Section
29
The
Lord's body is Part of His Essential Nature
In this way after explaining that the six opulences beginning with the controlling power are part of the Lord's essential nature, a new section is begun to establish the Lord's body as fully belonging to His essential nature.
The companionship of the Lord's body with His essential nature and Its eternality is proven automatically by the fact that He is the presiding Deity of Vaikuëöha which was shown earlier.
Even when the Lord appears in the material world His body is part of His essential nature. This is stated in the three verses (S.B.10.3.25-27):
After millions of years, at the time of cosmic annihilation, when everything manifest and unmanifest is annihilated by the force of time, the five gross elements enter into a subtle state. At that time the manifested categories become unmanifest and You, who is known as Ananta Çeña-Naga, alone remain.
Therefore He is called Çeña. Here the reasoning is as follows (S.B.10.3.26):
O inaugurator of the material energy, this wonderful creation works under the control of powerful time, which is divided into seconds, minutes, hours, and years. This element of time extends for many millions of years and is movement of Your body. For Your pastimes, You act as the controller of time, but You are the reservoir of all good fortune. Let me offer my full surrender unto Your Lordship.
O Friend of the unmanifest, who prompts material nature by mere proximity. Ceñöä (lit. movement) is the form of opening and closing of Your eyes.
The Vedas also confirm (Mahä Näräyaëa Upaniñad 1.8.), "All divisions of time, beginning with nimeña, are born from the self-luminous person." Sarve nimeñä refers to all the divisions of time beginning with nimeña. Vidyut means the effulgent; puruña means the Supersoul. These are the meanings of the words in Vedic statement.
Time is the efficient cause behind every creations and annihilations. But because time is manifest from the bodily movement of the Lord, creation, and annihilation cannot apply to the Lord's body. This is the sense.
Another reason in this is that the Lord is the abode of all-auspiciousness (kñema-dhäma). Tva means unto You. In this verse Çrémat Devaké has dispelled her fear of Kaàsa by the principle of how much more, kaimutya nyäya, because of the mere appearance of the all auspicious Lord which was very much desired by her.
She clearly spoke it again (S.B.10.3.27):
No one in the material world becomes free from birth, death, old age, and disease, even by fleeing to various planets, but, My Lord, now You have appeared death is fleeing in fear of You; and the living entities, having obtained shelter at Your lotus feet by Your mercy, are sleeping in full peace.
Travelling to various planets one does not find them free of fear. But by attaining the Lord's lotus feet one becomes free. Or "attaining Your lotus feet", is used in both sentences. Here, by saying "Your lotus feet," she clearly establishes such a form of the Lord. Therefore in Sahasra-näma-strotra, Lord is called amåta-vapa or one who has an immortal body. While commenting on this name, Çré Çaìkaräcärya says, "måtam means death. Since the Lord's body is free from death, He is called amåta vapu". The word ädya (primeval) shows that His body is birth-less, because only those things that have a beginning take birth. Therefore it was said (S.B.10.3.8) "The Lord appeared just as the full moon appears in the East." The Mahopaniñad also states, "The supremely blissful Lord Hari creates through Brahmä and destroys through Rudra and is free from birth and death."
PURPORT
In this and the next anuccheda Çréla Jéva Gosvämé establishes that the Lord's body is not material or acquired at a certain time for a specific purpose. His appearance in the material world is called avataraëa, which means "descent", which implies that He existed before descending. In the strict sense "incarnation" (which means to embody) is not the proper translation for "avatära" because Lord has an eternal body and it is not made of flesh. The Lord's body is not eternal like material nature, which undergoes transformations. Although His body seems to grow when He performs human-like pastimes, it does not change like the body of a mortal being.
In Section Ten it was shown that Vaikuëöha is eternal, transcendental to the modes of nature and free from the influence of time, pravartate yatra rajas-tamas-tayoù, sattvaïca miçraà na ca käla-vikramaù (S.B. 2.9.10). The Lord is the presiding person of Vaikuëöha, therefore His body must be free from the material modes and the influence of time. It was shown that everything in Vaikuëöha constitutes of Viçuddha Sattva. This naturally includes the Lord's body.
One may doubt that the Lord's body is transcendental when He is situated in the transcendental abode but when He comes to the material world He must accept a material body. After all, everything in the material world is material just as everything in the spiritual world is made of spirit. And thus it is not surprising to hear to that Lord Kåñëa took birth from Mother Devaké and grew up like any other baby. to dispel such a doubt, Çréla Jéva Gosvämé quotes three verses mother Devaké spoke to Lord Kåñëa when He appeared in His four-handed form in the prison of Kaàsa. These three verses explain that when Lord Kåñëa appears on the earth, He does so in a transcendental body. Mother Devaké says that Lord's body is beyond the influence of time. Time influences only the matter. This means that Lord's body is not material but spiritual. This further implies that He is non-different from His body both being spiritual. The phrase "His body" is used figuratively. It does not mean that He is different from His body as is the case with mortal beings whose bodies are material.
Çréla Vyäsa's trance, which was analysed in the Tattva Sandarbha, also reveals that Mäyä is away from the Lord, mäyä ca tadapäsräyam. This means that the Lord's body is completely transcendental.
Each cycle of material creation exists for the life-span of Brahmä, which is called para or dviparärdha. The ViñëuPuräëa states (1.3.5):
"The life span of Lord Brahmä is called para and is equal to one hundred years according to his own time scale. One half of this duration is called parärdha."
