by merging into the Lord’s body. Certainly this was astonishing, and therefore MahÄrÄja Yudhiá¹£á¹hira inquired about the cause for the Lord’s mysterious mercy to ÅšiÅ›upÄla.
