Sri Guru Gauranga Jayate.THE LORDS FORM IS ALWAYS TRANSCENDENTAL
Essay on 3rd Canto by Damana Krishna dasa
The mystery about the Supreme Personality of Godhead has always been a challenge for the human intelligence. I was also faced with this challenge, as I was interested from childhood in philosophies dealing with the nature and purpose of this world.In some way I was attracted to the idea of a Supreme Person that seemed very logical to me, but on the other side there were so many challenges to this idea. I met many people who were more or less confused about how a person would have the qualities of all-pervasiveness and in the same time be all knowledgeable, omniscient, eternal, and actually be a source of everything but at the same time stay unchanged. I couldn’t decide about personal or impersonal understanding.But I saw that many conclude that the Lord can not be a person, but an impersonal energy or even that He doesn’t exist. This merely happens due to the poor knowledge of the person about the nature of the spirit and Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then when I was 11 years I got from sankirtana devotees the 3 Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam in Germany and saw the form of Lord Varahadeva fighting with Hiranyaksha on the cover page holding the club.I liked fighting stories so I was immediately attracted. When I started to read I saw that there is very deep philosophy that I could understand but I liked the form on the first page. I never imagined that this is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, my wellwisher and Supreme Lord. In preaching to the mostly christian influenced people such statemenst that God appeared in the form of a boar are met with strong opposition.
THE NATURE OF SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD
First we have to understand little about the nature of Supreme Personality of Godhead and the nature of this material world.Sri Isopanisad invocation verse is giving a very important deep understanding about the nature of the Supreme Person.
om purnam adah purnam idam
purnat purnam purnam udacyate
purnasya purnam adaya
purnam evavasisyate
[Isopanisad, Invocation]
“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”
It may be difficult to understand that how the Lord, even after all the material manifestation come from Him, remains unchanged and complete. Also on the other hand how are the material manifestation in themselves complete. SP nicely explains this in purport to CC 3.71 To think that God has lost His personality because His many parts and parcels are distributed all over the universe is an illusion. That is a material calculation. Such calculations are possible only under the influence of the material energy, maya. In the spiritual world the material energy is conspicuous only by its absence.- So from this statement we can understand that the spiritual laws differ from the material laws. That the nature of the spiritual reality is different from our known material reality.This is one of the basic principles we need to understand before we can try to understand about the nature of the Supreme Lord. This is one of the most important message for the devotees of Krishna Consciousness to preach to general mass of people.Srila Prabhupada-s pranama is stating that he came to deliver people attracted to nirvishesa and sunyavadi philosophies not understanding the spiritual reality and the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.Therefore everyone who claims to be a follower of Srila Prabhupada has to accept this preaching spirit and follow in his footsteps.
SP further explains in CC Adi 3.71-In the realm of the Absolute, one plus one equals one, and one minus one equals one. Therefore one should not conceive of a fragment of the Supreme Lord in the material sense. In the spiritual world there is no influence of the material energy or material calculations of fragment.
The Lord therefore remains complete in all circumstances.
Even in material world a human body gives birth to a another human body but the mother remains a separate person and her body remains complete in itself.This quality is there because it is originally there in the Supreme Lord.Therefore the above quoted verse of Isopanishad invocation where SP states The Complete Whole, the Personality of Godhead, has immense potencies, all of which are as complete as He is. Thus this phenomenal world is also complete in itself. The Lord and everything emanating from Him can be experienced in a practical way in our daily life when we try to observe how everything in this world is reflecting this quality of the Lord. Because everything in this being a reflection of Lords original qualities shows this quality as well.
The Lord being the creator of this world janmady asya, from whom everyting emanates but remains untouched by material energy, the words of abhijnah and svarat in the Srimad Bhagavatam verse 1.1.1 make clear that he is omniscient and independent. The material energy acts according to His direction 7.14 daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya and He is existing separately from all this material existence.
BG 9.4
maya tatam idam sarvam
jagad avyakta-murtina
mat-sthani sarva-bhutani
na caham tesv avasthitah
By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.
SP is explaining how we can see this in practical way to use in our daily preaching and personal life.
