God's Coming - The Divine Descent of the Absolute Truth
Throughout history, human beings have debated the existence and nature of God. Philosophers ask: If there is a God, why doesn't He show Himself? Or, if He is perfect and self-satisfied, why would He ever bother to visit this miserable material world? The Vedic literatures answer these questions with absolute clarity. The Supreme Personality of Godhead does indeed come to this world, but not according to the dictation of any mortal. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Lord's descent—known as avatāra—is a perfectly orchestrated exhibition of His supreme independence, His infallible spiritual potency, and His boundless compassion for the conditioned souls.
Reestablishing the Eternal Occupation
The material world is a place of forgetfulness where living entities constantly deviate from their spiritual nature. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Supreme Lord descends specifically to correct these discrepancies and reestablish dharma—the true, eternal occupation of the soul.
- According to Vedic scripture, God comes, and He says personally why He comes: yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati. Whenever there is discrepancies in the prosecution of religious principles, He comes.
- Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata. Dharma means the real occupation of the living entity. When there is a discrepancy in the eternal occupation of the living entity, the Lord comes and introduces the real occupation of life.
- Every reformer or every great religious leader or God Himself, He comes on this earth to reclaim these conditioned soul to back to Godhead, back to the kingdom of Godhead. That is the whole idea of incarnation.
- The Lord comes to propagate the message of the kingdom of God, either personally as an incarnation or through His bona fide representative as the good son of God.
Protecting the Pious and Annihilating the Demons
The secondary mission of the Lord's descent is to deal with the opposing forces of the world. While the Lord could easily destroy miscreants using natural disasters, Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that He comes personally to execute this task in order to simultaneously give pleasure and protection to His devotees.
- As it is said in the Bhagavad-gita, paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam: "The Lord comes to protect the devotees and annihilate the miscreants."
- So Lord comes as incarnation for these two purposes: to protect the saintly persons and to annihilate the atheistic demons, and to establish the real purpose of religion.
- Krsna does not need to come to punish the petty demons, but when there are great demons like Ravana, Hiranyakasipu and Kamsa, the Lord comes as Lord Ramacandra, Lord Nrsimha-deva or Sri Krsna to punish them.
- He does not have to come Himself to destroy demons, for He has many agents; even the external energy, maya, has sufficient strength to kill them. But when He comes to show compassion to His devotees, He kills the nondevotees as a matter of course.
Descent by Internal Potency
When ordinary living entities take birth, they are forced into material bodies by the laws of karma. However, when God comes, He does not accept a physical body. Śrīla Prabhupāda vehemently defends the transcendental nature of the Lord's form, which manifests entirely through His internal spiritual potency (ātma-māyā).
- In Bhagavad-gita it is said that when the Lord descends to this material world, He comes as a person by His own energy, atma-maya. He is not forced by any superior energy. He comes by His own will, and this can be called His pastime, or lila.
- The living entity is forced to appear in this material world under the direction of daiva-maya, but when the Lord appears, He comes by His own internal potency, atma-maya.
- Because a material body can be neither omnipotent nor omniscient, the Lord's body is surely not material. The Mayavada theory that the Personality of Godhead comes within this material world with a material body cannot be supported by any means.
- The most dangerous theory of the impersonalists is that when God comes as an incarnation He accepts a material body created by the three modes of material nature. This Mayavada theory has been condemned by Lord Caitanya as most offensive.
The Foolishness of Atheists and Impersonalists
Because the Lord often appears in a form that resembles a human being, foolish people deride Him. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that atheists and impersonalists completely fail to recognize the Absolute Truth because their intelligence is stolen by illusion.
- Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam: although He comes in His own body, which never changes mudhas, the unintelligent, think that the impersonal Brahman has assumed a material body to come in the form of a person.
- The less intelligent deride the Lord because He comes as one of us and plays with us as a human being.
- To discourage such imaginative speculation, He descends and exhibits Himself as He is, as Syamasundara. Unfortunately, the less intelligent deride Him because He comes as one of us and plays with us as a human being.
- Persons who are less intelligent think that when the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes within this material world, He accepts material qualities. Such conclusions are not mature, but are, made by the less intelligent.
Driven by Supreme Compassion
God has no unfulfilled desires, nor does He need to prove His supremacy. Therefore, His descent is purely an act of love. Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly highlights that the Lord comes personally because He is the greatest well-wishing friend of the suffering souls.
