SB 01.07.23 tvam adyah purusah saksad... cited

Expressions researched:
"isvarah prakrteh parah" |"kaivalye sthita atmani" |"mayam vyudasya cic-chaktya" |"tvam adyah purusah saksad"

SB Canto 1

SB 1.7.23, Translation and Purport:

You are the original Personality of Godhead who expands Himself all over the creations and is transcendental to material energy. You have cast away the effects of the material energy by dint of Your spiritual potency. You are always situated in eternal bliss and transcendental knowledge.

The Lord states in the Bhagavad-gītā that one who surrenders unto the lotus feet of the Lord can get release from the clutches of nescience. Kṛṣṇa is just like the sun, and māyā or material existence is just like darkness. Wherever there is the light of the sun, darkness or ignorance at once vanishes. The best means to get out of the world of ignorance is suggested here. The Lord is addressed herein as the original Personality of Godhead. From Him all other Personalities of Godhead expand. The all-pervasive Lord Viṣṇu is Lord Kṛṣṇa's plenary portion or expansion. The Lord expands Himself in innumerable forms of Godhead and living beings, along with His different energies. But Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original primeval Lord from whom everything emanates. The all-pervasive feature of the Lord experienced within the manifested world is also a partial representation of the Lord. Paramātmā, therefore, is included within Him. He is the Absolute Personality of Godhead. He has nothing to do with the actions and reactions of the material manifestation because He is far above the material creation. Darkness is a perverse representation of the sun, and therefore the existence of darkness depends on the existence of the sun, but in the sun proper there is no trace of darkness. As the sun is full of light only, similarly the Absolute Personality of Godhead, beyond the material existence, is full of bliss. He is not only full of bliss, but also full of transcendental variegatedness. Transcendence is not at all static, but full of dynamic variegatedness. He is distinct from the material nature, which is complicated by the three modes of material nature. He is parama, or the chief. Therefore He is absolute. He has manifold energies, and through His diverse energies He creates, manifests, maintains and destroys the material world. In His own abode, however, everything is eternal and absolute. The world is not conducted by the energies or powerful agents by themselves, but by the potent all-powerful with all energies.

SB Canto 8

SB 8.1.13, Purport:

Although the material and spiritual energies both belong to the Lord, He is impossible to understand as long as we are in the material energy. And when we come to the spiritual energy, He is very easy to know. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.7.23): māyāṁ vyudasya cic-chaktyā kaivalye sthita ātmani. Although the external energy belongs to the Lord, when one is in the external energy (mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14)) He is very difficult to understand. However, when one comes to the spiritual energy, one can understand Him. Therefore in Bhagavad-gītā (18.55) it is said, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ: one who wants to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead in reality must take to the platform of bhakti, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This bhakti consists of various activities (śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam/ arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam (SB 7.5.23)), and to understand the Lord one must take to this path of devotional service. Even though the people of the world have forgotten God and may say that God is dead, this is not a fact. One can understand God when one takes to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and thus one can be happy.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.7.23 -- Vrndavana, September 20, 1976:

Prabhupāda: What is that difficulty?

Hari-śauri: This was yesterday's verse, Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: All right, just go on. What is that?

Devotee:

tvam ādyaḥ puruṣaḥ sākṣād

īśvaraḥ prakṛteḥ paraḥ

māyāṁ vyudasya cic-chaktyā

kaivalye sthita ātmani

(SB 1.7.23)

"You are the original Personality of Godhead who expands Himself all over the creations and is transcendental to material energy. You have cast away the effects of the material energy by dint of Your spiritual potency. You are always situated in eternal bliss and transcendental knowledge."

Prabhupāda:

tvam ādyaḥ puruṣaḥ sākṣād

īśvaraḥ prakṛteḥ paraḥ

māyāṁ vyudasya cic-chaktyā

kaivalye sthita ātmani

So, we have to know the Supreme Personality of Godhead through authority, not by speculation. Speculation is no use.

athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-

prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi

jānāti tattvaṁ bhagavan-mahimno

na cānya eko 'pi ciraṁ vicinvan

(SB 10.14.29)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead can be known by a person who has got a slight favor of the Lord upon him. This is the Vedic version. Nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena. Ātmā, the Supreme Absolute Truth, cannot be understood... Nāyam ātmā na pravacanena labhyaḥ... By becoming a great debater one can understand the Supreme—that's not possible. Nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na bahunā śrutena. Nor by a person who is very vastly learned or by a great scientist or philosopher, na medhayā—in this way we cannot understand. But one who is surrendered, he can understand. Arjuna is surrendered. In every case he surrendered to Kṛṣṇa. As soon as there is any problem... Problem or no problem, he surrendered. Not that "When there is problem I am surrendered, and when there is no problem I am independent." No. Always surrendered. That is Arjuna's position.