Just as the sunshine is spread all over the universe, the energy of the Lord is spread all over the creation, and everything is resting in that energy.Yet one should not conclude that because He is spread all over He has lost His personal existence. To refute such an argument the Lord says, “I am everywhere, and everything is in Me, but still I am aloof.” For example, a king heads a government which is but the manifestation of the king’s energy; the different governmental departments are nothing but the energies of the king, and each department is resting on the king’s power. But still one cannot expect the king to be present in every department personally. That is a crude example. Similarly, all the manifestations that we see and everything that exists, both in this material world and in the spiritual world, are resting on the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The creation takes place by the diffusion of His different energies, and, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita, vistabhyaham idam krtsnam: He is everywhere present by His personal representation, the diffusion of His different energies.
The Lord acts in this world through his energies in the same time He is present as the Supersoul, without who-s presence nothing is able to exist in this world.And he is present as well in every body as well as in every atom of the existence, as confirmed in Brahma Samhita verse 5.35.. anòantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham and the two Bhagavad gita verses.
BG 13.2
upadrastanumanta ca
bharta bhokta mahesvarah
paramameti capy ukto
dehe ’smin purusah parah
Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.
BG 15.17
uttamah purusas tv anyah
paramatmety udahritah
yo loka-trayam avisya
bibharty avyaya isvarah
Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Supreme Soul, the imperishable Lord Himself, who has entered the three worlds and is maintaining them.
The Lord being the controller and Supersoul but exists in another spiritual reality.
paras tasmat tu bhavo ’nyo
’vyakto ’vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati
“Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and nonmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.” (Bg. 8.20)
Establishing the Supreme position of the Lord we can see that He even coming as such form as a boar doesn’t loose his supremacy. He is situated in every body therefore also as Supersoul in the bodies of dogs, hogs and all other creatures. This is a simple to understand point which we can present to the general mass of people as well to scholars. The Lord is never influenced by any material consideration.The Lord is not touched by karma of the person residing in His heart nor by his actions. Therefore while appearing in His personal form He remains the controller of material energy as well as the entirety of living entities including the demigods as Brahma and Lord Shiva.
BG 4.6
ajo ’pi sann avyayatma
bhutanamisvaro ’pi san
prakritim svam adhisthaya
sambhavamy atma-mayaya
“Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.”
The Lord doesn’t have to come as result of karma or any external reason but simply out of His free will to protect his devotees and annihilate the demons. paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskritam and to establish the proper conduct of spiritual practices dharma-samsthapanarthaya.
The pastime of the Lord can be only understood by association of devotees and through the parampara. The Lord is all pervasive so its not amazing that He appeared from the nostrils of Lord Brahma, but the people challenge this fact. He is already there in every atom. When the Lord lifted the earth the drops of water falling from His transcendental body were purifying the three world, but the atheists will consider this form to be impure. Hiranyaksha was killed and everyone was prasing the Lord appearing for the benefit His devotees. In this way all the atheists who have no faith in Lords spiritual form will be also destroyed simply by the action of time as only those who understood His eternal nature are freed from the entanglement of material nature.
4.9
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ’rjuna
SYNONYMS
TRANSLATION
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.
The Lord doesn’t reveal Himself to impure people naham prakasah sarvasya yogamaya-samavritah [Bg. 7.25], therefore such simple facts can not be understood by people inimical to the Lord. Only they can be understood by devotees. bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah Bg 18.55 and those who have surrendered to a bona-fide guru coming in disciplic succession.
yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah
“Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed.” [Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.23]
I have greatly benefited by the simple fact of Srimad Bhagavatam coming to my home and then surrendering to the spiritual master after many years of searching. Lord Varaha is described as the enjoyer of all sacrifices and His body was envisioned by the sages to contain all the elements of yajna, namely Yajna Varaha. By understanding the divine nature and also sacrificing our activities as devotional service (BG 3.9 yajnarthat karmano ’nyatra loko ’yam karma-bandhanah tad-artham karma kaunteya
mukta-saìgah samacara Work done as a sacrifice for Visnu has to be performed, otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunté, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.)Therefore I can just beg anyone to try to accept the facts presented and get the mercy of Lord Sri Krishna appearing in His transcendental incarnations by remembering the pastimes and rendering devotional service.
