104 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

qualities, but all those incarnations are not on the same level. You are the
original lamp. Other incarnations may possess the same candle power as
the original lamp, but the original lamp is the beginning of all light. And
because You are not one of the creations of this material world, even after
the annihilation of this world, Your existence as You are will continue.

“Because You are the original person, You are therefore described in
the Gopala-tapani (the Vedic Upanisad), as well as in the Brahma-sarihita,
as govindam dadi-purusam. Govinda is the original person, the cause of all
causes. In the Bhagavad-gita also it is stated that You are the source of the
Brahman effulgence. No one should conclude that Your body is like an
ordinary material body. Your body is aksara, indestructible. The material
body is always full of threefold miseries, but Your body is sac-cid-
dnanda-vigraha: full of being, bliss, knowledge and eternality. You are also
niranjana because Your pastimes, as the little son of mother Yagoda or the
Lord of the gopis, are never contaminated by the material qualities. And
although You exhibited Yourself in so many cowherd boys, calves and
cows, Your transcendental potency is not reduced. You are always cont-
plete. As it is described in the Vedic literature, even if the complete is
taken away from the complete—Supreme Absolute Truth—it yet remains
the complete, Supreme Absolute Truth. And although many expansions
from the complete are visible, the complete is one without a second. Since
all Your pastimes are spiritual, there is no possibility of their being con-
taminated by the material modes of nature. When You place Yourself
subordinate to Your father and mother, Nanda and Yasoda, You are not
reduced in Your potency; this is an expression of Your loving attitude for
Your devotees. There is no other competitor of second identity than Your-
self. A person with a poor fund of knowledge concludes that Your pastimes
and appearance are simply material designations. You are transcendental
to both nescience and knowledge, as it is confirmed in the Gopdla-tapani.
You are the original amrta (nectar of immortality), indestructible. As it is
confirmed in the Vedas, amrtarm sasvateri brahme. Brahman is the eternal,
the supreme origin of everything, who has no birth or death.

“In the Upanisads it is stated that the Supreme Brahman is as effulgent
as the sun and is the origin of everything, and anyone who can understand
that original person becomes liberated from the material conditional life.
Anyone who can simply be attached to You by devotional service can
know Your actual position, Your birth, appearance, disappearance and
activities. As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita, simply by understanding
Your constitutional position, appearance and disappearance, one can be
immediately elevated to the spiritual kingdom after quitting this present
