Ishopanishad says God’s body has no veins, whereas SB says rivers are the veins of Virat rupa – how to reconcile?
From Gunjan Mala Vaswani Mataji
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
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Hare Krishna.
Question. In the Isopanishad it is said that asna viram that the Lord has no veins. But in the second canto of Bhagavatam, in Viratgupa description, it is said that the Lord has veins and the rivers are like the blood flowing through the vessels, the veins of the Lord.
So how do we reconcile this? Answer. The Bhagavatam is a conceptual, the Bhagavatam, the Viratgupa that is described is a conceptualized manifestation of the Lord. It means kalpitaha.
It is said in the Bhagavatam that kalpitaha means in this way, the Viratgupa is imagined by the Lord. So that means the purpose of the Viratgupa is to give a conception of the greatness of God, of God’s personhood, to give a conception of the greatness of God’s personhood to those who can think of greatness only in terms of size. So for those who cannot appreciate, oh how can this person who is standing next to me, who is playing a flute, how can he be God? God must be very great.
He is the source of the whole universe. So to give people a conception of the greatness of God, they are asked to conceptualize a form which is very great. And that’s why we will see that although the Viratgupa is described in the second canto, but similar prayers to Viratgupa occur in different parts of the Bhagavatam.
And wherever they occur, at different places, different things are described. Sometimes the eyes of the Lord are compared to one thing and sometimes the eyes are compared to another thing. Like that the chest of the Lord is also compared to different things at different places.
So the point is that the kalpitaha, the conceptualization can be done in different ways. So it’s not a, there is no Viratgupa loka where the Viratgupa exists. Viratgupa when it is conceptualized, it subsumes.
Subsume means contain as a subset within oneself. It subsumes the whole universe within itself, the Viratgupa. So it’s a conceptualization to get people to appreciate the greatness of God.
And eventually from there a person can meditate on the Supersoul and then on the avatars and then on the Supreme Lord Krishna. That’s the progression of the conception of divinity that is given in the Bhagavatam. Now when Ishopanishad says that the Lord does not have any veins, so that is stated primarily to emphasize that his body is not material like ours.
Akaya means he does not have, we can say that literally it means he does not have a body. But after we said he does not have a body, why do you have to say Ashnaaviram? That he doesn’t have any veins. So the point is he does not have a body which has veins.
He has a transcendental body and that is indicated by the fact that he walks. So essentially to emphasize the point that his body is not material like ours, a word Ashnaaviram is used. Thank you.