Keshava dhrita sukara rupa jaya jagadisha hare
Essay on 3rd Canto by Damana Krishna dasa
The mystery about the Supreme Personality of Godhead has always been a challenge for the human intelligence. I was also faced with this challenge, as I was interested from childhood in philosophies dealing with the nature and purpose of this world.In some way I was attracted to the idea of a Supreme Person that seemed very logical to me, but on the other side there were so many challenges to this idea. I met many people who were more or less confused about how a person would have the qualities of all-pervasiveness and in the same time be all knowledgeable, omniscient, eternal, and actually be a source of everything but at the same time stay unchanged. I couldn’t decide about personal or impersonal understanding.But I saw that many conclude that the Lord can not be a person, but an impersonal energy or even that He doesn’t exist. This merely happens due to the poor knowledge of the person about the nature of the spirit and Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then when I was 11 years I got from sankirtana devotees the 3 Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam in Germany and saw the form of Lord Varahadeva fighting with Hiranyaksha on the cover page holding the club.I liked fighting stories so I was immediately attracted. When I started to read I saw that there is very deep philosophy that I could understand but I liked the form on the first page. I never imagined that this is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, my wellwisher and Supreme Lord. In preaching to the mostly christian influenced people such statemenst that God appeared in the form of a boar are met with strong opposition.
THE NATURE OF SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD
First we have to understand little about the nature of Supreme Personality of Godhead and the nature of this material world.Sri Isopanisad invocation verse is giving a very important deep understanding about the nature of the Supreme Person.
om purnam adah purnam idam
purnat purnam purnam udacyate
purnasya purnam adaya
purnam evavasisyate
[Isopanisad, Invocation]
“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”
It may be difficult to understand that how the Lord, even after all the material manifestation come from Him, remains unchanged and complete. Also on the other hand how are the material manifestation in themselves complete. SP nicely explains this in purport to CC 3.71 To think that God has lost His personality because His many parts and parcels are distributed all over the universe is an illusion. That is a material calculation. Such calculations are possible only under the influence of the material energy, maya. In the spiritual world the material energy is conspicuous only by its absence.- So from this statement we can understand that the spiritual laws differ from the material laws. That the nature of the spiritual reality is different from our known material reality.This is one of the basic principles we need to understand before we can try to understand about the nature of the Supreme Lord. This is one of the most important message for the devotees of Krishna Consciousness to preach to general mass of people.Srila Prabhupada-s pranama is stating that he came to deliver people attracted to nirvishesa and sunyavadi philosophies not understanding the spiritual reality and the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.Therefore everyone who claims to be a follower of Srila Prabhupada has to accept this preaching spirit and follow in his footsteps.
SP further explains in CC Adi 3.71-In the realm of the Absolute, one plus one equals one, and one minus one equals one. Therefore one should not conceive of a fragment of the Supreme Lord in the material sense. In the spiritual world there is no influence of the material energy or material calculations of fragment.
The Lord therefore remains complete in all circumstances.
Even in material world a human body gives birth to a another human body but the mother remains a separate person and her body remains complete in itself.This quality is there because it is originally there in the Supreme Lord.Therefore the above quoted verse of Isopanishad invocation where SP states The Complete Whole, the Personality of Godhead, has immense potencies, all of which are as complete as He is. Thus this phenomenal world is also complete in itself. The Lord and everything emanating from Him can be experienced in a practical way in our daily life when we try to observe how everything in this world is reflecting this quality of the Lord. Because everything in this being a reflection of Lords original qualities shows this quality as well.
The Lord being the creator of this world janmady asya, from whom everyting emanates but remains untouched by material energy, the words of abhijnah and svarat in the Srimad Bhagavatam verse 1.1.1 make clear that he is omniscient and independent. The material energy acts according to His direction 7.14 daivi hy esa guna-mayi mama maya duratyaya and He is existing separately from all this material existence.
BG 9.4
maya tatam idam sarvam
jagad avyakta-murtina
mat-sthani sarva-bhutani
na caham tesv avasthitah
By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.
SP is explaining how we can see this in practical way to use in our daily preaching and personal life.
