Always With Form

“He [the Lord] was only thumb high, but He was all transcendental. He had a very beautiful, blackish, infallible body, and He wore a dress of lightning yellow and a helmet of blazing gold. Thus He was seen by the child.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.12.8)

Though within the womb of his mother, the child could sense the scorching heat of the brahmastra weapon. Life had already begun, though emergence from the womb had yet to take place. The weapon was set to utilize intense heat to do its damage, but for some reason it wasn’t working on this tiny embryo. A more powerful force was there to counteract the heat. As small as it was, the counteracting energy still had a form. The child remembered the form and all that it did for him. Just as his grandparents had honored and served that form in its original manifestation of Lord Krishna, so Parikshit never forgot what it did for him.

That vision seen by the child was of Lord Narayana, the four-armed form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Though Narayana lives in the spiritual sky of Vaikuntha, He is all-pervading. Therefore the vision of Him residing within the mind of the devotee is as powerful as His personal self. His personal intervention marked by His appearance within the womb of Uttara also did not change His position. True opulence fires in all necessary directions. In tennis one player may have a powerful serve, but unless they can return serve and win points with groundstrokes and volleys, they will not be successful. One golfer may be good at driving the ball long distances, but if they cannot putt on the greens, they will not win tournaments.

“Actual greatness, however, is not one-sided. One who is actually great can become greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Teachings of Queen Kunti, Ch 13)

True greatness means being both very large and very small in ability. Spacesuits, rocket ships and large vehicle transports show greatness in size and ability, but the same dexterity can’t be accomplished within a smaller form. That dexterity may have been there previously, but it cannot be repeated. The living entity survived living in the tiniest size body within the womb, but upon reaching adulthood, the same feat can’t be repeated. There is no magic pill to diminish your size down to nothing again. You can put on a suit and travel to outer space, but you can’t take off your body and crawl through tiny spaces.

With the Supreme Lord, His exhibitions of strength and dexterity travel in both directions, the large and the small. In His impersonal form He is the virat-rupa, or the universal manifestation. Picture all the “stuff” of the world. If you could get the largest truck imaginable and fill it with stuff, you would have everything. That entire collection is one way to imagine the Supreme Lord’s standing. At the same time, He is smaller than the smallest, residing within the heart of every living entity as the Supersoul, the charioteer waiting to steer the individual in the proper direction. Without knowing that you have that driver inside of you, you will live a life of constant fear and worry. You have someone waiting to give you sound advice, but unless you know they are there, how will you take advantage of their association?

Both the virat-rupa and the Paramatma [Supersoul] represent an original personality. His spiritual form is so amazing that no one can properly understand it. Nevertheless, it still exists and it can be shown to the living entity if they are fortunate enough. Maharaja Parikshit had the great fortune in several ways. Though generally it is not considered a good thing to get attacked while you are in the womb, when you have the most powerful figure protecting you from that attack, there is nothing to fear. In the process, you learn to appreciate your position with respect to your savior, and you get to bask in the sweetness of His vision.

Some five thousand years ago there was a great war to end all wars. Mother earth was feeling the burden of the sinful population treading her land, so the Supreme Lord decided that He would relieve that burden. Instead of doing the job all by Himself, He coordinated events in such a way that the bellicose parties would fight with each other. Only a select few would survive, and those personally protected by the Lord in His form of Shri Krishna would emerge victorious.

The Pandavas were the five brothers favored by Krishna, who acted as the charioteer to the leading warrior Arjuna. Towards the end of the war, one of the fighters for the opposing army was captured and then subsequently released. As revenge for the humiliation, the fiend, Ashvatthama, released a fiery weapon towards the womb of Uttara. Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu was slain during the war, and his child was within the womb of his wife Uttara. Ashvatthama thus decided on infanticide as payback. Uttara’s womb carried the lone member of the dynasty to survive in the future, to carry the family name going forward.

The brahmastra is a weapon of intense fire. To counteract it, you need intense cold. Lord Krishna stepped in and saved the child within the womb. Parikshit saw God while he was protected. He did not notice a bright light of Brahman or a gigantic cosmic manifestation. He did not perceive an unidentifiable force. Rather, He saw an opulent form that had four arms which was nicely adorned. Thus from the incident we see that God always retains His spiritual attributes, regardless of the area of space He apparently takes up.

The deity reinforces this fact. Though made of stone, wood, or resin, and maybe only a few feet tall in height, the archa-vigraha is as good as the original form of the Personality of Godhead because worship of it is authorized. The deity is the benediction from the higher being, who allows those with an obstructed vision to get to know Him better. When you first meet someone, they likely won’t tell you everything about themselves. They would rather gradually reveal this knowledge once they see that you are interested in what they have to say. They also want to be sure that you will not divulge their secrets to just any person and that the relationship you have with them is meaningful.

In the same way, the conditioned living entity, who is filled with so many personal motives, isn’t qualified to accept all the truths of spiritual life right away. Yet they still want a worshipable figure. They want to love someone without motivation and without interruption. If they feel the person they are loving will compete with them, then walls are erected, emotional barriers preventing the rival from gaining an unfair advantage.

With the deity, there is no such worry, as you simply look at it and derive pleasure. If you feel so inclined, offer it some water, flowers, or fruits. If you want to spend even more time, prepare elaborate dishes made of ingredients that belong to the mode of goodness, those foods free of animal flesh and other impurities like garlic and onions. Add the key ingredient of love and first present the offering to your spiritual master and you are assured of pleasing the intended object of worship. Though God is never limited to a certain height, He will assume the form of the deity to meet your needs for worship. He tailors His appearance to suit your understanding, such is His kindness.

In the case of Parikshit, the circumstance called for a tiny form to enter a womb and counteract the brahmastra weapon. Krishna did just that, and the form of Narayana that Parikshit saw for just a brief moment would be remembered for the rest of his life. That sort of ajnata-sukriti, or unintended spiritual merit, stayed with him, sort of like a piggy bank that holds gathered money. The stock doesn’t deplete over time, as you can’t really lose spiritual merits. If you unknowingly acquire auspiciousness relating to Krishna, the maturity of that reservoir leads you to do things like chant the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.

If you spend your saved money on a good, service, or experience, the money is lost; there is a debit to your account balance. In bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, the reservoir spent in connecting with Krishna only further grows the account, affording you more opportunities to serve the same person and continue to derive pleasure. The transcendental form that Parikshit saw marked the beginning of his devotional life, which he would remain dedicated to up until the time of his death. The sacred Shrimad Bhagavatam has Parikshit as a main character for a reason. He was favored by God at both the beginning and end of life. Seeing Narayana was the beginning of His understanding, and from that meeting further dedication in bhakti developed, to the point that He never forgot that form. If we should be so fortunate to see the Supreme Lord in any of His non-different forms, including the sweet vision of the two-armed Krishna, our spiritual merits will increase all the same, allowing us to spend our way into transcendental ecstasy.

In Closing:

From fire of brahmastra about to burn,

Towards savior Narayana embryo did turn.

 

To stop fiend Ashvatthama’s attack,

He used divine powers to push fire back.

 

Not a formless energy or bright light,

Instead had four arms, made a beautiful sight.

 

That vision of Supreme Lord he never did forget.

The saved Parikshit devotion to God in his heart set.

 

Know that sum of spiritual merits never to decrease,

With each expenditure, chances for devotion increase.

I See Me

“As we cannot see anything in the absence of the sun, so also we cannot see anything including our own self, without the factual presence of the Lord. Without Him all our knowledge is covered by illusion.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.11.9 Purport)

Due to the thick covering of nescience surrounding the identifying agent within the body, we’re not even sure what it is that we’re looking for. We may think that we want something, but then later on that cherished desire turns out to be not worth it. These pursuits are all rooted in illusion, and because of the improper vision we don’t know how to identify either ourselves or the ideal object to be viewed. By tapping into the right source of information, however, we can learn to properly identify ourselves and know what gives our identity its true meaning.

Pretend that you’re looking for a new job. You’ve been at your current place for quite a while, so long that when you go to interview at new places they’re amazed that a candidate could stay with one company for so many years. You have to explain to them the reasons for your departure, that finally the proprietor of the business has pushed you far enough in the wrong way that you’re willing to leave your comfortable surroundings.

The problem you face is that you’ve never seriously looked for another job before. You got into a routine at your present place, and you got comfortable with the business environment and knowing how everything worked. Your job responsibilities spread across several different areas, so when you’re checking out the job listings for potential work, you have to choose which area of expertise you best fit into.

Looking at the new job listing is very exciting, for it offers so much potential with the words posted. But as soon as the abstract starts to get defined a little bit, as soon as more details pour in, the excitement slowly dwindles. The required life change really hits you when you are sitting in the job interview and meeting with the people you would be working with. They describe the new environment to you and what sorts of challenges you should expect to face.

Despite how kind they may be and how wonderful the job sounds, you can’t help but be overcome by fear inside. “I don’t want to quit my job. I want to stay where I am. I know that sounds stupid and it would be a mistake in terms of advancement in my career to pass up this new job, but I can’t help but feel uncomfortable about it.”

In this way what you initially thought was something worth going after turned out to not be what it was. The living entity follows similar paths throughout life, birth after birth, until they are fortunate enough to be graced with the presence of a bona fide spiritual master. The guru gets his strength from the person he serves, who as the all-pervading witness is ultimately responsible for the good fortune of meeting the guru in the first place.

What can the guru teach us that others can’t? What can we gain from hearing from one person that we can’t otherwise learn through experience? The first instruction taught to the aspiring transcendentalist of the Vedic tradition is aham brahmasmi, which means “I am Brahman.” This identification is impossible to uncover on your own, even if you are totally disgusted with the temporary ups and downs that life has to offer. Through your speculation at best you can perhaps perceive that there is a singular energy that acts as the catalyst to action, but you have no idea where this energy comes from or how long it will remain manifest.

The identification as Brahman is one thing, but actually acting off of that knowledge is another. Thus the bona fide guru does not stop his instruction with the introduction of Brahman. Rather, that forms the basis for the rest of the recommended spiritual practices. If advancement is not made along the proper path of bhakti-yoga, or divine love, misidentification and illusion with respect to goals can still arise.

What are some examples of spiritualists making mistakes due to illusion? Once we learn that we are Brahman, there is the curiosity to know where Brahman comes from. We are told that there is a God, a Supreme Brahman. Okay, that’s great, but how do we see Him? Can we see God? For the neophyte, this curiosity is understandable, but it is actually one based off of illusion. If one can’t even see themselves as spirit through regular practice, how do they expect to see God?

To use another comparison, if we can’t see objects around us without the sun’s help, how can we expect to perceive the subtle aspect of Supreme Spirit without outside intervention? Without the will of the Supreme Person, no one is able to see God. And that divine aid is only available if one pleases their spiritual master, whose desire it is to instill devotion to God within his disciples. Devotion is a practice where the devotee tries to act in such a way that God sees them, instead of the other way around.

“[O mystic] First know your visible form, then realize your position as Brahman, and then see the material nature standing in between. O wretch, without seeing these how can you understand what the unmanifested [invisible] feature of the Absolute Truth [alakh] actually is? Chant Shri Rama’s holy name instead, says Tulsi.” (Dohavali, 19)

In his Dohavali, Goswami Tulsidas addresses the same issue by rhetorically asking why the spiritualist should bother about the manifested and unmanifested forms of the Supreme Lord. If we have a limited understanding of our own identity as Brahman, how are we going to understand the different features of God and what it takes to notice them? In reality, Bhagavan is full of spiritual form, but since we don’t know what a spiritual body is, we contemplate His nature in terms of manifested and unmanifested. The dichotomy is also discussed in terms of visible versus invisible and personal versus impersonal.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is Bhagavan, who is complete in His qualities. Only because of our lack of proper vision do we say that God can be seen or not seen. In a particular couplet, Tulsidas says that if you are so anxious about seeing God or overly concerned with the unmanifested feature, considering the Lord to be formless, first try to see yourself. If you can’t even see your identity as Brahman, how do you expect to see God, who is the Supreme Brahman?

The recommendation is that instead of trying so hard to see God, why not just chant His holy names? Tulsidas prefers the name of Rama, which addresses Bhagavan’s spiritual form as the son of King Dasharatha holding a bow and arrow in His hands ready to protect the innocent. Krishna is also another name for the same Bhagavan. It addresses the Lord’s original form as the two-handed Shyamasundara who delights the residents of Vrindavana. Not surprisingly, these two names are prominent in the famous maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.

