Section
Thirty-one
The
Lord's Body is All-Pervading (Vibhu)
Çré Çuka states the all-pervading aspect of the Lord in (S.B. 10.9.13,14):
The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no beginning or end, no exterior or interior, no front or rear. He existed before the universe and will exist after its annihilation. He is within the universe as wellas without. Indeed He is also the universe. That unmanifest person, who is beyond sense perception, has appeared as a human child, and mother Yaçodä, considering Him her own ordinary child, bound Him to a mortar with a rope.
Çrédhara Swämé comments: Tying an object requires completely encircling it with a rope. This can be done only with objects that have a beginning and end by running a rope around them. It is not possible in case of Kåñëa because Çuka says that the the Lord is na cantariti, "one who has no inside or outside..." Moreover only an object which extends over the whole (vyäpaka) of another object (vyäpaka) can bind it. In case of Kåñëa it is just the opposite. Thus is said pürväparam, "which has no beginning or end". Çuka furthermore, says, there is nothing which exists without Him thus He cannot be bound. Therefore Çuka said jagat ca yaù, who is also the universe? He who appears human, but is beyond the reach of the senses, was tied by Yaçodä thinking Him to be her son. This is the end of his comment.
The statement jagat ca yaù "one who is also the universe" means that Kåñëa is the cause of the universe. Without Him the effect, the universe, will not exist. The universe is non-different from Him being His energy. How is it possible to bind Him with a rope, which is nothing more than a portion of a portion of His energy? A ray of light can never burn the source fire.
The import of Çrédhara Swämé's commentary on tammarttya-liìgam "Him who appeared human" is as follows: If one raises a doubt, how could she bind Him who is all-pervading? Can one even bind the universal shell? In answer Çuka said that He has a human form marttyaliìgam. One may then ask, how is He all-pervading?
The answer is adhokñajam, the senses lack the ability to perceive Him. He is imperceptible by any sense perception. The meaning is that His form cannot be known by such means as direct perception. Therefore, despite His human form, He is all-pervasive. This is the sense.
By knowing His quality of adhokñaja, or being imperceptible to senses, his avyakta or unmanifest nature is automatically explained. Therefore It is not seperated referred by Çrédhar Swämé in his comments.
But how is it that His all-pervading aspect which He possessed in His human form was not perceived by His mother? Çuka answered ätmajam maträ"thinking Him to be her son." The nature of the loving mellow which go by names such as vatsala is that by its rich blissful quality it covers the knowledge faculty so that His features such as all pervading cannot be perceived. Yaçodä's inability to detect Kåñëa's majestic opulence is indeed glorious because it was an anubhäva of her loving mellow towards Kåñëa, th every love which bound Him by the ropes. Owing to this Çré Çuka glorified her love (10.9.20):
Neither Brahmä, nor Çiva, nor even the goddess of fortune, who is always the better half of the Supreme Lord, can obtain from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the deliverer from this material world, such mercy as that received by mother Yaçodä.
The terms präkåtam yathä, like a mortal, and adhokñajam, sense perception, defeat the theory that actually He is all pervading but by the agency of Mäyä or illusion, He appears as a human being. Sometimes in the realm of material logic a paradox occurs that appears to defy the laws of nature. Only such instances are accepted as play of Mäyä. But to accept those phenomenon which are beyond logic as products of Mäyä is gross foolishness jsut as it is foolish to consider the bädava fires's brilliance within the ocean as illusion or aindrajälika. The Vedas also declare, "The demigods emanated from Him but who knows about His origin?"
Moreover Çuka intends to say that the very body which was bound is all pervasive. Because the pronouns "which" and "that" refer to a common subject. And also because he establishes Mother Yaçodä's ignorance about His all-pervading aspect in the same body. Moreover only a limited object can have a form because a form is made up of arrangement of limbs such as hands and legs. Therefore certainly both features of being limited and all-pervasive exist in Him simultaneously. It was established as a fundamental principle that the Personality of Godhead is the seat of hundreds of mutually conflicting potencies. Indeed this is experienced even in the material world in the realm of Äyurvedic herbs, which have the potency to quell opposing doñas (three basic causes for all diseases) simultaneously.
