Mantra Twelve 61
relativity, without realizing any positive trace of the Absolute.
lefinition of the Absolute by negation is not a
concept. Such negative definitions lead one to create a concept
of his own, and one then imagines that the Absolute must be
formless and without qualities. But these negations are simply
Ihe opposite numbers of the relative forms and qualities, and
arc’ themselves therefore relative. By such a concept of the
Absolute one can at the utmost reach to the impersonal
effulgence of God, known as Brahman; but one cannot make
further progress to the stage of Bhagavan, the Personality of
Godhead.

Such mental speculators do not know that Krsna is the
Absolute Personality of Godhead, and that the impersonal
Brahman is the glaring effulgence of His transcendental body,
while Paramatman, the Supersoul, is His all-pervading repre-
sentation. They do not know that Krsna has Ilis eternal Form,
wilh transcendental qualities of eternal bliss and knowledge.
The dependent demigods and great sages imperfectly realize
Ilim as one of the powerful demigods, but they consider that the
Brahman effulgence is the ultimate Absolute Truth. Krsna’s
devotees, however—who by dint of their unalloyed devotion
surrender unto Him—can know that He is the Absolute Person,
and that everything emanates from [lim only. Such devotees
continuously render loving service unto Krsna, the Fountainhead
of everything.

In the Bhagavad-gita it is also said that only bewildered
persons, driven by a strong desire for sense gratification,
worship the demigods for the satisfaction of temporary problems.
A temporary relief from a certain difficully by the grace of
some demigod is the demand of less intelligent persons. The
living being is in the material entanglement, and he has to be
relieved) from) material bondage entirely to obtain permanent
relief! on) the spiritual plane, where cternal bliss, life and
knowledge exist.

In the Bhagavad-gita it is said that the worshipers of the
