निर्विशेषाय साम्याय नमो ज्ञानघनाय च ॥१२॥
namaḥ Å›ÄntÄya ghorÄya
mÅ«á¸hÄya guṇa-dharmiṇe
nirviÅ›eá¹£Äya sÄmyÄya
namo jñÄna-ghanÄya ca
namaḥ - all obeisances; Å›ÄntÄya - unto He who is above all material qualities and completely peaceful, or unto VÄsudeva, the Supersoul in every living entity; ghorÄya - unto the fierce forms of the Lord like JÄmadagnya and Ná¹›siá¹hadeva; mÅ«á¸hÄya - the form of the Lord as an animal, such as the boar; guṇa-dharmiṇe - who accepts different qualities within the material world; nirviÅ›eá¹£Äya - who is without material qualities, being fully spiritual; sÄmyÄya - Lord Buddha, the form of nirvÄṇa, wherein the material qualities stop; namaḥ - I offer my respectful obeisances; jñÄna-ghanÄya - who is knowledge or the impersonal Brahman; ca - also.
I offer my respectful obeisances to Lord VÄsudeva, who is all-pervading, to the Lord’s fierce form as Lord Ná¹›siá¹hadeva, to the Lord’s form as an animal [Lord VarÄhadeva], to Lord DattÄtreya, who preached impersonalism, to Lord Buddha, and to all the other incarnations. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Lord, who has no material qualities but who accepts the three qualities goodness, passion and ignorance within this material world. I also offer my respectful obeisances unto the impersonal Brahman effulgence.
In the previous verses it has been described that although the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no material form, He accepts innumerable forms to favor His devotees and kill the demons. As stated in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, there are so many incarnations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that they are like the waves of a river. The waves of a river flow incessantly, and no one can count how many waves there are. Similarly, no one can calculate when and how the different incarnations of the Lord appear according to the necessities of time, place and candidates. The Lord appears perpetually. As Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (4.7):
yadÄ yadÄ hi dharmasya
glÄnir bhavati bhÄrata
abhyutthÄnam adharmasya
tadÄtmÄnaá¹ sá¹›jÄmy aham
“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion — at that time I descend Myself.†In the material world there is always the possibility of deviation from Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and therefore Kṛṣṇa and His devotees always act in various forms to curb such godlessness.
Even impersonalists who stress the knowledge feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead want to merge in the effulgence of the Lord. Therefore, here the word jñÄna-ghanÄya indicates that for atheists who disbelieve in the form and existence of the Lord, all these various incarnations appear. Since the Lord comes to teach in so many forms, no one can say that there is no God. The word jñÄna-ghanÄya is especially used here to refer to those whose knowledge has become solidified by dint of their searching for the Lord through speculative philosophical understanding. Superficial knowledge is useless for understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when one’s knowledge becomes extremely intense and deep, one understands VÄsudeva (vÄsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahÄtmÄ sudurlabhaḥ). A jñÄnÄ« attains this stage after many, many births. Therefore the word jñÄna-ghanÄya is used here. The word Å›ÄntÄya indicates that Lord VÄsudeva is situated in everyone’s heart but does not act with the living entity. Impersonalist jñÄnÄ«s realize VÄsudeva when they are fully mature in knowledge (vÄsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahÄtmÄ sudurlabhaḥ).
