Bhagavad Gita -Srila Prabhupada 342

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita As It Is -Shri Shrimad A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Knowledge of the Absolute Chapter 7: Verse-24 The fact is that no one can understand krsna without rendering devotional service and without developing krsna consciousness.The Bhägavatam confirms this: athäpi te deva padämbuja-dvaya- prasäda-lesänugrhita eva hi jänäti tattavm bhagavan-mahimno na cänya eko ’pi ciram vicinvan “My Lord, if one is favored by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years.” One cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, or His form, quality or name simply by mental speculation or by discussing Vedic literature. One must understand Him by devotional service. When one is fully engaged in Krsna consciousness, beginning by chanting the mahä-mantra—Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna,krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare—then only can one understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nondevotee impersonalists think that krsna has a body made of this material nature and that all His activities, His form and everything are mäyä. These impersonalists are known as Mäyävädis. They do not know the ultimate truth. The twentieth verse clearly states, kämais tais tair hrta-jnänäh prapadyante ’nya-devatäh. “Those who are blinded by lusty desires surrender unto the different demigods.” It is accepted that besides the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there are demigods who have their different planets, and the Lord also has a planet. As stated in the twenty-third verse, devän deva-yajo yänti mad-bhaktä yänti mäm api the worshipers of the demigods go to the different planets of the demigods, and those who are devotees of Lord krsna go to the Krsna loka planet. Although this is clearly stated, the foolish impersonalists still maintain that the Lord is formless and that these forms are impositions. From the study of the Gita does it appear that the demigods and their abodes are impersonal? Clearly, neither the demigods nor Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are impersonal. They are all persons; Lord krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He has His own planet, and the demigods have theirs. Therefore the monistic contention that ultimate truth is formless and that form is imposed does not hold true. It is clearly stated here that it is not imposed. From the Bhagavad-gita we can clearly understand that the forms of the demigods and the form of the Supreme Lord are simultaneously existing and that Lord krsna is sac-cid-änanda, eternal blissful knowledge. The Vedas also confirm that the Supreme Absolute Truth is änanda-mayo ’bhyäsät, or by nature full of blissful pleasure, and that He is the reservoir of unlimited auspicious qualities. And in the Gita the Lord says that although He is aja (unborn), He still appears. These are the facts that we should understand from the Bhagavad-gita. We cannot understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be impersonal; the imposition theory of the impersonalist monist is false as far as the statements of the Gita are concerned. It is clear herein that the Supreme Absolute Truth, Lord Krsna, has both form and personality.