What does chanting this mantra do for the person wishing to see God? Chanting is an act of love; it is part of bhakti. The same understanding of Brahman that comes through difficult study, austerity and penance arrives in the palm of the hand of the devotee. What’s better is that Bhagavan appears before the eyes without much effort, eliminating the need for understanding the self altogether. Consciousness is a byproduct of an existence, which comes from the spirit soul. The existence of all individual existences is due to the Supreme Lord. In this way it is more important to know Bhagavan than it is to know Brahman.

Krishna is the master of illusion. He creates material nature, or maya, to cloud the vision of the individual living entities. This is what they desire when they leave the graces of the spiritual land. Since the wish for illusion is granted by Krishna, it stands to reason that the desire for release from that illusion would also be fulfilled by the Lord. Anyone who is sincerely interested in seeing God and then knowing what to do with that sight will be given the help they need. If they are interested in seeing God for a second or two and then declaring that life’s mission is complete, they will have a tough time, for the desire itself is rooted in illusion.

Seeing God is great, but then what to do after that? Shri Hanuman and Prahlada Maharaja both saw Bhagavan personally, but they didn’t end their devotion afterwards. Hanuman subsequently took up difficult service to keep a smile on Shri Rama’s beautiful face. To this day Hanuman continues his service by chanting Rama’s name. He derives pleasure by hearing about the Lord’s activities. With Prahlada, the initial service culminated in the personal meeting with Narasimhadeva, Krishna’s half-man/half-lion incarnation. Once protected from the attacks of his father, Prahlada did not stop his devotion. Rather, he stayed concentrated on the lotus feet of Bhagavan while carrying out his duties.

Illusion is the bedrock of the many miseries we encounter. That cloud of nescience can be slashed away by the sword of knowledge, which is so kindly presented in the Bhagavad-gita. The Gita is Krishna’s direct instructions, and the spiritual master who follows that guidance in the proper way can lead the sincere listener out of the forest of illusion and into the field of devotion, where each new day brings endless opportunities for pleasure through service to God.

In Closing:

Without torchlight can’t see in the dark,

Then how to see God residing in the heart?

 

Spiritual form of Supreme Lord hard to understand,

Especially when living in maya’s land.

 

Illusion causes in understanding a grave mistake,

From our bodily features identity we take.

 

If your position as Brahman you can’t perceive,

How then sight of God expect to receive?

 

Consult Vaishnava guru to find path that is true,

Then learn of your position and Bhagavan’s too.

The Personal Form

“For the ordinary man who wants to lord it over material nature, the Lord not only sanctions and becomes a witness of activities, but He never gives the nondevotee instructions for going back to Godhead. That is the difference in dealings by the Lord with different living beings, both the devotee and the nondevotee. He is leader of all the living beings, as the king of the state rules both the prisoners and the free citizens.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.9.32 Purport)

It’s strange to think that the worst criminal in the world also has God living inside of them. Since they are part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the same as Him in quality but vastly inferior in the quantitative measure of attributes, they become part of the definition that is God. At the same time, the aspect that resides within them isn’t the complete feature of the Supreme Lord. The Supersoul within the heart is an impartial witness, watching both the good and the bad activities of the living entity from a neutral position. When the same person connects with God in a mood of love, the personal form of the Lord, the fully featured Personality of Godhead or one of His direct incarnations, appears on the scene to show just who the worshiping individual is targeting. Therefore in all respects the Personality of Godhead is superior.

How can we say one is superior to the other when in terms of spiritual qualities both entities are equal? Is my form that meets with someone in a coffee shop superior to my form that talks to the same person over the phone or through internet communication? Am I not the same person regardless of how I connect with others? That is certainly a valid point to be raised with respect to the Supersoul, which resides within the heart next to the individual soul, but the distinctions are made from the perspective of the illusioned living entity, who may not know any better.

What do we mean by this? Let’s say that the person I talk to on the phone only thinks of me as a voice. They’ve never seen me in person, so they think the only way I exist is through the sound that comes in the earpiece of the telephone receiver. Obviously, such a line of thinking would be considered foolish by the mature adult, yet to the person in ignorance, there is no physical proof of my existence. Therefore they feel justified in thinking of me as being only a sound.

In a similar manner, someone who is not properly educated in the science of self-realization so flawlessly introduced in the Vedas and since passed on by the bona fide spiritual masters will be led astray by so many mentally concocted theories that have no basis in truth. The personal aspect of the Supreme Lord has been denied for a long time in the majority of the spiritual traditions of the world. “Worship God”, is the recommendation, but if you don’t know who God is or what He looks like, how is that worship going to manifest? Is it any wonder then that the worshipers are left to take shelter of materialist pursuits such as philanthropy, following general principles of piety, and redressing social ills?

“What is wrong with these pursuits”, you say. Well, for starters they are already taken up by those who are not religiously inclined. Someone doesn’t need to know anything about God to help the poor. Cleaning up the environment also takes place without any knowledge of spirituality. The real principles of religion teach one how to worship the origin of life and matter; it is a discipline which then permeates all subsequent behavior. By attaining the divine consciousness, one learns how to adjust their behavior in a way that the link to the spiritual powerhouse of energy remains active despite the performance of regulative activities aimed at maintaining the vital force within the body.

Denying the personal aspect of the Supreme Lord as being a mythological tradition supported by those unaware of the truth or something that is not logically possible, the theorists emerge with their own ideas of God. “God is impersonal. He is the formless Absolute Truth.” Others will say that any person can become God through enough enlightenment. Of course, these are silly assertions because if someone has to become God, it means in a prior circumstance they were not God. If at any time you are not the Supreme Controller, your superior position is invalidated.

The features of the Personality of Godhead are described in the Vedas, whose most sacred work is the Bhagavad-gita. It’s difficult to put comparisons on the bhakti-shastras, or the scriptures forwarding devotional service as the highest aim in life, but the Bhagavad-gita gains its significance by its combined punch of brevity and import. The short work touches on all subjects of Vedanta, or the ultimate system of knowledge. In the end, however, the true mission in life of following the words and instructions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is presented.

In His original form God is known as Krishna, which is a Sanskrit word that means all-attractive. Krishna’s immediate expansion is known as Vishnu, who is often times considered the original form of Godhead depending on the tradition you follow. Even in many Puranas and Vedic hymns Vishnu is described as the original. The fact is that any personal expansion of the original Lord is equally as worshipable. The living entities are known as jiva-tattvas, so they are sort of clones of God that aren’t nearly as powerful. The most notable distinction is that the jivas are prone to illusion, doubt, mistakes, and imperfect sense perceptions. Only a jiva can fall victim to the fallacious notion that God can be equaled.

With the distinction between the Personality of Godhead and His many sparks, why would the Supersoul agree to live inside of anyone? This expansion is actually the Lord’s mercy, not meant to be a punishment. Despite the longest fall from grace, the jiva has the open invitation from the Supreme Lord to return to His realm, to retake the constitutional position. Just as a fish is meant to live in water, the jiva is meant to be in Krishna’s personal company in the spiritual sky, where things like birth and death don’t exist. Time and space are still present in the spiritual lands of Vaikuntha and Krishnaloka, but they don’t have a debilitating influence, sort of like a snake without teeth.

In his fall from grace caused by desires to lord over material nature, the jiva soul is accompanied by God in His form as the Supersoul. In some spiritual traditions this form is described as the nirguna, or attributeless, aspect of the Supreme Lord. It is described as such because to the onlooker it doesn’t have any features, sort of like the voice emerging from the telephone receiver. The Supreme Lord is always who He is, though, so regardless of whether He’s described as nirguna or saguna, His supreme standing never changes.

The Supersoul resides within even the worst criminal, but at the same time there is no connection with God in such cases. With the devotees, however, the presence of the Supersoul proves to be extremely helpful. It guides the sincere worshiper towards the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in a mood of love, a methodical march towards spiritual freedom, release from the cycle of birth and death.

There are countless examples to show how the Supersoul has a different effect depending on the nature of the person, but one of the most notable was the interaction between a famous king and his son. Hiranyakashipu was on the demoniac side, given towards sinful life. He had an opulent kingdom and a tremendous fighting ability. No one in the world could defeat him, and he made sure to let everyone know about it. The Supreme Lord Vishnu had previously killed his brother, so Hiranyakashipu denied God’s existence, or at least His superior position. Hiranyakashipu viewed Vishnu as his archenemy, someone who needed to be defeated.

We can just imagine then the king’s dismay when his son ended up being one of the staunchest devotees of Vishnu in the world. Unable to tolerate the devotion in his son, Hiranyakashipu tried to kill the five-year old Prahlada in so many different ways. The many methods were employed because Prahlada seemingly couldn’t be killed. Thrown off of a cliff, dropped in the ocean under heavy weights, thrown in a pit of snakes, and even tossed in a fire, nothing could kill Prahlada. All the while, the boy’s devotion to Vishnu increased.

Both Hiranyakashipu and Prahlada had the Supersoul residing within them, but only Prahlada knew how to take advantage of the Lord’s close proximity. At the same time, the entity Prahlada was worshiping was indeed a person and not some impersonal force. Hiranyakashipu couldn’t understand this, so he sarcastically asked if the God Prahlada worshiped was in the pillar next to them. After Prahlada responded by saying that Vishnu was indeed in the pillar, and within everything else in this world for that matter, Hiranyakashipu started to punch the pillar, after which Vishnu in His ferocious form of a half-man/half-lion named Narasimha emerged and proceeded to kill the demoniac king.

Devotees of Vishnu have studied and honored that incident ever since. Goswami Tulsidas mentions it in his Kavitavali as being evidence of the fact that the personal form of the Supreme Lord is superior. If the nirguna and saguna aspects were on an equal level, then Vishnu would have emerged from Hiranyakashipu’s heart. We know from Vedic science that the Lord existed within the demon’s heart, but since He was a neutral observer, He did not play an active role in the demon’s reign of terror. The same Supersoul resided within Prahlada, and since the boy knew how to connect with the Supersoul because of the instruction previously received from the exalted Narada Muni, his actions eventually led him to seeing and worshiping Vishnu in an avatara form, or one that is personal.

Thus even though there is no difference between the personal and the impersonal aspects of the Supreme Absolute Truth, it is the personal aspect that is the original. Sort of like how darkness only emerges from the absence of light, the impersonal aspect can only exist when the original feature is a person. Therefore those who take to bhakti-yoga find the highest engagement in life. The Personality of Godhead accepts all kinds of worship, provided the motives are pure. Through the pious activity in devotion the worshiper gets the knowledge necessary to see God and continue service to Him thereafter. On the other hand, the person fooled by the illusory material nature to ignore the Supreme Lord’s personal presence stays far away from God life after life, despite having the Supersoul within them. Knowing the two options, the wise regularly chant, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, and remember the innocent Prahlada Maharaja, who proved that worship of God’s personal form is always superior.

In Closing:

Talking on the phone person you can’t see,

That only exists as a voice, can it be?

 

Obviously voice comes from person that is real,

Personality who can hear, see, taste and feel.

 

Supersoul is God’s form that you cannot see,

Rests within everyone’s heart does He.

 

Nevertheless, form is just an expansion,

From original whose qualities Vedas mention.

 

From Prahlada know that personal is superior,

Worship Vishnu and abandon matter so inferior.

What Is Maya

“Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the original cause of everything, the Vaishnava sees everything in relationship with Krishna, even in this material world. By such advanced knowledge, everything becomes spiritualized. In other words, everything in the material world is already spiritual, but due to our lack of knowledge we see things as material.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 32)

The first instruction taught to aspiring transcendentalists of the Vedic school is aham brahmasmi, which means “I am Brahman.” This instruction is needed at the beginning because the living entity at the time of birth associates only with its body. What else could it know anyway? An infant doesn’t know how to talk, read, move, or communicate properly with anyone. It doesn’t even know that it is going to grow up into a mature adult at some point in the future. Everything is learned through experience and explicit instruction offered by authority figures, but aham brahmasmi cannot come from experience; it must be taught in the beginning stages of self-realization, when a person is most open to learning about their real identity and their position in the world. If we are Brahman, or pure spirit, then everything else, including our bodies, must be of a different nature. That which is not Brahman is known as maya, or the illusory energy governing the material world. The rules delineating the separation between maya and Brahman are not absolute, though. In fact, the material elements are only the source of delusion for one whose consciousness is not properly situated. In the higher scheme everything is part and parcel of God, even His separated energy.

“The Supreme Lord said, The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called the self. Action pertaining to the development of these material bodies is called karma, or fruitive activities.” (Bhagavad-gita, 8.3)

After initial instruction, through further study the properties of Brahman are learned in more detail. Brahman is truth; it is not deluded by temporary gains and losses. The bodies assumed by the living entities are guaranteed to go through cycles of change, sometimes accumulating and sometimes dwindling. The spirit soul, or Brahman, transcends even death, as nothing is capable of destroying the soul. Depending on the desires fixed in the consciousness at the time of death, a new type of body is crafted for the next life. Despite the changes in outer coverings, the spirit soul’s constitutional makeup does not change.

