Section
53
Kåñëa's Body is transcendental and Most Beautiful.
If Rsabhadeva's body has such characteristics, what more can be said about the body of the original Personality of Godhead? Regarding this, Bhéñmadeva prayed to the Lord (S.B.1.9.41):
"At the Räjasüya sacrifice performed by Mahäräja Yudhiñöhira, there was a crowded assembly of great sages and powerful kings. Lord Kåñëa, the who is the cynosure of everyone's eyes, was honored by all of them by giving prime worship. Now that same Lord has again appeared before my eyes."
Çrédhara Swämé comments, "'This most beloved object of everyone in the universe is manifesting before my eyes. How fortunate I am!' This is Bhéñma's feeling." This is the end of his comment.
PURPORT
In this anuccheda Çréla Jéva Gosvämé establishes that Lord Kåñëa's body is transcendental by using the "how much more" logic. Lord Kåñëa is the original Lord and He has three types of expansions. Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé describes them in the following verse (Laghu Bhägavatämåtam 1.11):
"In the transcendental abodes, Lord Kåñëa exists in three expansions called svayaà rüpa, tadekätma rüpa, and äveça."
His prakäça manifestations in Våndävana and Dvärakä are in the category of svayaà rüpa expansions. His tadekätma rüpa expansions include his viläsa forms such as Lord Närayaëa, and sväàça manifestations such as Lord Matsya. There is no difference between Lord Kåñëa and His prakäsa manifestations. His viläsa manifestations are almost equal to Him in opulence, but His sväàça avatära expansions have less manifest power than His viläsa forms. His äveça rupas are not Viñëu tattvas; they are empowered jévas. They are not on the same level as svayaà bhagavän or tadekätma rüpa. If an äveça avatära's body is completely transcendental as discussed in the previous Text regarding Lord Åñabhadeva, and if a jéva like Närada Muni, who is a saktyäveçävatära, has a transcendental body, then the body of the original Personality of Godhead, Lord Çré Kåñëa is much more transcendental.
Närada describes his spiritual body to Çréla Vyäsa in the first canto (S.B. 1.6.28):
"Having been awarded a transcendental body befitting an associate of the Personality of Godhead, I quit the body made of five material elements, and thus all acquired fruitive results of karma stopped."
To corroborate his conclusion about Lord Kåñëa's body, Çréla Jéva Gosvämé next cites a verse Bhéñmadeva spoke while lying on the bed of arrows. He is recollecting the räjasüya sacrifice of Yudhiñöhira Mahäräja, which was attended by sages, scholars, great thinkers, brähmaëas, and kings from all over the world. On such occasions it is the Vedic custom to honor guests so the question arose as to who in the assembly was most qualified to receive the first worship. This is a great honor to bestow on someone and care must be exercised to make sure the first worship is offered to the most qualified person, otherwise persons more deserving will be insulted.
Although there were many great personages in the assembly of Yudhiñöhira Mahäräja, But for Çiçupäla, Lord Kåñëa was unanimously chosen to receive the agrapüjä, or first worship. One must consider the qualifications of the
candidate based on such factors as caste, birth, strength, knowledge, and so on. In this verse munigaëa hosts of thinkers and nåpavaryya the mightykings imply men of brain and brawn respectively. Kåñëa surpassed them all in both respects. Indeed everyone marveled at His beauty. Thus He is called Ékñaëéya, or the most pleasing object for the eyes. The whole assembly consented to first honor Kåñëa, except for Çiçupäla, who protested and lost his life.
This verse specifically refers to Lord Kåñëa's body because Bhéñmadeva says that this same form has appeared before him. In Krama Sandarbha Çréla Jéva Gosvämé says that Bhéñma describes that the Lord's body is most attractive, most worshipable, and most rare to see. Everyone marveled at His beauty. This beauty was not material otherwise the renounced sages who are of discriminative nature would not be attracted to him. The word muni or thinker implies that they know that material body is not really beautiful. The import is that Lord Kåñëa's body is transcendental and not saupädhika, or material. Great sages, well versed in Vedic literature would not respect and worship Him just for being a king.
Another important point made in this word is that Lord has become manifest äviù. He exists everywhere but he has now manifested to give pleasure to His devotee, Bhéñma. This is the characteristics of His transcendental body that He can manifest it to someone at His will and remain concealed to others simultaneously. The learned and experienced Bhéñma will not exult at his fate if it were not so.