God Appears To Be - The Divine Illusions of the Absolute Truth
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the absolute truth, yet He often bewilders the conditioned souls through His diverse manifestations. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that due to our limited vision and material conditioning, the Lord appears to possess contradictory qualities, but these apparent contradictions simply highlight His unfathomable, transcendental nature.
The Illusion of Material Perception
When viewed through the lens of imperfect human senses, the Supreme Lord can be vastly misunderstood. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that to the mental speculator, God appears to be impersonal, and to the mundane observer, He may seem like an ordinary created being bound by the material modes of nature.
- As the same object appears to be different when perceived by different senses, the same Supreme Lord appears to be impersonal by mental speculation.
- After creating the material substance, the Lord (Vasudeva) expands Himself and enters into it.
- And although He is within the material modes of nature and appears to be; one of the created beings, He is always fully enlightened in His transcendental position.
- Sometimes it appears that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is one hundred percent spiritual, cannot be the cause of the illusory potency which covers the knowledge of the individual soul.
The Ever-Youthful and Beautiful Form
Despite the passage of time within the material universe, the Supreme Lord is completely unaffected by old age or deterioration. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that whether He appears as a royal king, a wandering mendicant, or a cowherd boy, the Lord's form is always completely spiritual, beautiful, and eternally youthful.
- In the Brahma-samhita (5.33) it is also stated: advaitam acyutam anadim ananta-rupam adyam purana-purusam nava-yauvanam ca. The original person is one without a second, yet He never appears old; He always appears as ever fresh as a blooming youth.
- The Supreme Lord is very beautiful. The word sasvat is significant. It is not that He appears beautiful to the devotees but is ultimately impersonal. Sasvat means "ever existing." That beauty is not temporary. It is ever existing - He is always youthful.
- Kapiladeva said to Devahuti, "My laughing, My pastimes and My glance appear to them so beautiful that their minds are always absorbed in thoughts of Me, and their lives are dedicated fully unto Me."
- About His (Lord Rsabhadeva's) head was an abundance of curly, matted brown hair. His hair was disheveled because His body was dirty and not taken care of. He appeared as if He were haunted by a ghost.
Apparent Partiality and Dependence
In His loving exchanges with His devotees, the Lord often assumes roles that seem to contradict His supreme majesty. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that while the Lord appears to be partial or even dependent on His pure devotees, He actually remains perfectly neutral, simply reciprocating with the love offered to Him.
- He (Krsna) is called the well-wisher for the devotees only. He appears to be partial to His devotees, but factually the matter rests on the living being to accept or reject equal treatment by the Lord.
- The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears to.
- He (the Lord) appears to be dependent upon His devotees. He appears as the son of Yasodamata not because He is dependent on her care but because He accepts such a role by His causeless mercy.
- There is a good analogy in this connection, showing the relationship between the part and the whole. Lord Vamanadeva is actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He appeared to have been "born" as one of the brothers of Indra.
The Guiding Presence of the Lord
God is not a distant entity; He is intimately involved in the lives of the living beings, guiding them from both within and without. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Lord pervades the universe as the Supersoul, inspires knowledge from within the heart, and ultimately appears externally as the bona fide spiritual master to reclaim the conditioned souls.
- The Lord, as Supersoul, pervades all things, just as fire permeates wood, and so He appears to be of many varieties, though He is the absolute one without a second.
- May God, who in the beginning of the creation amplified the potent knowledge of Brahma from within his heart, inspired him with full knowledge of creation and of His own Self, who appeared to be generated from the mouth of Brahma, be pleased with me.
- If one takes shelter of a bona fide spiritual master, it is to be understood that he has obtained the grace of the Lord. The Lord appears as the spiritual master for the devotee.
- One gopi told her friend: "It appears that Lord Krsna, the enemy of the demon Agha, has released from His mouth a whirlwind which is acting on your head and is gradually proceeding to do the same to the other lotus-eyed gopis."
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Vedic philosophy perfectly demystifies the apparent contradictions regarding the Supreme Personality of Godhead. While to the mundane mind the Lord appears to be impersonal, partial, or bound by material laws, these are merely illusions born of imperfect perception. In truth, the Lord remains the absolute, ever-youthful, and perfectly neutral Supreme Person. He appears to be dependent on His pure devotees only out of His causeless mercy, desiring to relish the sweet reciprocation of transcendental love. Furthermore, to guide the bewildered living entities out of the darkness of the material world, the Lord expands His mercy by appearing as the Supersoul in the heart and the spiritual master in the external world. By taking shelter of this divine guidance, the sincere soul can see past the illusions of material perception and understand the Lord as He truly is—the all-attractive, all-merciful source of everything.
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