God Gives - The Supreme Provider and Spiritual Guide
Every facility we possess, whether material or spiritual, is an unearned gift from the Absolute Truth. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate provider, giving the conditioned souls the bodies and material sanctions they desire, while reserving His greatest gift—pure spiritual enlightenment—for those who surrender in devotional service.
Giving Material Bodies and Sanctions
The Lord is completely impartial in His management of the material creation. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that when a living entity desires to enjoy independent of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord simply gives them a suitable mechanical body and the necessary sanction to pursue their fruitive desires, even if those desires lead to entanglement.
- God is situated in everyone's heart, and as one desires, the Lord gives one various types of bodies, which are like machines. Riding on such a machine, the living entity wanders throughout the universe, under the control of material nature and its modes.
- The Lord gives orders to material nature, and she arranges facilities for the living entities. The living entities are not independent, although they foolishly think themselves the doers - karta.
- The truth is that every living entity has a certain desire, and the Supreme Lord gives him a chance to fulfill it. The best course is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead and act according to His desire. One who does so is liberated.
- When someone insists upon acting sinfully, the Supreme Lord gives him the sanction to act at his own risk.
The Supreme Provider of Necessities
Beyond giving bodies and sanctions, the Lord sustains the entire universe. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that because God gives us our food and daily necessities, we must acknowledge His mercy by offering everything back to Him in a spirit of loving gratitude.
- All food is given to us by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman: the Lord supplies everyone with the necessities of life. We should acknowledge His mercy by performing yajna (sacrifice). This is the duty of everyone.
- This is the real understanding. Everything belongs to God - isavasyam idam sarvam - everything, and tena tyaktena bhunjitha, whatever He gives you as prasadam.
- God has given me this grain to eat, so I must cook and first of all offer to God, and then I shall eat. - This is feeling gratitude, grateful.
- Just like father and mother, the father giving seeds, similarly, God gives the seeds, and the mother, material nature, gives the body.
Giving Transcendental Knowledge
To rescue the conditioned souls from their self-inflicted ignorance, the Lord provides absolute spiritual education. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Lord gave the original Vedic knowledge at the dawn of creation, and when He descends, He gives perfect information about the eternal, anti-material world.
- Vedic knowledge was given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who created this material world. This is also accepted by Sankaracarya, although he is not a Vaisnava.
- Vyasadeva is incarnation of Krsna, so he has given us the Vedic literature. Therefore his name is Vedavyasa, incarnation of God. Maha-muni-krte kim va paraih (SB 1.1.2). There is no need of speculating. Just follow Vyasadeva in the disciplic succession.
- The Supreme Lord, who is the controller of both material and antimaterial energies, descends out of His causeless mercy and gives us complete information of the antimaterial world. In this way we can know what the antimaterial world is.
- The Supreme Personality gives directions as to what is good and what is bad, and one simply has to act in Krsna consciousness to attain the perfection of life.
Giving Internal Spiritual Intelligence
For those who actively seek to serve Him, the Lord abandons His neutral stance and becomes a personal, internal guide. Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals that the Supersoul gives the sincere devotee the exact intelligence and directions needed to find a spiritual master and ultimately return to the kingdom of God.
- In the beginning, when a devotee is serious and sincere, the Lord gives him directions from within to approach a bona fide spiritual master.
- In Bhagavad-gita (10.11) it is said: For a devotee who has taken the lotus feet of the Lord within his heart, the Lord gives spiritual enlightenment, known as jnana-dipa, by special mercy from within.
- God is situated as the Supersoul in everyone's heart, but He is so kind to His devotees that He gives them instructions by which they may continue to progress. When they receive instructions from the all-perfect, there is no chance of their being misled.
- One can fulfill the ultimate goal of life only by engaging in devotional service to the Lord. Then the Lord will give one proper instructions on how to go back home, back to Godhead.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Śrīla Prabhupāda clearly delineates the profound extent to which the Supreme Personality of Godhead gives to all living entities. As the supreme, impartial maintainer, God gives the conditioned souls exactly what they desire; He provides them with mechanical material bodies, directs material nature to arrange their facilities, and even gives them the sanction to perform sinful activities at their own risk. Furthermore, because He provides all the necessities of life, including the very seeds of existence and daily sustenance, every sane human being is obligated to show gratitude by offering everything back to Him as prasādam. However, the Lord's most magnificent gifts are reserved for the realm of spiritual emancipation. To dispel the darkness of the material world, He originally gave the Vedic knowledge and frequently descends to give humanity complete information about the spiritual sky. Most intimately, when a conditioned soul becomes sincerely desirous of liberation, the Lord, situated in the heart as the Supersoul, gives them the necessary direction to find a bona fide spiritual master. As the devotee surrenders, the Lord gives them transcendental enlightenment (jñāna-dīpa) and the perfect instructions required to finally break free from the cycle of birth and death and go back home, back to Godhead.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category God Gives. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.