BRS 2.1.189

Previously this Brahma-saṁhitā verse was quoted in the commentary on 1.2.278 to demonstrate that the impersonal brahman is non-different from Kṛṣṇa in the manner that light and the sun are non-different. Though the brahman has been explained as the effulgence of the Lord, it should also be understood to be just the Lord’s vibhūti or power. The śruti also confirms: yasya avyaktam śarīram yo avyakam saṣcaran yam avyaktaṁ na veda… sa eṣa sarvabhūtāntarātmā divyo deva eko nārāyaṇa Nārāyaṇa is the one spiritual lord, the soul of all beings, whose body is the unmanifest brahman, who pervades the brahman, whom no one knows as the brahman. Subala Upaniṣad 7 Bhagavad-gītā says: yasmāt kṣaram atīto ’ham akṣarād api cottamaḥ ato ’smi loke vede ca prathitaḥ puruṣottamaḥ Because I am superior to the jīvas, to the impersonal brahman and to the puruṣa known as paramātmā, and even to the other forms of bhagavān, I am celebrated in the Vedas and the smṛtis, as the Supreme Person. BG 15.18 Also the Eleventh Canto of Bhāgavatam states that brahman is a vibhūti of the Lord (indicated by the word param in the verse): pṛthivī vāyur ākāśa āpo jyotir ahaṁ mahān vikāraḥ puruṣo ’vyaktaṁ rajaḥ sattvaṁ tamaḥ param I am form, taste, aroma, touch and sound; false ego; the mahat-tattva; earth, water, fire, air and sky; the living entity; material nature; the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance; and the brahman. SB 11.16.37 In the commentary of Śrīdhara it is mentioned that param means the brahman.