Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.5.19

Pradyumna: [leads chanting of verse, etc.] [break]

idaṁ śarīraṁ mama durvibhāvyaṁ sattvaṁ hi me hṛdayaṁ yatra dharmaḥ pṛṣṭhe kṛto me yad adharma ārād ato hi māṁ ṛṣabhaṁ prāhur āryāḥ [SB 5.5.19]

[00:58]

Translation: "My transcendental body, sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, looks exactly like a human form, but it is not a material human body. It is inconceivable. I am not forced by nature to accept a particular type of body; I take on a body by My own sweet will. My heart is also spiritual, and I always think of the welfare of My devotees. Therefore within My heart can be found the process of devotional service, which is meant for the devotees. Far from My heart have I abandoned irreligion, or adharma, and nondevotional activities. They do not appeal to Me. Due to all these transcendental qualities, people generally pray to Me as Ṛṣabhādeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the best of all living entities." [break]

Prabhupāda:

idaṁ śarīraṁ mama durvibhāvyaṁ sattvaṁ hi me hṛdayaṁ yatra dharmaḥ pṛṣṭhe kṛto me yad adharma ārād ato hi māṁ ṛṣabhaṁ prāhur āryāḥ [SB 5.5.19]

So God, whether impersonal or personal, that we cannot conclude by our speculation. It is not possible. Durvibhāvyam. Durvibhāvyam means beyond your conception, beyond your speculation. But He says that idaṁ śarīram. He has got His body; He is not impersonal. He comes sometimes as incarnation. We can see Kṛṣṅa with two hands, two legs, one head.

Veṅuṁ kvaṅantam aravinda dalāyatākṣaṁ barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam [Bs 5.30]

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept in playing on His flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals with head decked with peacock's feather, with the figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and His unique loveliness charming millions of Cupids.]

This is described in the Vedic literature. He has two hands and He is playing on flute. He has got the peacock feather on His head. It is not imagination. The Kṛṣṅa arcā-mūrti, it is not imagination, as rascals think, that they have imaginated an idol. This is not idol worship. This is actually... I have several times explained that here is Kṛṣṅa, personally present. We should always think like that, not that it is idol worship. But durvibhāvyam means although He is present, the less intelligent class of men, they will think that "They are worshiping one statue." But that is not possible.

You do not know what is the form of the Lord because your present senses are imperfect. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṅa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam idriyaiḥ [Cc Madhya 17.136]—the Lord's name, His form, His pastimes—na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ—our present senses are unable to conceive. Just like the soul is there within the body but nobody can see where is that soul. Similarly, God is also within this body, but nobody can see. It is specifically mentioned, īśvaraḥ sarva bhūtānām hṛd deśe arjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

The Lord is situated in everyone's heart, but find out the heart, where is God. There is, but you cannot see. Ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṅa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ [Cc Madhya 17.136].

[Therefore material senses cannot appreciate Kṛṣṅa’s holy name, form, qualities and pastimes. When a conditioned soul is awakened to Kṛṣṅa consciousness and renders service by using his tongue to chant the Lord’s holy name and taste the remnants of the Lord’s food, the tongue is purified, and one gradually comes to understand who Kṛṣṅa really is.]

Present senses are unable to see. You have to prepare your eyes. Just like with cataract you cannot see anything. You have to undergo surgical operation. Then you will see. That surgical operation process is bhakti.

sarvopādhi vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate [Cc Madhya 19.170]

[Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.]

Hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa sevanam. If God has no form, how He is Hṛṣīkeśa, and how we can serve with our senses? Hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa sevanam. That is bhakti.