Brahma Saàhitä states the all pervasiveness in the same manner (5.34):
I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the tip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogis who aspire after the transcendental and betake themselves to präëäyäma, by drilling the respiration; or by the jïänis who try to find out the non-differentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.
Çruti, cited by Çré Madhväcärya, also states, "Lord Hari is neither gross, nor atomic; medium in size, but not medium in size; pervasive, but not pervasive. He is the beginning, but has no beginning; He is the universe, but beyond the universe; He has qualities, but has no qualities." Similarly Nåsiàha-täpané (6.1) also states, "Unto Him who is the fourth state of existence but not the fourth state of existence, the soul but not the soul, ferocious but not ferocious, heroic but not heroic, great but not great, all-pervading but not all-pervading, brilliant but not brilliant, whose mouth is everywhere but not everywhere."
The Brahma Puräëa also states, "The Lord is neither gross nor atomic. He is the universe and yet not the universe. He is called Puruñottama because He possesses the opulence of opposing characteristics." Similarly, the Viñëu Dharma Puräëa states, "Unto Him who has multifarious forms beginning from the atom down to the one thousandth part of the atom, yet He holds thousands of universes in one ten thousandth part of His belly."
And therefore the Gitopaniñad also states (9.4,5), "By Me, in My unmainfested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold my mystic opulence!
Here Lord says by avyakta-mürti, or unmanifest form, that is because he has the form as described in the verse. It means that Lord is situated in a form which is beyond the reach of anyone's intelligence.
PURPORT
In the last two Texts Çréla Jéva Gosvämé showed that the Lord's body (çré vigraha) is part of His essential nature. It is eternal and non-different from Him. Now he begins showing that body is not limited by a particular time or place. This is one of the Lord's inconceivable attributes. Our unfailing experience is that a person's body exists in a particular three dimensional space at a particular point in time. It is limited by space and therefore cannot exist in two places simultaneously, nor can it pervade everything. For this reason, certain philosophers attempt to establish the impersonal, all-pervading Brahman as the ultimate Absolute Truth because the Absolute must exist everywhere at all times being the non dual Reality. They fail to grasp this inconceivable feature of the Lord's body and are thus forced to regard it as material based on their material experience. The Absolute Truth, however, is never subject to one's mundane sensory experience. This was proven earlier--that the Absolute Truth is inconceivable and our familiar mundane experiences, scientific laws and logical extrapolations are incapable to fully define the transcendental realm.
Any proposition that runs contrary to this premise is a speculative theory. It must be woven in one's brain and is bound to collapse no matter how well spun. If a seeker simply admits his limitations in this regard and humbly hears about the Absolute Truth in the parampara system of authority he saves himself so much useless effort.
Because this concept of a person existing beyond time and space is a very difficult one to grasp on account of our deep-seated materila conditioning, Çréla Jéva Gosvämé spends considerable time explaining it from various angles. This Text is just his introduction to this topic which continues up 41st Text.
Çréla Jéva Gosvämé uses the word vibhutvam for all pervading. Literally vibhutvam means greatness or prowess but in philosophy it means sarva-gatatvam or to exist everywhere. The author wants to show that Lord exist everywhere in His personal form and not through His energy. He also gives a practical example of this.