- The Lord comes out of His own causeless mercy and acts as He desires, the Vedas and puranas are full of descriptions of His different activities so that people in general may naturally be eager to hear and read something about His activities.
- No one can be a greater well-wishing friend to any living entity than the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is so kindly disposed towards everyone that in spite of our completely forgetting our relationship with the Supreme Lord, He comes Himself - sometimes personally.
- The word anukampina is significant; the Lord is so compassionate upon the living entities that He comes Himself into this world in order to benefit fallen souls.
- The Lord is so compassionate upon the fallen souls within this material world that He comes Himself or sends His devotees and His servants to fulfill His desire to have all the fallen souls come back home, back to Godhead.
Coming in Accessible Forms
To accommodate the limitations of our material senses, the Lord kindly manifests in ways we can easily approach and worship. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that God comes as the Deity in the temple and as the transcendental sound vibration of His holy names.
- Because we cannot see the Supreme Lord with our present blunt eyes, the Lord has kindly consented to come before us in a form we can see. Therefore the Deity in the temple should not be considered material.
- We take God as He is. It is not image of God, but God Himself. He has come here in the form which you can see. God is everywhere, but unfortunately we haven't got eyes to see Him.
- God has already come. In the form of name, Hare Krsna. God has human form, and God is everything. So if He comes in the form of sound, where is your objection?
- When people forget or become engaged otherwise, rascaldom, at that time He comes. He comes Himself or sends His representative to make this rascal know that, "Here is Krsna." In the form of name, in the form of Deity, in the form of picture, so many ways.
The Devotee’s Submissive Attitude
A true Vaiṣṇava understands the immense gravity of the Lord's position. Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that a pure devotee never demands that God appear on command; rather, they seek to attract the Lord through submissive service.
- It is not that by some method you can ask God, "Please come. I will see You." No, God is not your order carrier.
- As Guru Maharaja Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati used to say - Don't try to see God. Is God to come and stand before us like a servant just because we want to see Him? That is not the submissive way. We have to oblige Him by our love and service.
- My spiritual master used to say, "Don't try to see God. Act in such a way that God will see you." We have to qualify ourselves. By your qualification God Himself will come and see you.
- The devotee never commands, "My dear Lord, please come here so that I can see You." It is not the position of the devotee to command the Supreme Personality of Godhead to come before him or to dance before him.
The Supreme Reciprocation of Love
Although He refuses to be commanded, the Supreme Lord is easily conquered by pure love. When a devotee gives up all material desires and calls out with genuine affection, Śrīla Prabhupāda assures us that the Lord joyfully comes to reciprocate.
- In this way, he attains affection at the lotus feet of Krsna. Krsna actually comes under the control of such spontaneous feelings, and ultimately one can attain association with the Lord.
- Any day you desire to feed Me, I certainly come and accept what you offer.
- His devotees were prevented from seeing His lotus feet, but the Lord Himself came to see them on the same lotus feet for which they aspired. It is also significant that He was accompanied by the goddess of fortune.
- A devotee like Prahlada sometimes sees that the Lord is coming from a long distance to pacify him, like a mother responding to a child, saying, "My dear child, do not cry. I am coming."
Conclusion
A comprehensive study of the Vedic literatures thoroughly dispels the speculative theories surrounding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. God is not a passive energy, nor is He an absentee creator who abandons His creation. As Śrīla Prabhupāda meticulously explains, the Lord actively descends into the material world as an avatāra to execute His supreme will. His coming is not dictated by the forced laws of karma; He descends entirely through His own internal spiritual potency (ātma-māyā). Therefore, the Māyāvāda theory that God accepts a material body when He comes is completely offensive and factually incorrect. The Lord’s primary mission is driven by boundless compassion: He comes to reestablish the true principles of dharma and to reclaim the forgetful souls who are suffering in the cycle of birth and death. While He also comes to protect the pious and annihilate demonic forces, His presence on the battlefield is simply an excuse to bless His devotees. Recognizing the blunt and limited nature of our material senses, the Lord kindly makes Himself accessible by coming in the form of the temple Deity (arcā-vigraha) and the transcendental sound of the holy name. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches us that the key to perceiving the Lord’s descent is our attitude. A pure devotee never arrogantly orders God to come and prove His existence. Instead, by adopting a submissive posture of unalloyed loving service, the devotee purifies their heart to such a degree that the Supreme Lord, who cannot be conquered by any material force, voluntarily and joyfully comes to reciprocate their spontaneous love.
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