The Lord manifests in a small form for His devotee

Āśmarathya concludes that the Lord appears in this way [the size of the distance between the thumb and forefinger in the heart] because He manifests Himself for His devotee.

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Sūtra 1.2.30 - The Lord manifests in a small form for His devotee

abhivyakter ity āśmarathyaḥ

abhivyakteḥ: because of manifestation; iti: thus; āśmarathyaḥ: the sage Āśmarathya.

Āśmarathya concludes that the Lord appears in this way [the size of the distance between the thumb and forefinger in the heart] because He manifests Himself for His devotee.

Commentary: Another point that could be objected to is that the passage describes Vaiśvānara as being present in the hearts of all in a form the size of the distance between the thumb and forefinger. It’s easy to imagine ordinary fire or even a demigod appearing in a small form, but many may protest to the idea of Lord Viṣnu, who is unlimited, having such a small size. This can lead one to insist that Vaiśvānara must mean something else.

Vyāsadeva answers this objection by invoking Āśmarathya, another great sage. He concludes that the Lord appears in the size of a thumb because He manifests Himself in the hearts of His devotees. In this way, the Lord who is infinitely big, uses His inconceivable potencies to appear in a small form for the convenience of his devotees who meditate on Him as present inside their hearts.

Vaiśvānara is Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣnu, who appears as Paramātmā inside the heart and everywhere. These different passages simply describe His different characteristics. Nothing is contradictory when we understand His transcendental nature.

The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.12-13) explains:

mahān prabhur vai puruṣaḥ sattvasyaiṣa pravartakaḥ
sunirmalām imām prāptim īśāno jyotir avyayaḥ
anguṣṭha-mātraḥ puruṣo’ntarātmā sadā janānām hṛdaye sanniviṣṭaḥ
hṛdā manīṣā manasābhikḷpto ya etad vidur amṛtās te bhavanti

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes the Puruṣa to initiate the expansion of this cosmos. He is the perfectly pure goal that yogīs strive to reach, the effulgent and infallible ultimate controller. Measuring the size of a thumb, the Puruṣa is always present as the Supersoul within the hearts of all living beings. By exercising proper intelligence, one can realize Him within the heart; those who learn this method will gain immortality.”

Sūtra 1.2.31 - For the purpose of meditation

anusmṛter iti bādariḥ

anusmṛteḥ: because of meditation; iti: thus; bādariḥ: Bādari Muni.

Bādari confirms that the Lord is described as being this size simply for meditative purposes.

Commentary: The sage Bādari is of the opinion that the Lord appears in this size inside the heart of the yogi because this conception is very convenient for meditation. The heart itself is the size of the distance between thumb and forefinger, and therefore the Lord is thought to be this size so the yogi can fit Him inside in his meditation.

Sūtra 1.2.32 - Transcendental and inconceivable power

sampatter iti jaiminis tathā hi darśayati

sampatteḥ: because of power; iti: thus; jaiminiḥ: the sage Jaimini; tathā: in this way; hi: because; darśayati: the śruti-śāstra declares.

Jaimini says He appears in this way out of His transcendental, inconceivable power. This is declared in the śruti-śāstra.

Commentary: Jaimini concludes that the Lord can become so small because of his transcendental power and opulence. The fact that the Lord can assume such a small form does not restrict His power in any way.

The passage of the śruti-śāstra mentioned is the Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad (1.38), where Lord Brahmā states:

tam ekam govindam saccidānanda vigraham pañcapadam vṛndāvana surabhūruha talāsīnam satatam sa-marud-gaṇo’ham paramayā stutyā toṣayāmi

“Along with the devatās, I eternally glorify and aim to satisfy Govinda, whose transcendental form is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss, who is non-different from the five-word Gopāla-mantra, and who is seated under a desire tree in Vṛndāvana.”

