Isopanishad Text 5
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tad ejati tan naijati
tad dure tad v antike
tad antar asya sarvasya
tad u sarvasyasya bahyatah

tat--this Supreme Lord; ejati--walks; tat--He; na--not; ejati--walks; tat--He; dure--far away; tat--He; u--also; antike--very near; tat--He; antah--within; asya--of this; sarvasya--of all; tat--He; u--also; sarvasya--of all; asya--of this; bahyatah--external to.

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.

PURPORT

Here is an explanation of the Supreme Lord's transcendental activities as executed by His inconceivable potencies. Contradictions are given here by way of proving the inconceivable potencies of the Lord. He walks, and He does not walk. Such a contradiction serves to indicate the inconceivable power of God. With our limited fund of knowledge, we cannot make accommodations for such contradictions; we can only conceive of the Lord in terms of our limited powers of understanding. The impersonalist philosophers of the Mayavada school accept only the Lord's impersonal activities and reject His personal feature. The Bhagavata school, however, accepts the Lord as both personal and impersonal. The bhagavatas also accept His inconceivable potencies, for without them there can be no meaning to the words "Supreme Lord."

We should not take it for granted that just because we cannot see God with our eyes the Lord does not have a personal existence. Sri Isopanisad refutes this argument by warning us that the Lord is far away but very near also. The abode of the Lord is beyond the material sky, and we have no means to measure even this material sky. If the material sky extends so far, then what to speak of the spiritual sky which is altogether beyond it? That the spiritual sky is situated far, far away from the material universe is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 15.6). But despite the Lord's being so far away, He can at once, within less than a second, descend before us with a speed swifter than the mind or the wind. He can also walk so swiftly that no one can surpass Him. This has already been described in the previous verse.

Yet when the personality of Godhead comes before us, we neglect Him. Such foolish negligence is condemned by the Lord in Bhagavad-gita, wherein the Lord says that the foolish deride Him when they consider Him to be a mortal being (Bg. 9.11). He is not a mortal being, nor does He come before us with a body produced of material nature. There are many so-called scholars who contend that the Lord descends in a body made of matter, just like an ordinary living being. Not knowing His inconceivable power, such foolish men place the Lord on a level equal to that of ordinary men.

Because He is full of inconceivable potencies, God can accept our service through any sort of medium, and He can convert His different potencies according to His own will. Nonbelievers argue that the Lord cannot incarnate Himself at all, and if He does He descends in a form of material energy. This argument is nullified if we accept the inconceivable potencies of the Lord to be realities. Even if the Lord appears before us in the form of material energy, it is quite possible for Him to convert this material energy into spiritual energy. Since the source of the energies is one and the same, the energies can be utilized according to the will of their source. For example, the Lord can appear in the arca-vigraha--that is, in the form of Deities supposedly made of earth, stone or wood. These forms, although engraved from wood, stone or other matter, are not idols as the iconoclasts contend.

In our present state of imperfect material existence, we cannot see the Supreme Lord due to imperfect vision. Yet those devotees who want to see Him by means of material vision are favored by the Lord, who appears in a so-called material form to accept His devotee's service. One should not think that such devotees, who are in the lowest stage of devotional service, are worshiping an idol. They are factually worshiping the Lord, who has agreed to appear before them in an approachable way. Nor is the arca form fashioned according to the whims of the worshiper. It is eternally existent with all its paraphernalia. This can be actually felt by a sincere devotee, but not by an atheist.

In Bhagavad-gita (Bg.4.11) the Lord indicates that He relates to His devotee in terms of the devotee's surrender. He reserves the right not to expose Himself to anyone and everyone but to those souls who are surrendered unto Him. Thus for the surrendered soul He is always within reach, whereas for the unsurrendered soul He is far, far away and cannot be approached.

In this connection the words saguna (with qualities) and nirguna (without qualities), words occurring often in revealed scriptures, are very important. The word saguna does not imply that the Lord becomes subject to the laws of material nature when He appears, although He has perceivable qualities and appears in material form. For Him there is no difference between the material and spiritual energies because He is the source of all energies. As the controller of all energies, He cannot at any time be under their influence as we are. The material energy works according to His direction; therefore He can use that energy for His purpose without ever being influenced by any of the qualities of that energy. Nor does the Lord become a formless entity at any time, for ultimately He is the eternal form, the primeval Lord. His impersonal aspect, or Brahman effulgence, is but the glow of His personal rays, just as the sun's rays are the glow of the sun-god.

When the child saint Prahlada Maharaja was in the presence of his atheist father, his father asked him, "Where is your God?" When Prahlada replied that God resides everywhere, the father angrily asked whether his God was within one of the pillars of the palace, and the child said yes. The atheist immediately shattered the pillar in front of him to pieces, and the Lord instantly appeared as Nrsimha, the half-man, half-lion incarnation, and killed the atheist king. Thus the Lord is within everything, and He creates everything by His different energies. Through His inconceivable powers He can appear at any place in order to favor His sincere devotee. Lord Nrsimha appeared from within the pillar not by the order of the atheist king but by the wish of His devotee Prahlada. An atheist cannot order the Lord to appear, but the Lord will appear anywhere and everywhere to show mercy to His devotee. Bhagavad-gita similarly states (Bg. 4.8) that the Lord appears to vanquish nonbelievers and protect believers. Of course the Lord has sufficient energies and agents who can vanquish atheists, but it is pleasing for Him to personally favor a devotee. Therefore He descends as an incarnation. Actually He descends only to favor His devotees and not for any other purpose.

In Brahma-samhita it is said that Govinda, the primeval Lord, enters everything by His plenary portion. He enters the universe as well as all the atoms of the universe. He is outside of everything in His virat form, and He is within everything as antaryami. As antaryami He witnesses everything that is going on, and He awards us the results of our actions as karma-phala. We ourselves may forget what we have done in previous lives, but because the Lord witnesses our actions, the results of our actions are always there, and we have to undergo the reactions nonetheless.

The fact is that there is nothing but God within and without. Everything is manifested by His different energies, just as heat and light emanate from fire, and in this way there is a oneness amongst the diverse energies. Although there is oneness, the Lord in His personal form still enjoys all that is enjoyable to the senses of the minuscule part and parcel living entities.

(c) 1991 by Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 
---Jai Srila Prabhupada!---

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