Guṇān, these guṇa, samatītya, samyag-rūpeṇa atītya, perfectly overcoming. Sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. Immediately he is situated in the Brahman platform. So ātmā is nirguṇa. Nirguṇa stage means when you are engaged in devotional service, that is your nirguṇa stage. Devotional service is nirguṇa. All other services or activities... We are rendering service. Either you are rendering service in office, or to your family, or to your cat, or to your dog, or to your government, or to your society—you must be giving some service. There is no escape. But that is saguṇa service, under these material laws. So you have to give nirguṇa service. If you give nirguṇa, then you become nirguṇa.
Then what is that nirguṇa? When you render service to Kṛṣṇa.
- māṁ ca 'vyabhicāreṇa
- bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate
- sa guṇān samatītyaitān
- brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
- (BG 14.26)
It is not difficult at all. You can become immediately nirguṇa as soon as you engage in the service of the Lord. And so long you keep yourself in that position, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you remain nirguṇa. Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te (BG 7.14). Saguṇa means māyā. Kṛṣṇa says, mām eva ye prapadyante: "One who surrenders to Me," māyām etāṁ taranti, "no māyā touching; no in contamination of māyā." Māyām etāṁ taranti. There is nirguṇa. Nirguṇa means be engaged in the devotional..., loving devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. That is... Then you are svarūpa-darśana, ātma-darśana. That is your ātma-darśana, nirguṇa. Prakṛteḥ para. As Kṛṣṇa is prakṛteḥ para... Prakṛteḥ... Prakṛti means this material world, and para means transcendental. So prakṛteḥ para. You cannot serve Kṛṣṇa unless you also become prakṛteḥ parḥ, not within this material world.
So to accept your service, to make you nirguṇa, prakṛteḥ para, Kṛṣṇa accepts this arcā-vigraha to accept your service. Kṛṣṇa is standing here, you offering, and He is ready to accept your service. "No, I am very poor man." No, the poor, rich, He doesn't concern. Ahaituky apratihatā. Service rendering to Kṛṣṇa cannot be checked in any material circumstance. Ahaituky apratihatā. Apratihatā means it cannot be checked. Any position, you can do. Māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Even if you are born in the low-grade family, pāpa-yoni, striyaḥ śūdrās tathā vaiśyās te 'pi yānti parām, everyone is delivered. These things are there.
So this is ātma-darśana, that how to become nirguṇa, how to become transcendental, prakṛteḥ para. Pratyag-dhāmā..., pratyag-dhāmā, all-pervading. Of course, we cannot become all-pervading. But we are limited all-pervading. Kṛṣṇa is actual all-pervading. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata (BG 13.3). In the chapter kṣetra and kṣetra-jña, "the body and the proprietor of the body," Kṛṣṇa say that the soul is kṣetra-jña and the body is kṣetra. Actually, you are doing. Kṣetra means just like you work in the field. If you have got one acre of land, you do your tilling, agricultural work, in that. If you have got 100 acres of land... So similarly, we have got a particular type of field of activities, this body. I can do something; you can do something else. So this is kṣetra-kṣetra-jña. But this is... So far individual living entity, soul, is concerned, he is also all-pervading. All-pervading means within this limited body. So long I am present within this body, anywhere of the body I feel, I am present here. You pinch; you feel, "Yes, there is pain." That means I am present here. I am present there. This is called consciousness.