Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 2.25

bhakti-yoge bhakta pāya yāńhāra darśana

sūrya yena savigraha dekhe deva-gaṇa

SYNONYMS

bhakti-yoge — by devotional service; bhakta — the devotee; pāya — obtains; yāńhāra — whose; darśana — sight; sūrya — the sun-god; yena — like; sa-vigraha — with form; dekhe — they see; deva-gaṇa — the denizens of heaven.

TRANSLATION

Through their service, devotees see that Personality of Godhead, just as the denizens of heaven see the personality of the sun.

PURPORT

The Supreme Personality of Godhead has His eternal form, which cannot be seen by material eyes or mental speculation. Only by transcendental devotional service can one understand the transcendental form of the Lord. The comparison is made here to the qualifications for viewing the personal features of the sun-god. The sun-god is a person who, although not visible to our eyes, is seen from the higher planets by the demigods, whose eyes are suitable for seeing through the glaring sunshine that surrounds him. Every planet has its own atmosphere according to the influence of the arrangement of material nature. It is therefore necessary to have a particular type of bodily construction to reach a particular planet. The inhabitants of earth may be able to reach the moon, but the inhabitants of heaven can reach even the fiery sphere called the sun. What is impossible for man on earth is easy for the demigods in heaven because of their different bodies. Similarly, to see the Supreme Lord one must have the spiritual eyes of devotional service. The Personality of Godhead is unapproachable by those who are habituated to speculation about the Absolute Truth in terms of experimental scientific thought, without reference to the transcendental vibration. The ascending approach to the Absolute Truth ends in the realization of impersonal Brahman and the localized Paramātmā but not the Supreme Transcendental Personality.

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