पुण्यैश्च नियताहारैः शोभितं परमर्षिभिः।
तद्ब्रह्मभवनप्रख्यं ब्रह्मघोषनिनादितम्।
ब्रह्मविद्भिर्महाभागैर्ब्राह्मणैरुपशोभितम्॥
puṇyaiś ca niyatāhāraiḥ śobhitaṁ parama-rṣibhiḥ
tad brahma-bhavana-prakhyaṁ brahma-ghoṣa-nināditam
brahmavidbhir mahā-bhāgair brāhmaṇair upaśobhitam
puṇyaiḥ = who were pious; ca = and; niyata-āhāraiḥ = controlled in their eating; śobhitam = the āśrama was beautified; parama-ṛṣibhiḥ = by [the presence of] most exalted sages; tat = that famous āśrama; brahma-bhavana-prakhyam = equal to Brahmaloka; brahma-ghoṣa-nināditam = resounded with Vedic recitation; brahmavidbhiḥ = who knew [the nature of] the Supreme Brahman; mahā-bhāgaiḥ = by greatly fortunate 6; brāhmaṇaiḥ = brāhmaṇas; upaśobhitam = and was adorned.
The āśrama was beautified by [the presence of] most exalted sages who were pious and controlled in their eating. That famous āśrama which was equal to Brahmaloka resounded with Vedic recitation and was adorned by greatly fortunate brāhmaṇas who knew [the nature of] the Supreme Brahman.1
1 These brāhmaṇas were not impersonalists who had realized that “everything is one” as alleged by a commentator here, for these brāhmaṇas were attracted to Rāma with a desire to selflessly serve Him. This will be evident in this very chapter. As any student of Vedānta-sūtra will know, Bādarāyaṇa Vyāsa has explicitly defined the Brahman of Vedānta as the cause of the creation, maintenance, destruction and so on: janmādy asya yataḥ. This is also stated clearly in the Bhagavad-gītā: paraṁ brahma paraṁ dhāma. “Brahman” in the ultimate sense refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. These sages had understood that. Therefore they were attracted to the service of Lord Rāmacandra, that very Brahman upon whom they had been meditating for so long. As explained by Śrī Madhva and Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, Brahman literally means “the one filled with a great number of auspicious qualities.” Śrī Madhva’s Nyāya-vivaraṇa and Śrī Baladeva’s Govinda-bhāṣya (1.1.1) quote the following etymology from the Śruti: atha kasmād ucyate brahmeti; bṛhanto hy asmin guṇāḥ.
There were sages in the āśrama who were fit to be worshipped by the sages [described in text 7]. “That famous āśrama which was equal to Brahmaloka” means “that āśrama which was as famous as Brahmaloka.”