The Sanskrit word guna means ‘‘quality’ or
“mode,” as well as ‘‘string’’ or “‘rope.’’ When
a rainbow appears during the rainy season,
it is observed to be like a bow and no guna, or
string. Similarly, the appearance of the Personality
of Godhead or His transcendental servants has
nothing to do with the qualitative modes of mate-
rial nature. The phenomenal appearance of the
Transcendence is free from the qualities of mate-
rial nature, and thus it resembles a bow with no
string.

The transcendental Supreme Lord is eternally
the form of transcendental existence, knowledge,
and bliss. The material energy works under His
good will, and therefore He is never affected by
the modes of material nature. When He appears
before us in the midst of material interactions, He
remains always unaffected, like a stringless
rainbow.

By His inconceivable energy, the Supreme Lord
can appear and disappear like a rainbow, which
appears and disappears without being affected by
the roaring thunder and the cloudy sky. The Lord
is eternally the biggest of the big and the smallest
of the small. The living beings, who are His parts
and parcels, are the smallest of the small, and He
is the biggest of the big as the Absolute Truth, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead.»

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