Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 3.9.36

jnato 'ham bhavata tv adya

durvijneyo 'pi dehinam

yan mam tvam manyase 'yuktam

bhutendriya-gunatmabhih

SYNONYMS

jnatah -- known; aham -- Myself; bhavata -- by you; tu -- but; adya -- today; duh -- difficult; vijneyah -- to be known; api -- in spite of; dehinam -- for the conditioned soul; yat -- because; mam -- Me; tvam -- you; manyase -- understand; ayuktam -- without being made of; bhuta -- material elements; indriya -- material senses; guna -- material modes; atmabhih -- and false ego like the conditioned soul.

TRANSLATION

Although I am not easily knowable by the conditioned soul, you have known Me today because you know that My personality is not constituted of anything material, and specifically not of the five gross and three subtle elements.

PURPORT

Knowledge of the Supreme Absolute Truth does not necessitate negation of the material manifestation but understanding of spiritual existence as it is. To think that because material existence is realized in forms therefore spiritual existence must be formless is only a negative material conception of spirit. The real spiritual conception is that spiritual form is not material form. Brahma appreciated the eternal form of the Lord in that way, and the Personality of Godhead approved of Brahma's spiritual conception. In Bhagavad-gita the Lord condemned the material conception of Krishna's body which arises because He is apparently present like a man. The Lord may appear in any of His many, many spiritual forms, but He is not materially composed, nor has He any difference between body and self. That is the way of conceiving the spiritual form of the Lord.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness