Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 3.9.36
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Lord’s Form Is Spiritual
“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.”
What the purport teaches
- Understanding spiritual existence does not require denying the material manifestation. Spiritual form is not material form.
- Brahmā understood the Lord’s eternal form as free from material composition, and the Lord approved his understanding.
- Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is not materially composed even when He appears like a man. There is no difference between His body and His self.
Try this today
Reread the translation and reflect for one minute on the Lord’s form being entirely spiritual.
Ask yourself
Do I sometimes assume that a spiritual form must either be material or have no form at all?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.