Do you have a particular atheist in mind, I wonder? And what, in your opinion, might the stewardship to the atheist stratum of work be?
O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.
PURPORT
There is a common controversy over whether the Supreme Absolute Truth is personal or impersonal. As far as Bhagavad-gita is concerned, the Absolute Truth is the Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna, and this is confirmed in every step. In this verse, in particular, it is stressed that the Absolute Truth is a person. That the Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Absolute Truth is also the affirmation of the Brahma-samhita: isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah; that is, the Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is Lord Krsna, who is the primeval Lord, the reservoir of all pleasure, Govinda, and the eternal form of complete bliss and knowledge. These authorities leave no doubt that the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, the cause of all causes. The impersonalist, however, argues on the strength of the Vedic version given in the Svetasvatara Upanisad: tato yad uttarataram tad arupam anamayam ya etad vidur amrtas te bhavanti athetare duhkham evapi yanti. "In the material world Brahma, the primeval living entity within the universe, is understood to be the supreme amongst the demigods, human beings and lower animals. But beyond Brahma there is the Transcendence who has no material form and is free from all material contaminations. Anyone who can know Him also becomes transcendental, but those who do not know Him suffer the miseries of the material world."
The impersonalist puts more stress on the word arupam. But this arupam is not impersonal. It indicates the transcendental form of eternity, bliss and knowledge as described in the Brahma-samhita quoted above. Other verses in the Svetasvatara Upanisad substantiate this as follows:
vedaham etam purusam mahantam aditya-varnam tamasah parastat
tam eva vidvan amrta iha bhavati nanyah pantha vidyate ayanaya
yasmat param naparam asti kincid yasmannaniyo na jyayo 'sti kincit
"I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead who is transcendental to all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can transcend the bonds of birth and death. There is no way for liberation other than this knowledge of that Supreme Person.
"There is no truth superior to that Supreme Person because He is the supermost. He is smaller than the smallest, and He is greater than the greatest. He is situated as a silent tree, and He illumines the transcendental sky, and as a tree spreads its roots, He spreads His extensive energies."
From these verses one concludes that the Supreme Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is all-pervading by His multi-energies, both material and spiritual.
O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.
PURPORT
This verse explains how the Lord is all-pervasive by His diverse material and spiritual energies.
The Supreme Lord can be preliminarily perceived by His different energies, and in this way
He is realized impersonally. As the demigod in the sun is a person and is perceived by
his all-pervading energy, the sunshine, similarly, the Lord, although in His eternal abode,
is perceived by His all-pervading, diffusive energies. The taste of water is the active
principle of water. No one likes to drink sea water because the pure taste of water is mixed with salt.
Attraction for water depends on the purity of the taste, and this pure taste is one of the energies of the Lord.
The impersonalist perceives the presence of the Lord in water by its taste, and the
personalist also glorifies the Lord for His kindly supplying water to quench man's thirst.
That is the way of perceiving the Supreme. Practically speaking, there is no conflict between
personalism and impersonalism. One who knows God knows that the impersonal conception
and personal conception are simultaneously present in everything and that there is no contradiction.
Therefore the sublime doctrine of: acintya-bheda and abheda-tattvam-simultaneously one and different.
The light of the sun and the moon is also originally emanating from the brahmajyoti,
which is the impersonal effulgence of the Lord. Similarly pranava or the omkara transcendental ["OM"]
sound used in the beginning of every Vedic hymn to address the Supreme Lord also emanates from Him.
Because the impersonalists are very much afraid of addressing the Supreme Lord Krsna by
His innumerable names, they prefer to vibrate the transcendental sound omkara.
But they do not realize that omkara is the sound representation of Krsna. The jurisdiction of Krsna
consciousness extends everywhere, and one who knows Krsna consciousness is blessed.
Those who do not know Krsna are in illusion, and so knowledge of Krsna is liberation, and ignorance of Him is bondage.
Bhagavad-gita 7.7-8