Why is it important to know Brahman? In the absence of knowledge of our true identity, we will associate with temporary objects. The harm in such a mentality can be illustrated in a variety of ways, but we can take something as simple as a school system to see what results. School is meant to provide an education, not to be a permanent home. If, for instance, a student should take their identity from their participation in a particular school, there will eventually come a time when that identity becomes invalid. Either there will be graduation or dropout, but nevertheless the flawed identity will dissipate.

The wise person knows that their tag as “student” is just temporary, a label meant to further a larger purpose. Similarly, the human form of body is meant to act as a launching pad towards a higher, more pleasurable destination. One who identifies with their body and the different objects and relationships it accumulates will be in for a hard fall at some point in the future. Either the forces of nature will take away possessions or eventually death will come and take away their body. If I spent my whole life living a lie, I obviously didn’t make the best use of my time. Associating only with the body is akin to going through life with your eyes closed, only to have them opened at the time of death, when it is too late.

If we are not our bodies than what are we? How do we even see ourselves? Are not the eyes part of the material body as well? Understanding our identity as Brahman is very difficult, for even having the opportunity to hear of the differences between matter and spirit is considered a great blessing, something not bestowed on every living entity. The animals, insects and plants have no way of understanding Brahman, even though that is their identity as well. Through enough study, hearing and regulative practice, the realization of Brahman can come. At that time, the world will be seen as full of material elements covering pure spirit.

But just as the mentality that views everything as “mine” and belonging to “my body” is harmful, the other extreme of everything being maya and nothing being real is also detrimental. If one doesn’t advance to the next step after Brahman realization, they have every chance of being deluded into thinking that Brahman, or pure spirit, is the summit of existence. If Brahman can’t be seen, then obviously the Supreme Absolute Truth must be invisible. If everything is false, or maya, then the Supreme Truth must not exist in this world. Therefore the only option is to negate all activity, completely remove association with worldly objects and hopefully merge into the light of Truth, this invisible spiritual effulgence.

“By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 9.4)

In the extreme cases both the gross materialist and impersonalist philosopher seeing everything as maya are trying to become God, or the Supreme Controller. One side is attempting to attain that feat through accumulation of objects of maya, while the other is trying to remove maya’s influence altogether. The real position of maya, or material nature, is not a fixed one. She is an energy acting under the direction of the Supreme Lord, who is above both Brahman and the material nature. The Supreme Absolute Truth is one, but He has different energies to those who are not God. The Lord is never separate from His energies, but to understand Him to some level, we make distinctions between matter and spirit, the material world and the spiritual world.

So, is God maya or Truth? Obviously if the living entity is Brahman and not maya, then the Supreme Lord must be the same way? This is where things get a little tricky. In the Bhagavad-gita, the treatise on spirituality delivered by Lord Krishna, it is said that those who try to understand the Absolute Truth by being only devoted to the unmanifest, or all-pervading, aspect have a very difficult time, especially if they are embodied. This means that a person who is dwelling in a material form finds it almost impossible to understand what “all-pervading” means and how the Supreme Personality can be above maya. If I myself have to dissociate from maya, why shouldn’t God?

“For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 12.5)

The true fact is that God is not invisible. When He is described as all-pervading, or unmanifest, this is from the perspective of the conditioned eye. The difference between a conditioned eye and a liberated one is the ability to perceive of the Absolute Truth’s presence everywhere. The distinction can be likened to the viewing of a large number, one in the millions or billions. If the number is written down just with the numerals, it is very difficult to properly make it out. On the other hand, if commas are inserted in the proper places, the number can be read and understood instantly. The numbers are the same in both manifestations, except one is more difficult to understand.

Similarly, the unmanifested and the manifested aspects of the Supreme Absolute Truth are really the same, as the Supreme Lord is one without an equal. His presence is everywhere; it’s just that we don’t have the eyes to see Him unless we implement the proper methods of spiritual practice. Taking another example, if we seat a blind man and a man with vision in front of a painting, to the blind man the painting will be invisible. To the person with vision the painting is manifest right before them. Just because the blind man thinks that the painting is invisible doesn’t mean that the painting doesn’t exist. Similarly, just because a person takes maya to be everywhere and the Lord to be invisible doesn’t mean that maya acts on God or that the Lord cannot be seen. The terms “unmanifest” and “invisible” apply to the angle of vision used in specific cases.

What really is maya then? To understand its purpose, the marginal position of the living entity must be remembered. The Supreme Lord is the spiritual whole. His body is supremely attractive and fully transcendental; hence it is described as Krishna among many other names in the Vedic tradition. For Krishna there is no distinction between body and soul. He is completely one; for Him there is neither delusion nor contact with inhibiting matter. The living entities, we jiva souls, are also spiritual in nature, but we have a choice in association. When deciding in favor of Krishna’s company or the association of God in one of His many other non-different forms, we get a spiritual body and don’t get deluded into becoming attached to a temporary nature.

On the other hand, if we choose against Krishna’s association, we take shelter of a separated energy, which is known as material nature, or maya. Maya acts at Krishna’s command, which is influenced by the living entity’s desires. Maya is neither absolute nor autonomous. The material nature is inhibiting only for those who are deluded in consciousness. Those who use maya to further their God consciousness, however, don’t suffer any of material nature’s inhibiting effects. With this we’re essentially introducing an exception to the rules governing the differences between Brahman and maya.

While the exception seems too convenient to be taken seriously, even the impersonalist believes in exceptions to their rules. For instance, the person thinking that everything is maya and that God is invisible and formless nevertheless posits their theories in sound vibrations and written word. Words are written out on paper or placed onto internet websites, both of which are governed completely by maya. But according to the authors of these works, maya is false, a delusion, not reality. If maya is false and the words containing impersonalist philosophy are presented through the medium of maya, then the philosophy itself is maya! If the philosophy is false, or not real, why should anyone accept it?

The impersonalists obviously make an exception to their rule of everything being maya when they present their philosophy. So, in this way the idea of maya having different utilities based on the purpose of the individual is not a novel concept. God’s true position is as Bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is never associated with maya, and neither are His devotees. When used to further one’s God consciousness the material elements take on a divine nature. The mahamaya turns into yogamaya when used to connect with Krishna.

As a simple example illustrating the difference, normal sound vibrations are used to convey messages and songs. If the content is related solely to the body that is temporary and destined to be renounced, then obviously there is association with maya. On the other hand, if the sound vibrations are used to address God and recite His names, such as those found in the maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, there is no debilitating influence. A school is just a building after all, made of brick and mortar like any other large dwelling. In this respect the school is no different from a warehouse. But since there is education established within the rooms, the school building has significance. In a similar manner, any collection of material elements used to further one’s God consciousness ceases to be maya.

More important than understanding Brahman, the material nature, and God’s all-pervasiveness is knowing the Supreme Lord’s position as being beyond all of this. There is no better way to learn this fact than by hearing from Krishna directly and seeing Him personally. These benedictions were granted previously to many notable personalities, including Arjuna, a talented fighter. He was the recipient of the Bhagavad-gita, a work spoken by Krishna that is still celebrated, studied and honored to this day. In the Gita Krishna specifically addresses those who can’t think beyond the stringent rules of Brahman and maya.

“Unintelligent men, who know Me not, think that I have assumed this form and personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is changeless and supreme.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 7.24)

Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita that the foolish think He has assumed His body, not knowing His real nature as changeless. If we see someone in front of us, even if they are exquisitely beautiful, we will apply whatever knowledge we have acquired to our identification method. “Vedanta philosophy tells me that we are not this body. Brahman is Truth and the material elements are maya. Therefore this person standing before me holding a flute must also be covered by maya. But boy, let me tell you, there is something unique about Him. If His flute is maya, then maya must be something wonderful. If His facial features, His lustrous hair, and the flower garland around His neck are maya, then maybe maya isn’t so bad?”

It’s very difficult to get past the strict rules that we have been taught, and it’s even harder to understand how someone could transcend them. With enough faith in the process of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, Krishna can be seen for who He is. He is never subject to maya’s influence, and His body and those belonging to His avataras, or incarnations, are not affected by the laws of material nature in any way. Similarly, the deity manifestations crafted from material elements are also spiritual. Stone and marble are standard objects of matter, but when they are used to create a worshipable figure, one that is installed in a temple or home and honored regularly and which matches the transcendental features belonging to the Supreme Lord described in the numerous Vedic texts, the material elements become spiritualized. If even marble can turn into a divine element, imagine what can happen to the humble living entity who turns their life over to God. For the paramahamsa, the supreme swan of a transcendentalist, Krishna’s influence is seen everywhere. Therefore maya cannot harm them.

In Closing:

Living entity at birth identifies with the body,

Yet this form is ever changing, not source of identity.

Sincere student of Vedas learns from the start,

That they are Brahman, a purely spiritual spark.

If we are spirit then everything else must be matter,

Known as maya, false world leaves taste that is bitter.

If everything is maya, God fits into where?

Is He invisible, on His form we cannot stare?

From Bhagavad-gita learn Truth’s real nature,

Lord has both personal and impersonal feature.

Matter is inhibiting for the ignorant,

For devotees, everything in life is pleasant.

For the elements are used for God consciousness,

To remember the Supreme Lord, bask in His pleasantness.

Use matter to make deities and transcendental sound,

Maya becomes divine, benefits will be profound.

I’m Still Standing

“Brahman is spirit, and these material bodies are active only because Brahman is within them. If we are active despite our contact with material nature, do we cease to be active when we purify ourselves of the material contamination and establish ourselves in our proper identity as pure Brahman?” (Shrila Prabhupada, Raja-vidya, Ch 4)

A wonderful rhetorical question posed by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada highlights the illogic in the viewpoint that once liberation is achieved, salvation if you will, activity ceases, which is the opinion of those who don’t believe there is any power higher than nature and also of those who take the Absolute Truth to be formless or void. Whether the final destination is described as nirvana or samadhi, attainment of the final goal does not signal the end of activity, but rather only the beginning of a spiritual awakening that continues well beyond the bounds of time and space. As part of the superior energy emerging from the Supreme Energetic, the living entity, the jiva soul, dominates matter, which is the separated, or inferior, energy. As is so nicely pointed out by Shrila Prabhupada, if even the inferior energy is incapable of stopping the activity of the superior energy, how can the achievement of liberation, wherein the effects of the inferior energy are completely removed, stop the superior energy from exhibiting its active principle?

There needn’t be an answer posited, as the question is posed merely to shed light on a contradiction. Nothing can stop the soul from performing activity, for action is built into the workings of the soul. Nirvana may be the end and the state of enlightenment, and the same may hold true for samadhi, but with real salvation comes the beginning of worthwhile activity. Matter is an inhibiting force, one that causes false identification from the time of birth. Though matter furthers illusion in the activities and mindset of the living entity, it is still incapable of stopping action. The work taken up may not be of the higher variety and it may also be detrimental to the future well-being of the performer, but nevertheless, the active principle will continue to manifest.

How do we know that we are the superior energy and not completely one with everything? Why is there even a difference between spirit and matter? Though the concepts addressing these issues are nicely presented in the Bhagavad-gita, the treatise on spirituality spoken by Lord Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra some five thousand years ago, a rudimentary understanding of the workings of spirit and matter can actually be obtained through our own experiences. We know that we survived within the womb of our mother before our consciousness developed. We were once the size of a tiny pea, yet now we are full-blown human beings capable of understanding the workings of life, the imminence of death, and the growth periods beginning from conception.

Throughout these shifts in appearance, the identity of the individual never changes. Whether a person is within the womb, outside running around as a small child, or sitting in their chair studying books as an adult, they remain the same person. But something definitely has changed, for we treat adults and children differently. Obviously the outer covering, the dress composed of material elements worn by the individual, is unique to each phase of life. The workings of the material energy are so strong and at the same time subtle that the constant changes are seemingly imperceptible to the person dwelling within the body. When we speak of the individual, there must be an identifiable aspect, something that transcends the changes to the exterior. For instance, we know that the arms and legs are considered part of us, but if we should happen to lose one of them, we don’t cease to be. The same concept can be expanded out to every single aspect of the body except one: the soul. The atma, or spiritual spark, is the essence of individuality, and its presence within the body is the indication of life. Once the soul exits, the same form which was once useful becomes dull and lifeless. It can no longer do anything on its own, and it is left to rot and decay.

