Q. If Krishna can perform His hearing with His eyes, for example, then what is the purpose of His having eyes and also ears? Do jivas have the same capabilities?
Answer by Romapada Swami: The ability that Krishna can perform the function of any sense through any other sense organ is an indication that He is Absolute, that His body is not compartmentalized like ours but Absolute, Omnipotent and Independent. If we lose our eyesight, for instance, we would become dependent and cannot see anymore. But Krishna is not dependent like that, He does not need a particular bodily part to perform a particular action – every limb of His body is absolutely potent and complete as His Original Self — purna. Another way of saying the same thing is that Krishna is not different from His body and His different bodily limbs are non-different from His Self.
Although Absolute and undifferentiated, yet simultaneously Krishna’s spiritual body is full of variegatedness. He has variegated senses simply for His enjoyment, not because He is dependent on them for different functionalities. The common mistake that students of transcendental science often make in trying to understand the Absolute Realm with the help of their limited intelligence is that when they hear descriptions such as this of Omnipotence and all-pervasiveness, they imagine that the Absolute Truth to be some form of homogenized, uniform Energy without any form or features and without any variegated senses. These are the impersonalists whom Krishna declares in Bhagavad-Gita to be mistaken in their understanding. Krishna is the Supreme Enjoyer and as the saying goes, “Variety is the mother of enjoyment”. The inconceivable potencies of His spiritual body are meant for His enjoyment, and His Spiritual abode is full of variety for the same reason.
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura points out that although the Lord can perform any function with any one of His senses, in His transcendental pastimes as Sri Krishna He generally sees with His eyes, touches with His hands, hears with His ears and so on. Thus He behaves like the most beautiful and charming young cowherd boy. (Cf. SB 10.14.2 p) And whenever He uses His limbs in extraordinary ways, that is also to enhance His enjoyment and thus He enjoys in many unlimited ways. At the same time, He is exhibiting his supremacy by these acts; e.g. entering Mathura, Krsna straightened Kubja’s hunchback with his fingertips and toes, AND with the same fingertips he separated the the head of the washerman from his torso!
The living entities do not possess such omnipotence constitutionally – this is the distinction between the Supreme Lord and the minute living entity; but Krishna may choose to invest such capability upon some living entity who can attain such mystic powers by His grace.