At the end of Brahmä's life the material universe is dissolved in reverse telescopic order. All the material elements, beginning with earth, dissolve into their immediate cause and ultimately only the unmanifest nature remains, but the Supreme Lord remains even after the total annihilation of the mundane universe and thus He is called Çeña (lit. Remainder). This means that His body is not material and time has no influence on Him.
Time exercises its influence on the modes of nature, but in fact time is not independent. This is implied in the second of the three verses by mother Devaki (S.B. 10.3.26). She said that time is the Lord's bodily movement. This indicates that time is under His control, because movement of one's bodily limbs is under our control and not vice-versa. The Lord's bodily movement refers to His glance. Nimeña means the twinkling of eye and it is also a unit of time equal to the time taken to wink--akñi-pakñama-parikñepo nimeña parikérttitataù. When the Lord wants to create, He glances at material nature. Sa ékñat (Aitareya Upaniñad 1.1) His glance marks the beginning of time, which immediately begins acting on nature. When the Lord closes His eyes that marks the time for complete annihilation. In period after annihilation and before the next creation time is inactive. Creation and destruction happen under the influence of time. The Lord's body is eternal because it is neither created nor destroyed.
Käla means time, but it also means death, because it destroys everything. Therefore everyone in the material world instinctively fears time. When Kåñëa showed Arjuna His feature of time in the universal form, He said, kalo'smi loka-kñya-kåt-pravåddhaù (B.g. 11.32) "Time I am, the destroyer of all beings." Death prevails from the highest planet to the lowest and no one can avoid it. This was taught in the history of Durväsä Muni and Ambaréña Mahäräja in the Ninth Canto of Bhägavatam. Because of Durväsä Muni's offense at the lotus feet of a great devotee, Ambaréña Mahäräja, the Lord's sudarçana cakra chased Durväsä all over the universe. Fleeing in fear, Durväsä Muni sought shelter everywhere he went, but nowhere could he find relief. He found peace only when he took shelter of the Lord through His devotee. In the Mahäbhärata, Bhiñmadeva instructed Yudhiñthira Mahäräja about the influence of time (Çänti Parva 239.25):
"Time wears away all living beings, but Time is devoured by the Supreme Lord who is the time factor for käla. Materialists do not know that person, who is the Supersoul."
Death, which causes fear in everyone, is afraid of Lord Kåñëa, yad bibheti svayam bhayam, "Fear personified fears Him." Kñema dhäma (in 10.3.26) means abode of auspiciousness. Kñema signifies protection. Because time has no influence on the Lord His opulence is always free from any danger. By using this word Devaké devé signifes her freedom of fear from her brother Kaàsa. Kaàsa is under the influence of time. If one takes shelter of Lord Kåñëa then he is free from the influence of time then naturally Devaké has no fear from Kaàsa. This is kaimutya nyäya. Çré Çaunaka says that those who engage in hearing about Lord's kathä have no fear from time then how much more (kaimutyai) is Devaké free from Kaàsa's fear who has Lord for her son. (S.B. 2.7.13) :
"The primeval Lord then assumed the tortoise incarnation in order to serve as a resting place (pivot) for the Mandara Mountain, which was acting as a churning rod. The demigods and demons were churning the ocean of milk with the Mandara Mountain in order to extract nectar. The mountain moved back and forth, scratching the back of Lord tortoise, who, while partially sleeping, was experiencing an itching sensation."
The phrase tvat pädäbja "Your lotus feet" clearly indicate Lord's body and not His impersonal feature. Devaki's prayers clearly indicate that the Lord's body is transcendental, eternal, and free from the influence of time. Time, or death, is sometimes symbolized by a snake, and Kåñëa in His Näräyaëa form rests on a snake-bed. This signifies that He is beyond the influence of both features of käla, decay and death.
While commenting on the name amåtavapuh, one of the thousand names of Lord Viñëu, Saìkaräcarya also accepts that the Lord's body is deathless (Sahasranäma bhäsya 100).
An objection may be raised here: Anyone who takes birth must die. This natural law Kåñëa asserts in Bhagavad-gétä (2.27), jätasya hi dhurvo måtyurdhurvaà jamma måtasya ca - "One who has taken birth is sure to die, and after death, birth is certain." Since Kåñëa took birth, how can He be spared from death? The answer is found in Çrémad Bhägavatam. (10.3.8) wherein it is explained that the Lord appears as the full moon appears in the east. Though always in the sky, the moon is visible only to certain people at certain times. Similarly, Lord Kåñëa is eternally present, but He is visible only during the Dvapara-yuga of the twenty-eighth cycle of the seventh Manu. The Lord is unborn yet He performs the pastime of birth. He says in the Bhagavad gétä (4.6):
"Although I am never born and My body never deteriorates, I, the Lord of all living beings, appear by My internal potency by My own nature."
His birth is not like that of an ordinary living entity, who is ruled by the laws of karma. He is the içvara of all living beings. A living entity's birth is under the control of païcabhutas but Lord is their master. In counterpoint one may offer that the living entity does not take birth either. His accepting a body is designated as birth but there is in fact no birth for the soul. Therefore what is so special about Kåñëa's birth? To this the Lord says avayayätma, his body is transcendental and never perishes, thus He never changes bodies. Moreover, He takes birth by ätmamäyä, His own energy, not by the help of the material energy. Even when he appears to take birth He remains in His original svarüpa and does not accept a material body. Hence there is a considerable difference between the Lord's birth and that of the living entity. Therefore He calls His birth as divya or transcendental, janma karma ca me divyam (BG.4.9) : His birth is His lélä or pastime which He performs like other human beings for the pleasure of His devotees like Devaké.