CC Madhya 25.33 (1975)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Below is the 1996 edition text, ready to be substituted with the 1975 one using the compile form.
TEXT 33
- ’brahma’-śabde kahe ‘ṣaḍ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa bhagavān’
- tāṅre ‘nirviśeṣa’ sthāpi, ‘pūrṇatā’ haya hāna
SYNONYMS
brahma-śabde—by the word brahma; kahe—is meant; ṣaṭ-aiśvarya-pūrṇa bhagavān—the Supreme Personality of Godhead, full in all six opulences; tāṅre—Him; nirviśeṣa sthāpi—if we make impersonal; pūrṇatā haya hāna—His completeness becomes damaged.
TRANSLATION
“The word ‘Brahman’ [‘the greatest’] indicates the Supreme Personality of Godhead, full in all six opulences. But if we take the onesided impersonalist view, His fullness is diminished.
PURPORT
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is originally the Supreme Person, and He expands Himself impersonally through His potency. As the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā (BG 9.4):
- mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
- mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ
“By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.” The potency of Kṛṣṇa that is spread everywhere is impersonal, just as the sunlight is the impersonal expansion of the sun globe and the sun-god. If we simply take one side of the Supreme Personality of Godhead—His impersonal effulgence—that one side does not fully explain the Absolute Truth. Impersonal appreciation of the Absolute Truth is one-sided and incomplete. One should also accept the other side, the personal side—Bhagavān. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate (SB 1.2.11). One should not be satisfied simply by understanding the Brahman feature of the Personality of Godhead. One must also know the Lord’s personal feature. That is complete understanding of the Absolute Truth.