Spiritual realization requires tapasya; God appears in the Deity to accept devotional service beyond sense perception.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.12.19 — March 3, 1975, Dallas 750303SB-DALLAS [40:58 Minutes] SB-03.12.19_750303SB-DALLAS Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] tapasaiva paraṁ jyotir bhagavantam adhokṣajam sarva-bhūta-guhāvāsam añjasā vindate pumān [SB 3.12.19] [break] [00:41] Translation: "By penance only can one even approach the Personality of Godhead, who is within the heart of every living entity and at the same time beyond the reach of all senses." Prabhupāda: tapasaiva paraṁ jyotir bhagavantam adhokṣajam sarva-bhūta-guhāvāsam añjasā vindate pumān [SB 3.12.19] From this verse we can understand the Absolute Truth is realized in three features: bhagavantam adhokṣajam; jyoti, paraṁ jyoti; and sarva-bhūta-guhāvāsam.
The first realization is jyoti, the next realization is sarva-bhūta-guhāvāsam, and the last, final, realization is bhagavantam adhokṣajam. The example we have given many times, that the sun is there. The first realization is that we come in touch with the sunshine. That is very easy.
Anyone can come in light on the sunshine. It is open to everyone. Then the another feature of the sunshine is the sun globe. That is not so easily available.
You cannot go to the sun globe. According to the modern scientific conclusion, we can understand that the sun globe is away from us by 93,000,000's of miles, and still, we cannot tolerate the temperature. And what will be your position if you go to the sun globe? Before reaching sun globe even by some millions of...
We are already apart 93,000,000 miles, and suppose when there is three million miles apart from ninety, then the temperatures is so high that we will be finished. We cannot approach the sun globe even, and what to speak of entering into the sun globe? That requires a different body. Of course, there are living entities in the sun globe, within the sun globe.
And there is the predominating deity also, the president, you may call. There is a state. Just like you have got here, United State, there is state also. And there is also president, and the president's name is Vivasvān.
Everything is there in the śāstra. We read from Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa said, "I spoke to Vivasvān, the president or the predominating deity in the sun globe." So this is all fact. It is not fiction. You are seeing the sun globe, and you are seeing that the sunshine is coming from the sun globe.