śaunaka uvāca sa vai nivṛtti-nirataḥ sarvatropekṣako muniḥ kasya vā bṛhatīm etām ātmārāmaḥ samabhyasat
Synonyms
śaunakaḥ uvāca—Sri sounaka asked; saḥ—he; vai—of course; nivṛtti—on the path of self realisation; nirataḥ—always engaged, sarvatra—in every respect, upekshkaka—indifferent, munih—sage, kasya—for what reason, brihatim—vast, etam—this, atmaramah—one who is pleased by himself, samabhyasat—undergone the studies.
Translation
Sri Sounaka enquired from Suta Goswami, 'Sri Sukdeva Goswami was already on the path of self-realisation and as such he was pleased with his own self. Then what was the reason that he also took the trouble of undergoing such vast literature.
Purport
For the people in general the highest perfection of life is to cease from material activities and be fixed up in the path of self realisation. Those who take pleasure in the matter of sense enjoyment or in otherwords those who are fixed up in the matter of material bodily welfare work are called the Karmis. Out of such thousands and crores of Karmis one may become a Atmarama by self realisation. Atma means self and rama means to take pleasure. Every one is searching after the highest pleasure but the standard of pleasure of one may be different from the standard of other. Therefore, the standard of pleasure enjoyed by the Karmis is different from that of the Atmaramas. The Atmarams are completely indifferent in the matter of material enjoyment in every respect. Srila Sukadeva Goswami already attained that stage and still he was attracted for undergoing the trouble of studying the great Bhagwatam literature. This means that Srimad Bhagwatam is the post-graduate study even for the Atmaramas who have had surpassed all the studies of Vedic knowledge.