SB 3.4.20
sa evam aradhita-pada-tirthad
adhita-tattvatma-vibodha-margah
pranamya padau parivrtya devam
ihagato ’ham virahaturatma
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
I have studied the path of understanding self-knowledge from my spiritual master, the Personality of Godhead, and thus after circumambulating Him I have come to this place, very much aggrieved due to separation.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
Sri Uddhava’s actual life is the direct symbol of the catuh-sloki Bhagavatam enunciated first to Brahmaji by the Personality of Godhead. These four very great and important verses from Srimad-Bhagavatam are particularly taken out by the Mayavadi speculators, who construe a different purport to suit their impersonal view of monism. Here is the proper answer to such unauthorized speculators. The verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam are purely theistic science understandable by the postgraduate students of Bhagavad-gita. The unauthorized dry speculators are offenders at the lotus feet of the Lord Sri Krsna because they distort the purports of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam to mislead the public and prepare a direct path to the hell known as Andha-tamisra. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (16.20) such envious speculators are without knowledge and are surely condemned life after life. They unnecessarily take shelter of Sripada Sankaracarya, but he was not so drastic as to commit an offense at the lotus feet of Lord Krsna. According to Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sripada Sankaracarya preached the Mayavada philosophy for a particular purpose. Such a philosophy was necessary to defeat the Buddhist philosophy of the nonexistence of the spirit soul, but it was never meant for perpetual acceptance. It was an emergency. Thus Lord Krsna was accepted by Sankaracarya as the Supreme Personality of Godhead in his commentation on Bhagavad-gita. Since he was a great devotee of Lord Krsna, he did not dare write any commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam because that would have been a direct offense at the lotus feet of the Lord. But later speculators, in the name of Mayavada philosophy, unnecessarily make their commentary on the catuh-sloki Bhagavatam without any bona fide intent.
The monistic dry speculators have no business in the Srimad-Bhagavatam because this particular Vedic literature is forbidden for them by the great author himself. Srila Vyasadeva has definitely forbidden persons engaged in religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and, finally, salvation, from trying to understand Srimad-Bhagavatam, which is not meant for them (Bhag. 1.1.2). Sripada Sridhara Svami, the great commentator on Srimad-Bhagavatam, has definitely forbidden the salvationists or monists to deal in Srimad-Bhagavatam. It is not for them. Yet such unauthorized persons perversely try to understand Srimad-Bhagavatam, and thus they commit offenses at the feet of the Lord, which even Sripada Sankaracarya dared not do. Thus they prepare for their continuation of miserable life. It should be particularly noted herein that Uddhava studied the catuh-sloki Bhagavatam directly from the Lord, who spoke them first to Brahmaji, and this time the Lord explained more confidentially the self-knowledge mentioned as the paramam sthitim. Upon learning such self-knowledge of love, Uddhava felt very much aggrieved by feelings of separation from the Lord. Unless one is awakened to the stage of Uddhava — everlastingly feeling the separation of the Lord in transcendental love, as exhibited by Lord Caitanya also — one cannot understand the real import of the four essential verses of Srimad-Bhagavatam. One should not indulge in the unauthorized act of twisting the meaning and thereby putting himself on the dangerous path of offense.