Vedic information reveals that the soul continues to exist forever. We know that there was life on earth before our birth and that society continues after someone dies, so we know that the soul must continue to remain in existence. Where it goes nobody knows except the higher authorities, but the guarantee is that somewhere rebirth will take place in some type of body. Matter is considered the playing field where the jiva, or individual living entity, gets to act out its desires.

“Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.5)

Spirit is considered part of the superior energy, one that directly correlates with the Supreme Person, that entity most of us refer to as God. Ironically enough, matter guided by nature is so influential that the jiva doesn’t even know that he is superior. He naturally subordinates himself to the dictates of nature, which steadily attack the senses of the acquired body. For instance, the jiva has full control over its actions, as matter cannot compel anyone to do anything. Rather, it is the other way around, as the owner of the body steers the ship and decides in which direction it will turn next.

Yet we see with alcohol addiction and voluntary subordination in relationships with the opposite sex that matter is viewed as superior by the living entity not properly trained to perceive its inferior status. The sentimentalist and sectarian hardliners can’t find much to criticize with the Vedic traditions, as the teachings about the differences between matter and spirit, the eternality of the soul, and the need for becoming God conscious are wholly logical and difficult to dispute in a rational discussion. The primary tool invoked by opponents, however, the cheapest shots they take, their only resort after being soundly defeated in philosophy, is to attack the Vedic tradition of deity worship, wherein material elements are used to construct a statue or picture representation of the Supreme Person which is then worshiped.

What’s ironic is that idol worship is seen in every sphere of life except in the authorized archana-vidhi of the Vedic tradition. What do we mean by this? Worship primarily involves remembering, with tribute and attention being offered by the worshiping individual. Since matter is a temporary manifestation, any living entity who is beautiful, well-skilled in a particular area, or very powerful really hasn’t done much, as their abilities are related solely to an inferior energy. Therefore those who worship such people through heaping praise, viewing posters, and spending money are essentially worshiping idols. They may scoff at such a suggestion. “I don’t worship these individuals. You don’t see me bowing down to them.”

If the mind is fully dedicated to the interests of another person, how can that allegiance not be deemed worship? Since the person offered the praise is not even properly identified as being a spirit soul, how can the said adoration and attention not be considered idol worship? Even the foolish sectarians blinded by ideology, who use dogmatic insistence as their only argument of persuasion, and who criticize the Vedic traditions, believe in worshiping a higher power, with the exact entity worshiped being dependent on the specific tradition. We know that the key ingredient in worshiping is remembering, wherein the worshipable figure’s image is carved into the mind and then contemplated on. If such worship is recommended within the mind, what then is the harm in creating a statue or picture representation of the same person and worshiping it outwardly? If words on a page can evoke laughter, sympathy and joy, why can’t a statue representation of Shri Krishna bring tremendous bliss to the worshiper? Also, when we worship the deity, we substantiate our claims of faith and allegiance to the highest authority figure, the Supreme Lord. Outward worship is actually more beneficial because it allows others to see the importance of worshiping the Supreme Lord in full God consciousness.

Through their willing subordination to the demands of material nature, the jivas provide a tiny glimpse of the natural loving propensity of the spirit soul. Though spirit is superior to matter, the dharma of the soul, the essential characteristic if you will, is to serve. Therefore even when in a conditioned state, when matter is found in abundance, this desire to subordinate and serve other entities emerges. When the objects of worship are determined solely by the features of their outer coverings, the reverence is conducted under illusion. True dharma is rekindled when the superior energy sparks take to subordinating themselves to the Supreme Spirit, that one entity who is beyond the effects of material nature.

Aham brahmasmi is the first instruction taught to new students of the Vedic tradition. Brahman can be thought of as the whole collection of spirit, with each individual being a small fragment of the whole. Krishna is Parabrahman, or the reservoir of all energy. Brahman emanates from Parabrahman, but there is no loss on the original’s part through this expansion. We may take a dinner plate and drop it on the floor to get tiny fragments, but once this happens the original plate is lost. In the spiritual world such stringent laws do not apply. Krishna can expand Himself into millions of fragments and still remain completely the same person.

Due to His fixed position, the Supreme Lord is the only object worthy of our undivided attention and worship. In this sense we see that liberation, or salvation, involves complete and unalloyed service to Krishna in a mood of pure love. In the Vedas salvation is referred to as apavarga, which is a word that describes the removal of the most distressful conditions resulting from subordination to matter. Matter is an energy expansion from Krishna after all, so even though it is a separated energy and inferior to the living entities, it is nevertheless non-different from God. Therefore when matter is utilized properly, it loses its inferior status and turns into something that is completely the same in quality as the individual; essentially creating a state of oneness. The expert batsmen is considered one with his bat because without the object to strike the ball, the player would not be who he is. Similarly, the material body of the liberated soul becomes spiritualized through service to the Supreme Lord.

“…the word pavarga signifies our struggle for existence and our meeting with defeat, exhaustion, bondage, fearfulness and, at last, death. Apavarga means that which can nullify all of these material conditions. Krishna is said to be the giver of apavarga, the path of liberation.” (Shrila Prabhupada, The Nectar of Devotion, Ch 59)

As a Sanskrit word, apavarga is the negation of pavarga, which describes the conditions of fear, exhaustion, defeat, being bound up, and death. When these unwanted conditions of life are removed, apavarga is achieved, which indicates salvation. Nowhere in this definition do we see anything about the cessation of activity. Even when we are at complete rest and doing absolutely nothing, the mind continues to work, for the mind is directly under the purview of the soul. Matter, for all its inhibiting influences, cannot stop the activity of the soul, so how could liberation, which is deemed a superior condition, be capable of doing something the inferior energy, which is meant to cause illusion, can’t even do?

It must be noted that there is a type of liberation that brings a temporary loss of identity. Brahman is the sum collection of individual spirit sparks, and those who understand the equality shared between all life forms thus ascend to the platform of Brahman realization. At the time of death the desires and previous work performed of the individual are measured and a commensurate body is crafted for the next life. One who is on the Brahman platform has no desire for material interaction, so they are not given a material body in the next life. Yet, since their activity in spiritual existence is lacking – i.e. they have no desire to voluntarily subordinate themselves to the whims and dictates of the Supreme Lord, who only asks the living entities to perform activities that will ultimately bring them the highest pleasure – a future spiritual body isn’t granted either. Rather, the impersonalist philosophers, the brahma-jnanis who lack devotion to God, are secured a place in the Brahman effulgence, the light of Truth.

Though this reward is deemed liberation, it technically isn’t, for residence in Brahman is not permanent, as desire ensures that inactivity cannot remain dormant for long. Eventually desire will creep up again even for those who are on the Brahman stage. We know from the Bhagavad-gita that when the time comes for creation, the Supreme Lord impregnates Brahman and thus creates life on earth. In this way we see that Brahman is an intermediary stage, one that doesn’t necessarily grant permanent relief from the workings of the inferior energy known as matter. Therefore the only real liberation is to ascend to the personal realm of the Personality of Godhead, the land reserved for those who want to abide by Krishna’s orders. When we speak of orders, we mean activities that are meant to bring pleasure to both parties. The dog’s orders are sometimes reluctantly followed by the master so that a pleasurable condition can be had. The same goes for the wishes of the spouse and children. But Krishna’s orders are so wonderful that there is no harm in meeting them. And the result of the smiling face of the Supreme Lord trumps all other benedictions.

So how do we achieve real liberation? How do we find activities that transcend the inhibiting effects of material nature? Just as Brahman is superior to maya, or material nature, the Supreme Lord’s holy names are superior to any sound vibration existing in any land. When the sparks of Brahman take to chanting and hearing these names on a regular basis, they will no longer see dualities in existence. No longer will different energies be considered, for everything will be seen in its relation to the Supreme Lord. The holy name carries with it God’s transcendental forms, pastimes and qualities; so the name is the mother and father of spiritual practice. The sounds of the holy name are best created through a wonderful sequence of words known as the maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”

This chanting is both a means and an end. It serves as a way to gain release from the clutches of material existence in the beginning stages, and after liberation is secured, the chanting only increases in intensity and joyfulness. The holy name is our link to the transcendental world, so if we regularly recite it, hearing it at the same time, we can always stand tall against the influences of the inferior nature. We’ll even bypass the Brahman understanding very quickly and become fully God conscious by the time of death.

Do You See What I See?

“The Lord moves everywhere—within and without—and we simply have to make our vision clear so that we may see Him. By devotional service, we can purify our senses so that we may perceive the presence of God. Those who are less intelligent simply try to find God within, but those who are advanced in intelligence can see the Lord both within and without.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Teachings of Queen Kunti, Ch 11)

It’s Super Bowl Sunday. Everyone is gathered around the television to watch the game. There is a large group of friends and family over the house, with plenty of food and a big screen television with full high-definition and surround-sound capabilities to enhance the viewing experience. When the game starts, a big play happens right away. The underdog team, the one most of the people in the room are cheering for, runs back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. It’s pandemonium in the stadium and at home; seemingly everyone is excited. But there are a few people at the party to whom such a moment brings no joy whatsoever. Not only are they not interested in the fortunes of either team, but they can’t possibly understand why anyone would be excited over someone else carrying a football in their hands and running with it for over one hundred yards. “What are they seeing? Who cares that someone thousands of miles away just scored a touchdown?”

Similarly diametrically opposing levels of emotion are witnessed when viewing visible phenomena such as the passing of a comet. Imagine a similar scenario where a group of friends is gathered together on the roof of an apartment building with their telescopes ready. When the particular comet, one that only passes through the night sky every several hundred years or so, finally comes, the onlookers will be elated, feeling fortunate to have witnessed a modern marvel, a miracle of science. Yet to the skeptic and the disinterested observer, the movement of a tiny blip in the sky doesn’t really mean anything. “So a comet passed through the night. Big deal. What does it matter anyway? If we saw it or didn’t see it, I don’t see how our lives are affected at all?”

What could be at the root of the divergence in opinion? The act of visible perception certainly is the same in both individuals. Both sets of onlookers are viewing the exact same thing, but the reactions are still totally different. If we study a little more closely, we see that the level of consciousness is what differs between the two groups. One set has spent much time and effort contemplating, pondering over, and worrying about the big football game. When the underdog team scores on the opening kickoff, it means that their chances to win have just increased. In football, the season culminates with the Super Bowl championship, one of the most difficult trophies to win in all of sports. The opportunity to even play in a Super Bowl is rare enough. So many great players have gone their whole careers without ever winning a championship. Therefore if the team you are supporting further increases their chances of winning the big prize, you will be excited. The visible perception of the event that increased the odds of success thereby brings satisfaction to the mind.  While one observer is simply seeing a man running on a field with an oblong shaped ball, the other is seeing the chances of victory increase.

The viewing of the comet follows a similar pattern. One side, which consists of scientists and inquisitive minds, is seeing the tiny blip in the sky as a sign of the incredibly complex and wonderful nature of the universe. The sun rises and sets every day, but certain comets only come around every few hundred years. Hence those who can witness the passing of a comet are certainly highly fortunate. Yet to the skeptic and disinterested observer, there is no thought or appreciation given to the comet, as their consciousnesses are focused on other things. Therefore the same visible perceptions go unappreciated.

When it comes to spirituality, the justifications provided by the skeptics for not believing in God or not wanting to accept the authorized statements found in the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, cover the full spectrum of opinion. The one side, the secular scientists, wants tangible proof, evidence of God’s existence seen through experimental analysis. On the opposite side, the meditational yogi only perceives of the Supreme Being in an invisible form, for he looks around and doesn’t see any truth or anything that is permanent. In reality, both angles of vision are flawed, as evidence of the Lord’s presence is all around us. When one’s eyes are properly conditioned through the practice of transcendental love, the presence of the Divine Personality is witnessed, appreciated and adored at every single corner of the earth.

“O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.8)

The skeptical scientist can be compared to the disinterested observers at the football game and comet watching gatherings. Without knowing that Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, created this and millions of other universes, the divine workings of nature go unappreciated. A devotee, one who practices bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, as a way of life, can simply taste water and understand that the enjoyment derived is a direct manifestation of Krishna. The sun, which is the sustainer of life, is another direct representation of the Supreme Spirit’s energy. Without the sun, which is self-illuminating and perpetually burning, life could not exist in any tangible way. If the sun were to burn out, life on earth would be destroyed soon after.

The skeptical scientist will say that there is no evidence that Krishna is God. Rather, the statements found in texts like the Shrimad Bhagavatam and Mahabharata are merely myths, exaggerations put into poetic form. Through skepticism one can certainly debunk any assertion or opinion. Even the scientist claiming that a particular object is composed of millions of tiny molecules can be proven wrong. After all, the scientist had to learn his techniques from another teacher. What if the teacher was wrong in their assertions? It is a well established fact that man is prone to error, as are scientists. What if the microscope being used to observe a particular object is flawed? How would the scientist even know that the microscope was properly manufactured, as there are too many instances to count of mechanical production failing?

In this way the importance of the seemingly irrefutable sense observations of the most respected scientist can be minimized. The key to accepting any type of observation, personal or otherwise, is authority. If the source of information is deemed an authority figure, one who is trustworthy, the information will be accepted and acted upon. Moreover, we put faith and trust into our own observations and tendencies over the course of time. When we step out the door of our home, we don’t know for sure if someone else is lurking around the corner to attack us. But from evidence gathered from previous experiences, we have deduced that the likelihood of such an attack is minimal. Therefore there is always trust behind the actions we take and the information we choose to accept.

Similarly, the statements of the Vedas and their supporters pertaining to Krishna’s supremacy and His divine nature can be accepted through faith in the beginning stages. Unlike the scientists who may or may not lead us astray based on the validity of their conclusions, the Vedic principles are meant to be implemented precisely to produce tangible and lasting results in every instance, with the primary benefit being the altering of consciousness. Proof of God’s existence is seen in the results that come from practicing devotion to Him.  The quintessential act of devotion is the chanting of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.

The skeptic will argue that repeating a sound vibration can’t possibly bring one closer to God, as people go on singing songs all the time and never advance in terms of consciousness or intelligence. While this line of thinking seems plausible enough, the authorized acharyas, those who lead by example, kindly inform us that the name of God is different from any mundane sound vibration. The holy name automatically brings an awakening of the forms, attributes and pastimes of the original Divine Being, who is personal and fully formed. This brings us to the other skeptical viewpoint pertaining to God’s existence. The meditational yogi and those who want to only conceive of the invisible aspect of the Supreme Lord don’t follow the line of the atheists and scientists, but they will reject all outward sense perceptions as being false. After all, everything in this world is temporary, including our lives. Just as the human being is created at the time of conception and destroyed at the time of death, the entire cosmos must have been created at some point. Therefore it must also be dissolved at a future point in time. In fact, the latter portion of this opinion is confirmed by Krishna Himself in the Bhagavad-gita, wherein He states that the universe constantly goes through cycles of creation and destruction under His direction.

“The whole cosmic order is under Me. By My will it is manifested again and again, and by My will it is annihilated at the end.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 9.8)

Irrespective of how the conclusion is reached, simply knowing that the outer world is temporary is not enough to understand the true nature of the Supreme Lord. One can try to meditate within on the invisible aspect of the all-pervading Supreme Spirit, antaryami, but without knowledge of the reason behind the temporary manifestations of matter and the position of the individual souls within the complex nature, the invisible aspect of the Lord will always remain just that: invisible. Goswami Tulsidas very nicely touches on these truths in his Dohavali, wherein he mocks those who simply are after the invisible aspect of the Lord, alakh. Tulsidas says that one must first understand the visible world, which is also known as maya, the unmanifested, which is known as Parabrahman, and the marginal position of the jiva, who is in between Parabrahman and maya. If we’re simply searching after the unmanifested aspect of the Absolute Truth, we will never understand what His transcendental form looks like and what our relationship to Him is.

As the marginal potency of the Supreme Spirit, the individual souls have a choice as to whether to associate with maya or Truth. Wanting to see God is a noble desire, but unless one understands who they are and why they are put on earth, they will never understand God sufficiently. The jivas, as the marginal potency, chose to separate from God at some point in time and were thus allowed to play in maya’s playground, the material world. The association with illusion, or the temporary nature, continues for as long as the desire to enjoy the fruits growing on the playing field and take part in the material pursuits that further bind one to the temporary happiness and suffering of the phenomenal world remains.

The material scientist is baffled in his attempts at understanding nature because he can’t see God’s presence anywhere, and the yogi set on meditating on the invisible aspect of the Lord misses the opportunity to truly understand God’s sublime nature as the all-attractive, best friend of every single form of life. Tulsidas says that even better than trying to separately understand maya, Brahman, and the jiva’s position in between the two, which itself is very difficult to perfect in one lifetime, is chanting the holy name of Lord Rama. Krishna and Rama are Sanskrit words which describe the Supreme Absolute Truth, who is always full of form. The name is the key because it brings about sublime understanding, information that is already stored deep within the recesses of the heart. The foremost property of the jiva soul, who is part and parcel of Krishna, is that of eternal lover of God. Therefore those who become one with their natural property and love God to the fullest are never bereft of knowledge or bliss.

When in the material world, by becoming deluded by the workings of maya the jiva’s property as the marginal potency swings the pendulum over to the side of illusion; thus causing the natural knowledgebase to be clouded. Chanting the names of God, which is the most efficacious process of bhakti, brings about a reawakening of the divine consciousness. Only one who is firmly fixed in the practice of bhakti can perceive of God’s presence at every corner of life. Through the proper consciousness not only is the Absolute Truth’s invisible aspect appreciated, but His original forms residing in the spiritual world are also worshiped and honored at all times. When statues and pictures depicting the vigrahas, or spiritual bodies, are crafted and worshiped in the material world in temples and in homes, the devotee feels even more elation. The wise-guy may think he has found a contradiction with the introduction of deity worship. “If God is everywhere, why do you need to go to a temple? If through the practice of chanting and devotion in general you are able to appreciate Krishna’s presence in every sphere of life, what is the point to seeking more bliss by seeing the deity?”

The skeptic of deity worship may seem to have a point in this situation, but a series of even more valid counter questions may be raised. “If you see God everywhere, why would you fail to appreciate His deity form? If you know of Krishna’s nature and all-pervading presence, surely you would know that the deity is His special mercy upon the conditioned souls who have a difficult time perceiving of His presence? Surely you wouldn’t scoff at those who are trying to elevate themselves to the highest platform of Krishna consciousness through the worship of the deity? You required purification yourself due to the natural conditioned state you assumed at the time of birth, so why should others be criticized for appreciating the Supreme Lord and His wonderful mercy that is the deity?”

The deity or any other aspect of the physical world can only be truly appreciated when the eyes have been properly conditioned through bhakti. The statements of any philosopher or teacher can be accepted or rejected, but true authority is established by seeing tangible results from following the recommendations given to submissive students. Chanting the names of God is the best way to see the Lord’s universal presence, including His invisible aspect. This conclusion is supported by all the Vaishnavas, whose authority is firmly established through the purification of vision achieved by the exalted devotees. If we can get excited by watching a football game and by observing the movement of a comet, why shouldn’t our experiences be enhanced when we realize that everything in this world has God as its source? Through a regulative chanting process, which evokes the most blissful of thoughts, consciousness can be cleared, and our vision, both within and without, can be spot on when observing anything.

Is Not Null

“The Lord is personal although impersonal, He is atomic although great, and He is blackish and has red eyes although He is colorless.” (Kurma Purana)

Due to the different definitions of religion and spirituality, there are a variety of disciplines aimed at fulfilling a spiritual purpose. Those with a religious inclination usually follow a particular sentiment or faith towards a particular divine figure or personality. The Vedas, while certainly pointing to a celebrated divine figure, are unique in that they have a high philosophical and logical backing. It is not that other systems are incorrect or invalid, but rather, they are not as complete in scope. This speaks to the nature of time and circumstance. Not every person will be eligible for understanding all the truths of life at the same time. To facilitate the gradual advancement towards the highest platform of knowledge, the Supreme Spirit injects varying degrees of religiosity into society at different times.

The uniqueness of the Vedas is that they cover discussions pertaining to the soul, matter, and the qualities of the Divine. Under blanket sentimentalism, there is no discussion on these matters, for there is no justification given for the current circumstances of the conditioned living entities. There are certainly prescriptions provided for how one is to avoid a dreaded condition in the future, but the past is not discussed. Moreover, the differences between body and spirit are completely ignored, with no reasoning given for the existence of so many different species. The Vedas tell us that the spirit soul inside the body is what counts and that the outer covering of the soul is determined by material qualities and desires. Since there are so many different combinations of qualities and desires, what results is up to eighty-four lakhs of species. The human being is considered the most advanced due to its increased level of intelligence. This higher potential for knowledge is meant for inquiry into the most difficult of questions. Only in the human form of body can the soul take the necessary steps to question and learn about the Absolute Truth, athato-brahma-jijnasa. This is the first step in self-realization, a process which will hopefully allow the conditioned spirit soul to attain liberation from the cycle of birth and death, a release from the forces of nature which impose a material body on the soul.

“The Supreme Lord said, The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman, and his eternal nature is called the self. Action pertaining to the development of these material bodies is called karma, or fruitive activities.” (Bhagavad-gita, 8.3)

Stating that the purpose of human life is to search after truth certainly isn’t controversial, but differences of opinion arise when the nature of the Absolute Truth and the spirit soul’s relation to it are discussed. The opinions generally fall into one of two categories: personalism and impersonalism. The impersonalists believe that the Absolute Truth is formless. The individual spirit soul is known as Brahman, or an ever-blissful and knowledgeable energy. Every individual, regardless of their body type, is Brahman. The impersonalists therefore take the sum total of all individual spiritual sparks to be Brahman. Since every person is a part of Brahman, the impersonalist believes that every person is God but just not aware of it. Therefore such philosophers recommend that people take to the renounced order of life and quietly chant to oneself, “I am God”, over and over again.

The impersonalist’s viewpoint is a little difficult to explain because most of us don’t think that we are God. Granted, we try our best to imitate His abilities in the departments of creating, maintaining, and destroying, and also enjoying, but we would be foolhardy to think that we are the Almighty God. The impersonalists justify their theory using logic and argument. In fact, they take complete shelter of logic through the technique of negation. They sometimes give deference to the written scriptures and the words of divine personalities such as Krishna, Rama, and Vishnu, but such respect is merely directed at the personality’s ability to exhibit extraordinary qualities. For example, the impersonalists, who are also known as Mayavadis, often respect Krishna and Rama as incarnations of God, but they think that They assumed material bodies just like the rest of us. Essentially they take Rama and Krishna to be elevated manifestations of Brahman who achieved a purified status that the conditioned living entities can equal, should they take the necessary steps. To use an analogy, the impersonalists view the Absolute Truth as a giant body of water. The individual spirit souls are deemed to be different portions of the water which have been bottled up. Therefore the aim of life becomes the shedding of the bottle, the destruction of the container. Once every container is destroyed, the Supreme Absolute Truth can be whole again.

To help us understand the logical techniques employed by the Mayavadis in their understanding of the Absolute Truth, we can review some of the basic workings of a database management system. The Vedas often refer to the Absolute Truth in terms of “neti neti”, which means “not this, not that”. Let’s say, for example, that we were to store relevant information about a group of individuals in a database. We might create a single table named “People”. For each record in this table, certain attributes would need to be entered. Let’s say that we have a column in the table called “Has Brown Eyes” that serves as an attribute identifier for eye color. A person can possess one of several different eye colors, but for the purposes of this discussion, let’s focus on whether or not the individual in question has brown eyes. If a person has brown eyes, the value would be set to “true” in the table, and “false” if otherwise.

Now let’s say we want to enter a record in this table for the Supreme Absolute Truth. What would we fill in for the brown eye color column? Does God have brown eyes? Let’s say that we entered “true”. If God has brown eyes, it then means that he doesn’t have any other eye color. This certainly can’t be a valid definition, because if God is limited to only one eye color, He immediately becomes inferior to a person who has a different eye color. For God to be Supreme, He must be all-encompassing. If He is limited in any attribute, He cannot be described as unlimited. Only the conditioned living entities are limited in their attributes. If we have a certain eye color, there is really nothing we can do to change it, aside from wearing contact lenses. Even with this remedy, we aren’t really changing our natural eye color, but rather just masking the natural appearance.

So entering “true” in the “Has Brown Eyes” column is not correct for God. Does this mean that “false” would be correct? Again, we run into the limiting attribute problem. If we say that God doesn’t have brown eyes, it means that someone who does have brown eyes has something on the Supreme Lord. At this point, the Mayavadis, taking shelter of their neti neti argument, will say that the Supreme Absolute Truth must not have eyes. Instead of entering “true” or “false” in the “Has Brown Eyes” column, the Mayavadis would enter a “null” value. In database management, a column in a table can be defined as nullable or not nullable. Usually boolean attributes, those columns which can only have a “true” or “false” value, will be non-nullable. The Mayavadis, however, will declare that every attribute known to man would have to be nullable for the Supreme Lord. When a null value is entered in a column, there is essentially no value; there is no equivalent. When writing queries to pull up data, one cannot search for values where “Has Brown Eyes = null”. The correct terminology for the query would be “Has Brown Eyes is null”. “Is” means something completely different from “equals” in terms of comparison.