So God has form, but it is inconceivable by us. But from the śāstra we can understand what kind of body God has. Just like in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is explained,

aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti ānanda-cinmaya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya ānanda-sat-ujjvala-vigraha... govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.32]

Now, it is inconceivable. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya vṛtti-manti. Now we have got this understanding that we can see with our eyes, but God can not only see with His eyes, He can eat with His eyes. This is inconceivable. We shall think, "How it is possible that one can eat with His eyes?" Therefore śāstra says, aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya vṛtti-manti [Bs 5.32]. Just like we offer foodstuff to the Deity. The atheist will say, "Oh, you have offered this, so many nice foodstuff, but He has not eaten. It is there, lying there." But he does not know that God has His indriyas, sakalendriya vṛtti-manti. As soon as sees the foodstuff is offered, He has eaten. That they do not know. This is inconceivable. Unless we accept the inconceivable energy of the Lord, there is no question of God. So He can eat by seeing. Aggāni yasya sakalendriya vṛtti-manti paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti [Bs 5.32]. He can offer you blessing, everything, by one aṅga. By one part of the body He can do everything. This is inconceivable. Adhokṣaja. Therefore another name of God is called Adhokṣaja. Akṣaja jñānam adhaḥ kṛta.

Our knowledge is sense perception. Sense perception, akṣaja jñānam. That will not act there. Acintya. Therefore we have to accept in that way. Idaṁ śarīram, but He has His body. He has His body, and because we cannot conceive, He, out of His causeless mercy, He presents Himself in a form which we can see. That is arcā-vigraha, arcā-mūrti. A vigraha. Arcā means the form which we can worship. If God is impersonal... Avyaktāsakta-cetasām. Kleśo adhikataras teṣām. If we accept God as impersonal... He is not impersonal. He says idaṁ śarīram. He is personal. But our present senses cannot perceive. That is the difficulty. Therefore out of His causeless mercy He has appeared in a form which you can see, you can touch, you can dress, you can offer garland, you can offer food—to accept your service. That is God's mercy. Don't think that "Because God mercifully has come before Me in a form which we can perceive, which we can see, with which we can serve," not that "He is not God." That is rascaldom. God is there. Otherwise Caitanya Mahāprabhu, as soon as He entered the Jagannātha's temple, immediately He fainted. Does it mean He made a fun? No. He saw the Supreme Personality of Godhead present there.

So it requires eyes to see God. That eyes you have to prepare. What is that eyes? Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena [Bs 5.38].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṅa Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.]

You have to apply eyes' ointment. Just like there is some medicine, eye ointment, which you apply—you can see very distinctly—similarly, that ointment is premāñjana. If you develop love for God... Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is in ecstasy, always in love. He can see. Similarly, if you develop your love for God, then you can see. Premāñjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena [Bs 5.38]. This premāñjana, this ointment of love, is bhakti. In the Bhagavad-gītā also it is said, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ [Bg 18.55].

[One can understand the Supreme Personality as He is only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of the Supreme Lord by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God.]

Tattvataḥ, not superficially—actually what He is. That you can understand through bhakti, not any other process. Kṛṣṅa does not say that you can..., bhakta..., not bhakta but jñānam. There are jñānīs. There are yogīs. No. They cannot understand bhagavān tattvataḥ. Therefore Bhagavān says,

manuṣyāṅāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścid vetti māṁ tattvataḥ [Bg 7.3]

[Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.]

"Even persons who are already siddha, perfect jñānīs, yogīs, they are also unable to see Me." If one, however, by good fortune—the yogīs, the jñānīs—come in contact with a bhakta, then, by the mercy of the bhakta, by the mercy of Kṛṣṅa, he can see. Otherwise durvibhāvya, idaṁ śarīraṁ mama. The Supreme Personality says, mama: "My. My body. I have got My body," but durvibhāvyam.

So we have to understand God as He says. Don't imagine. Don't speculate. That is useless.

panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampragamyo vāyor athāpi manaso muni-puṅgavānāṁ so 'py asti yat-prapada-sīmny avicintya tattve govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi [Bs 5.34]

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogīs who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to prāṅāyāma by drilling the respiration; or by the jñānīs who try to find out the nondifferentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.]

Avicintya or durvibhāvyam, the same thing. Even if you try to understand God or want to go to God vāyor athāpi, by your airplane at the speed of the mind, not ordinary speed... Mind's speed you can imagine. You are sitting here, and fifteen thousand miles away, New York, you can immediately see your room there. This is mind's speed. Immediately, within a second. Just imagine how much the mind is speedy. Mind is subtle. Everyone, you have got mind, I have got mind, but I cannot see your mind; you cannot see my mind. Subtle. This is a material thing. Bhūmir āpo'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano [Bg 7.4].

[Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.]

Khaṁ mano, mano. The sky, ether, we cannot see but we can perceive. When you press the sky [claps] like this, there is sound. You can understand, "Here is sky." But mind you cannot see, still subtle.

indriyāṅi parāṅy āhur indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ manasas tu paro buddhir buddhes para tu yaḥ [Bg 3.42]

[The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.]

So the soul is so subtle, you cannot see. You cannot see sky, and still finer is the mind, still finer is intelligence, and still finer, the soul. So how can you see? With your gross eyes it is not possible. Therefore they are bewildered, how the soul is being transferred from one body to another. They see the gross body. Kṛṣṅa says, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre [Bg 2.20], tathā dehāntara prāptiḥ [Bg 2.13].

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

But doctors, medical men, scientists, they cannot see that where is the soul, how the soul is transmigrating. These are all durvibhāvya, inconceivable.

Therefore we have to hear from the authorities, from Kṛṣṅa, that there is soul; there is ātmā; there is transmigration. And everything, what is spoken in the śāstra, they are fact. But we do not consult śāstra. We become scientists. We become philosophers. With gross understanding, dull understanding, poor understanding, how you can understand yourself and God? So there is no question of self-realization by your gross understanding. You have to understand by hearing. Therefore to get real knowledge is not by the eyes and senses but by the ear. Therefore Vedic knowledge is called śruti. You have to receive knowledge—śruti. Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12].

[To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.]

Why? The guru means who is fully aware of the śruti, śrotriyam, one who has perfectly listened to his guru. Śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham. And by hearing only, he has become brahma-niṣṭham, without any doubt: "Yes, there is God. Yes." We have to approach such person who has perfectly listened to his... Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg 4.2].

[This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.]

So by śruti, by hearing oral reception. Just like there is practical example: Suppose you are sleeping, and somebody is coming to do you some harm, to kill you, but another person is warning you, "Please get up! Get up! Somebody is coming to kill you, somebody." But it will act, because while other senses are practically dead, the ear is working. By hearing, you can get up. This is practical.

So at the present moment we are sleeping, sleeping in the darkness. Therefore to get knowledge we have to use our ears. Śravaṅam. Therefore to enter into the devotional service one has to use this ear, śravaṅam. Śravaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ smaraṅaṁ pāda... And śravaṅam about whom? Śravaṅam about Viṣṅu, śravaṅaṁ kīrta... Not of others. Śravaṅam. They say that "You can hear anything." No.

śravaṅaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṅoḥ smaraṅaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam [SB 7.5.23]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṅu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words)—these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṅa through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.]

This is the process. Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham [Muṅḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.12].

[To understand these things properly, one must humbly approach, with firewood in hand, a spiritual master who is learned in the Vedas and firmly devoted to the Absolute Truth.]

These are the injunction. Ādau gurvāśrayaṁ sad dharma pṛcchat sādhu-mārganu-gamanam. These are the process.

So Ṛṣabhadeva said that "I have got My body," idaṁ śarīram, when He appears to solve our problem whether God is personal or impersonal. Impersonal is there, there is no doubt, but what is that impersonal? Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagat avyakta-mūrtinā [Bg 9.4].

[By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.]

That is impersonal. No, He's mayā: "By Me." That means His energy. His energy is distributed throughout the whole creation, cosmic manifestation. But He is still there. Mayā. Unless He is there... Not that because He is spread everywhere—vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti [Bg 7.19],

[After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.]

it does not mean He is finished. That is material understanding. In the materially, if you take a piece of paper and make it a small pieces and throw it, then the original paper is no longer existing. That is material conception. But spiritual conception? Pūrṅasya pūrṅam ādāya pūrṅam evāvaśiṣyate [Īśo Invocation].

[The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.]

That is spiritual idea. If you take cent per cent God from God, still He is cent per cent. That is pūrṅasya pūrṅam ādāya pūrṅam evāvaśiṣyate. Īśāvāsyam idam. So Kṛṣṅa says that mayā, "In My another feature, vasudeva feature," mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam. Everything is God, but everything is not God. That is explained by God.

mayā tatam idam sarva jagat avyakta-mūrtinā mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni nahaṁ teṣu avasthitaḥ [Bg 9.4]

[By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.]

