View source for Because the Lord's body and self are identical, His position is always different from that of the ordinary living entity, even when He descends to the material platform

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{{terms|"His form and self"|"Lord's body and self"}}
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{{compiler|Kanupriya|Visnu Murti}}
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[[Category:Because God]]
[[Category:God's Body and Self are Identical]]
[[Category:God's Position]]
[[Category:God Is Always]]
[[Category:Different From]]
[[Category:To That Of]]
[[Category:Ordinary]]
[[Category:God and the Living Entities]]
[[Category:Even When]]
[[Category:God's Descending]]
[[Category:God in the Material Platform]]
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" class="section" sec_index="0" parent="compilation" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is"><h2>Bhagavad-gita As It Is</h2>
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<div id="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is" text="BG Chapters 1 - 6"><h3>BG Chapters 1 - 6</h3>
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<div id="BG45_1" class="quote" parent="BG_Chapters_1_-_6" book="BG" index="158" link="BG 4.5" link_text="BG 4.5">
<div class="heading">Everything in relation to Him is spirit—whereas the conditioned soul is different from his material body. And because the Lord's body and self are identical, His position is always different from that of the ordinary living entity, even when He descends to the material platform.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:BG 4.5 (1972)|BG 4.5, Translation and Purport]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="trans text"><p style="display: inline;">The Personality of Godhead said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!</p>
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<div class="purport text"><p>In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.33) we have information of many, many incarnations of the Lord. It is stated there:</p>
:advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
:ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
:vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
:govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
<p>"I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda (Kṛṣṇa), who is the original person—absolute, infallible, without beginning. Although expanded into unlimited forms, He is still the same original, the oldest, and the person always appearing as a fresh youth. Such eternal, blissful, all-knowing forms of the Lord are usually not understood by even the best Vedic scholars, but they are always manifest to pure, unalloyed devotees."</p>
<p>It is also stated in Brahma-saṁhitā (5.39):</p>
:rāmādi-mūrtiṣu kalā-niyamena tiṣṭhan
:nānāvatāram akarod bhuvaneṣu kintu
:kṛṣṇaḥ svayaṁ samabhavat paramaḥ pumān yo
:govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
<p>"I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda (Kṛṣṇa), who is always situated in various incarnations such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha and many subincarnations as well, but who is the original Personality of Godhead known as Kṛṣṇa, and who incarnates personally also."</p>
<p>In the Vedas also it is said that the Lord, although one without a second, manifests Himself in innumerable forms. He is like the vaidūrya stone, which changes color yet still remains one. All those multiforms are understood by the pure, unalloyed devotees, but not by a simple study of the Vedas (vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau). Devotees like Arjuna are constant companions of the Lord, and whenever the Lord incarnates, the associate devotees also incarnate in order to serve the Lord in different capacities. Arjuna is one of these devotees, and in this verse it is understood that some millions of years ago when Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to the sun-god Vivasvān, Arjuna, in a different capacity, was also present. But the difference between the Lord and Arjuna is that the Lord remembered the incident whereas Arjuna could not remember. That is the difference between the part-and-parcel living entity and the Supreme Lord. Although Arjuna is addressed herein as the mighty hero who could subdue the enemies, he is unable to recall what had happened in his various past births. Therefore, a living entity, however great he may be in the material estimation, can never equal the Supreme Lord. Anyone who is a constant companion of the Lord is certainly a liberated person, but he cannot be equal to the Lord. The Lord is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as infallible (acyuta), which means that He never forgets Himself, even though He is in material contact. Therefore, the Lord and the living entity can never be equal in all respects, even if the living entity is as liberated as Arjuna. Although Arjuna is a devotee of the Lord, he sometimes forgets the nature of the Lord, but by the divine grace a devotee can at once understand the infallible condition of the Lord, whereas a nondevotee or a demon cannot understand this transcendental nature. Consequently these descriptions in the Gītā cannot be understood by demonic brains. Kṛṣṇa remembered acts which were performed by Him millions of years before, but Arjuna could not, despite the fact that both Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are eternal in nature. We may also note herein that a living entity forgets everything due to his change of body, but the Lord remembers because He does not change His sac-cid-ānanda body. He is advaita, which means there is no distinction between His body and Himself. Everything in relation to Him is spirit—whereas the conditioned soul is different from his material body. And because the Lord's body and self are identical, His position is always different from that of the ordinary living entity, even when He descends to the material platform. The demons cannot adjust themselves to this transcendental nature of the Lord, which the Lord Himself explains in the following verse.</p>
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG416LosAngelesJanuary31969_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="135" link="Lecture on BG 4.1-6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1969" link_text="Lecture on BG 4.1-6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1969">
<div class="heading">The Lord is always the same Absolute Truth, and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 4.1-6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1969|Lecture on BG 4.1-6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1969]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Madhudviṣa: The Lord is conscious of all His previous appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets everything about his past body as soon as he gets another. He shows that He is the Lord of all living entities by performing wonderful and superhuman activities while on this earthly planet. The Lord is always the same Absolute Truth, and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body. A question may now be raised as to why the Lord appears and disappears in this world at all. This is explained in the next verse.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: All right. Stop. We shall discuss next. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Very nice. All right. Any question regarding this discussion?</p>
<p>Balabhadra: I thought Kṛṣṇa was sixteen only.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Balabhadra: But in the Bhagavad-gītā it said that He was twenty or twenty-five.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like you see the sun, you say, "Twelve o'clock," or "Sun is older." But sun is the same thing. It is your calculation. Sun at twelve o'clock, midday, is not older than it was in the morning, but it is our calculation that "Sun is now, say, six hours older from His appearance. That is our calculation. So Kṛṣṇa is always sixteen, but we calculate like that.</p>
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