Under a viewpoint derived solely from logic and argument, the impersonalist’s assertion is considered valid. The human brain is incapable of understanding mutually contradictory states, or attributes that exist simultaneously within one object. For example, in mathematics, one plus negative one always equals zero. If we take one value and add its negation, the result is always zero. This is where the conclusion of the Supreme Absolute Truth being formless is derived from. A human being has hands, legs, arms, and a face, so if the Supreme Lord is supreme, He must not have any attributes. As soon as the Absolute Truth assumes qualities, His abilities become limited, thus invalidating His property of being Absolute.

“A spiritual body is not formless; it is a different type of body, of which we cannot conceive with our present mundane senses. Formless therefore means devoid of mundane form, or possessing a spiritual body of which the nondevotee can have no conception by the speculative method.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 2.9.32 Purport)

So does this mean that God is formless? The impersonalist’s viewpoint is limited because it relies solely on logic and argument, both of which are products of the material world. The human brain, being a material object, is limited in the sense that it is created, maintained, and destroyed. Therefore any conclusion that it derives on its own must be flawed. The mind is incapable of thinking beyond dualities, time, and space. Therefore to understand the Absolute Truth, one must go beyond the limits of esoteric knowledge and take to understanding spiritual information from authority. There is certainly an inherent element of faith involved in this technique, but then which endeavor in life is devoid of faith and truth? The Mayavadis use logic and argument, but at the end of the day, they invest fully in the abilities of the mind. This is the same mind which can mistake a snake for a rope and a mirage for an oasis. By putting trust in the authorized words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, and His representatives, one can break free of the bonds of time, space, and duality.

“Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.” (Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

The personalists understand that the Supreme Absolute Truth is full of form and life, sach-chid-ananda. His body is eternal and always blissful. Though He has an ever-existing transcendental body, He kindly takes to other non-different forms to allow the conditioned living entities a chance to develop an attachment to Him. This attachment, which is held tight by the bond of pure love, gives the devotee a far greater reward than the cessation of birth and death. The reward for pure bhakti is the eternal association of the full of form Supreme Lord.

To understand the actual position of Krishna, we can revisit the database example. While the impersonalists will declare that since Krishna cannot have eyes which are both brown and not brown, He must therefore be nothing, the correct way to describe Krishna’s features is to say that He has brown eyes, doesn’t have brown eyes, and also doesn’t have brown eyes and has brown eyes simultaneously. This means that all three acceptable values in the database table – true, false, and null –are ascribed to Krishna. This is the actual valid definition of the Supreme Lord’s position. He most certainly can possess brown eyes because, as God, nothing is beyond Him. If He chooses to not have brown eyes, He can arrange for that also. And if He decides to remain formless, free of any eyes and eye color, His position remains unchanged. The Supreme Lord, as the all-knowing and all-powerful, can take to any form, including one that is formless, at any time. The living entities are certainly Brahman, but Shri Krishna is Parabrahman, the most potent form of the Truth.

The eye color example deals with boolean values, but we can use quantitative analysis as well. Let’s say we have another attribute in the People table for height, which is represented in centimeters. One person may have a height of 100 cm, while another’s is 500 cm. Again, the Mayavadis will say that the Absolute Truth cannot be limited to a single height; therefore He must not have any height at all. They would enter a null value for His height in the table. In actuality, however, Krishna’s height is immeasurable. He can have a height of 100 cm, 500 cm, a null height, and even one that is infinity. Infinity is a numerical value that is always greater than any real number. Infinity implies that the number is so large that it cannot be conceived of. Since Krishna is all encompassing, the lengths of His hands, legs, arms, etc. cannot be measured. Depending on the time and circumstance and the mood of the devotee, the Lord can assume a small height, as He did in His Vamana avatara, a large height, as He did when He showed the universal form to Arjuna, or no height, as He does in His all-pervasive energy of Brahman.

While the information thus presented represents a somewhat esoteric analysis, it gives credence to the fact that the Supreme Lord is all-merciful and all-powerful. He has different forms and different manifestations, each of which provides different benedictions to the devotee. Even an atheist is a devotee of Krishna; they are simply worshipers of His external energy known as maya. The result of worshiping maya is the continuation of reincarnation. The worship of Brahman is the loss of identity through the merging of the soul with a blissful energy. The Buddhists have a view similar to the Mayavadis, except they don’t believe in an Absolute Truth. They take Brahman to be nothing, or nil; just a lifeless energy. Worship of Krishna or one of His vishnu-tattva forms results in ascension to the imperishable spiritual sky, where one gets to keep their identity while engaging in pleasurable pastimes with the sweet, fully formed, blissful Supreme Lord. If there is variegatedness in the material world, variety must certainly also exist in the spiritual realm and in the form of the Personality of Godhead. By regularly chanting “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, and taking to bhakti-yoga in general, we can find that fully-featured, all-powerful, Supreme Object of Pleasure: Shri Krishna.

Achintya-bhedabheda-tattva

“Lord Chaitanya instructed the mass of people in the sankhya philosophy of achintya-bhedabheda-tattva, which maintains that the Supreme Lord is simultaneously one with and different from His creation. Lord Chaitanya taught this philosophy through the chanting of the holy name of the Lord.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Preface)

With so many religious systems out there, it’s tough to make out which are bona fide and which ones aren’t. Are all of them legitimate, or are all of them simply made up by those who couldn’t understand life or by those who feared death? While many faiths espouse a belief in a specific spiritual figure, providing an almost sectarian type of view, the spiritual disciplines emanating from the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, all have an ultimate conclusion. This conclusion is stipulated in a term which describes the relationship between the individual and the Absolute Truth. What’s ironic is that all of these different conclusions are rooted in some basis of fact, but only one conclusion explains all others. That is the one espoused by Lord Chaitanya, a famous preacher, historical personality, spiritual master, and form of Godhead who appeared on earth around five hundred years ago.

The spiritual disciplines of the Vedic tradition stand out from all other faiths in that they are rooted in scriptures that have no inception date. While there was a specific time when other scriptures were written, the Vedas have no date of origin. The original name for the Vedas is the shrutis, meaning that which his heard. Vedic knowledge was first passed down through aural reception, a tradition which continued until the written word was required. The other unique aspect of the philosophical conclusions derived from the Vedas is that they all deal with the issue of the soul and its relationship to a higher power, be it God or a complete energy. Since there are differences of opinion as to whether a God even exists, this higher power is often referred to as the Absolute Truth. This Absolute Truth is seen as the ultimate authority figure, the one entity which is free of defects, miseries, and blemishes. Followers of the Vedic tradition base their spiritual disciplines on the individual soul’s relationship with this Absolute Truth.

The first thing taught to all students of Vedic philosophy is that the living entity is not the body. The body is taken to be a temporary transformation of material elements. We can think of it in terms of a house built from clay, wood, or brick. The house, though it may look very nice, is simply a combination of different material elements, joined together in a certain way. By the same principle, the body is simply a combination of bile, pus, mucus, blood, etc. What makes the body function – what causes its growth, maintenance, and destruction – is the soul. The soul is the driving force behind all activity, the source of identity for the individual. When we use terms like “I” and “Mine”, we are actually referring to the soul inside. “I” cannot refer to the hands or legs because we know that if these things are removed from the body, our identity will remain intact. Vedic philosophy tells us that the position of the soul is eternal and unchanging. When the body gets discarded, the event is akin to a changing of clothes. The soul remains intact and simply assumes a new set of clothes in the next life. The term “life” can be taken to mean the duration of time that a soul remains in a particular set of clothes, or transformation of material elements.

Understanding that individuality comes from the soul is the first point stressed to aspiring Vedic students. “Aham brahmasmi”, meaning “I am Brahman” is how this information is taught. We see that a new term has been introduced in this statement: Brahman. What is Brahman? Understanding that we are individual souls is one thing, but how does this relate to other souls? Are all souls equal? Does the soul always have to be covered by temporary transformations of material elements? The term “Brahman” begins to answer these questions. Not only are we individual souls, but we are part of the complete spirit known as Brahman. Brahman can be thought of as an impersonal energy, a glaring effulgence of which the individual souls are tiny sparks of. Brahman is not ordinary matter or spirit, but rather the sum and substance of all matter and spirit. Brahman is everything, the Absolute Truth, and as individual souls, we are an equal part of Brahman. In this regard, all living entities are equal, for they are all part of the Absolute Truth.

So we see that understanding the existence of the soul is a step up from falsely identifying with the body. After all, the animal species has no clue about the soul, thus they take to acts of sense gratification. Understanding the presence of the soul gives the human beings a step up from the animals. Understanding Brahman is also a step up from understanding the presence of the soul. Sadly, many philosophers stop at this realization. They take Brahman to be the ultimate conclusion, therefore their philosophy is known as advaita, which means non-dual. In more simple terms, Brahman is their “God”.

If Brahman is the ultimate truth, the final conclusion in all conclusions, there must be a way to realize it. Along these lines, the followers of the advaita philosophy take the necessary steps to achieve this realization. Since the idea is to understand that only Brahman is the truth, there must be other things which are considered not part of the truth. “Not-Brahman” is matter, or material nature; even though in the grand scheme of things, matter is created by Brahman, so it can also be considered a separated aspect of the Absolute Truth. In the Vedic tradition, the governing agent of material nature is known as maya, which means that which is not. Maya is not Brahman, so the goal of life should be to dissociate from maya completely. To that end, followers of the advaita school declare everything in this world to be false, or maya, leaving only Brahman to be true. Thus their aim in life is to detach themselves from anything relating to matter, simply focusing on the impersonal energy of Brahman.

Since they believe that everything is maya, such philosophers are known as Mayavadis, a term which describes a person whose ultimate conclusion, or vada, is that everything is maya. In order to disassociate from the “false” material nature, Mayavadis take to studying Vedanta philosophy, which delves into the difference between matter and spirit and the oneness of all living entities. By studying Vedanta and taking to the renounced order of life, sannyasa, Mayavadis hope to one day merge into the complete energy, Brahman. What’s ironic is that the followers of this philosophy essentially contradict themselves. If Brahman, or spirit, is truth and everything else is maya, wouldn’t the words [material sound vibrations] uttered by the Mayavadis also be part of maya? If maya is false, then doesn’t that mean the teachings of the Vedantists are also false? Obviously when it comes to their teachings, the Mayavadis make an exception to their rule of everything being maya.

The advaita philosophy states that Brahman is the Absolute Truth, and that since everyone is Brahman, everyone is God. Somehow or other the living entities have forgotten about their position as God, so they simply have to take the necessary steps to realize it. While versions of the advaita philosophy have been around forever, they really gained in popularity during the sixth century with the great philosopher Shankaracharya. He is considered the founder of the modern day Mayavada philosophy, and ironically enough he is also taken to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva, a celebrated deity of the Vedic tradition. In the Padma Purana, a noteworthy Vedic text, Lord Shiva tells his wife that in the Kali Yuga, the age we currently live in, he will incarnate in human form to preach a non-dualistic philosophy simply to defeat the Buddhists. The Buddhist philosophy is similar to Mayavada, except that there is no concept of Brahman. The ultimate conclusion is taken to be voidness, or the negation of everything.

“There are four different sects of Vaishnava acharyas-the Shuddhadvaita, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya-bhedabheda. All the Vaishnava acharyas in these schools have written commentaries on the Vedanta-sutra, but the Mayavadi philosophers do not recognize them. The Mayavadis distinguish between Krishna and Krishna’s body, and therefore they do not recognize the worship of Krishna by the Vaishnava philosophers.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, Ch 19)

While Shankarayacharya reduced the influence of the atheistic Buddhist philosophy, his own philosophy was flawed, as was the intention. It took Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya to come and introduce the competing concepts of duality. Their philosophies of vishishtadvaita and dvaita explain the duality that exists between the individual soul and the Absolute Truth. While there are subtle differences between their philosophies, the basic principles are the same. They believed that the Absolute Truth, Brahman, has a personal form, and that this form is different in nature from that of the individual soul. Therefore the ultimate conclusion is that the individual living entity is meant to serve this supreme entity which is separate from this material world. Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya declared that the Absolute Truth is Lord Vishnu, also known as Narayana. Narayana refers to the fact that God is the source of man and that He can take many forms, several of which are non-different from His original form. Therefore Ramanuja, whose name means the younger brother of Rama, preferred worship of Sita and Rama, incarnations [non-different forms] of Vishnu’s wife and Vishnu Himself. Madhva also preferred worship of Vishnu and His different incarnations as the topmost spiritual practice.

