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Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[ Canto 4, Ch. 17 ]
nature is working under the direction of the Lord. Therefore the Lord is not unattached to the external energy, and He is addressed in this verse as  guṇa-ātmā , the source of the three modes of material nature. As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā :
sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriya-vivarjitam asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛc caiva nirguṇam guṇa-bhoktṛ ca
“The Supersoul is the original source of all senses, yet He is without senses. He is unattached, although He is the maintainer of all living beings. He transcends the modes of nature, and at the same time He is the master of all modes of material nature.” (Bg. 13.15)
Although the Lord is not attached to the external energy, He is nonetheless the master of it. The philosophy of Lord Caitanya, upholding that the Lord is simultaneously one with and different from His creation ( acintya-bhedābheda-tattva ), is very easily understandable in this connection. The planet earth explains that although the Lord is attached to the external energy, He is nonetheless  nirdhuta ; He is completely free from the activities of the external energy. The Lord is always situated in His internal energy. Therefore in this verse it is stated:  svarūpānubhavena . The Lord remains completely in His internal potency and yet has full knowledge of the external energy as well as the internal energy, just as His devotee remains always in a transcendental position, keeping himself in the service of the Lord without becoming attached to the material body. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that the devotee who is always engaged in the devotional service of the Lord is always liberated, regardless of his material situation. If it is possible for a devotee to remain transcendental, it is certainly possible for the Supreme Personality of Godhead to remain in His internal potency without being attached to the external potency. There should be no difficulty in understanding this situation. Just as a devotee is never bewildered by his material body, the Lord is never bewildered by the external energy of this material world. A devotee is not hampered by the material body, although he is situated in a physical body that runs according to so many material conditions, just as there are five kinds of air functioning within the body, and so many organs—the hands, legs, the tongue, genitals, rectum, etc.—all working differently. The spirit soul, the living entity who is in full knowledge of his position, is always engaged in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare