Mantra 15-18

 
Assignment 5.1
Choose one verse/passage from this section which you find difficulty in
understanding — examine and explain why. If you don't have any difficulty in
understanding, then explain the verses 15 to 18 to a layman or a complete beginner
to Krishna consciousness in a way he can understand.

A. The Supreme Absolute Truth is realized in  three aspects as Brahman,

Paramatma and Bhagavan.  The God realization is a great science. 
The worshipers of the impersonal Brahman are jnanis - who have cultivated Vedic
knowledge, By realizing brahma jyoti, one experiences the auspicious aspect of the
Supreme.

The worshipers of the Paramatma feature are yogis - has realized the Paramatma
feature of the Lord by meditation. and by realizing the Paramātmā, or all-pervading
feature of the Supreme, one experiences an even more auspicious enlightenment. 

The devotees of Lord Sri Krsna are Bhaktas - who constantly serve the Lord with
all his energies.  by meeting the Personality of Godhead Himself face to face, the
devotee experiences the most auspicious feature of the Supreme. 
It is stated in Bhagavad Gita that amongst all types of transcendentalists he who
follows bhakti yoga, constantly engaged in the service of the Lord is the highest
and this is the perfection. One previous acharya Srila Jiva Goswami states that the
complete conception of the Absolute Truth is realized in the Personality of
Godhead because He is almighty and possesses full transcendental potencies.  

The materialists can only analyze and meditate on the twenty four facts of the
material creation(frutive workers), the impersonal transcendentalists are simply
bewildered by the glaring effulgence of the brahma jyoti . if one wants to see the
Absolute Truth in full, he has to penetrate beyond the twenty four material
elements and the glaring effulgence as well.  Unless this covering is removed, then 
only one can perceive the Personality of Godhead as He is. The brahma-jyotir is
described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the rays emanating from that supreme spiritual
planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana. Until one surpasses the glare of the brahma-jyotir, one
cannot receive information of the land of the Lord. 

Śrī Īśopaniṣad gives us simple prayers to the Lord to remove the effulgent rays of
the brahma-jyotir so that the pure devotee can see His all-blissful transcendental
form.
In the material world, material nature displays wonderful workmanship by creating
varieties of bodies for the living beings according to their propensities for sense
gratification. There are 8,400,000 species of life. The living entity who wants to
taste stool is given a material body that is quite suitable for eating stool – that of a
hog. the material bodies of all animals and men are foreign to the living entity.
They change according to the living entity’s desire for sense gratification. In the
cycle of evolution, the living entity changes bodies one after another. The highest
developed form is this human form when it is possessed of a full sense of spiritual
knowledge. only in this human form of life we get a chance to obtain
transcendental knowledge. 

Intelligent human beings must always remember that the soul obtains a human
form after an evolution of many millions of years in the cycle of transmigration.
Therefore  one should utilise this human form of life and can easily attain the
mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by engaging in devotional services
which consists of nine transcendental activities like hearing, glorifying,
remembering, serving the Lotus feet, worshipping, offering prayers, serving
enjoying friendly association and surrendering everything of the Supreme Lord. 
and especially hearing and chanting of the science of God is the most basic
principle of devotional life. 

And finally to achieve perfection and free ourselves from this embodiment, we
have an perfect question and Answer, answered very well. In the Srimad
Bhagavatam Sukadeva gosvami answers  to the Question of Maharaja Parikisit
who  asked, what is the duty of every man, specifically at the time of death, the
answer was that everyone who is desirous of being free from all anxieties should
always hear about, glorify and remember the Personality of Godhead. of Godhead,
who is the Supreme director of everything, extinguisher of all difficulties and the
Supersoul of all living entities.  
By practicing the devotional services sincerely one must surrender unto the
Supreme Lord to protect one from past misdeeds.  Therefore hearing and chanting
of the glories of the Lord are in themselves acts of piety, by hearing and chanting
of the glories of the Lord, one becomes cleansed of all undesirable things, and his
devotion becomes fixed upon the Lord.  one attains all brahmanical qualifications
like truthfulness, sense control, forbearance, simplicity, full knowledge and full
faith in God. all our past karmas completely vanish, and one attains the Supreme
destination of going home back to Godhead by becoming a pure devotee.  
The Lord fully maintains His unalloyed devotees, and He guides them
progressively on the path toward devotional perfection. As the leader of His
devotees, He ultimately awards the desired results of devotional service by giving
Himself to them. The devotees of the Lord see the Lord eye to eye by His causeless
mercy; thus the Lord helps His devotees reach the supermost spiritual planet,
Goloka Vṛndāvana. Being the creator, He can bestow all necessary qualifications
upon His devotees so that they can ultimately reach Him. The Lord is the cause of
all causes. In other words, since there is nothing that caused Him, He is the original
cause.
So the simple prayers of Isopanisad help us to pray to the Lord seeking His Highest
benediction of  engaging us in His transcendental eternal devotional services in His
transcendental abode. 

