Prabhupāda: Yes. Therefore to understand You is to take information from You, not from others. What Kṛṣṇa says...
Dr. Patel: Svayam evātmanātmānam.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Because you know yourself, what you are. Nobody knows. Therefore to understand Kṛṣṇa, or God, is to accept whatever is spoken in the Bhagavad-gītā. That is real understanding.
Dr. Patel: Bhūta-bhāvana bhūteṣa deva-deva jagat-pate.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: Vaktum arhasy aśeṣeṇa divyā hy ātma-vibhūtayaḥ.
Prabhupāda: Deva-deva. "There are many demigods, but You are also..."
Dr. Patel: Deva of the devas.
Prabhupāda: Ah. "You are the supreme of all of them, deva-deva. You are worshiped by the devas."
Dr. Patel:
- vaktum arhasy aśeṣeṇa
- divyā hy ātma-vibhūtayaḥ
- yābhir vibhūtibhir lokān
- imāṁs tvaṁ vyāpya tiṣṭhasi
Prabhupāda: Now, this is to be understood, how "You are all-pervading by Your influence, by Your power." That means "You are always there." "You" person is there. Just like a big man, big businessman, is sitting in his room, but he is all-pervading, all-pervading.
Dr. Patel: But he must have got special powers deputed to certain people. And these are that vibhūtis.
Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. That is vibhūti. That does not mean... Māyāvādī philosophy is: "Because He has spread everywhere, therefore He is imperson." He remains person, without any change, avyaya. But still, He is spread. That he is asking that "How I shall understand You, that You are spread everywhere." Akhilātma-bhūtaḥ. Goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ (Bs. 5.37). That is... So we have to understand from Kṛṣṇa how He is all-pervading, not that mental speculation. "Just like if you take a thing and distribute all over, the original thing is lost." Not like that. Original Kṛṣṇa is there.