In another passage of the same Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad (1.20), it is mentioned:

tad iha ślokā bhavanti— eko vaśī sarvagaḥ kṛṣṇa īḍya eko’pi san bahudhā yo vibhāti, tam pīṭhastham ye nu bhajanti dhīrās teṣām sukham śāśvatam netareṣām

“Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme, all-pervading Lord. He is worthy of all worship. Although He is one, He manifests Himself in countless forms. Those resolute sages who unceasingly worship Him seated on His throne obtain constant happiness not available to others.”

Because of His inconceivable potencies, the Lord displays qualities that at first appear to be contradictory. Although the Lord is bliss and transcendental knowledge, still He has a personal form, and although He is one, He becomes many. In the same way, although He is all-pervading, He can also assume a form the size of a thumb. All these apparently contradictory statements are reconciled in the Lord due to His transcendental potencies.

Sūtra 1.2.33 - Inconceivable potencies

āmananti cainam asmin

āmananti: they recite, declare; ca: also; enam: this very One Brahman; asmin: in Him.

The students of the Atharva Veda also declare His inconceivable powers.

Commentary: The Atharva Veda includes many passages about self-realization, compiled as the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad and many other important scriptures. The followers of the Atharva Veda mentioned here agree that these inconceivable potencies are present in the Supreme Lord. This is further corroborated in SB 3.33.3, where it is stated:

“My dear Lord, although personally, You have nothing to do, You have distributed Your energies in the interactions of the material modes of nature, and for that reason the creation, maintenance, and dissolution of the cosmic manifestation take place. My dear Lord, You are self-determined and are the Supreme Personality of Godhead for all living entities. For them, You created this material manifestation, and although You are one, Your diverse energies can act multifariously. This is inconceivable to us.”

One could question the purpose of Vyāsadeva mentioning the names and philosophies of these different sages. In his purport of the Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 7.106, Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions:

“Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments that while Vyāsadeva was compiling the Vedānta-sūtra, seven of his great saintly contemporaries were also engaged in similar work. These saints were Ātreya Ṛṣi, Āśmarathya, Auḍulomi, Kārṣṇājini, Kāśakṛtsna, Jaimini and Bādarī. In addition, it is stated that Pārāśarī and Karmandī-bhikṣu also discussed the Vedānta-sūtra aphorisms before Vyāsadeva.”

At the time of Vyāsadeva, many other sages were engaged in composing different treatises and debating on the nature of the Vedas and the Absolute Truth. Their conclusions were often at odds, but they shared the same desire to find the ultimate goal of life and to instruct the general public. As the incarnation of Godhead, Vyāsadeva appeared with the mission of revealing the ultimate meaning of the scriptures through his extensive work of compiling the whole Vedic literature and revealing their ultimate conclusions in books such as the Vedānta-sūtra and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but this doesn’t prevent him from showing some appreciation for these great sages and mentioning their conclusions when appropriate. This doesn’t affect Vyāsadeva’s position as the greatest authority.

The Skanda Purāna explains:

vyāsa-citta-sthitākāśād, avicchinnāni kānicit
anye vyavaharanty etad, urī-kṛtya gṛhādivat

“Other sages take up small portions broken from the vast sky of Vyāsadeva’s opinions, just as houses and other enclosures take up small portions of the vastness of space.”

Exercise

Now it’s your turn. Can you answer the following arguments using the ideas from this section?

Opponent: “The term vaiśvānara is widely used in four senses: the digestive fire, the inner fire, the demigod Agni, and the universal fire. Because the word itself is a common term, its default sense in most Vedic contexts is as the demigod Agni or digestive fire. Therefore, unless compelling reason forces another meaning, the presumption should remain in favor of these colloquial and familiar senses. The Bhagavad-gītā itself says (15.14): aham vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇinām deham āśritaḥ prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ pacāmy annam catur-vidham, “I am the digestive fire.” We can see that here, Kṛṣṇa himself uses the term vaiśvānara as the digestive fire.

