God Is One Without a Second - The Singular Absolute Truth
Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly emphasizes that the Absolute Truth is undivided and supreme. The Vedic literatures firmly reject polytheism, establishing instead that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is completely singular—one without a second—while simultaneously possessing the inconceivable power to expand into infinite energies and forms.
The Absolute Supreme
To properly understand the definition of God, one must accept His absolute supremacy. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that because the Lord is the primeval cause of all causes and has no equal or superior, the acceptance of many competing gods is completely illogical.
- The Lord, or the Supreme Godhead, who is one without a second, is a fully cognizant and eternally joyful personality with a full sense of His identity. No one is equal to Him or greater than Him. This is a concise description of the Supreme Lord.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is one without a second. He is above everyone. No one is equal to Him, nor is anyone greater than Him. Therefore He is described here as visva-guru.
- Devotees know perfectly well that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is one without a second. They are never pantheists, worshipers of many Gods, for this is against the injunction of the Vedas.
- The acceptance of more than one God is contradictory to the conclusion that Lord Vasudeva, the absolute Personality of Godhead, is one without a second.
Three Features of One Truth
The Absolute Truth presents different aspects according to the realization of the seeker. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the impersonal Brahman, the localized Paramātmā, and the Supreme Person, Bhagavān, are simply three features of the same singular reality.
- In Srimad-Bhagavatam the Absolute Truth is described as the one without a second, but He is realized in three features - impersonal Brahman, localized Paramatma and the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- O ultimate truth, one without a second, You are realized as Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan and are therefore the reservoir of all knowledge. I (Citraketu) offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
- The Absolute Truth is one without a second, but He is viewed from different angles of vision by different religionists or transcendentalists under different circumstances.
- 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.
The Expansions and Energies
Although God is completely singular, He does not remain alone. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes how the Lord, out of His own sweet will and for His transcendental pleasure, expands Himself into innumerable energies and manifestations.
- God expanded into many, and we constitute those expansions. God is one without a second, but He willed to become many in order to enjoy. We have experience that there is little or no enjoyment in sitting alone in a room talking to oneself.
- Why He becomes many? God is one without second, but He, out of His own sweet will, He becomes many.
- The conception of one without a second is clearly confirmed here. The one is Lord Vasudeva, and only by His different energies and expansions are different manifestations, both in the material and in the spiritual worlds, maintained.
- In the Visnu Purana it is stated that as the presence of fire is understood by heat and light, so the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although one without a second, is perceived everywhere by the diffusion of His different energies.
The Subordinate Living Entities
The living entities share a qualitative spiritual nature with the Lord, but they remain quantitatively subordinate. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that while the living entities are innumerable, the Supreme Father who maintains them all is eternally one without a second.
- God is one without a second, and the ordinary living entities are many without number. All such living entities are maintained by God Himself, and that is the verdict of the Vedic literatures.
- God is God eternally, and an ordinary living entity is eternally a part and parcel of God. God is one without a second, and the ordinary living entities are many without number. All such living entities are maintained by God Himself.
- The jivas, or living beings, are differentiated parts and parcels of the Lord. They are all diversities of the one without a second, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- This is the constitutional position of the living entities. The Lord is one without a second, and He expands Himself into many for His transcendental pleasure.
Conclusion
To accurately comprehend the Absolute Truth, one must recognize both His supreme singularity and His infinite expansions. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is one without a second, possessing no equal or superior. Yet, from this original oneness, He mercifully expands into the all-pervading Brahman, the localized Paramātmā, and the innumerable living entities to relish transcendental pastimes. By thoroughly understanding that the Lord is the single, undivided source and maintainer of all existence, a sincere soul Abandons all pantheistic illusions and dedicates themselves entirely to the unalloyed loving service of the Supreme Lord.
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