590
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 10]
Lord in His  viśva-rūpa  or all-pervading universal form, and on the other they think of the Lord's unmanifested, indescribable, subtle form. The theories of pantheism and monism are respectively applicable to these two conceptions of the Supreme as gross and subtle, but both of them are rejected by the learned pure devotees of the Lord because they are aware of the factual position. This is very clearly mentioned in the Eleventh Chapter of the  Bhagavad-gītā , Arjuna's experience of the  viśva-rūpa  of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
adṛṣta-pūrvaṁ hṛṣito 'smi dṛṣṭvā bhayena ca pravyathitaṁ mano me tad eva me darśaya deva rūpaṁ prasīda deveśa jagannivāsa  (Bg. 11.45)
Arjuna, as a pure devotee of the Lord, never previously saw the contemplated universal form of the Lord ( viśva-rūpa ), but when he did see, his curiosities became satisfied. But he was not happy to see such a form of the Lord because of his attachment as a pure devotee. He was therefore afraid to see the gigantic form of the Lord. He therefore prayed to the Lord to assume His fourhanded Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa form, which alone could please him (Arjuna). Undoubtedly the Lord has the supreme potency to exhibit Himself in multifarious forms, but the pure devotees of the Lord are interested in His forms as are eternally exhibited in the abode of the Lord, known as the  tripād-vibhūti  or kingdom of God. The Lord in the  tripād-vibhūti  abode exhibits Himself in two forms, either with four hands or with two hands. The  viśva-rūpa  exhibited in the material manifestation has unlimited hands and unlimited dimensions with everything unlimited. The pure devotees of the Lord worship Him in His Vaikuṇṭha forms as Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes the same Vaikuṇṭha forms of the Lord are in the material world also by His grace as Śrī Rāma, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Narasiṁhadeva, etc., and thus the pure devotees also worship them. Usually the features shown in the material world have no existence in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, and thus they are not accepted by the pure devotees. What the pure devotees worship from the very beginning are eternal forms of the Lord existing in the Vaikuṇṭha planets. The nondevotee impersonalists imagine the material forms of the Lord, and ultimately they merge in the impersonal  brahmajyoti  of the Lord, whereas the pure devotees of the Lord are worshipers of the Lord both in the beginning and also in the perfect stage of salvation, eternally. The worship of the pure devotee never stops, whereas the worship of the impersonalist stops after his