In the ninth chapter, tenth canto of Çrémad Bhägavatam, Çré Çuka explains that one day mother Yaçodä was churning yogurt to make butter, the favorite food of baby Kåñëa. As she worked she recalled and recited the sweet pastimes of her son and in this way her mind, body, and speech were engaged in serving Him. Seeing her thus engaged, Lord Kåñëa approached with the desire to drink her breast milk. As she nursed Him, the milk which was kept on the stove for boiling began over flow. Mother Yaçodä stopped feeding Kåñëa and ran to save the milk. Kåñëa thought that His mother had more regard for the milk than for Himself. In anger He broke the clay yogurt pot, went to another room and started eating butter from the previous day. When Yaçodä returned, she saw the broken pot and understood thiis to be a mischief of Kåñëa. She went searching for Him and found that Kåñëa had climbed up a mortar to reach a butter pot hanging from the rafter and was distributing the contents to the monkeys. She decided to chastise him and thus got a stick. Seeing this, Kåñëa became fearful and ran away. Mother Yaçodä chased Him and caught Him with great difficulty. She caught hold of His hand and began chastising Him. Lord Kåñëa sobbed piteously, and rubbed His eyes with His hands. Seeing that Kåñëa was full of fear, she threw away the stick and decided to tie Him down so that He wil not do any more mischief.
This description explains what led up to the two verses cited in this Text. The first verse explains why mother Yaçodä was unable to bind Kåñëa and the second explains how she succeeded.
Tying an object requires completely encircling it with a rope. The object must be contained within the rope and the rope should be outside of it. Çukadeva Gosvämé says however, that Lord Kåñëa has no inside or outside. This means that nothing exists outside of Him--na cäntarna bahiryasya. His body is the personification of compact bliss and has no flesh and bones inside, nor skin outside. This is evident from the statement of Rukmiëé Devi to Kåñëa (S.B. 10.60.45):
"A woman who fails to relish the fragrance of the honey of Your lotus feet becomes totally befooled, and thus she accepts as her husband or lover a living corpse covered with skin, whiskers, nails, head-hair and body-hair and filled with flesh, bones, blood, parasites, feces, mucus, bile and air."
This description cannot apply to any ordinary material body. The Lord's transcendental form is purely spiritual. His form although appearing localized is simultaneously all-pervading like the sky. As such it has no divisions beginning point or ending point--na pürvaà näpi cäparam. This means that His body is not limited by space.
Next he says that the Lord's form is purva-aparam--it existed before the creation and will exist after annihilation. This implies that it is not limited by time. There was never a time when He did not exist nor will there ever be a time when He will cease to exist. He related this to Brahmä (S.B. 2.9.33):
"Brahma, it is I, the Personality of Godhead, who was existing before the creation, when there was nothing but Myself. Nor was there the material nature, the cause of this creation. That which you see now is also I, the Personality of Godhead, and after annihilation what remains will also be I, the Personality of Godhead."
Here "I" refers to His personal form and not to the impersonal feature, which, being devoid of attributes, is formless.
The verse goes on to say that He is the universe jagacca yaù and thus is not limited by any object. How can a rope which is an insignificant part of the universe can bind the Lord who is the source of millions of such universes. He is not only within the universe but also outside it. Anything not limited by time, space, or other objects is all-pervading and is not pervaded by anything else. In other word, the Lord's form is unlimited; therefore it cannot be bound.
Obviously the question arises, "Then how was He bound?" He was certainly bound even though He has all the above attributes. He is called Damodara or one who was bound around the waist. This is confirmed in Harivaàça Puräëa (Viñëu Parva 7.14) damnä caivodare baddhavä pratyabandhadulükhale, "She (Yaçodä) tied ropes around His belly (udara) and then tied the rope to a mortar." How can an insignificant rope bind a person who is the source of unlimited universes? The Bhägavatam verse explains that Lord Kåñëa is marttya-lingam, He appeared as a human child. Otherwise mother Yaçodä would not have considered binding Him. She did not realize that her son is all-pervading, and this is because He is adhokñaja--beyond sense perception. Ordinary persons cannot perceive the transcendental Lord.
