God Is The Center - The Root of All Love and Enjoyment
Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly explains that the fundamental cause of suffering in the material world is misplaced affection and self-centeredness. When the living entity forgets that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the center of all existence, society fractures into competing interests. By bringing God back to the center of all activities, humanity can experience perfect harmony, universal love, and spiritual liberation.
The Supreme Central Enjoyer
In the spiritual world, there is no clash of interests because everyone is united in serving the central enjoyer. Śrīla Prabhupāda contrasts this with the material world, where every individual falsely attempts to place themselves at the center.
- The serving spirit of the residents of the transcendental world is displayed in five varieties of relationships with the Supreme Lord, who is the central enjoyer. In the material world everyone is a self-centered enjoyer of mundane happiness and distress.
- The real center of enjoyment is the Supreme Lord, who is the center of the sublime and spiritual rasa dance.
- God is the center of all creation, of the whole universal body; He is the enjoyer, and we are His servitors. As this conception becomes clear, we become liberated.
- Supreme Personality of Godhead, Supersoul, is the master of all living entities; He is the ultimate center of all living entities. So there is no denying the fact that the Supreme Supersoul and the individual soul are always different.
The Root of All Love and Affection
It is impossible to establish universal brotherhood without a universal father. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Viṣṇu is the center of all love; just as feeding the stomach nourishes the entire body, loving God naturally extends love to all living entities.
- The central stomach of the whole creation is God, or Krsna. He is the enjoyer, He is the friend, and, as the supreme proprietor, He is maintaining everyone.
- Do you think that you do not love anyone and you become peaceful? No. How it is possible? Therefore, if you love God, then you can love everyone. And if you don't love God, then you cannot love anyone. Because He is the center.
- Visnu is the center of love for everyone, and the duty of everyone is to engage in the loving service of the Lord.
- The Lord is the center of all the affection of all living beings, who are all His parts and parcels. When the flow of natural affection for the Lord is clogged by desires to imitate His Lordship, one is said to be in maya, or illusion.
Establishing a Competitionless Society
Modern society attempts to forge unity through political institutions like the United Nations, but these efforts consistently fail due to underlying envy. Śrīla Prabhupāda asserts that a truly competition-less society is only possible when God is the recognized center.
- Because everyone in the material world is envious, there is competition. The devotees of the Lord are not only free from all material envy, but they are also kind to everyone in an attempt to establish a competitionless society with God in the center.
- The transcendental devotees of the Lord are not only free from material envy, but are well-wishers to everyone, and they strive to establish a competitionless society with God in the center.
- If everyone is taught this God consciousness (nothing belongs to us. Everything belongs to God. Everyone has got right to live on God's property), there is no need of this artificial United Nations. We are united by nature. God is the center.
Dovetailing Activities Around the Center
To be God-centered does not mean one must cease all worldly activities. Rather, Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that one can expand their activities for their family, society, and nation indefinitely, provided the Supreme Lord remains the focal point of those endeavors.
- We are missing the center. The center is God, or Krsna. With God center, if we expand our activities - either country's service or society's service or family's service - you expand, but keep the center, then it will be very nice. It will never overlap.
- Civic and other popular leaders should center their activities upon Visnu, and by this act of transcendental work, they will themselves be benefited and shall be able to do good for their respective followers.
- In religious principles there must be God in the center; otherwise simple moral instructions are merely subreligious principles, generally known as upadharma, or nearness to religious principles.
- The material body of the living entity is a result of the conditioned soul's activities, and because the supporter is the Supersoul, the Supersoul is the true reality. Every one of us, therefore, should offer respectful obeisances to this central reality.
Conclusion
Without God in the center, every human endeavor ultimately results in frustration, envy, and conflict. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Paramātmā, is the true central reality of the cosmos. To construct a peaceful society, humanity must transcend the limited, self-centered designations of māyā and recognize the supreme proprietorship of Bhagavān. By making the Lord the center of our families, nations, and religious principles, all activities are perfectly harmonized. Only when our natural affection is redirected toward the central stomach of the universal body can we achieve true spiritual satisfaction, universal brotherhood, and a competition-less existence.
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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 The Center. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.