Srimad Bhagavatam — Dvitiya Skandha, Shloka 13
Puruṣa-sūkta Logic of the Virāṭ: Cosmic Anatomy, Sacrifice, and the Lord’s Transcendence
अहं भवान् भवश्चैव त इमे मुनयोऽग्रजा: । सुरासुरनरा नागा: खगा मृगसरीसृपा: ॥ १३ ॥ गन्धर्वाप्सरसो यक्षा रक्षोभूतगणोरगा: । पशव: पितर: सिद्धा विद्याध्राश्चारणा द्रुमा: ॥ १४ ॥ अन्ये च विविधा जीवा जलस्थलनभौकस: । ग्रहर्क्षकेतवस्तारास्तडित: स्तनयित्नव: ॥ १५ ॥ सर्वं पुरुष एवेदं भूतं भव्यं भवच्च यत् । तेनेदमावृतं विश्वं वितस्तिमधितिष्ठति ॥ १६ ॥
ahaṁ bhavān bhavaś caiva ta ime munayo ’grajāḥ surāsura-narā nāgāḥ khagā mṛga-sarīsṛpāḥ
From me (Brahmā) down to you and Bhava (Śiva)—the sages born before you; the devas and asuras, humans, Nāgas, birds, beasts, and reptiles; the Gandharvas, Apsarās, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, hosts of Bhūtas, Uragas, animals, Pitṛs, Siddhas, Vidyādharas, Cāraṇas, and trees; all beings dwelling in water, on land, and in the sky; the planets, stars, comets (ketu), lightning and thunder—whatever is past, present, or future is ever covered by the Lord’s universal form (viśva-rūpa), the Puruṣa. Yet He remains beyond them all, eternally established in a form no more than one vitasti (nine inches).
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His partial representation, measuring not more than nine inches as Supersoul, expands by His potency in the shape of the universal form, which includes everything manifested in different varieties of organic and inorganic materials. The manifested varieties of the universe are therefore not different from the Lord, just as golden ornaments of different shapes and forms are nondifferent from the original stock reserve of gold. In other words, the Lord is the Supreme Person who controls everything within the creation, and still He remains the supreme separate identity, distinct from all manifested material creation. In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.4-5) He is therefore said to be Yogeśvara. Everything rests on the potency of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and still the Lord is different from and transcendental to all such identities. In the Vedic Puruṣa-sūkta of the Ṛg mantra, this is also confirmed. This philosophical truth of simultaneous oneness and difference was propounded by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and it is known as acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. Brahmā, Nārada and all others are simultaneously one with the Lord and different from the Supreme Lord. We are all one with Him, just as the gold ornaments are one in quality with the stock gold, but the individual gold ornament is never equal in quantity with the stock gold. The stock gold is never exhausted even if there are innumerable ornaments emanating from the stock because the stock is pūrṇam, complete; even if pūrṇam is deducted from the pūrṇam, still the supreme pūrṇam remains the same pūrṇam. This fact is inconceivable to our present imperfect senses. Lord Caitanya therefore defined His theory of philosophy as acintya (inconceivable), and as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā as well as in the Bhāgavatam, Lord Caitanya’s theory of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva is the perfect philosophy of the Absolute Truth.