Page 6 - History of Tirupathi Balaji and comparison of Sri Vaishnava

Without pure Bhakti (love and devotion for Krishna) one cannot see the
personal form of the Lord
Lord Krishna and His expansions are not visible to foolish persons who deride
Him. (Bg 9.11) The Mayavadi philosophers and yogis as well as the atheists
and demonic persons continually deride the Lord. The Mayavadi impersonalists
say the Lord is “arupam” which means He has no form or body and thus no
eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin. In other words they purport that He is blind,
deaf, dumb, and without any senses. This implies He cannot accept our offerings
such as food, incense, fl owers, etc. When the Lord is referred to as “arupam”
in the Upanisads such as the Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.10), it means that the
Lord’s body is not material like ours. Rather He has a transcendental body of
sat (eternity), cit (absolute knowledge) and ananda (bliss). These are spiritual,
eternal energies that constitute His body. Material bodies are constituted of
temporarily manifest earth, water, fi re, air, mucus, bile, stool, urine, etc. These
material energies are eternal, but material bodies made of these elements are
not eternal. Also these material energies disappear at one point although they
continue to exist as potential energies. The Mayavadi philosophers falsely believe
that if one has a body, it must be material. This is not true when we consider the
body of Krishna and liberated souls in the spiritual worlds.
For the materialists, atheists and speculators Krishna is considered a
historical character, a learned scholar, an ordinary man who was powerful
with a temporary material body. Ultimately they think the Absolute Truth is
impersonal. Lord Krishna say, Unintelligent men, who do not know Me perfectly, think
that I, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, was impersonal before and have now
assumed this personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature,
which is imperishable and supreme.(Bg 7.24) Yamunacharya, one of the great Alvar
Saints has written, My dear Lord, devotees like Vyasadeva and Narada know You to be
the Personality of Godhead. By understanding different Vedic literatures, one can come to
know Your characteristics, Your form and Your activities, and one can thus understand that
You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But those who are in the modes of passion
and ignorance, the demons, the nondevotees, cannot understand You. They are unable
to understand You. However expert such nondevotees may be in discussing Vedanta and
the Upanisads and other Vedic literatures, it is not possible for them to understand the
Personality of Godhead. (Stotra-ratna 12) There are many more foolish speculative
theories propounded by persons who ignore or are ignorant of the proper
understanding of the Vedic revelation.
Even the demigods who are universal administrators in charge of the sun,
moon, wind, rain, etc., and populate the material universe with living entities
have diffi culties understanding Lord Krishna. The chief demigods are Brahma
and Siva. Brahma is the subordinate creator of the material universe after Lord
Krishna and Siva is in charge of its annihilation. They are sometimes baffl ed by
the inconceivable potencies and infi nite personal expansions of Lord Krishna.
In the same way, the greatest sages in the universe who are authorities of Vedic
wisdom are also incapable of understanding the intricacies of Lord Krishna’s
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