Text 33] Answers by Citing the Lord’s Version 511

purusa ksara. The aksara purusa, or the Maha-Visnu, throws His glance over
prakrti, or material nature, but the existence of the Purusottama was
there even before that. The Aitareya Upanisad therefore confirms the
statement of the Bhagavad-gita that Lord Krsna is the Supreme Person
(Purusottama).

In some of the Vedas it is also said that in the beginning only the imper-
sonal Brahman was there. But according to this verse, the impersonal
Brahman, which is the glowing effulgence of the body of the Supreme
Lord, may be called the immediate cause, but the cause of all causes orthe
remote cause is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord’s imper-
sonal feature is existent in the material world because by material senses
or material eyes the Lord cannot be seen or perceived. One has to spiritual-
ize the senses before one can expect to see or perceive the Supreme Lord.
But He is always engaged in His personal capacity, and He is eternally
visible to the inhabitants of Vaikunthaloka, eye to eye. Therefore He is
materially impersonal, just as the executive head of the state may be
impersonal in the government offices, although he is not impersonal in
the government house. Similarly, the Lord is not impersonal in His abode,
which is always nirasta-kuhakam, as is stated in the very beginning of the
Bhdgavatam. Therefore both the impersonal and personal features of the
Lord are acceptable, as mentioned in the revealed scriptures. This Person-
ality of Godhead is very emphatically explained in the Bhagavad-gita in
connection with the verse, “brahmano hi pratisthaham” (Bg. 14.27).
Therefore in all ways the confidential part of spiritual knowledge is
realization of the Personality of Godhead, and not His impersonal Brahman
feature. One should therefore have his ultimate aim of realization not in
the impersonal feature but in the personal feature of the Absolute Truth.
The example of sky within the pot and the sky without the pot may be
helpful to the student for his realization of the all-pervading quality of the
cosmic consciousness of the Absolute Truth. But that does not mean that
the individual part and parcel of the Lord becomes the Supreme by a false
claim. It means only that the conditioned soul is a victim of the illusory
energy in her last snare. To claim to become one with the cosmic con-
sciousness of the Lord is the last trap set by the illusory energy or daivi
maya. Even in the impersonal existence of the Lord, as it is in the material
creation, one should be after the personal realization of the Lord, and that
is the meaning of “pascad aharn yad etac ca ye ‘vasisyeta so ’smy aham.”

Brahmaji also accepted the same truth when he was instructing Narada.
He said, “So’yam te ‘bhihitas tata bhagavan  visva-bhdyanah.”
(Bhag. 2.7.50). There is no other cause of all causes than the
