Chapter One
Tattva-prakarana
The Truth
Therefore, without any introduction, the first sutra declares:
Sutra 1
“The Supreme is one. He has no rival.”
Commentary by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
The Sruti-sastra declares:
"There is one Supreme God. He has no rival. There are not many Gods."
Here someone may protest: If it were so that there is only one Supreme God and no other Gods, then that one God would have to perform by Himself all the many duties involved in creating, maintaining, and destroying the universes. He would have to perform them all without any help from anyone else.
To refute this protest, the author of the sutras speaks the following words:
Sutra 2
"Because He is limitless, He has all powers, even though He remains beyond the touch of the modes of material nature."
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If a person sees himself as the Supreme Enjoyer, he will automatically live a life of exploitation. He will not respect others or the environment, nor will he care for the well-being of others. He will lead a hedonistic life of unrestricted sense enjoyment, lording over everything and everyone. Although human in form, he will be no more than an animal who lives by the philosophy “might makes right.”
Science of Identity Foundation - Siddhaswarupananda
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This sutra means that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is beyond the modes of nature and He has all powers. This is so because He is limitless, which is to say that He cannot be measured or understood by direct perception of the material senses or by any other material means. This is described in the following words of Svetasvatara Upanisad (3.19):
"His potencies are multifarious, and thus His deeds are automatically performed as a natural sequence."
In Srimad Bhagavatam (2.2.35) Srila Sukadeva Gosvami explains:
"The Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krsna is in every living being alone with the individual soul. And this fact is perceived and hypothesized in our acts of seeing and taking help from the intelligence."
In Srimad Bhagavatam (4.20.7) it is also said:
"The individual soul is one, pure, non material, and self effulgent. He is the reservoir of all good qualities, and He is all-pervading. He is without material covering, and He is the witness of all activities. He is completely distinguished from other living entities, and He is transcendental to all embodied souls."
In Srimad Bhagavatam (11.7.23) it is also said:
"Although I, the Supreme Lord, can never be captured by ordinary sense perception, those situated in human life may use their intelligence and other faculties of perception to directly search for Me through apparent and indirectly ascertained symptoms."
In the Narada-pancaratra it is said:
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the world of matter, who is the supreme object of worship, whose desires are all fulfilled, and whom all living entities yearn to attain, is described in the Pancaratras."
