Isopanishad Text 8
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sa paryagac chukram akayam avranam
asnaviram suddham apapa-viddham
kavir manisi paribhuh svayambhur
yathatathyato 'rthan vyadadhac chasvatibhyah samabhyah

sah--that person; paryagat--must know in fact; sukram--the omnipotent; akayam--unembodied; avranam--without reproach; asnaviram--without veins; suddham--antiseptic; apapa-viddham--prophylactic; kavih--omniscient; manisi--philosopher; paribhuh--the greatest of all; svayambhuh--self-sufficient; yathatathyatah--just in pursuance of; arthan--desirables; vyadadhat--awards; sasvatibhyah--immemorial; samabhyah--time.

TRANSLATION

Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.

PURPORT

This description of the transcendental and eternal form of the Absolute personality of Godhead indicates that the Supreme Lord is not formless. He has His own transcendental form, which is not at all similar to the forms of the mundane world. The forms of the living entities in this world are embodied in material nature, and they work like any material machine. The anatomy of a material body must have a mechanical construction with veins and so forth, but the transcendental body of the Supreme Lord has nothing like veins. It is clearly stated here that He is unembodied, which means that there is no difference between His body and soul. Nor does He accept a body according to the law of nature, as we do. In the material conception of bodily life, the soul is different from the gross embodiment and subtle mind. However, the Supreme Lord is apart from any such compartmentalized arrangement. There is no difference between His body and mind. He is the complete whole, and His mind, body and He Himself are all one and the same.

In Brahma-samhita there is a similar description of the Supreme Lord. He is described there as sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, which means that He is the eternal form fully representing transcendental existence, knowledge and bliss. The Vedic literatures clearly state that He has a completely different kind of body; thus He is sometimes described as formless. This formlessness means that He has no form like ours and that He is devoid of a form which we can perceive. In Brahma-samhita it is further stated that the Lord can do anything and everything with any one of the parts of His body. It is said there that with each and every one of the parts of His body, He can do the work of the other senses. This means that the Lord can walk with His hands, accept things with His legs, see with His hands and feet, eat with His eyes, etc. In the sruti mantras it is also said that although the Lord has no hands and legs like us, He has a different type of hands and legs by which He can accept all that we offer Him and run faster than anyone. These points are confirmed in this eighth mantra through the use of words like sukram (omnipotent).

The Lord's worshipable form (arca-vigraha), which is installed in temples by authorized acharyas who have realized the Lord in terms of Mantra Seven, is also nondifferent from the original form of the Lord. The Lord's original form is that of Sri Krishna, and Sri Krishna expands Himself into an unlimited number of forms like Baladeva, Rama, Nrsimha, Varaha, etc. All of these forms are one and the same Personality of Godhead.

Similarly, the arca-vigraha which is worshiped in temples is also an expanded form of the Lord. By worshiping the arca-vigraha, one can at once approach the Lord, who accepts the service of a devotee by His omnipotent energy. The arca-vigraha of the Lord descends upon the request of the acharyas, the holy teachers, and works exactly in the original way of the Lord by virtue of the Lord's omnipotent energy. Foolish people who have no knowledge of Sri Isopanisad or of any of the other sruti mantras consider the arca-vigraha, which is worshiped by pure devotees, to be made of material elements. This form may be seen as material by the imperfect eyes of foolish people or kanistha-adhikaris, but such people do not know that the Lord, being omnipotent and omniscient, can transform matter into spirit and spirit into matter as He desires.

In Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 9.11-12) the Lord regrets the fallen condition of men with little knowledge who regard the body of the Lord as material just because the Lord descends like a man into this world. Such poorly informed persons do not know the omnipotence of the Lord. Thus the Lord does not manifest Himself in full to the mental speculators. He can be appreciated only in proportion to one's surrender to Him. The fallen condition of the living entities is due entirely to forgetfulness of their relationship with God.

In this mantra, as well as in many other Vedic mantras, it is clearly stated that the Lord has been supplying goods to the living entity from time immemorial. The living being desires something, and the Lord supplies the object of that desire in proportion to one's qualification. If a man wants to be a high court judge, he must not only acquire the necessary qualifications, but he must also acquire the consent of the authority who can award the title of high court judge. The qualifications in themselves are not sufficient in order for one to occupy the post. The post itself must be awarded by some superior authority. Similarly, the Lord awards enjoyment to living entities in proportion to their qualifications. In other words, they are awarded according to the law of karma. The qualifications in themselves are not sufficient to enable one to receive awards. The mercy of the Lord is also required.

Ordinarily the living being does not know what to ask from the Lord nor which post to seek. When the living being comes to know his constitutional position, however, he asks to be accepted into the transcendental association of the Lord in order to render transcendental loving service unto Him. Unfortunately, living beings under the influence of material nature ask for many other things, and their mentality is described in Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 2.41) as divided or splayed intelligence. Spiritual intelligence is one, but mundane intelligence is diverse. In Srimad-Bhagavatam it is stated that those who are captivated by the temporary beauties of the external energy forget the real aim of life, which is to go back to Godhead. Forgetting this, one tries to adjust things by various plans and programs, but this is like chewing that which has already been chewed. Nonetheless, the Lord is so kind that He allows the forgetful living entity to continue in this way without interference. If a living being wants to go to hell, the Lord allows him to do so without interference, and if he wants to go back home, back to Godhead, the Lord helps him.

God is described here as paribhuh, the greatest of all. No one is greater than or equal to Him. Other living beings are described here as beggars who ask goods from the Lord. The Lord supplies the things desired by the living entities. If the entities were equal to the Lord in potency, or if they were omnipotent or omniscient, there would be no question of their begging from the Lord, even for so-called liberation. Real liberation means going back to Godhead. Liberation as conceived by an impersonalist is a myth, and begging for sense gratification has to continue eternally unless the beggar comes to his spiritual senses and realizes his constitutional position.

Only the Supreme Lord is self-sufficient. When Lord Krishna appeared on earth 5,000 years ago, He displayed His full manifestation as the Personality of Godhead through His various activities. In His childhood He killed many powerful demons, and there was no question of His having acquired such power through any extraneous endeavor. He lifted Govardhana Hill without even practicing weight lifting. He danced with the gopis without social restriction and without reproach. Although the gopis approached Him with feelings of amorous love, the relationship between the gopis and Lord Krishna has been worshiped even by Lord Chaitanya, who was a strict sannyasi and rigid follower of disciplinary regulations. Sri Isopanisad also describes the Lord as suddham (antiseptic) and apapa-viddham (prophylactic), or pure and uncontaminated. He is antiseptic in the sense that even an impure thing can become purified just by touching Him. The word prophylactic refers to the power of His association. As mentioned in Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 9.30-31), a devotee may appear to be suduracara, not well behaved, in the beginning, but he should be accepted as pure because he is on the right path. This is due to the prophylactic nature of the Lord's association. The Lord is also apapa-viddham because sin cannot touch Him. Even if He acts in a way which appears to be sinful, such actions are all good, for there is no question of His being affected by sin. Because in all circumstances He is suddham, most purified, He is often compared to the sun. The sun exacts moisture from many untouchable places on the earth, yet it remains pure. In fact, it purifies obnoxious things by virtue of its sterilizing powers. If the sun, which is a material object, is so powerful, then we can hardly begin to imagine the purity and strength of the all-powerful Lord.

(c) 1991 by Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

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

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