Text 24
praśānta māyā-guṇa-karma-liṅgam
anāma-rūpaṁ sad-asad-vimuktam
jñānopadeśāya gṛhīta-dehaṁ
namāmahe tvāṁ puruṣaṁ purāṇam
praśānta — O completely peaceful one; māyā-guṇa — the modes of material nature; karma-liṅgam — symptomized by fruitive activities; anāma-rūpam — one who has no material name or form; sat-asat-vimuktam — transcendental to the manifested and nonmanifested modes of material nature; jñāna-upadeśāya — for distributing transcendental knowledge (as in Bhagavad-gītā); gṛhīta-deham — has assumed a form like a material body; namāmahe — I offer my respectful obeisances; tvām — unto You; puruṣam — the Supreme Person; purāṇam — the original.
O completely peaceful Lord, although material nature, fruitive activities and their consequent material names and forms are Your creation, You are unaffected by them. Therefore, Your transcendental name is different from material names, and Your form is different from material forms. You assume a form resembling a material body just to give us instructions like those of Bhagavad-gītā, but actually You are the supreme original person. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
Śrīla Yāmunācārya has recited this verse in his Stotra-ratna (43):
bhavantam evānucaran nirantaraḥ
praśānta-niḥśeṣa-manorathāntaraḥ
kadāham aikāntika-nitya-kiṅkaraḥ
praharṣayiṣyāmi sanātha-jīvitam
“By serving You constantly, one is freed from all material desires and is completely pacified. When shall I engage as Your permanent eternal servant and always feel joyful to have such a fitting master?”
Manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ: one who acts on the mental platform must descend to material activities. Material contamination, however, is completely absent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His pure devotee. Therefore the Lord is addressed as praśānta, completely peaceful, free from the disturbances of material existence. The Supreme Lord has no material name or form; only the foolish think that the Lord’s name and form are material (avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam). The identity of the Supreme Lord is that He is the original person. Nonetheless, those who have but a poor fund of knowledge think that the Lord is formless. The Lord is formless in the material sense, but He has His transcendental form (sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha).