Text 32]
The Hainsa-guhya Prayers
231
īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
“Kṛṣṇa, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes.” The conception of the Absolute without hands and legs and the conception of the Absolute with hands and legs are apparently contradictory, but they both coincide with the same truth about the Supreme Absolute Person. Therefore the word  vastu-niṣṭhayoḥ , which is used herein, indicates that both the  yogīs  and Sāṅkhyites have faith in the reality, but are arguing about it from the different viewpoints of material and spiritual identities. Parabrahman, or  bṛhat , is the common point. The Sāṅkhyites and  yogīs  are both situated in that same Brahman, but they differ because of different angles of vision.
The directions given by the  bhakti-śāstra  point one in the perfect direction because the Supreme Personality of Godhead says in  Bhagavad-gītā ,  bhaktyā mām abhijānāti : “Only by devotional service am I to be known.” The  bhaktas  know that the Supreme Person has no material form, whereas the  jñānīs  simply deny the material form. One should therefore take shelter of the  bhakti-mārga , the path of devotion; then everything will be clear.  Jñānīs  concentrate on the  virāṭa-rūpa , the gigantic universal form of the Lord. This is a good system in the beginning for those who are extremely materialistic, but there is no need to think continuously of the  virāṭa-rūpa . When Arjuna was shown the  virāṭa-rūpa  of Kṛṣṇa, he saw it, but he did not want to see it perpetually. He therefore requested the Lord to return to His original form as two-armed Kṛṣṇa. In conclusion, learned scholars find no contradictions in the devotees’ concentration upon the spiritual form of the Lord ( īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ ). In this regard, Śrīla Madhvācārya says that less intelligent nondevotees think that their conclusion is the ultimate, but because devotees are completely learned, they can understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal.