84 Sri Isopanisad

Paramatman, or all-pervading feature of the Supreme, one
experiences a still more auspicious enlightenment, and by
meeting the Personality of Godhead face to face, the devotee
experiences the most auspicious feature of the Supreme. Being
addressed as the Philosopher, the Maintainer, the Well-wisher, and
so forth, the Supreme Truth cannot be considered impersonal.
That is the indication of Sri Isopanisad. The word Maintainer is
especially significant: The Lord maintains His devotees specifi-
cally, although He is the Maintainer of one and all beings. By
surpassing the impersonal Brahma-jyoti, when the devotee sees
the personal aspect of the Lord and His most auspicious
eternal form, then the devotee realizes the Absolute Truth in
full. Srila Jiva Gosvami says in his Bhagavata-sandarbha as
follows:

The complete conception of the Absolute Truth is realized
in the Personality of Godhead, because He is Almighty,
with full potency in transcendence. In the Brahma-jyoti
the full potency of the Absolute Truth is not realized, and
therefore Brahman realization is only partial realization of
the Personality of Godhead. O learned) sages, the first
letter of the word Bhagavan is twice significant: first in the
sense of “one who fully maintains,” and second in the sense
of “guardian.” The second letler—ga—means guide, leader
or creator. The letter va (or ba) means that every being
lives in Him, and He also lives in every being. In other
words, the transcendental sound Bhagavan represents the
infinite knowledge, potency, energy, opulence, strength
and influence, all without any linge of material ine-
brieties.

The Lord fully maintains His unalloyed devotees, and He
guides such devotees progressively on the path of devotional
perfection. As Leader of His devotees, Ile ultimately awards
the desired result of devotional service by giving Himself to
