SB 6.9.36

Those two conditions seen in you are not a contradiction. What is impossible for you, who are Bhagavān, full of six qualities, full of unlimited qualities, the supreme controller, whose glories cannot be understood by the non-devotee, who are beyond the arguments of stubborn philosophers whose hearts are disturbed by deliberating on scriptures without touching the truth, through speculation, conjecture, judgment and false proofs? You are beyond all material qualities, you are pure spirit, but screen yourself from view by your yoga-māyā. Though you possess only one form, nothing is impossible for you. This verse reconciles the contrary nature in the Lord, according to the devotees’ perspective. Virodha means contradiction. There is no contradiction of your being ātmārāma and experiencing happiness and distress. It is not proper to speculate about you by comparison with others, since you possess inconceivable powers. First, two phrases explain the happiness and distress in the Lord. jṣāna-śakti-balaiśvarya-vīrya-tejāṁsy aśeṣataḥ | bhagavac-chabda-vācyāni vinā heyair guṇādibhiḥ || The word bhagavān means to be endowed with unlimited knowledge, sense power, bodily strength, power of control, influence and beauty without inferior guṇas. Viṣṇu Purāṇa 6.5.79 It should be understood that you have no material happiness and distress at all, which arises from ignorance, since you are fully endowed with those six qualities. “Do I have another type of happiness and distress in me?” You have a host of unlimited qualities such as being controlled by prema and being affectionate to your devotees. (aparimita-guṇa-gaṇe). When your devotees such as Prahlāda or Vibhīṣaṇa, your eternal associates such as the Pāṇḍavas or Yādavas, the numerous sādhakas and half-devotees like us devatās are put into difficulty by the demons, you become unhappy, indicated by your various attempts to destroy those demons. When those devotees, delivered from danger, see you, they become happy, like grains suffering from drought being sprinkled with a shower of nectar. Then you become astonishingly happy. You have spiritual happiness and distress since you are the essence of affection for devotees and are controlled by prema. However, that happiness and distress are actually spiritual happiness since they are the topmost transformations of the cit-śakti belonging to prema. The joy and grief of the gopīs or Sītā arising from meeting and separation are the highest expression of happiness since they have the highest level of prema. Having a spiritual form, you have spiritual happiness and distress. This is not a contradiction with your nature as ātmārāma since being ātmārāma and experiencing spiritual happiness and distress are one in you. “But I am not defined in this way by some philosophers.” You are the Supreme Lord (īśvare), and thus those who are under your control are not qualified to define you, since your glories be understood by persons devoid of bhakti. You yourself say bhaktyāham ekayā grāhya: I am only realized by bhakti. (SB 11.14.21) “They raise many objections to your claim that my six great qualities and prema are spiritual.” You are invisible to the arguments of those who stubbornly hold various philosophies (duravagraha-vādīnām), which always remain in their hearts, which are confused by scriptures, and without touching the real truth (arvācīna). Vikalpa takes the form “It may be like this, or like this.” Vitarka means uncertain conjecture: “Is that correct perhaps?” Vicāra means certainty “It is like this.” Pramāṇābhāsa means malicious arguments. “If there is no conclusion, how can argumentation be absent?” The Lord is devoid of all material objects. Since arguments are a product of māyā-śakti and you are beyond all objects made of māyā, how is it possible to use such arguments? “How can you say that my grief is spiritual happiness, since everyone has seen with their eyes my actions of helping you churn the ocean, helping Arjuna as his charioteer and messenger, and fleeing in fear from Jarāsandha’ violence to protect the Yādavas?” Though you are pure spirit (kevale), without material contamination, you place in the middle your inconceivable yoga-māyā. Thus nothing is impossible for you. Who then can enter into your experience of happiness? One cannot use sense perception to understand the Lord’s happiness. It is said acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet: one cannot apply material arguments to what is inconceivable. “Let us dispose of the argument that I have inconceivable powers. One can say that I have two forms with two sets of qualities. In the form of Bhagavān I have happiness and distress arising from affection to my devotees, and in the form of Brahman am situated everywhere as ātmārāma.” You do not have two forms. You have only one form which is Bhagavān. That form is realized as Brahman with no qualities and as Bhagavān with astonishing qualities. The jṣānis who are at a distance and cannot perceive your astounding qualities call you Brahman. The devotees who are situated near you and can perceive your astonishing qualities call you Bhagavān. If one is far away one perceives a small degree of the Lord and if one is close one perceives all his qualities.