Why Study the Vedantra Sutra? 211

nical, and only liberated persons who have gradually attained to the stage of
Paramhansa, as referred to before, can transcendentally relish the worshippable
Rasa Dance.

Srila Vyasadeva, therefore, gives us the chance for gradual development
of spiritual realization before we can actually relish the essence of the Pastimes
of the Lord, He therefore purposely invokes the Gayatri Mantra, “Dheemahi.”
This Gayatri Mantra is meant for the spiritually advanced people. When one
has attained success in the matter of chanting the Gayatri Mantra he can enter
into the transcendental position of the Lord. One must acquire the Brahminical
qualities, or be perfectly situated in the quality of goodness of the modes of
material Nature, in order to chant the Gayatri Mantra successfully, and then
attain to the stage of transcendentally realizing the Lord, His Name, His Fame,
His Qualities, etc. Srimad Bhagwatam is the narration of the Swarupa or Form
of the Lord, manifested by His internal potency; and this potency is distingushed
from the external potency, which has manifested the cosmic world which is
within our experience. Srila Vyasadeva makes a clear distinction between the
two in the st verse of the First Chapter.

He says there that the manifestation of the internal potency is factual reality,
whereas the external manifested energy in the form of material existence is
temporary and illusory, no more real than the mirage in the desert. In the
mirage of the desert there is no actual water. By the interaction of something
else there is the appearance of water. Real water is somewhere else. Similarly,
the manifestive cosmic Creation appears like reality, but the true reality, of
which this is but a reflection only, is somewhere else in the Spiritual World,
in which there are no mirages. Absolute Truth is there, and not here. Here
everything is relative truth, one seeming truth depending on another. This
cosmic Creation is an interactory resultant of the three modes of Nature, and
the temporary manifestations are so created as to present an illusion of reality
to the bewildered mind of the conditioned soul, appearing as so many species
of life, including the higher demigods like Brahma, Indra, Chandra, etc. In
fact there is no reality in the manifested world, but it appears so on account of
the True Reality in the Spiritual World, where the Personality of Godhead
eternally exists with His transcendental paraphernalia.

The chief engineer of a complicated construction does not personally take
part in the construction, but it is he only who knows all the nooks and corners
of the construction, because everything is done by his direction only. He knows
everything about the construction directly and indirectly. Similarly, the
Personality of Godhead, Who is the Supreme Engineer of this cosmic Crea-
