God Is Blissful - The Eternal Form of Transcendental Happiness
In the material world, happiness is temporary, elusive, and always mixed with distress. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that true, unadulterated happiness is found only in the spiritual realm, because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the very personification of absolute bliss. His form, His incarnations, and His pure devotees are all saturated with this eternal, transcendental joy.
The Form of Eternity, Knowledge, and Bliss
The definition of God entirely rules out any connection to temporary material elements. Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly highlights the definitive Vedic description of the Lord as sac-cid-ananda-vigraha—a purely spiritual form composed entirely of eternity, full knowledge, and absolute bliss.
- Isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah (BS 5.1): the form of the Lord is eternal, blissful, and all-satisfying. His so-called birth is therefore an appearance only, like the birth of the sun on the horizon.
- The Vedic literatures confirm the fact that the transcendental form of the Supreme Lord is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge.
- According to the Vedic instructions, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has His eternal, transcendental form, which is always blissful and full of knowledge.
- That Supreme Lord has an eternal, cognizant, blissful body, and His spiritual energy is distributed as eternity, knowledge and bliss.
Transcendent to Material Miseries
Because the Lord's body is spiritual, He never experiences the sufferings inherent to material existence. Śrīla Prabhupāda contrasts the blissful nature of the Supreme Lord with the miserable condition of the conditioned soul, proving that God remains completely untouched by material pains.
- The form of the Lord and the form of the conditioned soul are different because the Lord is always blissful whereas the conditioned soul is always under the threefold miseries of the material world. The Supreme Lord is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha - Bs. 5.1.
- The Supreme is blissful, with no tinge of unhappiness. Although He is the oldest, He never ages, and although one, He is experienced in different forms.
- There is no question of material pains or pleasures for either the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His pure devotees, although they are sometimes superficially said to be distressed or happy. One who is atmarama is blissful in both ways.
- Material bodies cannot perform the wonderful acts described in previous verses (of BG 9.11). His (God's) body is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge.
The Bliss of His Incarnations and Pastimes
Everything connected to the Supreme Lord is of the exact same spiritual quality as the Lord Himself. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that whether Krsna descends as an incarnation, performs His wonderful pastimes, or manifests as transcendental literature, the result is always absolute bliss.
- All the pastimes of the Lord are eternal, blissful and full of knowledge, just as the form of Krsna Himself is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge - sac-cid-ananda-vigraha - BS 5.1.
- There is no limit to the Lord's appearance in different incarnations. All of these incarnations are eternal, blissful and full of knowledge.
- It is simply foolish to think of the Lord as being originally impersonal but accepting a material body when He appears as a personal incarnation. Whenever the Lord appears, He appears in His original transcendental form, which is spiritual and blissful.
- This Srimad-Bhagavatam is the literary incarnation of God, and it is compiled by Srila Vyasadeva, the incarnation of God. It is meant for the ultimate good of all people, and it is all-successful, all-blissful and all-perfect.
Sharing the Bliss with the Living Entities
The living entities are not meant to suffer; their original constitutional position is one of joy. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that because we are part and parcel of God, we inherit His blissful quality, and our ultimate perfection is to reawaken that joy by participating in His loving service.
- The Lord says that His nature is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge, and the living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme, as gold particles are part of a gold mine.
- God's existence is sac-cid-ananda vigrahah (Bs. 5.1): eternal, blissful, knowledge. So we are part and parcel. Our knowledge, our blissfulness, our eternity may be very small, but we possess the same quality.
- He (the Lord) likes every part and parcel of His different potencies to take part in the blissful rasa because participation with the Lord in His eternal rasa-lila is the highest living condition, perfect in spiritual bliss and eternal knowledge.
- Only to those who are always engaged in devotional service out of transcendental love does He (the Lord) award the pure knowledge of devotion in love. In that way the devotee can reach Him easily in the ever-blissful kingdom of God.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Śrīla Prabhupāda masterfully dispels the material illusion that God's existence is mundane or formless. The Vedic literatures unanimously declare that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha—the ultimate, eternal form of absolute knowledge and pure bliss. Because the Lord is completely transcendental, He is utterly immune to the threefold miseries that plague the conditioned souls; He is the supreme atmarama, entirely self-satisfied and completely devoid of unhappiness. The foolish Mayavadi notion that the Lord accepts a material body when He incarnates is firmly rejected; every incarnation, every pastime, and even the literary representation of God, the Srimad-Bhagavatam, is fully spiritual and all-blissful. Most importantly, this supreme joy is the inherent birthright of every living entity. As minute parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, the conditioned souls constitutionally possess the exact same qualities of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. The Lord deeply desires for His wandering parts and parcels to abandon their frustrating attempts at material enjoyment and re-enter His blissful rasa-lila. By submissively hearing about the Lord and engaging in pure, unalloyed devotional service, the living entity awakens their original blissful nature, easily crossing over the ocean of material miseries to eternally reside in the ever-blissful kingdom of God.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category God Is Blissful. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.