Text 36
jñāto ’haṁ bhavatā tv adya
durvijñeyo ’pi dehinām
yan māṁ tvaṁ manyase ’yuktaṁ
bhūtendriya-guṇātmabhiḥ
jñātaḥ — known; aham — Myself; bhavatā — by you; tu — but; adya — today; duḥ — difficult; vijñeyaḥ — to be known; api — in spite of; dehinām — for the conditioned soul; yat — because; mām — Me; tvam — you; manyase — understand; ayuktam — without being made of; bhūta — material elements; indriya — material senses; guṇa — material modes; ātmabhiḥ — and false ego like the conditioned soul.
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.
Knowledge of the Supreme Absolute Truth does not necessitate negation of the material manifestation but understanding of spiritual existence as it is. To think that because material existence is realized in forms therefore spiritual existence must be formless is only a negative material conception of spirit. The real spiritual conception is that spiritual form is not material form. Brahmā appreciated the eternal form of the Lord in that way, and the Personality of Godhead approved of Brahmā’s spiritual conception. In Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa condemned the material conception of His body, a conception that arises because He is apparently present like a man. The Lord may appear in any of His many, many spiritual forms, but He is not materially composed, nor has He any difference between body and self. That is the way of conceiving the spiritual form of the Lord.