In2-MeC

IBSA (ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama), Govardhana, India
4 January 2004

satyam jnanam anantam
brahma-sivadi-stutam bhajad-rupam
govindam tam acintyam
hetum adosam namasyamah

Lord Govinda is the Supreme Brahman, the absolute transcendental reality. He is transcendental knowledge. He is the original cause of all causes. He is limitless and faultless. Lord Siva and all the demigods praise Him. The devotees worship His transcendental form. We offer our respectful obeisances unto Him.

What the Upanisads Teach
Part Six

Brahman and its Attributes

As we have seen, the Upanisads attribute to Brahman the overarching characteristics of satyam jnanam anantam. Ananda is a fourth essential attribute. The Upanisads assign further attributes to Brahman according to distinct functions: jagatkaranatva (cosmic creativity), isvaratva (lordship over all), antaryamitva (immanent control), adharatva (foundational reality), and so on.

These attributes are discussed within two frames of reference: positive and negative. Terms like sarvajnah (all-knowing), sarvakarmah (performing all activities), sarvakamah (full of desires), sarvagandhah (possessing all fragrance), sarvarasah (possessing all sweetness) and satyasankalpah (whose desires are always fulfilled) are positive affirmations of Brahman's transcendental, personal nature. In the negative frame of reference are terms like adrseya (invisible), asthula (not gross), niskriya (without activities) and nirguna (without qualities).

It is important to note that the Upanisads apply such positive and negative attributes to the same one Brahman. The Mayavadi theory is that the positive attributes belong to Saguna Brahman, the negative to a different Brahman which is nirguna and therefore the "real" Brahman. Unfortunately for this theory, the Upanisads themselves do not speak of a "real" Brahman that is entirely absent of positive attributes. We saw yesterday that even Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, the one that the Mayavadis hold tightest to themselves, declares the amurta Brahman (incorporeal eternal Brahman) to be a person whose form is golden, or white, or iridescent red, like a flame, or like a flash of lightning.

Many other examples could be given. So as not to lengthen this article unnecessarily, I will limit myself to quoting from Srila Prabhupada's Caitanya-caritamrta class in Gorakhpur on 13 February 1971.

In the Svetasvatara Upanisad there is statement, impersonally, but referring to the person, transcendental person. The mantra is like this, apani-pado javano grahita pasyaty acaksuh sa srnoty akarnah, sa vetti vedyam na ca tasyasti vetta tam ahur agryam purusam mahantam. Purusam. Purusam means person, but the Vedic mantra begins, apani-pada: "Person, but has no leg and no hand. "

There are two kinds of statements. That He is person, purusa, mahanta, the greatest person, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is a person, but apani-pada, but He has no legs and no hands. So how is that? A person has no legs and no hands, and still, He accepts whatever we offer? Just like Krsna says, tad aham asnami, bhaktya upahrtam asnami: "Anyone who offers Me anything," patram puspam phalam toyam, "with devotion," bhaktya. . . The very word is bhaktya. That means Krsna is transcendental person, and the Vedic mantra confirms.

When the Vedic mantra says, apani-pada, "no hands, no legs," that is not imperson. "Person, but His hands and legs are not like us," that is apani-pada. Caitanya Mahaprabhu explains that. Apani-pada sruti varje prakrta pani-carana: "When the Vedic mantra says that 'The Absolute Truth has no legs and no hands,' that means that the Personality of Godhead's hands and legs are not material. " That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's explanation.

Apani-pada sruti veda-mantra, varje prakrta pani-carana, na kahe sighra cale kare sarva grahana. "And although the Vedic mantra says that 'The Absolute Truth has no legs, no hands,' still, it confirms, that 'He can accept whatever you offer, and He can walk more speedily than anyone. ' Then He walks. At the same time, He has no legs. And He accepts your offering. He has no hands. "

What does it mean? Apparently it is contradictory. If He has no leg, then how He can walk more speedily than anyone? These are Vedic mantras. "Nobody can capture Him. He is walking so speedily. " But if He has no leg, how He is walking? But that, Caitanya Mahaprabhu explains that varje prakrta pani-carana: "This means that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no material body. " In the Kurma Purana it is said that the Supreme Personality, the Parabrahman, has no distinction between His body and self. There is no. . . Absolute means there is no duality as we have got duality--I am, the soul, and this body, they are different.

Therefore sastra says, yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke: "If anyone accepts this body as self. . . " This body is made of three dhatus: kapha, pitta, vayu. I am not this. And Bhagavad-gita also says, dehino'smin yatha dehi kaumaram yauvanam jara, tatha dehantara-praptih. So dehi. Dehi means possessor of this body, the owner of this body. So owner of this body is different from this body. But in case of Krsna or Visnu-tattva, there is no such difference, the self and the body, no difference. That is confirmed in the Kurma Purana.

Unfortunately the Mayavadis, they, either due to their poor fund of knowledge of the sastras or by their whims, they say that "Krsna or Visnu when comes, or the Absolute Truth when He descends, He assumes, He accepts, a material body. " That is not the fact. Krsna says, sambhavamy atma-mayaya. It is not that Krsna accepts a material body. No. Krsna has no such distinction, material world. Therefore Krsna says, avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam: "Because I present myself, descend Myself as a human being, the mudhas, or the rascals, they think of Me or deride at Me. " The Mayavadis, they will never worship the transcendental form of the Lord. They'll not worship. They will worship the imperson. And Krsna has said, kleso adhikataras tesam avyaktyasakta-cetasam. Of course, impersonal, personal, is the same Absolute Truth. But if you try to reach the Absolute Truth through His impersonal attachment, then it will be more troublesome.

To be continued, starting with Brahman is the Absolute Truth

Puri boat pastime

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