TEXT 115
prakrta kariya mane visnu-kalevara
visnu-ninda ara nahi ihara upara
SYNONYMS
prakrtamaterial; kariyataking it to be so; maneaccepts; visnuLord Visnu's; kalevarabody; visnu-nindadefaming or blaspheming Lord Visnu; arabeyond this; nahinone; iharaof this; uparaabove.
TRANSLATION
"One who considers the transcendental body of Lord Visnu to be made of material nature is the greatest offender at the lotus feet of the Lord. There is no greater blasphemy against the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
PURPORT
Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami explains that the variegated personal feature of the Absolute Truth is the visnu-tattva and that the material energy, which creates this cosmic manifestation, is the energy of Lord Visnu. The creative force is merely the energy of the Lord, but the foolish conclude that because the Lord has distributed Himself in an impersonal form He has no separate existence.. The impersonal Brahman, however, cannot possess energies, nor does the Vedic literature state that maya (the illusory energy) is covered by another maya. There are hundreds and thousands of references, however, to visnu-maya (parasya saktih), or the energy of Lord Visnu. In the Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Krsna refers to mama maya ("My energy"). Maya is controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead; it is not that He is covered by maya. Therefore Lord Visnu cannot be a product of the material energy. In the beginning of the Vedanta-sutra it is said, janmady asya yatah, indicating that the material energy is also an emanation of the Supreme Brahman. How then could He be covered by the material energy? If that were possible, material energy would be greater than the Supreme Brahman. Even these simple arguments, however, cannot be understood by the Mayavadi philosophers, and therefore the term mayayapahrta-jnana, which is applied to them in the Bhagavad-gita, is extremely appropriate. Anyone who thinks that Lord Visnu is a product of the material energy, as explained by Sadananda Yogindra, should immediately be understood to be insane, for his knowledge has been stolen by the illusory energy.
Lord Visnu cannot be placed within the category of the demigods. Those who are actually bewildered by the Mayavada philosophy and are still in the darkness of ignorance consider Lord Visnu to be a demigod, in defiance of the Rg-vedic mantra om tad visnoh paramam padam ("Visnu is always in a superior position"). This mantra is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita: mattah parataram nanyat-there is no truth superior to Lord Krsna, or Visnu. Thus only those whose knowledge has been bewildered consider Lord Visnu to be a demigod and therefore suggest that one may worship either Lord Visnu, the goddess Kali ( Durga) or whomever one likes and achieve the same result. This is an ignorant conclusion that is not accepted in the Bhagavad-gita, which distinctly says, yanti deva-vrata devan . . . yanti mad-yajino'pi mam: "The worshipers of the demigods will be promoted to the respective planets of the demigods, but devotees of the Supreme Lord will go back home, back to Godhead." (Bg. 9.25) Lord Krsna explains very clearly in the Bhagavad-gita that His material energy is very difficult to overcome: daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya. Maya's influence is so strong that even learned scholars and spiritualists are also covered by maya and think themselves to be as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Actually, however, to free oneself from the influence of maya one must surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as Krsna also states in the Bhagavad-gita: mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te. It is to be concluded, therefore, that Lord Visnu does not belong to this material creation but to the spiritual world. To misconceive Lord Visnu to have a material body or to equate Him with the demigods is the most offensive blasphemy against Lord Visnu, and offenders against the lotus feet of Lord Visnu cannot advance in spiritual knowledge. They are called mayayapahrta-jnana, or those whose knowledge has been stolen by the influence of illusion.
One who thinks that there is a difference between Lord Visnu's body and His soul dwells in the darkest region of ignorance. There is no difference between Lord Visnu's body and Visnu's soul, for they are advaya-jnana, one knowledge. In this world there is a difference between the material body and the spiritual soul, but in the spiritual world everything is spiritual, and there are no such differences. The greatest offense of the Mayavadi philosophers is to consider Lord Visnu and the living entities to be one and the same. In this connection the Padma Purana states, arcye visnau sila-dhir gurusu nara-matir vaisnave jati-buddhih: "One who considers the arca-murti, the worshipable Deity of Lord Visnu, to be stone, the spiritual master to be an ordinary human being, and a Vaisnava to belong to a particular caste or creed, is possessed of hellish intelligence." One who follows such conclusions is doomed.

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