Text 36
na hi virodha ubhayaṁ bhagavaty aparimita-guṇa-gaṇa īśvare ’navagāhya-māhātmye ’rvācīna-vikalpa-vitarka-vicāra-pramāṇābhāsa-kutarka-śāstra-kalilāntaḥkaraṇāśraya-duravagraha-vādināṁ vivādānavasara uparata-samasta-māyāmaye kevala evātma-māyām antardhāya ko nv artho durghaṭa iva bhavati svarūpa-dvayābhāvāt.
na — not; hi — certainly; virodhaḥ — contradiction; ubhayam — both; bhagavati — in the Supreme Personality of Godhead; aparimita — unlimited; guṇa-gaṇe — whose transcendental attributes; īśvare — in the supreme controller; anavagāhya — possessing; māhātmye — unfathomable ability and glories; arvācīna — recent; vikalpa — full of equivocal calculations; vitarka — opposing arguments; vicāra — judgments; pramāṇa-ābhāsa — imperfect evidence; kutarka — useless arguments; śāstra — by unauthorized scriptures; kalila — agitated; antaḥkaraṇa — minds; āśraya — whose shelter; duravagraha — with wicked obstinacies; vādinām — of theorists; vivāda — of the controversies; anavasare — not within the range; uparata — withdrawn; samasta — from whom all; māyā-maye — illusory energy; kevale — without a second; eva — indeed; ātma-māyām — the illusory energy, which can do and undo the inconceivable; antardhāya — placing between; kaḥ — what; nu — indeed; arthaḥ — meaning; durghaṭaḥ — impossible; iva — as it were; bhavati — is; sva-rūpa — natures; dvaya — of two; abhāvāt — due to the absence.
O Supreme Personality of Godhead, all contradictions can be reconciled in You. O Lord, since You are the Supreme Person, the reservoir of unlimited spiritual qualities, the supreme controller, Your unlimited glories are inconceivable to the conditioned souls. Many modern theologians argue about right and wrong without knowing what is actually right. Their arguments are always false and their judgments inconclusive because they have no authorized evidence with which to gain knowledge of You. Because their minds are agitated by scriptures containing false conclusions, they are unable to understand the truth concerning You. Furthermore, because of polluted eagerness to arrive at the right conclusion, their theories are incapable of revealing You, who are transcendental to their material conceptions. You are one without a second, and therefore in You contradictions like doing and not doing, happiness and distress, are not contradictory. Your potency is so great that it can do and undo anything as You like. With the help of that potency, what is impossible for You? Since there is no duality in Your constitutional position, You can do everything by the influence of Your energy.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, being self-sufficient, is full of transcendental bliss (ātmārāma). He enjoys bliss in two ways — when He appears happy and when He appears distressed. Distinctions and contradictions are impossible in Him because only from Him have they emanated. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the reservoir of all knowledge, all potency, all strength, opulence and influence. There is no limit to His powers. Since He is full in all transcendental attributes, nothing abominable from the material world can exist in Him. He is transcendental and spiritual, and therefore conceptions of material happiness and distress do not apply to Him.
We should not be astonished to find contradictions in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Actually there are no contradictions. That is the meaning of His being supreme. Because He is all-powerful, He is not subject to the conditioned soul’s arguments regarding His existence or nonexistence. He is pleased to protect His devotees by killing their enemies. He enjoys both the killing and the protecting.
Such freedom from duality applies not only to the Lord but also to His devotees. In Vṛndāvana, the damsels of Vrajabhūmi enjoy transcendental bliss in the company of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, and they feel the same transcendental bliss in separation when Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma leave Vṛndāvana for Mathurā. There is no question of material pains or pleasures for either the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His pure devotees, although they are sometimes superficially said to be distressed or happy. One who is ātmārāma is blissful in both ways.
Nondevotees cannot understand the contradictions present in the Supreme Lord or His devotees. Therefore in Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti: the transcendental pastimes can be understood through devotional service; to nondevotees they are inconceivable. Acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet: the Supreme Lord and His form, name, pastimes and paraphernalia are inconceivable to nondevotees, and one should not try to understand such realities simply by logical arguments. They will not bring one to the right conclusion about the Absolute Truth.