The advaita philosophers didn’t deny the existence of Krishna, Vishnu, and Rama, but they took them to be elevated manifestations of Brahman. Other Mayavadi-like philosophers believed that the formless Absolute Truth decided to take on a form and thus appear as the exalted personalities of Shri Krishna and Shri Rama. In essence, the non-dualists taught that anyone could attain the same level of opulence, renunciation, and strength as Krishna, provided that they took the necessary steps to understand Brahman. Followers of the dualist philosophies certainly disagreed with this, hence there was a conflict. So which side was correct? Along came a young sannyasi by the name of Shri Krishna Chaitanya to settle the debate.

Though Lord Chaitanya, considered a dual incarnation of Radha and Krishna, is mostly known for His never-before-seen displays of devotional ecstasy towards God, manifested through chanting and dancing, He was the greatest philosopher to ever appear on earth. Since He was an incarnation of God, it would make sense that He’d be smarter than anybody else. Though He never really put too much stress on the idea of an ultimate conclusion, He most certainly put one forward. If He hadn’t, it would have made it easier for opponents to discount His teachings. Lord Chaitanya didn’t concoct this ultimate conclusion, but He introduced it to society at large. The ultimate conclusion, the relationship between the living entities and the Absolute Truth, is something that never changes. Even if one hundred percent of society is unaware of this conclusion, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.

What was Lord Chaitanya’s conclusion? Who did He side with: the non-dualists or the dualists? Essentially, He said they were both right…to a point. Lord Chaitanya’s conclusion is known as achintya-bhedabheda-tattva, the inconceivable and simultaneous oneness and difference between the living entities and the Absolute Truth. Through this philosophy, Lord Chaitanya firmly established the existence of a personal God, whose original form is that of Lord Shri Krishna. This truth was established by citing evidence found in authoritative scriptures such as the Bhagavad-gita, Shrimad Bhagavatam, and Brahma-samhita. Lord Chaitanya explained everything in terms of Krishna, and if we kindly follow His prescriptions and recommendations, we will also be able to understand everything in its proper context.

So how are we the same as God? There is no perfect way to describe this sameness, so analogies are often used, with the most common one being to the ocean. There is no difference in makeup between a drop of the ocean and the entire ocean. The molecules and properties are the same, so in this way both entities are the same. Yet at the same time, the drop of the ocean pales in comparison to the entire ocean. We can’t put a drop of ocean water in a cup and tell people that we have captured the ocean. That would be just silly. By the same token, the individual spirit souls can never be taken to be God. We are similar to Him in quality, meaning we are eternally blissful and full of knowledge. The difference lies in quantitative powers. God, being the sum and substance of everything, can never be subject to forces that He creates. The living entity, the jiva souls, being subordinate to the giant ocean known as God, can fall victim to the forces of maya, an energy created by the Lord.

“By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.4)

Another analogy we can use is the relationship between the arm and the body. The arm is most certainly part of the body, for it provides vital functions which aid in one’s activities. At the same time, we can never say that the arm is the body. Even if the arm gets cut off, a person’s individuality is unchanged. By the same token, God is everything, but everything is not God. This is a little tricky to understand, but if we apply a little intelligence, we’ll see that it is true. God is certainly a blade of grass, for it is part of His external energy. The grass is even part of Brahman, for there is a spirit soul residing within. In this way, God is everything; all of His creation, including everything matter and spirit. Nevertheless, the blade of grass is incapable of moving on its own – creating, maintaining, or destroying. It is incapable of communicating or taking care of any other living entity. It is essentially helpless. Based on these facts, it would be silly to take the blade of grass as being God.

“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.2.11)

So where does Brahman fit into all of this? Again, we need only look to the Shrimad Bhagavatam, Lord Chaitanya’s favorite book. Brahman is simply an angle of vision, a way of looking at the Absolute Truth. Brahman is considered an impersonal energy, the glaring effulgence coming off the transcendental body of the Personality of Godhead. In this way, it is subordinate to God’s original form of Bhagavan. Brahman is even a subordinate realization to Paramatma, which is God’s expansion as the Supersoul. While every living entity’s identity comes from the individual soul within, there is another soul which resides right next to it in the heart. This soul belongs to God, and it is known as the Paramatma. It is the Paramatma which is actually responsible for the results of activities and the movements of all forms of life. The individual souls have limited independence in how they choose to interact with nature, but the results of such action are determined solely by the Supersoul. The individual souls are essentially seated on a machine which is directed by God.

Since Paramatma is an expansion, it must have a source from which it expanded. That source is Bhagavan, or the form of Godhead possessing all fortunes. This is where Lord Chaitanya’s philosophy really stands out. Not only is there a simultaneous oneness and difference between the living entities and God, but there is an ideal relationship that should be formed based off this difference. The reestablishment of this relationship is seen as the ultimate objective in life, the return to the soul’s constitutional position. While it is nice to be made aware of the ultimate conclusion, the definitive explanation of the soul’s relationship with God, it is more important to act according to that conclusion.

So what is this ideal relationship? As with any other activity, the ultimate objective in spiritual life is pleasure. Why would we even take to a certain activity if it doesn’t provide us some benefit in the future? The importance of understanding the transcendental form of the Personality of Godhead lies in the concept of spiritual enjoyment. While Vishnu is ever-opulent and meant to act as the object of worship for those who serve God in a reverential way, Krishna is meant to be the ultimate object of enjoyment, the reservoir of pleasure. Since it should be fairly obvious that the mood of enjoyment is superior to the mood of reverence, it shouldn’t surprise us that interaction with Bhagavan, in His original form of Krishna, is the topmost engagement in life, the ultimate activity that follows the ultimate conclusion.

So how does one go about establishing this relationship? Understanding Brahman is accomplished through analytical study, or jnana, and reverential worship of God is usually performed through specific rituals and regulations, or karma, but how do we enjoy with Krishna? This is where bhakti-yoga comes in. Jnana-yoga is the linking of the soul with God through the acquisition of knowledge and karma-yoga is the linking through work, but bhakti-yoga is the linking of the soul with Krishna through acts of love and devotion. Jnana and karma have specific results associated with them that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. When these results are discarded or taken without attachment, and attachment to God has been firmly established, then one has attained the platform of bhakti. Activities in bhakti represent constitutional activities, the return to the original position of the soul. Vedic philosophy states that as spirit souls, part and parcel of God, our original constitutional position is that of lovers of Krishna, or one of His non-different expansions such as Rama, Narasimha, Varaha, Vishnu, etc. Even Lord Chaitanya Himself is non-different from Krishna, so bhakti can be directed at any of these expansions which are technically known as vishnu-tattva.

When we hear that our original position was with Krishna, naturally we’ll want to know how the separation occurred. How did we end up in this material world where we are tricked by maya into associating with the gross body? The answer is that we wanted this separation; we had a strong desire to imitate God and His supreme authority. Since that desire, which is flawed in nature and impossible to realize, cannot be facilitated in the flawless spiritual world, the wayward spirit souls were allowed to take birth in an inferior world, a place where they were allowed to forget God. This forgetfulness continues until the souls have a sincere desire to return to their original home. If we continue with the “why” and “when” questions, we’ll eventually reach a point where there is no answer. That is why the first term in Lord Chaitanya’s ultimate conclusion is achintya, meaning inconceivable. No amount of questioning, logical proofs, or study of scripture will enable a person to truly understand the simultaneous oneness and difference between the living entities and God.

While Lord Chaitanya established the ultimate conclusion of achintya-bhedabheda-tattva, He gave more emphasis to acting off of this truth rather than understanding it. It is more important to reestablish our pure relationship with God in His original form than it is to understand the nature of this relationship. We may not know exactly when we separated from God, but we have the formula for reconnecting with Him. Therefore Lord Chaitanya gave more emphasis towards the practice of bhakti-yoga and its most important aspect: the chanting of the holy names of God, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. This sacred formula addresses God and His energy in a loving way, without any motives for liberation from the cycle of birth and death or material opulence. The name of God best illustrates the achintya-bhedabheda-tattva philosophy. This name, be it Krishna or Rama, is non-different in all respects from the original Godhead. The easiest and most effective process of bhakti-yoga is the chanting of these names.

The beauty of bhakti is that it represents the original position, something which is both a means and an end. Other spiritual disciplines have an ultimate goal relating to some personal benefit – be it the elimination of distress, the enjoyment of the heavenly planets, or the complete nullification of all activity. While those who take up bhakti-yoga may start out with a desire for liberation or the removal of distress, the ultimate goal of bhakti is that one be allowed to continue their bhakti forever. This fact alone establishes the supremacy of Lord Chaitanya’s philosophy; it is the only true selfless activity that one can take up.

Success in bhakti is achieved not when someone understands the inconceivable relationship between the living entities and God. Rather, success is achieved when one is always thinking of God, always desiring to serve Him and associate with Him in a loving way. The topmost devotees are the damsels of Vrajabhumi, the gopis of Vrindavana. While they are just ordinary village girls on the surface, their minds are always fixed on Krishna, day and night. In this way, they are completely renounced from worldly life, yet completely attached to spiritual life. What’s ironic is that they have no interest in Vedanta, advaita, dvaita, achintya, etc. Being pure devotees, they only think about Krishna and enjoying His sweet association. This should be the goal for all of us, and by following the prescriptions of Lord Chaitanya and other great Vaishnava devotees, we can reach that goal.

God is a Person

“O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.7)

God is a person. He is not different from us in that regard, for He is an individual who has His own thoughts, words, and deeds. The nature of His actions are quite different and thus He is known as the great person, or maha-purusha. There are some, however, who choose to describe God in an impersonal manner. They don’t believe that God is an individual who creates everything based off His intelligence and desires. Rather, they take God to be an impersonal spirit, a sort of energy. Describing the Lord in this way is actually very difficult to do because it is the natural inclination of the living entity to believe in a personal God. Not only do impersonal descriptions fail to accurately convey the complete picture, but contemplating this form of the divine goes against the very fiber of our being.

Every person is religious, even if they don’t realize it. The only differences we see are in relation to the object of worship. The devotees of God worship the Supreme Lord at all times. They are not capable of performing a single action without seeing how it relates to the Lord. In the Vedic tradition, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the original form of God, is Lord Krishna. The Vedas are the oldest scriptures in existence, and when the word “Veda” is translated into English, it means knowledge. This knowledge is flawless in all respects, so it is not something that becomes nullified should a person choose not to believe in it. Facts are facts, regardless of whether we accept them or not. The law of gravity states that certain objects will fall at a certain rate depending on several factors. Whether or not we believe in this law is meaningless, for if we drop something out of a window, it will certainly fall.

The secularists even have a religion. They believe in a set of values and an ultimate aim of life. Their object of worship is matter. They want to gratify their senses to the fullest, thus they choose to associate with matter and derive pleasure from it. There are still others who don’t practice any religious faith seriously, but they still believe in God. This belief in God means that they take the Lord to be a person. Even someone who has no background in religious traditions and no education in religious philosophy has a tendency to believe in a personal God. In times of trouble, they will approach the Lord. “Oh please God, help me out. I don’t ask You for much. In fact, I never ask You for anything. If You grant me this one wish, I promise to never bother You again.” We might have prayed this way when we were children, or even as adults, while falling asleep at night.

This type of faith seems immature, but it gives us insight into the human psyche. We have an inherent connection with God which causes us to believe in Him. Whatever the method of our worship, we think of God in a personal way, a person who has a form. At this point, one may ask the question, “Where are you going with this? Of course God is a person, who would argue against that?” Well surprisingly enough, there is a large faction of transcendentalists coming out of India who believe that God is formless, that He is not a person. These philosophers refer to themselves as Vedantists because they study Vedanta. Veda means “knowledge” and anta means “end”, thus Vedanta means the end of knowledge, or the ultimate knowledge. Vedanta also refers to the famous Vedanta-sutras, which is a collection of insightful aphorisms penned by the famous sage, Vyasadeva, who was also a partial incarnation of Lord Krishna.

Devotees of God refer to the impersonalist philosophers as Mayavadis. This moniker is given because it accurately describes their belief system. Maya refers to the illusory energy which governs the material world and vada means a conclusion, hence Mayavada means that a person’s ultimate conclusion is that everything is maya, or false. The Vedas, which originated from Lord Krishna, as He so kindly points out in the Bhagavad-gita, inform us that the material world is a manifestation of God’s inferior energy. In order to understand this, we can simply look at the difference between matter and spirit. Spirit is the driving force for matter, because dull matter is incapable of doing anything on its own. Our own bodies are a great example of this. Our hands, legs, arms, etc. are all useless without a driving force within the body: the soul. Once the soul exits the body at the time of death, our hands, legs, arms, etc. all become useless. The body starts to rot and decay, thus proving the inferior nature of matter.

