Text 25] Svayambhuva Manu Advises Dhruva Maharaja 477

sah—He; eva—certainly; visvam—the universe; srjati—creates; sah—He;
eva—certainly ; avati—maintains; hanti—annihilates; ca—also; athapi—more-
over; hi—certainly ; anahankarat—from being without ego; na—not; ajyate—
becomes entangled; guna—by the modes of material nature; karmabhih—
by activities.

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead creates this material world, main-
tains it, and annihilates it in due course of time, but because He is
transcendental to such activities, He is never affected by ego in such action
or by the modes of material nature.

PURPORT

In this verse the word anahankara means “without ego.”” The condi-
tioned soul has a false ego, and as a result of his karma he gets different
types of bodies in this material world. Sometimes he gets the body of a
demigod, and he thinks that body to be his identity. Similarly, when he
gets the body of a dog he identifies his self with that body. But for the
Supreme Personality of Godhead there is no such distinction between
the body and the soul. Bhagavad-gita, therefore, certifies that anyone who
thinks of Krsna as an ordinary human being is without knowledge of His
transcendental nature and is a great fool. The Lord says, na mam karmani
limpanti: He is not affected by anything He does because He is never
contaminated by the material modes of nature. That we have a material
body proves that we are infected by the three material modes of nature.
The Lord says to Arjuna, “You and I had many, many births previously,
but I remember everything, whereas you do not.” That is the difference
between the living entity, or conditioned soul, and the Supreme Soul.
The Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has no material
body, and because He has no material body, He is not affected by any
work that He executes. There are many Mayavadi philosophers who
consider that Krgna’s body is the effect of a concentration of the material
mode of goodness, and they distinguish Krsna’s soul from Krgna’s body.
The real situation, however, is that the body of the conditioned soul,
even if he has a large accumulation of material goodness, is material,
whereas Krgna’s body is never material; it is transcendental. Krsna has no
false ego, for He does not identify Himself with the false and temporary
body. His body is always eternal; He descends on this world in His own
original spiritual body. This is explained in Bhagavad-gita as param bhavam.
The words param bhavam divyam are especially significant in understand-
ing Krsna’s personality.
