376
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 9]
jñātaḥ —known;  aham —Myself;  bhavatā —by you;  tu —but;  adya —today;  duḥ —difficult;  vijñeyaḥ —to be known;  api —in spite of;  dehinām —for the conditioned soul;  yat —because;  mām —Me;  tvam —you;  manyase —understand;  ayuktam —without being made of;  bhūta —material elements;  indriya —material senses;  guṇa —material modes;  ātmabhiḥ —and false ego like the conditioned soul.
TRANSLATION
Although I am not easily knowable by the conditioned soul, you have known Me today because you know that My personality is not constituted of anything material, and specifically not of the five gross and three subtle elements.
PURPORT
Knowledge of the Supreme Absolute Truth does not necessitate negation of the material manifestation but understanding of spiritual existence as it is. To think that because material existence is realized in forms spiritual existence must therefore be formless is only a negative material conception of spirit. The real spiritual conception is that spiritual form is not material form. Brahmā appreciated the eternal form of the Lord in that way, and the Personality of Godhead approved of Brahmā's spiritual conception. In  Bhagavad-gītā  the Lord condemned the material conception of Kṛṣṇa's body which arises because He is apparently present like a man. The Lord may appear in any of His many, many spiritual forms, but He is neither materially composed nor has He any difference between body and self. That is the way of conceiving the spiritual form of the Lord.
TEXT 37
तुभ्यं मद्रिचिकित्सायामात्मा मे दर्शितोऽबहिः। नालेन सलिले मूलं पुष्करस्य विचिन्वतः ॥३७॥
tubhyam mad-vicikitsāyām ātmā me darśito 'bahiḥ nālena salile mūlam puṣkarasya vicinvataḥ
tubhyam —unto you;  mat —Me;  vicikitsāyām —on your trying to know;  ātmā —self;  me —of Myself;  darśitaḥ —exhibited;  abahiḥ —from within;  nālena —through the stem;  salile —in the water;  mūlam —root;  puṣkarasya —of the lotus, the primeval source;  vicinvataḥ —contemplating.