God Is Not Material - The Supreme Spiritual Identity
Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that we must never impose material limitations upon the Absolute Truth. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, along with His holy name, His pastimes, and His beautiful forms, is completely transcendental and not material in any way.
The Transcendental Body
In the material world, bodies are created from the modes of material nature and are subject to ignorance and destruction. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Supreme Lord's body is eternally full of knowledge and bliss (sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha) and is never contaminated by matter.
- All the forms of that Supreme Person are eternal. The Supreme Person has a form, with hands and legs and other personal features, but His hands and legs are not material.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is omnipotent and omniscient. Therefore, because a material body can be neither omnipotent nor omniscient, the Lord’s body is surely not material.
- The material world consists of three modes - goodness, passion and ignorance - but the spiritual world is pure goodness. It is said here that the form of the Lord is pure goodness, which means that it is not material.
- Since the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not material but sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, He is unaffected by insults or greetings, blasphemy or prayers.
The Spiritual Name and Pastimes
Because God is absolute, there is no difference between Him and His attributes. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the Lord's holy names and His activities are completely spiritual, granting liberation to anyone who properly connects with them.
- His name is not material; otherwise how could one get liberation by chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Rama? The names of the Lord like Rama and Krsna are nondifferent from the person Rama and Krsna.
- Considered with scrutiny, the conclusion of nondevotees, who say that God has no name, and that of devotees, who know that His name is not material, are practically the same. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no material name.
- The pastimes and activities of the Lord are not material - they are beyond the material conception - and the conditioned soul can benefit by hearing such uncommon activities.
- The activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in maintaining His devotees are transcendental, not material. He exists in everything as the cause and effect, yet He is separate, existing beyond this cosmic manifestation.
Incarnations and the Deity Form
When the Supreme Lord descends to the material world, foolish people think He assumes a material form. Śrīla Prabhupāda asserts that whether the Lord appears as a human, an animal, or the arcā-vigraha (Deity), His form remains eternally transcendental.
- He may assume the body of a human being, but that body is not material.
- We should always remember that although the body of a hog is material, the hog form of the Lord was not materially contaminated. It is not possible for an earthly hog to assume a gigantic form spreading throughout the sky, beginning from the Satyaloka.
- There are many incarnations of the Supreme Lord: Varaha murti, Kurma murti, Hayagriva murti and so on. Yet we should never think any of Them material.
- Arca-vigraha form may be seen as material by the imperfect eyes of foolish people or kanistha-adhikaris, but such people do not know that the Lord, being omnipotent and omniscient, can transform matter into spirit and spirit into matter, as He desires.
Refuting the Impersonalist Theory
Philosophers with a poor fund of knowledge assert that the ultimate Absolute Truth is void or formless. Śrīla Prabhupāda refutes this, explaining that "formless" simply means the Lord does not possess a mundane, material body like ours.
- That the Lord is formless or impersonal means that He has nothing like a material form and is not like any material personality.
- Although He is not of the material world, He is much more than simply a negation of material variegatedness. He is positively the supreme enjoyer of spiritual variegatedness, of which Laksmi, the internal potency, is the fountainhead.
- 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.
- Nityananda Prabhu's body is spiritual, but demoniac persons consider the body of the Supreme Personality to be material, just like ours.
Conclusion
To advance in spiritual life, one must completely abandon the misconception that the Supreme Lord is contaminated by matter. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that God is not material; His name, form, qualities, and pastimes are composed of pure, eternal spiritual energy. Whether He descends as an incarnation or manifests as the Deity in the temple, the Lord remains the supreme omnipotent and omniscient person. By understanding the absolute, non-material nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, a sincere soul is freed from the illusions of Māyāvādī philosophy and becomes eligible to render pure devotional service.
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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 Not Material. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.