The Māyāvādīs, the poor fund knowledge, they say, "Why you are worshiping God here? He is everywhere." "He is everywhere? He is in the temple also." "No," they will say, "not in the temple. He is everywhere except in the temple. Don't go to the temple." This is rascaldom. If God is everywhere, why He is not in the temple? So this is their knowledge, poor fund of knowledge. Alpa-medhasā. Alpa-medhasā. Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhāḥ [Bg 9.11].

[Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.]

So God has form, but He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. He is not... When it is said, the nirākāra, "no form," that does not mean that He has no ākāra. The ākāra, or the form which we understand, He hasn't got that form. He is sac-cid-ānanda vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1].

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

Otherwise how He can accept your offerings? Kṛṣṅa says that patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, tad aham aśnāmi [Bg 9.26].

[If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.]

He says, "I eat." So if He has no mouth, how He can eat? And therefore the Vedic literature informs us that paśyati acakṣuḥ: "He sees, but He has no eyes." When the Vedic literature says that He has no eyes, that means He has no eyes like us. But He has got eyes; otherwise how He sees? Paśyati acakṣuḥ śṛṅoti akarṅaḥ. He can hear; otherwise what is the use of offering prayer? Yes, He hears, but akarṅa, not that He has got ears like you. He is in the Vaikuṅṭha, many, many millions' and trillions' miles away, but still, you are offering here, "Govindam ādi puruṣam." He is hearing. He is here. Sarvatra pāṅi pādas tat. This thing should be understood.

And because we do not understand—everything we try to test with our limited understanding—therefore we do not believe in the activities of the Lord, and we are deceived in that way. God is all-powerful, but when we hear that God at the age of seven years age, old, He lifted the Govardhana Hill, immediately we dismiss, "Oh, this is all mythology." Why? If He has got inconceivable power—He is all-powerful—is it very difficult for Him to lift the Govardhana Hill? "No, we don't believe in God. Even if we believe, we want to believe in our own way." That is bhāvyam, conceivable. But He is durvibhāvyam. You cannot conceive. Two contradict things. Just like here Kṛṣṅa said, Ṛṣabhadeva, that sattvaṁ hi me hṛdayaṁ yatra dharmaḥ. The dharma and adharma, they are two contradictory thought. But He is the source of dharma and adharma both. Janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. Adharma, which we hate, that is also coming from God. Janmādya asya yataḥ. Otherwise... That is explained here. Pṛṣṭhe. Pṛṣṭhe kṛto me yad adharma ārāt. So adharma is also there in God—on the back side. So is there any difference between back side and front side? Advaya-jñāna, absolute. No.

So these things have to be understood, that both dharma and adharma, they are coming from... He is the original soul. Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante [Taittirīya Upaniṣad 3.1].

[The Supreme Absolute Truth is that from which everything is born.]

Everything is coming from Him. So dharma and adharma, that is duality, duality understanding within this material world. In the spiritual world there is no such thing. The dharma and adharma is the same thing because the same source. This to be understood from right sources, right person. Then we can understand. But He comes, Kṛṣṅa comes, out of His causeless mercy to inform us. Not only Kṛṣṅa—many other incarnation of Kṛṣṅa. Just like Ṛṣabhadeva, He is also incarnation of Kṛṣṅa. He is explaining Himself. So we should take advantage of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, from the Absolute Truth. Don't speculate. Speculation has no meaning. So we have got this instruction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Bhagavad-gītā. So if we are serious about understanding about God, then we can hear from Him. And whatever He says, whatever He instructs, you take it. Then our life will be successful. And if we speculate, panthās tu koṭi-śata-vatsara-sampra...

ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṅa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ [Cc Madhya 17.136]

So this is the process. We must be ready to surrender to Him. We must be ready to render service unto Him. Then our spiritual life will be revived. At the present moment we are covered by the material conception of life: "I am this body," "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am brāhmaṅa," "I am kṣatriya." These are all designations, sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam [Cc Madhya 19.170].

When you become free from these all these designation—you become purified—then you can develop your love for God. Hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Prabhupāda. [end]