Text 1
śrī-rājovāca
parasya viṣṇor īśasya
māyinām api mohinīm
māyāṁ veditum icchāmo
bhagavanto bruvantu naḥ
śrī-rājā uvāca — the King said; parasya — of the Supreme; viṣṇoḥ — Viṣṇu; īśasya — the Lord; māyinām — for the possessors of great mystic power; api — even; mohinīm — which is bewildering; māyām — the illusory potency; veditum — to understand; icchāmaḥ — we desire; bhagavantaḥ — my lords; bruvantu — please tell this; naḥ — to us.
King Nimi said: Now we wish to learn about the illusory potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Viṣṇu, which bewilders even great mystics. My lords, please speak to us about this subject.
According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, in this chapter various saintly sons of Ṛṣabhadeva will speak about the illusory energy (māyā), the means for crossing beyond it, the characteristics of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and prescribed duties for human beings. The forty-eighth verse of the previous chapter stated, viṣṇor māyām idaṁ paśyan: “A devotee of Kṛṣṇa should see the entire universe to be the illusory potency of the Lord.” Therefore King Nimi is now pursuing this subject matter by requesting more detailed information from the saintly Yogendras.
According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, the demigods, headed by Lord Brahmā, and the human beings of the earth are all driven by their particular desires for material sense gratification. Thus they direct their senses toward research for material knowledge. The subtle celestial senses of the demigods and the gross senses of human beings are all busy in ascertaining the measurements of material sense objects. To understand fully the actual nature of māyā, the illusory potency, which causes the conditioned souls to become averse to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and surrender to bewildering material manifestations, King Nimi is inquiring from another of the nine Yogendras, Śrī Antarīkṣa.