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Text 22

sa vai bhagavatā tena
yuyudhe svāmīnātmanaḥ
puruṣam prākṛtaṁ matvā
kupito nānubhāva-vit

saḥ — he; vai — indeed; bhagavatā — with the Lord; tena — with Him; yuyudhe — fought; svāmīnā — master; ātmanaḥ — his own; puruṣam — a person; prākṛtam — mundane; matvā — thinking Him; kupitaḥ — angry; na — not; anubhāva — of His position; vit — aware.

Unaware of His true position and thinking Him an ordinary man, Jāmbavān angrily began fighting with the Supreme Lord, his master.

The words puruṣaṁ prākṛtaṁ matvā, “thinking Him a mundane person,” are very significant. So-called Vedic scholars, including most Western ones, enjoy translating the word puruṣam as “man” even when the word refers to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and thus their unauthorized translations of Vedic literature are tainted by their materialistic conceptions of the Godhead. However, here it is clearly stated that it was because Jāmbavān misunderstood the Lord’s position that he considered Him prākṛta-puruṣa, “a mundane person.” In other words, the Lord is actually puruṣottama, “the ultimate transcendental person.”

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