PURPORT

One should note how Maharaja Pariksit intelligently put the questions before his spiritual master for scientific understanding of the transcendental body of the Lord. It has been described in many places before this that the Lord assumed a very gigantic body, like Karanodakasayi Visnu, from whose hair pores innumerable universes have generated. The body of the Garbhodakasayi Visnu is described as sprouting the lotus stem within which all the planets of the universe remain, and at the top of the stem there is the lotus flower on which Lord Brahma is born. In the creation of the material world He undoubtedly assumes the gigantic body, and living entities also get bodies, big or small, according to the respective necessity. For example, an elephant gets a gigantic body according to its needs, and so also an ant gets its body according to its needs. Similarly, if the Personality of Godhead assumes a gigantic body to accomodate the universes or the planets of a particular universe, there is no difference in the principle of assuming or accepting a particular type of body in terms of necessity. A living being and the Lord cannot be distinguished simply by the difference of the magnitude of the body. So the answer depends on the specific significance of the body of the Lord, as distinguished from the body of the common living being.