Bhakti Transforms Bodies

Bhakti Transforms Bodies
Srila Sanatana Goswami
Devotional service is thus established by the mercy of Lord Krishna as transcendental activity
that naturally manifests itself in the purified hearts of the devotees; it is not material. Still, someone might question how self-manifesting bhakti could appear in the devotee’s person, as activities such as hearing and chanting, naturally involve the ma¬terial body and its senses. To clear this doubt, we need to understand that devotees of the Supreme Lord, both in Vaikuntha and elsewhere, perform bhakti with spiritual bodies and senses. There is no discrepancy in this conception, because the limbs and senses of the pure Vaisnavas are equal in spiritual quality with pure devotional service. Even devotees who still live in this world in bodies made of material energy can engage in pure bhakti because the appearance of bhakti transforms their bodies. Either their bodies become literally sac-cid-ānanda, or bhakti enters their material bodies by the potency of the Supreme Lord’s special mercy. Alternatively, their bodies and senses become suitable for performing bhakti by some God-given potency inherent in the jīvas themselves. These are the means by which transcendental bhakti mani¬fests in the heart of the materially conditioned soul.
– Śrī Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta of Srila Sanatana Gosva¬mi, Volume Two. BBT. Translated by Gopiparanadhana Dasa. 2.3.140.