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TEXT 24 avyaktam vyaktim apannam
SYNONYMS  avyaktam--nonmanifested;
vyaktim--personality; apannam--achieved; manyante--think;
mam--unto Me; abuddhayah--less intelligent persons; param--supreme;
bhavam--state of being; ajanantah--without knowing; mama--My;
avyayam--imperishable; anuttamam--the finest.
TRANSLATION Unintelligent
men, who know Me not, think that I have assumed this form and personality.
Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which
is changeless and supreme.
PURPORT Those who are
worshipers of demigods have been described as less intelligent persons,
and here the impersonalists are similarly described. Lord Krsna in His
personal form is here speaking before Arjuna, and still, due to ignorance,
impersonalists argue that the Supreme Lord ultimately has no form. Yamunacarya,
a great devotee of the Lord in the disciplic succession from Ramanujacarya,
has written two very appropriate verses in this connection. He says, "My
dear Lord, devotees like Vyasadeva and Narada know You to be the Personality
of Godhead. By understanding different Vedic literatures, one can come
to know Your characteristics, Your form and Your activities, and one can
thus understand that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But those
who are in the modes of passion and ignorance, the demons, the nondevotees,
cannot understand You. They are unable to understand You. However expert
such nondevotees may be in discussing Vedanta and the Upanisads
and other Vedic literatures, it is not possible for them to understand
the Personality of Godhead."
In the Brahma-samhita
it is stated that the Personality of Godhead cannot be understood simply
by study of the Vedanta literature. Only by the mercy of the Supreme
Lord can the Personality of the Supreme be known. Therefore in this verse
it is clearly stated that not only the worshipers of the demigods are less
intelligent, but those nondevotees who are engaged in Vedanta and
speculation on Vedic literature without any tinge of true Krsna consciousness
are also less intelligent, and for them it is not possible to understand
God's personal nature. Persons who are under the impression that the Absolute
Truth is impersonal are described as asuras, which means one who
does not know the ultimate feature of the Absolute Truth. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam
it is stated that supreme realization begins from the impersonal Brahman
and then rises to the localized Supersoul--but the ultimate word in the
Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead. Modern impersonalists are
still less intelligent, for they do not even follow their great predecessor,
Sankaracarya, who has specifically stated that Krsna is the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. Impersonalists, therefore, not knowing the Supreme Truth, think
Krsna to be only the son of Devaki and Vasudeva, or a prince, or a powerful
living entity. This is also condemned in the Bhagavad-gita: "Only
the fools regard Me as an ordinary person."
The fact
is that no one can understand Krsna without rendering devotional service
and without developing Krsna consciousness. The Gita confirms this.
One cannot
understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, or His form, quality
or name simply by mental speculation or by discussing Vedic literature.
One must understand Him by devotional service. When one is fully engaged
in Krsna consciousness, beginning by chanting the maha-mantra--Hare
Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama,
Hare Hare--then only can one understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Nondevotee impersonalists think that Krsna has a body made of this material
nature and that all His activities, His form and everything, are maya.
These impersonalists are known as Mayavadis. They do not know the ultimate
truth.
The twentieth
verse clearly states: "Those who are blinded by lusty desires surrender
unto the different demigods." It is accepted that besides the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, there are demigods who have their different planets (Bg.
7.23), and the Lord also has a planet. It is also stated that the worshipers
of the demigods go to the different planets of the demigods, and those
who are devotees of Lord Krsna go to the Krsnaloka planet. Although this
is clearly stated, the foolish impersonalists still maintain that the Lord
is formless and that these forms are impositions. From the study of the
Gita does it appear that the demigods and their abodes are impersonal?
Clearly, neither the demigods nor Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
are impersonal. They are all persons; Lord Krsna is the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, and He has His own planet, and the demigods have theirs.
Therefore
the monistic contention that ultimate truth is formless and that form is
imposed does not hold true. It is clearly stated here that it is not imposed.
From the Gita we can clearly understand that the forms of the demigods
and the form of the Supreme Lord are simultaneously existing and that Lord
Krsna is sac-cid-ananda, eternal blissful knowledge. The Vedas
also confirm that the Supreme Absolute Truth is anandamaya, or full
of blissful pleasure, and that He is abhyasat, by nature the reservoir
of unlimited auspicious qualities. And in the Gita the Lord says
that although He is aja (unborn), He still appears. These are the
facts that we should understand from the Gita. We cannot understand
how the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be impersonal; the imposition
theory of the impersonalist monist is false as far as the statements of
the Gita are concerned. It is clear herein that the Supreme Absolute
Truth, Lord Krsna, has both form and personality.
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