SB 2.5.20
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 20
- sa eṣa bhagavāḻ liṅgais
- tribhir etair adhokṣajaḥ
- svalakṣita-gatir brahman
- sarveṣāṁ mama ceśvaraḥ
SYNONYMS
saḥ — He; eṣaḥ — this; bhagavān — the Personality of Godhead; liṅgaiḥ — by the symptoms; tribhiḥ — by the three; etaiḥ — by all these; adhokṣajaḥ — the Superseer Transcendence; su-alakṣita — veritably unseen; gatiḥ — movement; brahman — O Nārada; sarveṣām — of everyone; mama — mine; ca — as also; īśvaraḥ — the controller.
TRANSLATION
O Brāhmaṇa Nārada, the Superseer, the transcendent Lord, is beyond the perception of the material senses of the living entities because of the above-mentioned three modes of nature. But He is the controller of everyone, including me.
PURPORT
In the Bhagavad-gītā (7.24-25) the Lord has declared very clearly that the impersonalist, who gives more importance to the transcendental rays of the Lord as brahmajyoti and who concludes that the Absolute Truth is ultimately impersonal and only manifests a form at a time of necessity, is less intelligent than the personalist, however much the impersonalist may be engaged in studying the Vedānta. The fact is that such impersonalists are covered by the above-mentioned three modes of material nature; therefore, they are unable to approach the transcendental Personality of the Lord. The Lord is not approachable by everyone because He is curtained by His yoga-māyā potency. But one should not wrongly conclude that the Lord was formerly unmanifested and has now manifested Himself in the human form. This misconception of the formlessness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is due to the yoga-māyā curtain of the Lord and can be removed only by the Supreme Will, as soon as the conditioned soul surrenders unto Him. The devotees of the Lord who are transcendental to the above-mentioned three modes of material nature can see the all-blissful transcendental form of the Lord with their vision of love in the attitude of pure devotional service.