The entire material creation can be thought of as a larger version of our own bodies. There are seas, oceans, land masses, volcanoes, clouds, rain, etc. It appears that these things were all created on their own. They seem to operate independently, but in reality, God is the driving force behind everything in this creation. The material world is considered part of His inferior energy because everything here is temporary and destined for destruction. Spirit, on the other hand, is eternal. Even when we die, nothing happens to our soul. Nature can only harm our body, or matter, but it can never touch our soul.

Since matter is ultimately inferior, why do we associate with it? Why do we make the aim of our life the accumulation of as much material wealth, fame, and beauty as possible? The reason for this is that matter is governed by an energy known as maya. Maya is created by God and can be thought of as illusion. Since matter is inferior to spirit, the living entities would have no desire to associate with it. However, due to the influence of maya, the living entities become illusioned into thinking that matter will make them happy.

“Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both its origin and dissolution.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.6)

It is clearly stated many times in Vedic literature that God is above matter and that He is actually the creator of matter. Impersonalist philosophers, however, either don’t believe in these facts or they are unaware of them. They take everything in the material creation to be maya, even the devotional activities of living entities and the pastimes of the Supreme Lord.

“The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, and it is that Brahman that I impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of Bharata.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 14.3)

The Vedas also refer to everything material and spiritual as Brahman, or an impersonal energy. Therefore the Mayavadis believe that the aim of life is to one day merge into this energy. By studying Vedanta and cancelling out all material activity, they hope to one day achieve samadhi, or perfect transcendental realization. The problem with this philosophy is that it ignores the creator of both spirit and matter: God.

The Mayavadi philosophy is dangerous for many reasons, the primary of which is that it propounds impersonalism on the authority of the Vedas. It is one thing for a person to preach atheism or some concocted religious system based on their own thoughts, but if they preach the same theories using the Vedas as evidence, it becomes very dangerous. It is never declared anywhere in the Vedas that God doesn’t exist. Even in the Vedanta-sutras, the Supreme Absolute Truth is described as having many features and performing many activities. More than anything else, the Mayavada philosophy is unnatural and very difficult to explain. For this reason, the Mayavadis make many references to scriptures of other religions.

The Vedas have, by far, the widest breadth of written philosophy and historical evidence of the existence of God. The Vedas also go into great detail about the constitutional position of the living entity and its relationship to the supreme soul, Lord Krishna. For devotees of God, these literatures are complete, or purna, in themselves because since they describe the activities of the complete person, Krishna, they thus naturally inherit His qualities. Devotees don’t need to read anything outside of the original Vedas, the Mahabharata, the major Puranas, and the Ramayana. In addition, many great saints have written their own books which expand on the teachings of the classic texts.  These books expound on the same conclusions and truths as the classic Vedic texts, thus they are completely authorized. Any literary work that follows the conclusions of the Vedas can be thought of to be Vedic literature.

The Mayavadis, however, know that their philosophy is very flimsy. The only basis for their philosophy comes from the intentionally distorted interpretations of the Vedanta-sutras given by Shankaracharya. Aside from this, the Mayavada philosophy has no other authority. Due to this deficiency, its followers love to read the major Vedic texts and give bogus interpretations. They will comment on the Bhagavad-gita, Ramacharitamanasa, and Ramayana by explaining that the Supreme Absolute Truth is formless. Lord Krishna openly declares that He is God in the Bhagavad-gita, but the Mayavadis will say that Krishna is simply an elevated form of Brahman. “Krishna is not saying worship Me, but worship Brahman. We can all become as elevated as Krishna should we continue our study of Vedanta. We are all fragments of the complete impersonal whole; we just don’t realize it yet.”

The Mayavadis also love to make comparisons to other religious texts. They will comment on a particular verse found in the Gita, or some other great Vedic text, by comparing it to something from Greek mythology, the Bible, or some ordinary literary work. While other religious texts are certainly nice, the Vedic literatures don’t require this kind of interpretation. The meanings of the shlokas are quite evident to the devotees. One who learns the Vedic science from a pure devotee of Krishna certainly will never have a problem understanding anything in the Vedas, for the source of everything is Krishna, or God. If we understand everything in terms of its relationship to God, we will have perfect knowledge on all subjects.

The biggest crime committed by the impersonalists is that they rob people of the chance to have a beautiful, loving relationship with God. Krishna means one who is all-attractive, and this beauty is meant to please the devotees. Matter provides us fleeting happiness and ultimately leads to misery. Krishna is meant to be the ultimate reservoir of pleasure. Simply looking at His beautiful face is enough to grant liberation. Spiritual life means directly associating with Krishna, or one of His primary expansions, on one of the many spiritual planets.

The lesson here is that we should not try to take away God’s features. Krishna’s names, forms, and pastimes accurately describe His nature. These features help us to understand Him better, and those who understand God will never have to suffer in the material world again. Just like the Vedantists, the devotees also get liberation. Unlike those who merge into Brahman, devotees maintain their spiritual identity and get to enjoy the sweet transcendental mellows that come as a result of their service. God has always been and will always continue to be a person. Become His devotee and you will be happy.

A Personal Touch

“Those men who worship My personal form, are intent on doing good to others, firmly tread the path of righteousness, and are steadfast in their vow and devoted to the feet of the brahmanas, are dear to Me as life.” (Lord Rama, Ramacharitamanasa, Sundara-Kanda, 48)

Adding a personal touch to a sales pitch can go a long way towards securing a sale. If a potential buyer has faith and trust in the person they are buying from, they are more likely to become a loyal customer. For a salesperson, face-to-face interactions prove to be the best form of marketing. Impersonal interactions through advertisements, fliers, and postcards just don’t have the same appeal.

Human beings want to feel connected. It is the nature of the living entity to love. This is inherited from their original constitutional position in the spiritual world. The Vedas tell us that every individual is a spirit soul at the core, part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The material world is meant to be a mirror of the spiritual world, except that there is no presiding deity here. Every living entity is allowed to compete for the material post of God. This is essentially a false pursuit because no human being can ever compare to God. In the spiritual world, the spirit soul is an eternal servant of Krishna, interacting with Him through various transcendental mellows, or rasas. These same rasas exist in the material world, but in a perverted form. Pure love can only be of the spiritual variety. Nevertheless, the living entities still retain their loving propensity in the material world, though it gets directed towards other things.

This desire to love causes us to form relationships with friends, family, and even lovers. All of these relationships involve human interaction and trust. Upon taking birth, it is the animal instinct of the living entity to defend. Wanting to protect its possessions and its life, the living entity engages in the mode of defense and views others with skepticism. This animalistic tendency is unnatural for the spirit soul, thus people like to break free of this distrust by forming friendships. A person is much happier when they are directing positive energy through love, than when they are exhibiting negative energy through hate. We would much rather have an attachment for something than have repulsion for something.

This characteristic of human beings proves to be very important for those in the sales and marketing fields. Sales is a cut-throat business. Everyone is looking to make a profit by finding as many customers as they can. One of the key components of marketing is “touching”. For a person selling a product or service, the goal is to have as many “touches” with potential clients as possible. A touch can be any interaction, either a phone call, a flier, a newspaper advertisement, a website, etc. The best kinds of touches, however, are the personal ones. Nothing beats personal interactions, such as face-to-face conversations, extended telephone calls, or personal emails. These personal touches are effective because they lead to the formation of friendships.

The only downside to personal touches is that they are more time consuming. A person can design, print, and mail out thousands of postcards in a few hours, while having a personal conversation with the same amount of people could take weeks, if not months. Personal touches aren’t guaranteed to bring sales either. Some people won’t be receptive to the message of the salesperson. Even with its drawbacks, the personal touch is still the preferred method for converting sales. Those who are receptive to personal interaction are much more likely to become life-long customers. Not only does the seller benefit from such a relationship, but the customer as well, since they are more likely to receive valued service and have their feedback listened to.

“The constitution of Brahman is immortality, imperishability, eternity, and happiness. Brahman is the beginning of transcendental realization. Paramatma, the Supersoul, is the middle, the second stage in transcendental realization, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate realization of the Absolute Truth. Therefore, both Paramatma and the impersonal Brahman are within the Supreme Person.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 14.27 Purport)

The concept of the personal touch can be applied to religion as well. The Vedas tell us that God can be realized in three distinct features: Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan. Bhagavan is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, God’s original form residing in the spiritual sky. There the Lord exists in His body which is eternal and full of bliss. Paramatma is an expansion of God. In every living entity, there exist two souls within the heart. The first soul, jivatma, represents our individual identity. The second soul, Paramatma, represents God’s expansion. In essence, God lives inside all of us as a neutral observer. Brahman is God’s third feature. Brahman is more of a classification than an expansion of God. Brahman refers to everything material and spiritual, all the way up to the brahmajyoti, which is the spiritual effulgence. Just as astronauts have to pass through various atmospheric layers when leaving the earth and going into space, there is similarly a spiritual effulgence that exists right before one enters the personal spiritual planets of Vaikunthaloka and Krishnaloka.

“…I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness, and which is immortal, imperishable and eternal.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 14.27)

Though Lord Krishna clearly states that He is the source of Brahman, there are many impersonalist philosophers who take Brahman to be the beginning and end of everything. They utter the phrase, brahma-satya jagat-mithya, meaning that Brahman is the truth and that everything else in the world is false. These philosophers view the Vedanta-sutras as the authoritative Vedic scripture. The Vedanta-sutras are a collection of aphorisms that appear to describe God in an impersonal way. Written by Krishna’s literary incarnation of Vyasadeva, the Vedanta-sutras actually describe devotional service to Krishna throughout, but people have misinterpreted the meanings of the aphorisms. For example, there are many statements declaring that God has no hands or legs, and that He is nirguna, meaning He has no form. These statements are certainly true in that God has no material hands or legs. But this doesn’t mean that He is formless in the sense that He doesn’t exist. Lord Krishna repeatedly uses words like “Me” and “Mine” when discussing transcendental topics in the Bhagavad-gita. This clearly indicates that Krishna is a person.

“Unintelligent men, who know Me not, think that I have assumed this form and personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do not know My higher nature, which is changeless and supreme.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 7.24)

Though it is an inferior realization of God, Brahman still exists. It is certainly a representation of the Absolute Truth. Those who want to merge into Brahman are given every opportunity to do so. However, there is a much easier and more fulfilling type of worship, which is technically known as bhakti yoga, or devotional service. Depending on your angel of vision, this method of worship is either easy or difficult. It is easy in the sense that it merely requires one to surrender unto Krishna and engage in His service. That seems simple enough, but many people don’t want to surrender. They would rather negate all activity and hope to merge into Brahman.

“For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 12.5)

Krishna Himself declares that attempting to merge into Brahman is the more difficult of the two paths. This is because it is the original nature of the spirit soul to crave identity. If the soul merges into Brahman, it loses its identity. Eventually wanting to engage in activities again, the soul is prone to separating from Brahman, again returning to the material world. Bhakti yoga is the more natural self-realization process because it involves pure love of God. Many impersonalists look down at bhaktas, taking them to be less intelligent. This is because they view bhakti yoga simply as a method of self-realization. “Oh look, these people are tricking themselves into believing in a personal God so that they can more easily become detached from material nature. They are only taking to this method because they don’t understand Vedanta.”

This type of thinking represents a gross misunderstanding of bhaktas. Bhakti yoga technically cannot be compared to any other type of yoga because it is actually much more than a method of self-realization. Having a pure loving relationship with God is the original nature of the soul. Through personal interaction with Krishna or one of His Vishnu expansions, the spirit soul gains eternal bliss and knowledge. To help us understand this fact, we can look to the examples set by the great devotees of the past. Lord Hanuman is the eternal servant of Lord Rama, one of Krishna’s primary expansions. Hanuman is a great yogi, possessing tremendous powers. Yet he is not attached to any of his powers of detachment or yoga, for he engages all his time in thinking of Rama. In fact, Hanuman is not even interested in self-realization. He has no desire to be a perfect devotee or a Vedantist. Rather, he simply loves Sita, Rama, and Lakshmana, and spends all his time thinking of them and serving Their lotus feet.

The greatest benefit of bhakti yoga is that it rewards us with the most sublime relationship, eternal association with God. God is meant to be viewed in only one way, pure love, for this is how He views us. We should take up the worship of the personal form of the Lord. Krishna is our eternal friend, and someone who will never let us down. He is so kind and sweet that if we simply want to be with Him, the Lord will make it happen. In this age, we can practice devotional service by regularly chanting God’s names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. Since God incarnates in the form of His holy name, chanting is our way of personally touching Him. By remaining steadfast in our devotion, slowly but surely, we will come to Him.