Here a doubt may be raised: Mother Yaçodä is not an ordinary person. The Lord has accepted her as His mother owing to her love for Him, then why doesn't she realize that Kåñëa cannot be bound? The verse says tam matvätmajam, because out of love she regards the Lord as her child. Therefore He also reciprocates accordingly and generally conceals His supra-human opulence. In Bhagavad-gétä (4.11) He says, ye yathä mäà prapadyante täàstathaiva bhajämyaham. "As my devotees surrender to Me I reciprocate with them accordingly." When the Lord exhibits His sweet human-like pastimes, He conceals His divine opulence (aisvarya) and thus the devotee does not recognize Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The extraordinary characteristic of pure love which is found in Vraja residents is that it covers aiçvarya. Lord Caitanya explained this to Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé (C.C. Madhya 19.172 Quote kevalära çuddhaprema..) The deeper the love, the thicker the covering. For instance, even in the material world, blinded by parental love a mother and father still consider that their son needs their care even though he may be the prime minister and have millions dependent on him. In the material world, however, it is not possible for the grown-up son to remain a young boy and nourish the vätsya feelings of his parents. The Lord, on the other hand, being omnipotent, performs this feat by His inconceivable power called yogamäyä. He is able to satisfy His devotee perfectly. This is the import of Bhagavad-gétä verse (4.11) ye yathä mäm.
This ignorance of the Lord's opulence is not a defect in the devotee, it is his glory. The more love one has for the Lord, the more ignorant one is of His opulence. Aiçvarya takes lower position to Mädhurya. That ignorance, which is a curse in the material world, is a glorious attribute on the transcendental plane. This secret is known only to rare souls like Çukadeva and thus he glorifies mother Yaçodä. After narrating this pastime, he did not glorify Kåñëa for His opulence of being unlimited and limited simultaneously, rather, in a rapturous mood, he yearned for the mercy Lord Kåñëa gave Yaçodä, which is not attained by Brahmä, Çiva, or even Lakñmédevi. (S.B.10.9.2) Acutally such a devotee is not in ignorance but out of love he pays very little attention to Lord' s aiçvarya. He has no personal needs to satisfy from Hi sopulence. His only desire is to serve Him. so aiçvarya is not very important for him. Even when Lord reveals His aiçvarya devotee thinks it is a blessing of some demigod on Him.
Brahmä is born from the lotus navel of the Lord without the assistance of Lakñmé. One of the strongest desires of a man is to have a son putraiñëä, who one considers like one's very soul (ätmä vä jäyate putra). The father feels especially pleased with the son who is well-behaved and qualified. Brahmä is certainly such a son as he performed austerities for one thousand celestial years and pleased the Lord to the extent that He shook hands with him priyaù priyaà prétamanäù kare spåçan (S.B.2.9.18).
Brahmä is considered the ädiguru, as Çré Çuka says--sa ädidevo jagatäà paro guruù. "He (Brahmä) is the original preceptor of the universe"(S.B. 2.9.5). But even Brahmä did not get the mercy the Lord awarded to mother Yaçodä. Thus in the fourtheenth chapter of the Tenth Canto, Brahma prayed to take birth as an insignificant creeper in the land of Vraja so he could be bathed in the dust of the lotus feet of its residents, who have Lord Munkunda as their life and soul.
Similarly, Lord Çiva is the ideal devotee, vaiñëvänäà yathä çambhuù (S.B.12.13.16), yet he could not engage in loving sports with Lord Kåñëa. The Goddess of fortune, Lakñmé, always resides on the chest of Lord Viñëu and is therefore called anapäyiné, one who is never separated from the Lord. Though she has such personal association, she still cannot relish the Lord's enchanting sports in His Vraja lila. Näyaà çriyo'ìga a nitantarateù prasädaù (S.B.10.47.60). She performed austerities to enter into Vraja lélä but was not rewarded favorably. Yadväïchayä çré-lalanä'carat-tapo vihäya kämän suciraà dhåtavrata (S.B.10.16.36).
Therefore we should understand the exalted position of mother Yaçodä by whose love the all-pervading Supreme Lord was bound. Some impersonalists say that these verses mean that the Absolute Truth, the all-pervading Brahman, accepts a human form by the influence of mäyä. This is not a sound proposal as it defies the scriptures and logic. These two verses state that He who has no inside or outside (näntarbahi), and that He who was bound are the same person. The pronouns "that" "which" and "he" always have the same subject according to the rule yat-tadornitya samba-nadha, "'That'"which" and 'he' have an eternal relation because they have a common subject." Therefore, Kåñëa, who is all-pervading, is the same person who was bound by mother Yaçodä. Were it otherwise, what would be the need for the first of these two verses? Nothing special would be conveyed, on the contrary it would create confusion in the reader. A body is limited because it is an arrangement of limbs which are limited. Therefore it proves that Lord has the qualities of all pervading in His body.
