Īśo 8: Śrī Īśopaniṣad

Here is the description of the transcendental and eternal Form of the Absolute Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Lord is not formless. He has His own transcendental Form Which is not at all similar to those of the mundane world. The living entities in this world have their forms embodied by the material Nature, and they work like any material machines. The physiological and anatomical structure of the body of a living being must have a mechanical construction, with veins and so forth in the embodiment. But in the transcendental body of the Lord there is nothing like veins. It is clearly stated here that He is unembodied. That means that there is no difference between His body and soul, nor does He accept a body by the law of Nature as we do. In the material concept of bodily life, the soul is different from the gross embodiment and subtle mind. The Supreme Lord is apart from any such compartmentalized arrangement, however. There is nothing like a difference of body and mind in the Supreme Lord. He is the Complete Whole, and His mind and body and He Himself are all one and the same.

In the Brahma-saṁhitā there is a similar description of the body of the Supreme Lord. He is described there as the sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. This means that He is the eternal Form fully representing transcendental Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. The Vedic literature states clearly that He has a completely different kind of transcendental body, and thus He is sometimes described as formless. This formlessness means that He has no form like ours, or that He is devoid of a form which we can perceive. In the Brahma-saṁhitā [5.32] it is further said that the Lord can do anything and everything with any one of the parts of His body. It is said there that with each and every one of the parts of His body, such as the hand, He can do the work of the other senses. This means that the Lord can walk with His hands, He can accept a thing by His legs, He can see by His hands and feet, and He can eat by His eyes. In the Śruti mantras it is said that He has no hands and no legs like us, but that He has a different type of hand and leg, by which He can accept all that we offer Him, and walk faster than anyone anywhere. These things are confirmed in this mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad by the use of words like omnipotent.

The Lord's Śrī Vigraha, His worshipable form, Which is installed in the temples by authorized ācāryas who have realized the Lord in terms of Mantra Seven, is also non-different from the Original Form of the Lord. The Original Form of the Lord is that of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Kṛṣṇa expands Himself by an unlimited number of Forms like Baladeva, Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha, etc.—and all of These are one and the same Personality of Godhead.

Similarly, the Arcā-vigraha Which is worshiped in the temples is also an expanded Form of the Lord. By worshiping the Arcā-vigraha of the Lord, one can at once approach the Lord, Who accepts the service of the devotee by His omnipotent energy without any reproach. The Vigraha of the Lord descends by request of the ācāryas, the holy teachers, and works exactly in the original way by His omnipotent energy.

Foolish people who have no knowledge of these mantras of Śrī Īśopaniṣad, or of any other Śruti mantras, consider that the Śrī Vigraha Who is worshiped by the pure devotees is made of material elements. To the imperfect eyes of the foolish people, or to the kaniṣṭha adhikaris, this Form is considered material. But such people with little knowledge do not know that the Lord, being omnipotent and omniscient, can transform matter into spirit and spirit into matter, as He desires.

In the Bhagavad-gītā [9.11-12], the Lord regrets the fallen condition of men with little knowledge, who regard the body of the Lord as material because He descends like a man into this world. Such poorly informed persons do not know the omnipotence of the Lord. To the mental speculators, therefore, the Lord does not manifest Himself in fullness. He can be appreciated only in proportion to one's surrender to Him. And the fallen condition of the living entities is due entirely to forgetfulness of our relationship with God.

In this mantra, as well as in many others in the Vedas, it is clearly mentioned: from time immemorial, the Lord is supplying. The living being first of all desires, and then the Lord supplies the object of desire in proportion to the degree of qualification. If a man wants to be a high court judge he must not only have acquired the necessary qualifications, but he must also depend upon the disposition of the authority concerned, who can award the title of high court judge. Simple acquisition of the qualifications of a high court judge is not sufficient in order to occupy the post. This must be awarded by some superior authority. Similarly, the Lord awards enjoyment to the living being in proportion to his qualifications—in other words, by the law of karma. Those qualifications, however, are not sufficient without the mercy of the Lord.

Ordinarily the living being does not know what to ask for from the Lord or what post to qualify himself for. When the living being knows his constitutional position, however, he asks to be accepted into the transcendental association of the Lord, in order to render transcendental loving service unto Him. Instead of asking for this, the living being under the influence of material Nature asks for many other things, and his mentality is described in the Bhagavad-gītā [2.41] as divided, or splayed, intelligence. Spiritual intelligence is one, but the opposite number is of many varieties. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [Bhāg. 7.5.30-31] it is said that persons who are captivated by the temporary beauties of the external energy forget their real aim of life, which is to go back to Godhead. Forgetting this, one tries to adjust things by various plans and programs, which are compared with the process of chewing already chewed refuse. But the Lord is so kind that He allows the forgetful living being to do so without interfering in his activities. If a living being wants to go to hell, the Lord allows him to do so without interference, and if he wants to go back to home, back to Godhead, the Lord also helps him to do that.

God is described here as paribhūḥ, the greatest of all. No one, is greater than, or equal to Him. Other living beings are described here as beggars who ask from the Lord, and the Lord supplies their desirables. If other entities were equal to the Lord in potency, or if they were omnipotent or omniscient, there would be no question of begging from the Lord even for so-called liberation. The real liberation of the living being is to go back to Godhead. Liberation as conceived by the impersonalist remains a myth, and the begging business for sense gratification has to continue eternally, unless the beggar comes to his senses and realizes his constitutional position.

The Supreme Lord is self-sufficient. When Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared on earth 5,000 years ago, He displayed the full manifestation of Godhead by His various activities. In His childhood He killed many powerful demons, and there was no question of His having acquired such power through any extraneous endeavor. He lifted Govardhana Hill without any practicing of weight-lifting. He danced with the gopīs without any social restriction, and without any reproach. Although the gopīs approached Him with feelings of amorous of love, the mixing of the gopīs and Lord Kṛṣṇa has been worshiped even by Lord Caitanya, Who was a strict sannyāsin and rigid follower of disciplinary regulations. To confirm this, Śrī Īśopaniṣad says that He is "antiseptic" and "prophylactic," pure and uncontaminate. He is antiseptic in the sense that even an impure thing in the estimation of the mundane world can become purified just by touching Him. The word prophylactic refers to His association, and is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā [9.30-31]. There it is said that a scrupulous devotee may appear in the beginning to be durācāra, not well behaved. Yet he is still to be accepted as pure because he is on the right path. That is the prophylactic nature of the Lord's association.

The Lord is also apāpaviddham, that is, nothing like sin can touch Him. Even if He may do something which appears to be sinful, such actions are all good, for there is no question of the Lord's being affected by sin. He is śuddham, most purified, often compared to the Sun. The Sun extracts moisture from many untouchable places on the earth, and itself remains pure. In fact it purifies obnoxious things by its sterilizing effect. If the Sun is so powerful, , although only a material object, we can imagine the purity and strength of the All-powerful Lord.