God Is Omniscient - The All-Knowing Supreme Father
Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate source of all knowledge and awareness. Unlike the conditioned souls whose perception is clouded by the limits of time, space, and material senses, the Lord is fully omniscient (sarva-jña), effortlessly observing and understanding everything past, present, and future.
The Source of All Knowledge
The living entities are infinitesimal sparks of spirit, making them prone to ignorance and illusion. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Supreme Lord is the infinite whole (vibhu); He is the primeval cause and the supreme father who possesses perfect, unlimited knowledge.
- Because He (the Supreme Lord) is the source of all knowledge, He is omniscient; there is no illusion for Him as there is for the relative knower.
- He has got full knowledge. That is God, omniscient. He has got full knowledge. We may not have because we are very tiny. A child may not have knowledge, but the father knows everything. Similarly, He is the supreme father.
- The Lord is omnipotent, but the living entity is not. The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is anu, or atomic.
- Only the mahatmas can understand that the Supreme Lord is the primeval cause of all creations. He is parama or ultimate truth because all other truths are relative to Him. He is omniscient. For Him, there is no illusion.
The Transcendental Body
A body composed of physical elements is inherently restricted and cannot possibly know everything. Śrīla Prabhupāda highlights that because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is undeniably omniscient, His body, names, and qualities must be completely spiritual and free from material contamination.
- 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 Lord is omnipotent and omniscient, and similarly, His name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and everything pertaining to Him are complete, pure, eternal and free from material contamination.
- According to the Koran, the Lord has a supreme, blissful, transcendental body. He is the Absolute Truth, the all-pervading, omniscient and eternal being. He is the origin of everything.
- 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.
The All-Pervading Supersoul
God does not have to travel to acquire information; He is already present everywhere. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that through the omnipresent rays of the brahma-jyotir and His localized expansion as the Supersoul, the Lord acts as the omniscient witness to the entire cosmic creation.
- We can understand that the Lord, by the omnipresent rays of His effulgence, called brahma-jyotir, is all-pervading inside or outside of everything, like the omnipresent material sky, and thus He is also omniscient.
- According to their elevated spiritual understanding, the omniscient Lord, who manifests various forms, is present everywhere. May He always protect us everywhere from all calamities.
- We (King Satyavrata) are interested in self-realization. Therefore we accept You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as our spiritual master, for You are able to see in all directions and are omniscient like the sun.
- He thus became liberated from conditioned life and became self-situated in transcendental devotional service to the Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, the omniscient Supersoul within everyone.
Omniscient Reciprocation with Devotees
Because the Lord knows the heart of every living entity, bargaining with Him is useless. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that pure devotees never ask the Lord for mundane benedictions; they simply surrender, knowing that the omniscient Supreme Father will perfectly orchestrate whatever is needed for their spiritual advancement.
- Dear Lord, You are omniscient, and therefore You know very well why we have taken shelter at Your lotus feet, which provide shade that gives relief from all material disturbances.
- A pure devotee knows that since the Lord is omnipresent and omniscient, there is no need to offer prayers or worship Him for one's personal benefit.
- A sincere devotee who is not very intelligent may ask some material benefit from the Lord, but the Lord, being omniscient, does not generally give material rewards but, on the contrary, takes away whatever material facilities are being enjoyed.
- The omniscient Personality of Godhead could immediately understand the incident, and He came with His eternal consort, the goddess of fortune. The Catuhsana Kumaras immediately offered their obeisances unto the Lord.
Conclusion
To accurately understand the absolute supremacy of God, one must recognize His unparalleled omniscience. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is never subjected to the ignorance and illusions that bewilder the conditioned souls. Possessing an eternal, spiritual body, He pervades the entire cosmic manifestation as the Supersoul, acting as the all-seeing witness and the supreme well-wisher. By submitting to the omniscient Lord with unalloyed devotion, a sincere soul is freed from the anxieties of material life, confident that the supreme father eternally guides and protects His surrendered children.
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 Omniscient. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.