The Eternal Form Of The Personality Of Godhead

Perfection means that Kardama actually saw the Personality of Godhead. The form he saw was not imaginary. It is not that one can concentrate his mind on some arbitrary form of the imagination in meditation. It is clearly stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam: "The form which the Lord showed to Kardama was consistent with Vedic principles and can be understood through the study of the Vedas from authoritative sources." The eternal blissful form of the Lord is described in the Bhagavatam: "Kardama Muni saw that Supreme Personality of Godhead in His eternal form, effulgent like the sun. The Lord was wearing a garland of white lotuses and water lilies. He was clad in spotless yellow silk, His lotus face fringed with slick dark locks of curly hair; adorned with a crown of earrings, He held His characteristic conch and disc and mace in three of His hands and played with a white lily while smiling. His smiling captivates the hearts of all devotees. Having set His lotus feet on the shoulders of Garuda, He stood in the air with a golden streak on His breast and the famous Kaustubha gem suspended from His neck." The descriptions given in Srimad-Bhagavatam are not products of the material energy. Kardama did not meditate for 10,000 years simply in order to see an imaginary vision concocted by his own brain. Rather, he attained a level of perfection by which the Lord was pleased with Him and revealed His transcendental form, which is never revealed to impersonalists. Perfection of yoga does not end with voidness; on the contrary, perfection of yoga is attained when one sees the Personality of Godhead as He is in His eternal form.

When Kardama Muni saw the Lord, his transcendental desires were fulfilled, and he fell to the ground with head bowed and offered obeisances. He addressed the Supreme Personality of Godhead as follows: "O supreme worshipable Lord, You are the reservoir of all pleasure, and those who are advanced yogis aspire, through many, many births of performance of deep meditation, to see Your transcendental form." Again it is seen that Kardama reached the ultimate in yoga and acknowledged the goal to which yogis aspire after many lives of yoga practice. The point is not to see void but to see the spiritual form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Clearly, then, Kardama was in the most advanced stage. His next words spoken unto the Lord are therefore difficult at first to understand: "Desirous of marrying a girl of like disposition who may prove a veritable cow of plenty in my married life, I too sought the center of Your lotus feet to satisfy my lustful desire."

It is startling to hear a yogi, who is supposed to be freed from all attachment to material life by meditating in solitary celibate penance for many thousands of years and attaining sight of the Personality of Godhead, only asking for a nice wife. But explanation reveals to us that Kardama was even more exalted than we have so far understood. Not only did Kardama Muni not actually seek marriage out of lustful desire, but his desire was the desire of Krsna. As stated in the Bhagavatam, "I shall accept this nice chaste girl as my wife until she bears a child born out of the ray of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then I shall accept the life of devotional service which is practiced by the most perfect human beings. I know that this is the desire of Lord Visnu and that it is a process free from envy."

It was the practice in former ages that great sages and saintly persons, after making their lives perfect, would beget children in order to serve the Lord in that way, and but for engaging in sex life to produce exceptional progeny, they strictly observed the laws of celibacy. As for Kardama's statement about producing a child who would be a "ray of Visnu," it may be told that Kardama Muni is the father of the incarnation of Godhead Lord Kapila, who is Visnu Himself. Lord Kapila appeared as the son of Kardama Muni and Devahūti for the purpose of preaching the godly Sahkhya philosophy, which is a combination of mysticism and devotional service. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes in this connection, "One should beget a child who can perform the duties of Visnu, or else there is no need to produce children. There are two kinds of children born of good fathers. One is the child who is educated in Krsna consciousness so that he can be delivered from the clutches of maya in that very life, and the other is the child who brings forth the ray of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and who teaches the highest goal of life. Great householders pray to God to send His representative so that there may be an auspicious movement in human society, or they pray to the Lord for an opportunity to train a child in Krsna consciousness so that he won't have to come back again to this miserable world. Parents should see to it that the child born of them must not enter again into the womb of a mother."