In the same way, Upaniṣads use vaiśvānara as meaning the fire of digestion, the sustainer of life. The Chāndogya Upaniṣad (5.18.1) passage annam atti (he eats food) supports this interpretation. Another occasional usage for the term vaiśvānara is as the universal fire. This can be seen in Chāndogya Upaniṣad 5.18.2, which explicitly equates heaven, the sun, the wind, the sky, and the sacrificial fires with the limbs of vaiśvānara. Such descriptions match Vedic cosmology of Agni as the cosmic fire pervading heaven and earth, as also indicated in the Ṛg Veda (10.88.3): yo bhānunā pṛthivī dyām utemām ātatāna rodasī antarīkṣam. Therefore, the vaiśvānara here is no more than fire envisioned cosmically, present in the sun and other luminaries, as well as the internal fire in our planet that appears in volcanoes and other natural manifestations. Similarly, vaiśvānara is also used in the sense of the inner fire, present inside the heart for the purpose of meditation.

To interpret vaiśvānara as Viṣnu in these numerous passages is highly contradictory, because Narāyana is described as limitless; so how can he be at the same time described as limited to the span of a thumb and forefinger? This description suggests meditation on a limited, inner fire, not on a boundless deity. The imagery aligns with the yogic practice of visualizing the subtle fire within the heart, rather than restricting the unlimited into a finite form.

Moreover, if the Supreme Lord is claimed to be “eating food” as the digestive fire, this puts in question his transcendence. To say Viṣṇu digests food in the belly would be contradictory at least. Now, not only does Viṣnu perform the work of digesting food, but resides in an impure place, in a form of limited size. It is more reasonable to restrict vaiśvānara to prāṇic fire or Agni, which naturally consumes food, rather than desperately trying to interpret it as the transcendent Bhagavān.”

Description: This is another example of a mixture of arguments from the atheistic Sānkhya and Pūrva-mīmāmsā, where the opponent is ready to accept any meaning, except interpreting the passages as speaking about the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Many of the arguments offered by Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa in the Govinda-bhāṣya aim to undercut such skeptics. Advaitins would accept vaiśvānara as Viṣnu, but try to force their interpretation of Viṣnu as saguṇa Brahman, but this was already debated in the previous sections.

All the sūtras of the second pāda in prose

“The person in the eye is the Lord, because of the evidence given in the passage, and also because of the statements in the scriptures, of the Lord being present in the eye and in other places as well.

The person in the eye is the Lord, because He is described as being full of transcendental bliss, and also because it is described that those who hear the Upaniṣads attain the Lord. He can’t be anyone else, because others don’t permanently reside in the eye, and don’t possess the attributes described in the text.

The antaryāmī residing in the elements and in the hearts of all is the Supreme Lord, because His qualities are described in the passage. The antaryāmī is not pradhāna because the qualities mentioned in the passage can’t be attributed to it. He is also not a yogī, because both recensions of the text indicate the difference.

The passage refers to the Supreme Lord, who is full of qualities, starting with being invisible, because the qualities mentioned are appropriate to Him. It does not refer to pradhāna or the jīva, because the qualities attributed to akṣara can’t be attributed to the other two. The akṣara is not pradhāna or the jīva, also because of other passages, which specifically describe the form of the Lord, and because of the context.

The ambiguous word vaiśvānara refers to the Lord, because the qualities mentioned are appropriate for Him only. This can also be inferred from statements in the smṛti. If one argues that Vaiśvānara is not Lord Viṣnu because He is described as fire and as residing within the body, I say no. It is described in this way for the purpose of meditation. It is not possible to interpret it in any other way. Furthermore, He is described as a person, with a human-like form. For the reasons mentioned above, Vaiśvānara is not the demigod, nor the element fire.

Jaimini is of the opinion that the name Agni may be interpreted to directly mean the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no inconsistency in this. Āśmarathya concludes that the Lord appears in this way [the size of the distance between the thumb and forefinger in the heart] because He manifests Himself for His devotee. Bādari confirms that the Lord is described as being this size simply for meditative purposes. Jaimini says that He appears in this way out of His transcendental, inconceivable power. This is declared in the śruti-śāstra. The students of the Atharva Veda also declare His inconceivable powers.”

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