Mantra Twelve
61
relativity, without realizing any positive trace of the Absolute. Definition of the Absolute by negation is not a concept. Such negative definitions lead one to create a concept of his own, and one then imagines that the Absolute must be formless and without qualities. But these negations are simply the opposite numbers of the relative forms and qualities, and are themselves therefore relative. By such a concept of the Absolute one can at the utmost reach to the impersonal effulgence of God, known as  Brahman ; but one cannot make further progress to the stage of  Bhagavān , the Personality of Godhead.
Such mental speculators do not know that Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Personality of Godhead, and that the impersonal  Brahman  is the glaring effulgence of His transcendental body, while  Paramātman , the Supersoul, is His all-pervading representation. They do not know that Kṛṣṇa has His eternal Form, with transcendental qualities of eternal bliss and knowledge. The dependent demigods and great sages imperfectly realize Him as one of the powerful demigods, but they consider that the  Brahman  effulgence is the ultimate Absolute Truth. Kṛṣṇa's devotees, however—who by dint of their unalloyed devotion surrender unto Him—can know that He is the Absolute Person, and that everything emanates from Him only. Such devotees continuously render loving service unto Kṛṣṇa, the Fountainhead of everything.
In the  Bhagavad-gītā  it is also said that only bewildered persons, driven by a strong desire for sense gratification, worship the demigods for the satisfaction of temporary problems. A temporary relief from a certain difficulty by the grace of some demigod is the demand of less intelligent persons. The living being is in the material entanglement, and he has to be relieved from material bondage entirely to obtain permanent relief on the spiritual plane, where eternal bliss, life and knowledge exist.
In the  Bhagavad-gītā  it is said that the worshipers of the