God Is Impersonal - Refuting the Māyāvāda Misconception
Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies a major philosophical misunderstanding regarding the Absolute Truth. While the Supreme Lord has an all-pervading, formless energy, concluding that God is ultimately impersonal is a dangerous misconception born from a poor fund of knowledge and imperfect material senses.
The Incomplete Impersonal View
According to Śrīla Prabhupāda, people with less intelligence or imperfect vision often assume that the Absolute Truth must be impersonal because they cannot comprehend an unlimited person. However, this is only a partial realization of the Supreme Lord.
- Because we are limited and God is unlimited, the Mayavadis, or impersonalists, with their poor fund of knowledge, think that God must be impersonal.
- Impersonal appreciation of the Absolute Truth is one-sided and incomplete. One should also accept the other side, the personal side - Bhagavan.
- Those who want to see God or the Supreme Absolute Truth by the agency of their imperfect senses, they say that God is impersonal. They're imperfect. That is a realization of the imperfect senses. Perfectly, perfect vision of the Supreme Lord is a person.
- People with less intelligence consider the Supreme Truth to be impersonal, but He is a transcendental person, and this is confirmed in all Vedic literatures.
Refuting Māyāvāda Philosophy
Śrīla Prabhupāda strongly refutes the Māyāvāda philosophy, which claims that God is ultimately a formless void. By denying the Lord's spiritual form and transcendental activities, these philosophers commit a grave offense against the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- The dangerous Mayavada theory set forth by Sankaracarya - that God is impersonal - does not tally with the injunctions of the Vedas. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore described the Mayavadi philosophers as the greatest offenders.
- Devotees are very much attached to glorifying the activities of the Lord, whereas the Mayavadis cannot even think of these activities. According to them the Absolute Truth is impersonal.
- Mayavada philosophy says that the Lord is originally impersonal but assumes a human form and many other forms when He descends. Actually, however, He is originally like a human being, and the impersonal Brahman consists of the rays of His body.
- Prakasananda Sarasvati only business was to sever the limbs of the Lord by proving the Lord impersonal. Although the Lord has form, Prakasananda Sarasvati attempted to cut off the hands and legs of the Lord. This is the business of demons.
The True Meaning of Formless
When Vedic literature describes the Lord as impersonal or formless, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that it simply means His form is not made of material elements. The Supreme Lord has a completely spiritual body, free from mundane limitations.
- If we say that the Supreme Absolute Truth is impersonal, we mean that His personality is not material.
- That the Lord is formless or impersonal means that He has nothing like a material form and is not like any material personality.
- When it is stated that the Supreme Lord has no hands and legs, one should not think that He is impersonal. Rather, He has no mundane hands or legs like ours.
- In order to distinguish His transcendental body from ordinary material bodies, some philosophers have explained Him (the Supreme Absolute Truth) as being impersonal. In other words, material personality is denied, and spiritual personality is established.
Simultaneously Personal and Impersonal
The perfect conclusion, as taught by Śrīla Prabhupāda, is that the Lord exhibits inconceivable potencies. He is eternally the Supreme Person in His original form, while simultaneously expanding His impersonal energy to pervade the entire creation.
- He (God) is simultaneously personal and impersonal by His inconceivable potency, or He is the one without a second, displaying complete unity in a diversity of material and spiritual manifestations.
- Since (God's) His body is the complete whole of everything that be, one cannot assert that He is impersonal only. On the contrary, the perfect description of the Lord holds that He is both impersonal and personal simultaneously.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is originally the Supreme Person, and He expands Himself impersonally through His potency.
- Just as Isopanisad indicates, the Supreme Absolute Truth is both impersonal and personal eternally, but His personal aspect is more important than the impersonal one.
Conclusion
To understand the Absolute Truth fully is to transcend the limited view that God is merely an impersonal force. Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals that while the Lord possesses an impersonal feature—the all-pervading brahma-jyotir—His original, ultimate nature is always that of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Recognizing this spiritual, personal form defeats all demonic and Māyāvāda misconceptions, leading the soul to pure devotional service.
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 Is Impersonal. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.