SB 3.9.36

SB 3.9.36

Devanagari

ज्ञातोऽहं भवता त्वद्य दुर्विज्ञेयोऽपि देहिनाम् । यन्मां त्वं मन्यसेऽयुक्तं भूतेन्द्रियगुणात्मभि: ॥ ३६ ॥

Verse text

jṣāto ’haṁ bhavatā tv adya durvijṣeyo ’pi dehinām yan māṁ tvaṁ manyase ’yuktaṁ bhūtendriya-guṇātmabhiḥ

Synonyms

jṣātaḥ known ; aham Myself ; bhavatā by you ; tu but ; adya today ; duḥ difficult ; vijṣeyaḥ to be known ; api in spite of ; dehinām for the conditioned soul ; yat because ; mām Me ; tvam you ; manyase understand ; ayuktam without being made of ; bhūta material elements ; indriya material senses ; guṇa material modes ; ātmabhiḥ and false ego like the conditioned soul .

Translation

Although I am not easily knowable by the conditioned soul, you have known Me today because you know that My personality is not constituted of anything material, and specifically not of the five gross and three subtle elements.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Though I cannot be understood by material beings, you have known me today, because you understand that my form is not made of material elements, material senses, or material guṇas, nor is it a jīva. Since, you see that I, though possessing a form, do not have a form made of material elements like earth, nor senses in the mode of passion, nor of any material guṇas, nor that I am just a jīva, since you understand that I am directly the Supreme Brahman, you know me today. Here the Lord says that understanding his body to be eternity knowledge and bliss is knowledge, and thinking his body is material is ignorance.

Purport

Knowledge of the Supreme Absolute Truth does not necessitate negation of the material manifestation but understanding of spiritual existence as it is. To think that because material existence is realized in forms therefore spiritual existence must be formless is only a negative material conception of spirit. The real spiritual conception is that spiritual form is not material form. Brahmā appreciated the eternal form of the Lord in that way, and the Personality of Godhead approved of Brahmā’s spiritual conception. In Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa condemned the material conception of His body, a conception that arises because He is apparently present like a man. The Lord may appear in any of His many, many spiritual forms, but He is not materially composed, nor has He any difference between body and self. That is the way of conceiving the spiritual form of the Lord.