Assignment 5.2
Establish, in your own words, with appropriate evidence from all the verses of Sri
Ishopanishad and purports, analogies and Srila Prabhupada’s Sri Ishopanishad
lectures, the personal form of the Lord.
You should have at least 8 points in your answer with reference to at least 4
verses/purports.
A.   The Supreme Personality of Godhead is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. Find
below the points about the personal form of the Lord. 

From these chosen 4 verses of Sri Isopanisad it is easily proved that the Supreme
Personality of Godhead is a person,  
From invocation : As the Supreme Lord is complete and perfect He is able to
create something which is also complete and perfect,  He is also mentioned as Sat
Cid Ananda Vigraha, that He is eternal, full of knowledge and a blissful
Personality.  how can some impersonal being ever create. If someone is formless
then how  can He create something so complete and perfect, being formless is not
complete, so this proves that the Lord is a complete person to create this perfect
and complete creation. He is full of knowledge. Only with knowledge can one be
perfect and create something perfect too.

From txt 1 purport, it is mentioned the Lord spoke the Vedas which is apauruṣeya.
This proves that the Lord is a person otherwise how can some impersonal  formless
being speak,  only a person can speak. And it is mentioned that the Vedas are
infallible and are transcendental knowledge, only the perfect and complete
Supreme Lord can give complete knowledge and information about His creation.
Who else is capable to do so, and can it be perfect otherwise.  So this proves that
the Supreme Lord is a person.
The Lord’s proprietorship over everything within the universe is confirmed in the
Seventh Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā (7.4–5), The Lord owns everything animate
and inanimate in this world..  Only a person can own or possess,how  can a
formless own anything.

From txt 4, it is mentioned that the Lord resides in His own abode, if the Lord is
formless why does He even need a place to reside.  This again proves that the Lord
is a person and Has His own pastimes with His pure devotees as mentioned in
Brahma Samhita cintami prakara sadmasu kalpavrksha.  He is swifter than mind
and controls everyone from one place.  With His innumerable energies He is
controlling everything from one place. His energies are acting on His behalf and
not that He is present everywhere formlessly. In the Bhagavad-gītā (10.2) the Lord
says that not even the great ṛṣis and suras can know Him. what to speak of us, The
Lord with His unlimited potencies cannot be understood or known, so that does not
mean that the Lord is not a person.  Otherwise why is Isopanisad talking about the
Supreme Lord and all His personal features.

Txt 5, mentions that the Supreme is that Lord can walk, He is far away as well as
very near.  Only  a person need to walk,  what need is there for a formless person
to walk and how is it possible.  This again describes one of His transcendental
activities.  Only a Person will have activities.  
Just because we cannot see the Lord doesn't mean that he doesn’t exist.  Because
His transcendental abode is far far away from this material world, at the same time
the Supreme Lord can be present very near to us.  

In the Bhagavad-gītā (4.11) the Lord says that how He treats His devotee depends
on the devotee’s degree of surrender. For example Hiranyaksipu could not see the
Lord anywhere, but Prahlad, His devotee, could see the Lord everywhere .  so
when Hiranyakasipu asked whether the Lord is present in the pillar, Prahlad said
yes, the All powerful with His inconceivable potencies appeared immediately from
the pillar.  This again proves that the Supreme Lord is an compete personality.

So through the verses of Isopanisad we get to understand that the Supreme is an

Absolute, complete, personality with inconceivable potencies, transcendental
activities and transcendental nature beyond the capability of our understanding.