192
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 9, Ch. 23]
truth.” The  yogīs  and  jñānīs —that is, the mystic  yogīs  and the impersonalists—can understand the Absolute Truth as impersonal or localized, but although such realized souls are above ordinary human beings, they cannot understand how the Supreme Absolute Truth can be a person. Therefore it is said that out of many  siddhas , the souls who have already realized the Absolute Truth, one may understand Kṛṣṇa, who exactly resembles a human being ( narākṛti ). This human form was explained by Kṛṣṇa Himself after He manifested the  virāṭ-rūpa . The  virāṭ-rūpa  is not the original form of the Lord; the Lord’s original form is Dvibhuja-śyāmasundara, Muralīdhara, the Lord with two hands, playing a flute ( yaṁ śyāmasundaram acintya-guṇa-svarūpam ). The Lord’s forms are proof of His inconceivable qualities. Although the Lord maintains innumerable universes within the period of His breath, He is dressed with a form exactly like that of a human being. That does not mean, however, that He is a human being. This is His original form, but because He looks like a human being, those with a poor fund of knowledge consider Him an ordinary man. The Lord says:
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram
“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.” (Bg. 9.11) By the Lord’s  paraṁ bhāvam , or transcendental nature, He is the all-pervading Paramātmā living in the core of the hearts of all living entities, yet He looks like a human being. Māyāvāda philosophy says that the Lord is originally impersonal but assumes a human form and many other forms when He descends. Actually, however, He is originally like a human being, and the impersonal Brahman consists of the rays of His body ( yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi ).
TEXT 22
धर्मस्तु हैहयसुतो नेत्रः कुन्तेः पिता ततः । सोहञ्जिरभवत् कुन्तेर्महिष्मान् भद्रसेनकः ॥२२॥