Text 43-45
SB 2.6.43-45
aham bhavo yajña ime prajesa
daksadayo ye bhavad-adayas ca
svarloka-palah khagaloka-pala
nrloka-palas talaloka-palah
gandharva-vidyadhara-caranesa
ye yaksa-raksoraga-naga-nathah
ye va rsinam rsabhah pitrnam
daityendra-siddhesvara-danavendrah
anye ca ye preta-pisaca-bhuta-
kusmanda-yado-mrga-paksy-adhisah
yat kiñca loke bhagavan mahasvad
ojah-sahasvad balavat ksamavat
sri-hri-vibhuty-atmavad adbhutarnam
tattvam param rupavad asva-rupam
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
I myself [Brahma], Lord Siva, Lord Visnu, great generators of living beings like Daksa and Prajapati, yourselves [Narada and the Kumaras], heavenly demigods like Indra and Candra, the leaders of the Bhurloka planets, the leaders of the earthly planets, the leaders of the lower planets, the leaders of the Gandharva planets, the leaders of the Vidyadhara planets, the leaders of the Caranaloka planets, the leaders of the Yaksas, Raksas and Uragas, the great sages, the great demons, the great atheists and the great spacemen, as well as the dead bodies, evil spirits, satans, jinn, kusmandas, great aquatics, great beasts and great birds, etc. — in other words, anything and everything which is exceptionally possessed of power, opulence, mental and perceptual dexterity, strength, forgiveness, beauty, modesty, opulence, and breeding, whether in form or formless — may appear to be the specific truth and the form of the Lord, but actually they are not so. They are only a fragment of the transcendental potency of the Lord.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
Those in the list given above, beginning from the name Brahmaji, the first living creature within the universe, down to Lord Siva, Lord Visnu, Narada and other powerful demigods, men, supermen, sages, rsis, and other lower creatures of extraordinary strength and opulence, including the dead bodies, satans, evil spirits, jinn, aquatics, birds and beasts, may appear to be the Supreme Lord, but factually none of them is the Supreme Lord; every one of them possesses only a fragment of the great potencies of the Supreme Lord. The less intelligent man is surprised to see the wonderful actions of material phenomena, as the aborigines are fearful of a great thunderbolt, a great and gigantic banyan tree, or a great lofty mountain in the jungle. For such undeveloped human beings, merely the slight display of the Lord’s potency is captivating. A still more advanced person is captivated by the powers of the demigods and goddesses. Therefore, those who are simply astonished by the powers of anything in the creation of the Lord, without any factual information of the Lord Himself, are known as saktas, or worshipers of the great powers. The modern scientist is also captivated by the wonderful actions and reactions of natural phenomena and therefore is also a sakta. These lower-grade persons gradually rise to become sauriyas (worshipers of the sun-god) or ganapatyas (worshipers of the mass of people as janata-janardana or daridra-narayana, etc., in the form of Ganapati) and then rise to the platform of worshiping Lord Siva in search for the ever-existing soul, and then to the stage of worshiping Lord Visnu, the Supersoul, etc., without any information of Govinda, Lord Krsna, who is the original Lord Visnu. In other ways some are worshipers of race, nationality, birds, beasts, evil spirits, satans, etc. The general worship of Sanideva, the lord of distressful condition, and Sitaladevi, the goddess of smallpox, is also common to the mass of people, and there are many foolish men who worship the mass of people or the poor class of men. So different persons, societies and communities, etc., worship some of the potent manifestations of the Lord, wrongly accepting the powerful object as God. But in this verse it is advised by Brahmaji that none of them is the Supreme Lord; they are only borrowed plumes from the original Almighty Lord Sri Krsna. When the Lord advises in Bhagavad-gita to worship Him alone, it is to be understood that worshiping Lord Krsna includes worshiping all that is mentioned, because He, Lord Krsna, includes everyone.
When the Lord is described as formless in the Vedic literatures, it is to be understood that all these forms mentioned above, within the experience of universal knowledge, are different exhibitions of the Lord’s transcendental potencies only, and none of them factually represents the transcendental form of the Lord. But when the Lord actually descends to the earth or anywhere within the universe, the less intelligent class of men also mistake Him to be one of them, and thus they imagine the Transcendence to be formless or impersonal. Factually, the Lord is not formless, nor does He belong to any of the multiforms experienced within the universal forms. One should try to know the truth about the Lord by following the instruction of Brahmaji.