is a person

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Here the word vigraham, "having specific form," is very significant, for it indicates that the Absolute Truth is ultimately the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is explained in the Brahma-samhita. Sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaḥ: He has form, but His form is different from any kind of material form. The living entities are the marginal energy of the supreme form. As such, they are not different from the supreme form, but at the same time they are not equal to the supreme form. Dhruva Maharaja is advised herewith to render service unto the supreme form. That will include service to other individual forms. For example, a tree has a form, and when water is poured on the root of the tree, the other forms-the leaves, twigs, flowers and fruits-are automatically watered. The Mayavada conception that because the Absolute Truth is everything He must be formless is rejected here. Rather, it is confirmed that the Absolute Truth has form, and yet He is all-pervading. Nothing is independent of Him. (More...)

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The Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Purusottama, or the best of all living entities. He is a person like all other living entities, but He is the leader or the best of all living beings. That is stated in the Vedas also. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. He is the chief of all eternals, the chief of all living entities, and He is complete and full. He has no need to derive benefit by interfering with the affairs of other living entities, but because He is the maintainer of all, He has the right to bring them to the proper standard so that all living entities may become happy. As a father wants all of his children to become happy under his direction, similarly, God, or Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has the right to see that all living entities are happy. There is no possibility of becoming happy within this material world. The father and the sons are eternal, but if a living entity does not come to the platform of his eternal life of bliss and knowledge, there is no question of happiness. Although Purusottama, the best of all living entities, has no benefit to derive from the common living entities, He does have the right to discriminate between their right and wrong ways. The right way is the path of activities meant to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as we have already discussed (svanusthitasya dharmasya samsiddhir hari-tosanam). A living entity may engage in any occupational duty, but if he wants to have perfection in his duties, he must satisfy the Supreme Lord. As such, one who pleases Him gets better facilities for living, but one who displeases Him gets involved in undesirable situations. (More...)

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The conception of one without a second is clearly confirmed here. The one is Lord Vasudeva, and by His different energies and expansions only, different manifestations, both in the material and in the spiritual worlds, are maintained. In the material world also, Lord Vasudeva is everything, as is stated in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 7.19): vasudevaḥ sarvam iti, everything is Vasudeva only. In the Vedic hymns also the same Vasudeva is held to be supreme. It is said in the Vedas, vasudevat paro brahman na canyo 'rtho 'ti tattvata: in fact there is no greater truth than Vasudeva. And Lord Krsna affirms the same truth in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 7.7), mattaḥ parataram nanyati: there is nothing above Me (Lord Krsna). So the conception of oneness, as is overly stressed by the impersonalist, is also accepted by the personalist devotee of the Lord. The difference is that the impersonalist denies personality in the ultimate issue, whereas the devotee gives more importance to the Personality of Godhead. Srimad-Bhagavatam explains this truth in the verse under discussion: Lord Vasudeva is one without a second, but because He is all-powerful, He can expand Himself as well as display His omnipotencies. The Lord is described here as omnipotent by three energies (tri-sakti-dhrk). So primarily His three energies are internal, marginal, and external. This external energy is also displayed in the three modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Similarly, the internal potency is also displayed in three spiritual modes, samvit, sandhini, and hladini. The marginal potency or the living entities are also spiritual (prakrtim viddhi me param), but they are never equal with the Lord. The Lord is nirasta samya atisaya; in other words, no one is greater than or equal to the Supreme Lord. So the living entities, including even such great personalities as Lord Brahma and Lord Siva, are all subordinate to the Lord. In the material world also, in His eternal form of Visnu, He maintains and controls all the affairs of the demigods, including Brahma and Siva. (More...)

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The Brahma-samhita also says, anadir adir govindaḥ sarva-karana-karanam: "The Supreme Lord is not caused by anything [anadi], but He is the cause of all causes." The Vedanta- says, janmady asya yataḥ: "The Absolute Truth is that from which everything emanates." The Absolute Truth is described as adi-purusa. The Absolute Truth is therefore a person and is not impersonal. (More...)

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But they do not know actually that ultimately the Absolute Truth is a person, the Supreme Person, Bhagavan. Brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti sabdyate. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas, tattva-vidaḥ . Tattva means one who knows tattva. They know that ultimately the Absolute Truth is person, not imperson. Therefore Bhagavata says, vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam. What is the Absolute Truth? Absolute Truth means tattvam. So Bhagavata says, vadanti tat tattva-vidaḥ: "Those who are aware of the Absolute Truth, they say like this." What is that? Brahmeti... Yad, yaj jnanam advayam. Advayam: "He is without any duality, but the Absolute Truth is known as in three features: by somebody as Brahman, by somebody as Paramatma and somebody as Bhagavan." Actually, He is Bhagavan. Paramatma is His universal feature. (More...)

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So we should not be like that. If we want to be fixed up, then, in devotional service, then, as it is advised by Kapiladeva... He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead incarnate. He says, pasyanti te me rucirany amba santaḥ: "They can see that..." So unless God has got form, how one can see? How God can be nirakara? God is never nirakara, but He's sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaḥ. His akara is not like us. Īsvaraḥ paramaḥ krsnaḥ sac-cid-ananda-vigrahaḥ [Bs 5.1]. His form is sac-cid-ananda. This body is not sac-cid-ananda. Sat means eternal, and cit means full of knowledge, and ananda means full of bliss. So if we study, "Is our body eternal?" No, sir. It is temporary, say, fifty years, sixty years, utmost hundred years. So it is not eternal, it is not sat. Asat. Asato ma sad gama, the Vedic injunction, that "Don't keep yourself in this asat body. Just get your original sat body, eternal body." We are not interested. We are simply interested with this temporary body: "I am this body." I am not this body. I am spirit soul. I am within this body. This is knowledge. This is called siddhi. So long I am thinking, "I am this body," then I am cats and dogs. They are thinking like that. But when I know that "I am not this body. I am the spirit spark, spirit soul. I am encaged within this body," that is knowledge. That is knowledge. So those who are self-realized spirit soul, they can see. (More...)

