590 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 2, Ch. 10
Lord in His visva-riipa or all-pervading universal form, and on the other
they think of the Lord’s unmanifested, indescribable, subtle form. The
theories of pantheism and monism are respectively applicable to these two
conceptions of the Supreme as gross and subtle, but both of them are re-
jected by the learned pure devotees of the Lord because they are aware
of the factual position. This is very clearly mentioned in the Eleventh
Chapter of the Bhagavad-gitd, Arjuna’s experience of the visva-riipa of the
Supreme Lord Sri Krsna.
adrsta-purvam hrsito ’smi drstva
bhayena ca pravyathitam mano me
tad eva me darsaya deva ripam
prasida devesa jagannivasa (Bg. 11.45)

Arjuna, as a pure devotee of the Lord, never previously saw the contem-
plated universal form of the Lord (visva-riipa), but when he did see, his
curiosities became satisfied. But he was not happy to see such a form of
the Lord because of his attachment as a pure devotee. He was therefore
afraid to see the gigantic form of the Lord. He therefore prayed to the
Lord to assume His fourhanded Narayana or Krsna form, which alone
could please him (Arjuna). Undoubtedly the Lord has the supreme potency
to exhibit Himself in multifarious forms, but the pure devotees of the
Lord are interested in His forms as are eternally exhibited in the abode of
the Lord, known as the tripdd-vibhiiti or kingdom of God. The Lord in
the tripdd-vibhiti abode exhibits Himself in two forms, either with four
hands or with two hands. The visva-rupa exhibited in the material mani-
festation has unlimited hands and unlimited dimensions with everything
unlimited. The pure devotees of the Lord worship Him in His Vaikuntha
forms as Narayana or Krsna. Sometimes the same Vaikuntha forms of the
Lord are in the material world also by His grace as Sri Rama, Sri Krsna,
Sri Narasimhadeva, etc., and thus the pure devotees also worship them.
Usually the features shown in the material world have no existence in the
Vaikuntha planets, and thus they are not accepted by the pure devotees.
What the pure devotees worship from the very beginning are eternal forms
of the Lord existing in the Vaikuntha planets. The nondevotee imperson-
alists imagine the material forms of the Lord, and ultimately they merge in
the impersonal brahmajyoti of the Lord, whereas the pure devotees of the
Lord are worshipers of the Lord both in the beginning and also in the
perfect stage of salvation, eternally. The worship of the pure devotee
never stops, whereas the worship of the impersonalist stops after his
