Section 9

          In regard to the manifestation of Bhagavän,  Lord Brahmä also said (S.B.3.9.11):

          O my Lord, Your devotees can see You through the ears by the process of bonafide hearing, and thus their hearts become cleansed, and You take Your seat there. You are so merciful to Your devotees that You manifest Yourself in the particular eternal form of transcendence in which they always think of You. 

PURPORT

          This verse is from Lord Brahmä's prayers to Lord Viñëu for creative energy.  Here bhakti is described as the cause of the manifestation of Bhagavän to His devotees.  Sädhana bhakti begins with the devotee hearing about the Lord. This hearing cleanses his heart of material desires.  When the heart is clean, sädhana-bhakti matures into bhäva-bhakti, which gradually solidifies into prema-bhakti.  By the power of prema-bhakti the Lord manifests to each devotee in the form the devotee desires.  In Brahmä Saàhita Lord Brahmä prays, 

"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Çyämasundara, Kåñëa 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."

          Bhagavän is completely independent (svaräö), but by His own sweet will He is controlled by loving devotional service.  The Lord reveals this secret to Durväsa Muni (9.4.66): 

"As chaste women bring their gentle husbands under control by service, pure devotees, who are equal to everyone and completely attached to Me in the core of the heart, bring Me under their full control."

          Lord Kåñëa makes this categorical statement to Uddhava to remove the notion that any other process might please Him (S.B.11.14.21):

"Only by practicing unalloyed devotional service with full faith can one obtain Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  I am naturally dear to My devotees, who take Me as the only goal of their loving service.  By engaging in such devotional service, even the dog-eaters can purify themselves from the contamination of their low birth."

          The Lord appears in that form which is the most attractive object of His devotees meditation.  This does not mean, however, that the Lord is obliged to appear in any form the devotee imagines.  The devotee meditates on the form described in the scriptures and which he has heard about from realized souls.  That is the significance's of the phrase srutekñita-pathah.

          In the previous verse (S.B.3.9.10) Brahmä said, "åñayo' pi deva yuñmatprsan gavimukhä iha saàsaranti,  "Even great sages following other paths continue to wander in the cycle of birth and death if they are averse to hearing about You."  The hearts of the devotees become pure, however, simply by hearing (çrutekñitapathah), and they easily overcome the cycle of birth and death.  Not only do they become liberated, but they control the Lord, who sits in their pure heart.  Paribhävita means the heart of devotee is completely laden with loving feelings.

          In the next Anuccheda Çréla Jéva Gosvämé cites the example of the Lord appearing to Brahmä after he engaged in loving devotional service.