Section 39
The Lord is Inconceivable in all Respects 

Lord Kåñëa continues to question Brahmä: Moreover because these forms personfiy eternality, knowledge and unlimited pure bliss, all of them exist simultaneously. But you do not see them, all the time, therefore how do they exist simultaneously? Brahmä replies (S.B.10.14.21):

          O Supreme great one! O Supreme Personality of Godhead! O Supersoul, O master of all mystic power! Your pastimes are taking place continuously in these three worlds, but who can estimate where, how, how much, and when You are employing Your spiritual energy and performing these innumerable pastimes? No one can understand the mystery of how Your spiritual energy acts.

 

          (Brahmä is saying) "Who in the three worlds can understand Your pastime where, how, how much and when. You accordingly manifest Your inconceivable internal potency yogamäyä, and enjoy?  The meaning is that nobody knows. The same idea is conveyed in the Kenopaniñad (2.3 ), "One who claims not to know Brahman, knows; but one who claims to know Brahman, does not know."

          Keeping the difficulty inh comprehending the Lord upfront, through four addresses, Brahmä states four solutions to the four questions posed. O Bhuman! or one who comprises unlimited forms in His own form! The sense is that one primary form of the Lord, simultaneously has unlimited forms in it.

 

PURPORT

          In this anuccheda Çréla Jéva Gosvämé explains that it is very difficult to understand the Lord's form including its all pervasive feature. The pastimes which He performs with His form are a manifestation of His Yogamäyä and supersede logic and experience.  The Lord is independent (svarät) and potent, therefore, He is free to use His energy, and His activities are unpredictable.  (Sometimes His pastime seems to follow the laws of material nature as if governed by them and sometimes they appear outside the influence of material nature. In both cases they are transcendental. Although He appears in various forms, such as a fish or boar, He is not limited by them.  He has form and yet His form is all-pervading.  He showed Lord Brahmä that all forms are contained within His form, and ultimately this is only a fraction of His opulence. 

          Upon hearing verse 10.14.20, Kåñëa raised a doubt.  The Lord asked, "Brahmä, you say My forms are eternal and full of bliss, so why are they not always visible?  Furthermore, how can all these forms exist simultaneously in one form?  Material objects come into existence and vanish, so how can you compare My transcendental body to them?"  Lord Brahmä spoke 11.14.21 in response.

          Çrédhara Swämé comments, "Kåñëa posed a question, 'Brahmä, you say I am supremely powerful and independent, then why do I accept abominable forms like a fish and boar?'  Lord Brahmä answered with this verse."

          Brahmä says that no one can understand the Lord's mind.  He poses four rhetorical questions in this verse and the answer to each is that no one can know the Lord.  Çréla Jéva Gosvämé comments that the four reasons why no one can know the Lord are concealed in the four ways the Lord is addressed.  The four questions are: kva where?; katham how?; kadä when?; and kati how many or how much?  The four names Brahmä used to address the Lord are:  Bhüman, which means all-pervading, or one who contains unlimited forms within Himself;  Bhagavän, which means the Lord who is replete with inconceivable opulences;  Parätman, which means one who has unlimited qualities and performs unlimited acts; and Yogeçvara, which means the Lord of mystic power and one who is not limited by time.

            The first question is answered by the first address, and so on.  No one can understand where (kva) the Lord will manifest a particular pastime because He is all-pervading (Bhüman) and can manifest any form anywhere.  No one knows how (katham) the Lord will perform His lilä because He has all opulences (bhagavan).  He can lift Govardhan Hill on His little finger.  To lift a hill one has to get underneath it and uproot it like a mushroom, keeping it intact.  Even if even if one can achieve it how will he be able to sustain it on one point?  No civil engineer can conceive how to do it because such a heavy weight cannot be concentrated on a single pillar, what to speak of the tip of the finger.  Yet the Lord did this and the mountain did not collapse.              No one knows how many (kati) activities the Lord can perform because He has unlimited qualities and performs unlimited works simultaneously (parätman). Even Lord Ananta cannot keep count with His thousand heads.  And no one knows when (kadä) the Lord will perform a particular act, because He is not limited by time (Yogeçvara).  The Lord told Arjuna that he could see whatever he wished within the viçva rüpa.  He said that all the soldiers on the battlefield are already killed by Him and indeed Arjuna saw this and yet He asked Arjuna to fight. The viçva rüpa which Arjuna saw was not magical but real.

          Lord Brahmä concludes by stating that it is most difficult to understand how and when Lord Kåñëa acts.  Anyone who claims that he knows exactly how the Lord will function is grossly ignorant.  One who understands that the Lord has unlimited, inconceivable potencies never makes such vain claims, for he has understood the Absolute.  This is the significance of the mantra cited from Kenopaniñad (2.3).  Çré Çaìkaräcärya while commenting upon this writes, "A knower of the Absolute says that He does not know the absolute. But one who asserts that he has understood the Absolute does not know." This does not mean that we should not try to understand the Lord, or that it is impossible to know Him.  We should endeavor to know Him, but must accept that we can never know Him fully. A bird flies in the sky accordiing to its capacity and need but it can never fathom the lenght and breadth of the sky. He can be understood only as much as He reveals Himself to His devotees, thus only a humble and surrendered soul can know the Lord.  Those who are proud remain shackled by Mäyä--Munòakopaniñad (1.2.8): 

          "Those foolish people who are actually drowning in ignorance but consider themselves intelligent and scholarly, get battered by the kicks of Mäyä.  They wander in this material world just like the blind following the blind.

          Quite often it is seen that foolish people out of haughtiness consider themselves omniscinet. But  those who actually know the Lord consider themselves very insignificant. Çréla Jéva Gosvämé continues to expound on Brahmä's verse in the next Text.