Text 54] Brahma Stealing the Boys and Calves 61

One description given of Brahman is satyam brahma, ananda-ripam:
“Brahman is the Absolute Truth and complete dnanda, or bliss.”” The
forms of Visnu, the Supreme Brahman, were one, but They were
manifested differently. The followers of the Upanisads, however, cannot
understand the varieties manifested by Brahman. This proves that Brah-
man and Paramatma can actually be understood only through devotion,
as confirmed by the Lord Himself in Srimad-Bhagavatam (bhaktyaham
ekaya grahyah, Bhag. 11.14.21). To establish that Brahman indeed has
transcendental form, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura gives various
quotations from the sastras. In the Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.8), the
Supreme is described as dditya-varnam tamasah parastat, ‘““He whose
self-manifest form is luminous like the sun and transcendental to the
darkness of ignorance.”” Ananda-matram ajaram purdnam ekam san-
tam bahudha drsyamanam: ‘The Supreme is blissful, with no tinge of
unhappiness. Although He is the oldest, He never ages, and although
one, He is experienced in different forms.” Sarve nityah sasvatas ca
dehds tasya paratmanah: “All the forms of that Supreme Person are
eternal.”’ (Mahda-varadha Purana) The Supreme Person has a form, with
hands and legs and other personal features, but His hands and legs are
not material. Bhaktas know that the form of Krsna, or Brahman, is not at
all material. Rather, Brahman has a transcendental form, and when one
is absorbed in it, being fully developed in bhakti, one can understand
Him (premafjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena). The Mayavadis, how-
ever, cannot understand this transcendental form, for they think that it
is material.

Transcendental forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His
person are so great that the impersonal followers of the Upanisads cannot
reach the platform of knowledge to understand them. Particularly, the
transcendental forms of the Lord are beyond the reach of the imper-
sonalists, who can only understand, through the studies of the
Upanisads, that the Absolute Truth is not matter and that the Absolute
Truth is not materially restricted by limited potency.

Yet although Krsna cannot be seen through the Upanisads, in some
places it is said that Krsna can in fact be known in this way.
Aupanisadam purusam: “‘He is known by the Upanisads.” This means
that when one is purified by Vedic knowledge, one is then allowed to
enter into devotional understanding (mad-bhaktirn labhate param).
