Text 171] The Liberation of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya 295
abide in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, how He exists in His innumerable
forms as the master of both spiritual and material energies, how He is the master
of both manifest and potential powers and how contradictory potencies can
abide in Him. As long as the living entity is within this material world, in the condi-
tion of illusion, he cannot understand the activities of the inconceivable energies
of the Lord. Thus the Lord’s energies, though factual, are simply beyond the
power of the common brain to understand.

When the atheistic philosophers or the Mayavadis, being unable to understand
the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, imagine an
impersonal void, their imagination is only the counterpart of materialistic thinking.
Within the material world, there is nothing inconceivable. High-thinking philoso-
phers and scientists can tackle the material energy, but not being able to under-
stand the spiritual energy, they can simply imagine an inactive state, such as the
impersonal Brahman. This is simply the negative side of material life. By such im-
perfect knowledge, the Mayavadi philosophers conclude that the cosmic
manifestation is a transformation of the Supreme. Thus they must necessarily also
accept the theory of the illusion of the Supreme (vivarta- vada). However, if we ac-
cept the inconceivable potencies of the Lord, we can understand how the
Supreme Personality of Godhead can appear within this material world without
being touched or contaminated by the three modes of material nature.

From the sastras we learn that there is a stone or jewel called a touchstone that
can transform iron into gold. Although the touchstone tums iron into gold many
times, it remains in its original condition. If such a material stone can maintain its
inconceivable energy after producing volumes of gold, certainly the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead can remain in His original sac-cid-ananda form after creating
the cosmic world. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (9.10), He acts only through His
different energies. Mayadhyaksena prakrtih: Krsna directs the material energy, and
that potency works in this material world. This is also confirmed in Brahma-
samhita (5.44):

ststi-sthiti-pralaya-sadhana-saktir eka
chayeva yasya bhuvandni vibharti durga
icchdanurdpam api yasya ca cestate sd
govindam ddi-purusam tam aham bhajami
The durga-sakti (material energy) acts under the direction of the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead, and the universal creation, maintenance and destruction are
being carried out by the durga-sakti. Krsna’s direction is in the background. The
conclusion is that the Supreme Personality of Godhead remains as He is, even
though directing His energy, which makes the diverse cosmic manifestation work
so wonderfully.
