Shloka 33
Hiraṇyakaśipu’s Austerities and Brahmā’s Boons
The Architecture of ‘Conditional Immortality’
व्यक्तं विभो स्थूलमिदं शरीरं येनेन्द्रियप्राणमनोगुणांस्त्वम् । भुङ्क्षे स्थितो धामनि पारमेष्ठ्ये अव्यक्त आत्मा पुरुष: पुराण: ॥ ३३ ॥
vyaktaṁ vibho sthūlam idaṁ śarīraṁ yenendriya-prāṇa-mano-guṇāṁs tvam bhuṅkṣe sthito dhāmani pārameṣṭhye avyakta ātmā puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ
ஓ விபுவே! நீர் உமது பரம தாமத்தில் மாற்றமின்றி நிலைத்திருந்தபடியே, இவ்வுலகில் வெளிப்பட்ட ஸ்தூலமான விஸ்வரூபத்தை விரிவாக்குகிறீர்; இంద్రியங்கள், பிராணன், மனம், குணங்கள் ஆகியவற்றின் விஷயங்களை அனுபவிப்பதுபோல் தோன்றுகிறது. ஆனால் நீர் அவ்யக்த ஆத்மா, புராண புருஷன்—பிரம்மம், பரமாத்மா, பகவான்.
It is said that the Absolute Truth appears in three features — namely, impersonal Brahman, localized Supersoul and ultimately the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. The cosmic manifestation is the gross material body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who enjoys the taste of the material mellows by expanding His parts and parcels, the living entities, who are qualitatively one with Him. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, is situated in the Vaikuṇṭha planets, where He enjoys the spiritual mellows. Therefore the one Absolute Truth, Bhagavān, pervades all by His material cosmic manifestation, the spiritual Brahman effulgence, and His personal existence as the Supreme Lord.
FAQs
This verse says the Lord may appear with a manifest form connected with senses, mind, and the guṇas, yet He remains the unmanifest Self—transcendent and situated in His supreme abode beyond material nature.
In his prayer, Prahlāda reconciles the Lord’s accessible form (through which He acts within creation) with His ultimate reality as the primeval, transcendental Person who is never limited by matter.
See God’s presence in daily embodied experience (mind, senses, breath) while remembering He is never confined by it—encouraging steady devotion without reducing the Divine to mere material concepts.