TEXT 167
sri-vigraha ye na mane, sei ta' pasandi
adrsya asprsya, sei haya yama-dandi
SYNONYMS
sri-vigrahathe form of the Lord; yeanyone who; nanot; maneaccepts; seihe; ta'-indeed; pasandiagnostic; adrsyanot to be seen; asprsyauntouchable; seihe; hayais; yama-dandisubject to be punished by Yamaraja.
TRANSLATION
"One who does not accept the transcendental form of the Lord is certainly an agnostic. Such a person should be neither seen nor touched. Indeed, he is subject to be punished by Yamaraja.
PURPORT
According to the Vedic instructions, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has His eternal, transcendental form, which is always blissful and full of knowledge. Impersonalists think that "material" refers to the forms within our experience and that "spiritual" refers to an absence of form. However, one should know that beyond this material nature is another nature, which is spiritual. Just as there are material forms in this material world, there are spiritual forms in the spiritual world. This is confirmed by all Vedic literature. The spiritual forms in the transcendental world have nothing to do with the negative conception of formlessness. The conclusion is that a person is an agnostic when he does not agree to worship the transcendental form of the Lord.
Actually, at the present moment all systems of religion deny the worship of the form of the Lord due to ignorance of His transcendental form. The first-class materialists (the Mayavadis) imagine five specific forms of the Lord, but when they try to equate the worship of such imaginary forms with bhakti, they are immediately condemned. Lord Sri Krsna confirms this in the Bhagavad-gita (7.15), where He says, na mam duskrtino mudhah prapadyante naradhamah. Bereft of real knowledge due to agnosticism, the Mayavadi philosophers should not even be seen by the devotees of the Lord, nor touched, because those philosophers are liable to be punished by Yamaraja, the superintendent demigod who judges the activities of sinful men. The Mayavadi agnostics wander within this universe in different species of life due to their nondevotional activities. Such living entities are subjected to the punishments of Yamaraja. Only the devotees, who are always engaged in the service of the Lord, are exempt from the jurisdiction of Yamaraja.

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