Just as the sunshine is spread all over the universe, the energy of the Lord is spread all over the creation, and everything is resting in that energy.Yet one should not conclude that because He is spread all over He has lost His personal existence. To refute such an argument the Lord says, “I am everywhere, and everything is in Me, but still I am aloof.” For example, a king heads a government which is but the manifestation of the king’s energy; the different governmental departments are nothing but the energies of the king, and each department is resting on the king’s power. But still one cannot expect the king to be present in every department personally. That is a crude example. Similarly, all the manifestations that we see and everything that exists, both in this material world and in the spiritual world, are resting on the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The creation takes place by the diffusion of His different energies, and, as stated in the Bhagavad-gita, vistabhyaham idam krtsnam: He is everywhere present by His personal representation, the diffusion of His different energies.
The Lord acts in this world through his energies in the same time He is present as the Supersoul, without who-s presence nothing is able to exist in this world.And he is present as well in every body as well as in every atom of the existence, as confirmed in Brahma Samhita verse 5.35.. anòantara-stha-paramanu-cayantara-stham and the two Bhagavad gita verses.
BG 13.2
upadrastanumanta ca
bharta bhokta mahesvarah
paramameti capy ukto
dehe ’smin purusah parah
Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.
BG 15.17
uttamah purusas tv anyah
paramatmety udahritah
yo loka-trayam avisya
bibharty avyaya isvarah
Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Supreme Soul, the imperishable Lord Himself, who has entered the three worlds and is maintaining them.
The Lord being the controller and Supersoul but exists in another spiritual reality.
paras tasmat tu bhavo ’nyo
’vyakto ’vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati
“Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and nonmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.” (Bg. 8.20)
Establishing the Supreme position of the Lord we can see that He even coming as such form as a boar doesn’t loose his supremacy. He is situated in every body therefore also as Supersoul in the bodies of dogs, hogs and all other creatures. This is a simple to understand point which we can present to the general mass of people as well to scholars. The Lord is never influenced by any material consideration.The Lord is not touched by karma of the person residing in His heart nor by his actions. Therefore while appearing in His personal form He remains the controller of material energy as well as the entirety of living entities including the demigods as Brahma and Lord Shiva.
BG 4.6
ajo ’pi sann avyayatma
bhutanamisvaro ’pi san
prakritim svam adhisthaya
sambhavamy atma-mayaya
“Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form.”
The Lord doesn’t have to come as result of karma or any external reason but simply out of His free will to protect his devotees and annihilate the demons. paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskritam and to establish the proper conduct of spiritual practices dharma-samsthapanarthaya.
The pastime of the Lord can be only understood by association of devotees and through the parampara. The Lord is all pervasive so its not amazing that He appeared from the nostrils of Lord Brahma, but the people challenge this fact. He is already there in every atom. When the Lord lifted the earth the drops of water falling from His transcendental body were purifying the three world, but the atheists will consider this form to be impure. Hiranyaksha was killed and everyone was prasing the Lord appearing for the benefit His devotees. In this way all the atheists who have no faith in Lords spiritual form will be also destroyed simply by the action of time as only those who understood His eternal nature are freed from the entanglement of material nature.
4.9
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ’rjuna
SYNONYMS
TRANSLATION
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.
The Lord doesn’t reveal Himself to impure people naham prakasah sarvasya yogamaya-samavritah [Bg. 7.25], therefore such simple facts can not be understood by people inimical to the Lord. Only they can be understood by devotees. bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah Bg 18.55 and those who have surrendered to a bona-fide guru coming in disciplic succession.
yasya deve para bhaktir
yatha deve tatha gurau
tasyaite kathita hy arthah
prakasante mahatmanah
“Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed.” [Svetasvatara Upanishad 6.23]
I have greatly benefited by the simple fact of Srimad Bhagavatam coming to my home and then surrendering to the spiritual master after many years of searching. Lord Varaha is described as the enjoyer of all sacrifices and His body was envisioned by the sages to contain all the elements of yajna, namely Yajna Varaha. By understanding the divine nature and also sacrificing our activities as devotional service (BG 3.9 yajnarthat karmano ’nyatra loko ’yam karma-bandhanah tad-artham karma kaunteya
mukta-saìgah samacara Work done as a sacrifice for Visnu has to be performed, otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O son of Kunté, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage.)Therefore I can just beg anyone to try to accept the facts presented and get the mercy of Lord Sri Krishna appearing in His transcendental incarnations by remembering the pastimes and rendering devotional service.
Keshava dhrita sukara rupa jaya jagadisha hare
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