SB 1.2.11 (1962)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 11
Vadanti tat tatwavidas tatwam yad jnanam adwayam Brahmeti parmatma iti bhagawan iti sabdyate.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Vadanti—they say, tat—that, tatwavidas—the learned souls, tatwam—the absolute truth, yad—which, jnanam—knowledge, adwayam—non-dual, brahmeti—called by the name of Brahman, Paramatma iti—called by the name of Paramatma, bhagawan iti—called by the name of Bhagawan, sabdyate—it is so sounded.
TRANSLATION
Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call the nondual substance as Absolute Who is known as Brahman, Parmatma or Bhagwan.
PURPORT
The Absolute Truth is both subject and object and there is no qualitative difference there. Therefore, Brahman, Parmatma and Bhagwan are qualitatively one and the same. The same substance is realised as impersonal Brahman by the student of Upanishads, as localised Parmatma by the Hiranyagarvas or the yogis and as Bhagwan by the devotees. In other words Bhagwan or the Personality of Godhead is the last word of the Absolute Truth. Parmatma is a partial representation of the Personality of Godhead and impersonal Brahman is the glowing effulgence of the Personality of Godhead as the sun rays are to the Sun-God. Less intelligent students of either of the above schools sometimes argues in favour of his own respective realisation but those who are perfect seers of the Absolute Truth know it well that the above three features of the One Absolute Truth are a different perspective view of the seer from different angles of vision.
As it is explained in the first sloka of the first chapter of the Bhagwat, the Supreme Truth is self-sufficient, cognisant and freed from the illusion of relativity. In the relative world the knower is different from the known but in the Absolute Truth both the knower and the known are one and the same thing. In the relative world the knower is the living spirit or superior quality of energy whereas the known is inert matter or inferior quality of energy. Therefore, there is a duality of inferior and superior quality of energy whereas in the Absolute realm both the knower and the known are of the same superior quality energy. There are three kinds of energies of the Supreme Energetic. There is no difference between the energy and energetic but there is difference of quality in the matter of energies. The absolute realm and the living entities are of the same superior quality of energy but the material world is of inferior quality of energy. The living being in contact with the inferior quality of energy is illusioned as belonging to the inferior quality of energy and therefore there is the sense of relativity in the material world. In the Absolute there is no such sense of difference between the knower and the known and therefore everything there is Absolute.