śrī-sanandana uvāca
sva-sṛṣṭam idam āpīya
śayānaḿ saha śaktibhiḥ
tad-ante bodhayāḿ cakrus
tal-lińgaiḥ śrutayaḥ param
yathā śayānaḿ saḿrājaḿ
vandinas tat-parākramaiḥ
pratyūṣe 'bhetya su-ślokair
bodhayanty anujīvinaḥ
sri-sanandanah -- Sri Sanandana (the exalted mind-born son of Brahma who was chosen to reply to the sages' inquiry); uvaca -- said; sva -- by Himself; srishtam -- created; idam -- this (universe); apiya -- having withdrawn; sayanam -- lying asleep; saha -- with; saktibhih -- His energies; tat -- of that (period of universal dissolution); ante -- at the end; bodhayam cakruh -- they awakened Him; tat -- His; lingaih -- with (descriptions of) His characteristics; srutayah -- the Vedas; param -- the Supreme; yatha -- just as; sayanam -- sleeping; samrajam -- a king; vandinah -- his court poets; tat -- his; parakramaih -- with (recitations of) the heroic deeds; pratyushe -- at dawn; abhetya -- approaching him; suslokaih -- poetic; bodhayanti -- they awaken; anujivinah -- his servants.
Sri Sanandana replied: After the Supreme Lord withdrew the universe He had previously created, He lay for some time as if asleep, and all His energies rested dormant within Him. When the time came for the next creation, the personified Vedas awakened Him by chanting His glories, just as the poets serving a king approach him at dawn and awaken him by reciting his heroic deeds.
At the time of creation, the Vedas are the first emanation from the breathing of Lord Maha-Vishnu, and in personified form they serve Him by waking Him from His mystic sleep. This statement made by Sanandana implies that Sanaka and the other sages had asked him the same question that Narada had asked Narayana Rishi and Maharaja Parikshit had asked Sukadeva Gosvami. Sanandana refers the question back to the example of the personified Vedas themselves in their address to Lord Maha-Vishnu. Even though the Vedas knew that the Lord, being omniscient, does not need to be informed of His glories, they enthusiastically took this opportunity to praise Him.