One should not think that Kåñëa's being bound was an illusion or a magical feat. Were it so, Çré Çuka would have no reason to glorify mother Yaçodä and establish her superiority to Lord Çiva and Lord Brahmä, who can show plenty of magical feats. If the Lord was devoid of inconceivable potencies, then it could be taken as magic. In Sections Twelve to Fifteen, however, it was established that the Lord has natural inconceivable potencies, some of which are opposing, ätmeçvaro'taskya-sahasra-çaktih (3.33.3). To subject these inconceivable potencies to the parameters of mundane logic is gross stupidity. They should be accepted on the authority of the çabda pramäëa.
Even the mundane world exhibits inconceivable occurrences. According to Äyurveda diseases are caused by imbalance in the tridoñas--mucus, bile, and air-- in the body. Astäëga Hådaya, a famous book on Äyurveda states, sarveñämeva rogäëäà nidänaà kupitä maläù." The root cause of all diseases is the disturbance in the impurities (mucous, bile and air)."
These three doñas have characteristics that are opposite to each other. For example mucus is sweet, and fatty; bile sour, and bitter; and air dry. This means sweet things increase mucus while bitter and sour things increase bile, and so on. When there is an imbalance of a certain doña, it creates disease in the body. Äyurveda recommends medicinal herbs which balance the disturbance in the doñas. The point to note however, is that herbs which reduce mucus, increase bile and vice versa, because mucus is cold and bile is fiery. Sometimes it happens that a person has all three doñas disturbed and is administered herbs which will control all three. From logical point of view it is impossible that a single herb could possess properties that contradict each other. But Äyurveda recommends herbs like Haritaké which has the power to quell all three doñas simultaneously. While this is inconceivable and contrary to logic, it must be accepted on the authority of the çabda-pramäëa, and experience shows that it works.
Çréla Jéva Gosvämé that only in those activities which are within the range of logic if one sees something impossible one should accept it as an illusion. Just as a magicina may produce hundred dollar bills. It seems impossible act and contrary to logic. If he was actually able to do it he will nor run a magic show to earn his living. Moreover he would be caught by th epolice because only state Government has the authority to produce bills. In such a case we have to accept that his act is only a sleight of the hand. But those phenomenon which is inconceivable to common logic one should not accept that as mere illusion. For instance, the general principle as that objects expand with increase in temperature and contract when cooled. But water shows an amamolous behaviour when cooled below 4'C. Instead of contractin it expands and this continues till 0'C. This is an act beyond normal logic and to consider this as an illusion will be foolishness. Similarly within the ocean there is submarine fire called Bädava. It is not illusory because it is described in the scriptures. Its story is described in the 179th chapter of Caitraratha Parva of Mahäbhärata. This fire arose out of the anger of Sage Aurva who wanted to destroy the Kñatriya kings. His forefathers came and intervened. On their request he threw his anger into the ocean which became known as Bädva or Aurva fire. Since the story is real the fire should not be considered as illusory although it is contrary to logic.
Since it is possible for a material object to have inconcievable and opposing characteristics certainly the Lord, who is the source of the whole material creation, can have such inconceivable potencies. Thus there is no need to consider His body material and His pastime of being bound illusory. Çréla Jéva Gosvämé concludes therefore, that the very same body that was bound with ropes is all-pervading. In this pastime Lord Kåñëa displayed how His body can inconceivably yet simultaneously be limited and all-pervading. Acceptance of this inconceivable nature of the Supreme Person is the fundamental and essential premise required for understanding the Supreme Lord's Personality.
In the following texts Çréla Jéva Gosvämé gives the authority of Lord Brahmä to further explain the all pervading feature of Lord's body.