Canto & Chapters
The Status Quo (33 Chapters)
Chapter 145v
Questions by Vidura
Chapter 234v
Remembrance of Lord Kṛṣṇa
Chapter 328v
The Lord’s Pastimes Out of Vṛndāvana
Chapter 436v
Vidura Approaches Maitreya
Chapter 551v
Vidura’s Talks with Maitreya
Chapter 640v
Creation of the Universal Form
Chapter 742v
Further Inquires by Vidura
Chapter 833v
Manifestation of Brahmā from Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu
Chapter 943v
Brahmā’s Prayers for Creative Energy
Chapter 1029v
Divisions of the Creation
Chapter 1142v
Calculation of Time, from the Atom
Chapter 1257v
Creation of the Kumāras and Others
Chapter 1350v
The Appearance of Lord Varāha
Chapter 1450v
Pregnancy of Diti in the Evening
Chapter 1550v
Description of the Kingdom of God
Chapter 1637v
The Two Doorkeepers of Vaikuṇṭha, Jaya and Vijaya, Cursed by the Sages
Chapter 1731v
Victory of Hiraṇyākṣa Over All the Directions of the Universe
Chapter 1827v
The Battle Between Lord Boar and the Demon Hiraṇyākṣa
Chapter 1938v
The Killing of the Demon Hiraṇyākṣa
Chapter 2053v
Conversation Between Maitreya and Vidura
Chapter 2150v
Conversation Between Manu and Kardama
Chapter 2237v
The Marriage of Kardama Muni and Devahūti
Chapter 2354v
Devahūti’s Lamentation
Chapter 2446v
The Renunciation of Kardama Muni
Chapter 2543v
The Glories of Devotional Service
Chapter 2671v
Fundamental Principles of Material Nature
Chapter 2729v
Understanding Material Nature
Chapter 2844v
Kapila’s Instructions on the Execution of Devotional Service
Chapter 2943v
Explanation of Devotional Service by Lord Kapila
Chapter 3034v
Description by Lord Kapila of Adverse Fruitive Activities
Chapter 3147v
Lord Kapila’s Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities
Chapter 3238v
Entanglement in Fruitive Activities
Chapter 3336v
Activities of Kapila
Canto 3, Chapter 5

Vidura’s Talks with Maitreya

Verse 50 (SB 3.5.50)
SB 3.5.50 • मूल श्लोक

त्वं न: सुराणामसि सान्वयानां कूटस्थ आद्य: पुरुष: पुराण: । त्वं देव शक्त्यां गुणकर्मयोनौ रेतस्त्वजायां कविमादधेऽज: ॥ ५० ॥

Transliteration

tvaṁ naḥ surāṇām asi sānvayānāṁ kūṭa-stha ādyaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ tvaṁ deva śaktyāṁ guṇa-karma-yonau retas tv ajāyāṁ kavim ādadhe ’jaḥ

Synonyms (Word-for-Word)

tvam — Your Lordship; naḥ — of us; surāṇām — of the demigods; asi — You are; sa-anvayānām — with different gradations; kūṭa-sthaḥ — one who is unchanged; ādyaḥ — without any superior; puruṣaḥ — the founder person; purāṇaḥ — the oldest, who has no other founder; tvam — You; deva — O Lord; śaktyām — unto the energy; guṇa-karma-yonau — unto the cause of the material modes and activities; retaḥ — semen of birth; tu — indeed; ajāyām — for begetting; kavim — the total living entities; ādadhe — initiated; ajaḥ — one who is unborn.

Translation

“You are the original personal founder of all the demigods and the orders of different gradations, yet You are the oldest and are unchanged. O Lord, You have no source or superior. You have impregnated the external energy with the semen of the total living entities, yet You are unborn.”

Bhaktivedanta Purport

By Śrīla Prabhupāda
The Lord, the original person, is the father of all other living entities, beginning from Brahmā, the personality from whom all other living entities in different gradations of species are generated. Yet the supreme father has no other father. Every one of the living entities of all grades, up to Brahmā, the original creature of the universe, is begotten by a father, but He, the Lord, has no father. When He descends to the material plane, out of His causeless mercy He accepts one of His great devotees as His father to keep pace with the rules of the material world. But since He is the Lord, He is always independent in choosing who will become His father. For example, the Lord came out of a pillar in His incarnation as Nṛsiṁhadeva, and by the Lord’s causeless mercy, Ahalyā came out of a stone by the touch of the lotus feet of His incarnation as Lord Śrī Rāma. He is also the companion of every living entity as the Supersoul, but He is unchanged. The living entity changes his body in the material world, but even when the Lord is in the material world, He is ever unchanged. That is His prerogative. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (14.3), the Lord impregnates the external or material energy, and thus the total living entities later come out in different gradations, beginning from Brahmā, the first demigod, down to the insignificant ant. All gradations of living entities are manifested by Brahmā and the external energy, but the Lord is the original father of everyone. The relationship of every living being with the Supreme Lord is certainly one of son and father and not one of equality. Sometimes in love the son is more than the father, but the relationship of father and son is one of the superior and the subordinate. Every living entity, however great he may be, even up to demigods like Brahmā and Indra, is an eternally subordinate servitor of the supreme father. The mahat-tattva principle is the generating source of all the modes of material nature, and the living entities take birth in the material world in bodies supplied by the mother, material nature, in terms of their previous work. The body is a gift of material nature, but the soul is originally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.