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This is called acintya-sakti, inconceivable power. Unless we accept inconceivable power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no meaning of God. If you think "a person" means like me or you... Yes, like me or you, God is also person. That is accepted in the Vedas: nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam [Katha Upanisad ]. (More...)

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It is natural for the Lord to be untinged by material qualities, and because everything is perfectly present in His spiritual energy, as soon as He desires something, it is immediately done. The Lord is not a prakrta-sisu, a child of this world, but by His personal energy He appeared like one. Ordinary people may have difficulty accepting the supreme controller, God, as a human being because they forget that He can do everything by spiritual energy (atma-mayaya). Nonbelievers say, "How can the supreme controller descend as an ordinary being?" This sort of thinking is materialistic. Srila Jiva Gosvami says that unless we accept the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as inconceivable, beyond the conception of our words and mind, we cannot understand the Supreme Lord. Those who doubt that the Supreme Personality of Godhead can come as a human being and turn Himself into a human child are fools who think that Krsna's body is material, that He is born and that He therefore also dies. (More...)

The impersonal glowing effulgence known as Brahman is the outerspace of the Vaikuntha planets in spiritual sky. Outside that impersonal Brahman there is a great ocean which is (?) causal water lying in between the material and spiritual skies. The material energy or Nature is offsuit of this causal ocean. The causal ocean is the margin between spirit and matter. The Karan Vishnu who lies on in that causal ocean creates the universes by his glance only upon the material nature. Therefore in the matter of such material creation Krishna has nothing to do personally. In the Bhagwat Geeta this is confirmed that the Lord throws His glance over material nature and thus she produces so many material cosmos. Either Krishna in the Goloka or Narayana in Vaikuntha does not directly come in contact for material creations. They are completely out of all connection with material energy. It is the function of the Mahasamkarshan who in the form of Karan Vishnu puts His glance over the material creations. The material nature is therefore situated outside the limits of causal ocean. The material nature is connected with the Personality of Godhead by His glances over her. and nothing more. She is impregnated so to say by His glancing energy. The material energy called by name Maya does not even touch the causal ocean as the glancing focus is transferred from far away distant. This glancing power of the Lord agitates the whole cosmic energy and its actions begin at once. This means matter, however powerful she may be, has no power by herself. The activity begins by the grace of the Lord and then the whole cosmic creation is manifested one by one in a systematic. The example of our own experience in the matter of conception of a woman can be applied here also to understand the subject to a certain extent. The mother is inert. The father puts his energy within the mother and thus she conceives. She supplies the ingredients for the growth of the child in the womb. Similarly material nature supplies the ingredients of cosmic development. Therefore the material nature stands in two different phases. The one side of her manifestation is called 'Pradhan' as she supplies the material ingredients for such cosmic development and the other phase is called 'Maya' i.e. the manifestation made by her ingredients are just like the foams of the ocean which stands for a temporary period. 'Maya' means a false temporary flareup. In reality such manifestations of the material nature is originally caused by the spiritual glancing over her. The direct or remote cause of creation is the Personality of Godhead and material nature is the indirect or immediate cause. The materialistic scientist, on account of their being puffed up by some magical changes of their so-called invention, cannot see behind the matter, the real potency of Godhead. Therefore such jugglery of science is gradually leading people to a Godless civilization at the cost of missing the great goal of human life. The materialists have missed the goal of life. They are running after self-sufficiency without knowing that material nature is by Herself self-sufficient by grace of God. What they are doing is that they are disturbing the fixed up position of self sufficiency in the name of civilization creating a collosal hoax of imbalanced distribution. In fact to think of material nature as all in all without knowing the original cause, is a sort of ignorance and Lord Chaitanya appeared to dissipate this darkness of ignorance and to ignite the spiritual sparks of life which once generated the fire of tribulations all over the world becomes at once mitigated by His causeless mercy. (More...)

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Our spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, writes: "By ignorance only the conditioned soul wrongly thinks that he is a product of the material nature and that the Personality of Godhead is also a product of matter. But in fact, the Personality of Godhead and the living being are transcendental and have nothing to do with the material nature When nescience is removed, then it is perfectly realized that there is nothing existing without the Personality of Godhead. As the gross and subtle bodies are emanations from the Personality of Godhead, the revival of transcendental knowledge permits one to engage both of them in the service of the Lord." The gross body can be engaged in rendering service, cleaning the temple, distributing Krsna conscious literature and bowing down in the temple, and the subtle mind can hear and think of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. The realization by which one can change his activities into transcendental activities develops without apprehension in execution of the bhakti path. Narada grasped this at once by his superior attraction for the Supreme Personality of Godhead-through the most effective method of hearing from pure souls. As Narada tells it, "The flow of my devotional service began." Devotional service is natural to everyone, but it is choked up and suspended due to our being covered by modes of passion and ignorance. In Narada's case, the pure sound vibration of unadulterated devotees speaking the glories of the Supreme Lord at once removed the material coverings and his devotional service thus began. Or in other words, the eternal being who was residing in the body of the maidservant's son woke up, and the ultimate goal-love of God-became manifest in his heart. Narada's position before his teachers is a model for the disciple who wishes to attain success even within one lifetime: "I was very much attached to the bhakti-vedantas. I was gentle in behavior, and all my sins became eradicated in my heart. I had strong faith in them; I had subjugated the senses and was strictly following the bhakti-vedantas with body and mind." (More...)

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