Bhagavata starting slokas

Courtesy: Sri.Bryan Hill

shrIdhara svAmi's interpretation of bhAgavata - purANa 1.1.1:

                  ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय

जन्माद्यस्य यतोऽन्वयादितरतश्चार्थेष्वभिज्ञः स्वराट् तेने ब्रह्म हृदा य आदिकवये मुह्यन्ति यत्सूरयः । तेजोवारिमृदां यथा विनिमयो यत्र त्रिसर्गोऽमृषा धाम्ना स्वेन सदा निरस्तकुहकं सत्यं परं धीमहि ॥१.१.१॥

 

........तत्र हेतुः – अन्वयादितरतश्च । अर्थेष्वाकाशादिकार्येषु परमेश्वरस्य सद्रूपेणान्वयादकार्येभ्यश्च खपुष्पादिभ्यस्तद्व्यतिरेकात् । यद्वा अन्वयशब्देनानुवृत्तिः इतरशब्देन व्यावृत्तिः  । अनुवृत्तत्वात्सद्रूपं ब्रह्म कारणं मृत्सुवर्णादिवत् । व्यावृत्तत्वाद्विश्वं कार्यं घटकुण्डलादिवदित्यर्थः ।  यद्वा सावयवत्वादन्वयव्यतिरेकाभ्यां यदस्य जन्मादि तद्यतो भवतीति संबन्धः । .............

 

" Let us meditate on the Supreme (Lord) from whom the creation, preservation, etc. of this world proceed; for, He is in all real things as sat and is not to be sought for in unreal things; He enters everything as the cause, and is different from all effected things; (He is the cause of all this), both by positive and negative proofs. Let us meditate on Him who is all - wise, who shines by Himself (being essentially wisdom); Him who revealed the vedas to brahmA, the first sage, through his mind (i.e., who inspired him with a knowledge of the vedas) - the vedas in respect of (i.e., in understanding) which even sages are bewildered; Him who is Truth, (whose presence confers the appearance of reality on other things); Him as depending on whose real essence, the three - fold creation of (sattva, rajas and tamas) does not seem false (unreal) [i.e., even the unreal creation seems a reality], even as are the modifications (illusory forms) of Fire, Water and Earth; - Him in whom the three - fold creation is (indeed) unreal; Him who, by virtue of His own glory, has ever distanced illusion (from self). 

 

shrIdhara's alternative interpretation of the same 1.1.1:

 

[Let us meditate on the Most High, the Perfect One who is Truth, in whom (as resting on whom) the three - fold creation of guNas, viz. bhUtas, indriyas, devatas, seem real [through His presence in things effected and His absence from what are not], as the modification (through misapprehension) of light, water and earth seems to be, (i.e., in whom the three - fold creation is unreal), He being the one (cause) in (all) things, and being different (from the effected forms), by positive and negative proofs; who is omniscient, who shines by Himself by His own glory, who revealed the vedas to the four - faced brahmA the first sage, through His own mind, - the vedas in respect of which even the wise are bewildered &.]

 

From the book Shrimad Bhagavatam translated by S. Subba Rao