God Is The Controller - The Supreme Master of All Energies
Śrīla Prabhupāda often provides a very simple, pragmatic definition of God: God means the supreme controller (īśvara). In the material world, every living entity is dualistic—they control something, but they are also controlled by a higher authority. The Absolute Truth, however, is the supreme master who controls everything and everyone but is never controlled by anyone.
The Definition of Īśvara
To understand the nature of the Supreme, one must recognize the universal system of management. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that just as every state has a government and a supreme leader, the entire cosmic manifestation is directed by the supreme īśvara, the Lord.
- Everyone is dualistic: he's controller and controlled. But if you find somebody that He's only controller, not controlled, that is God.
- God means He is controller only, but He is not controlled. So if you find out somebody that He is not controlled but He is controller only, that is God. Simple definition of God.
- There is isvara, which means controller, and there are jivas, the living entities which are controlled.
- The Sanskrit word isvara (controller) conveys the import of God, but the Supreme Person is called the paramesvara, or the supreme isvara.
The Controller of Material Nature
Atheistic scientists often credit material nature as the ultimate cause of everything, ignoring the intelligence behind it. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the three modes of material nature are simply energies acting under the direct control and supervision of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- They are taking nature as the Supreme. But those who are actually in awareness of God, they know that God is the controller of nature also.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead controls the material activities manifested by the three modes of material nature. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, nirgunam guna-bhoktr ca.
- The wheel of material miseries is also a creation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but He is not under the control of the material energy. Rather, He is the controller of the material energy, whereas we, the living entities, are under its control.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is always transcendental to the material qualities (sattva-guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna), but nonetheless He is their controller.
The Illusion of Independence
Conditioned souls in the material world falsely claim independence, attempting to lord it over material nature. Śrīla Prabhupāda exposes this illusion by pointing out that every living entity is strictly controlled by the laws of karma and the miseries of birth, death, old age, and disease.
- Bhagavan pumsam isvarah. Bhagavan is isvara, the controller. We are not independent. No one can actually say: I am independent.
- Are you God at the time of death? God means controller. Can you control your death? Then how you are God?
- Even accepting that in the future one will be as good a controller of material nature as the Supreme Being, then why is one now under the control of material nature?
- One thinks that there is no God or controller and that one is independent and can do anything. This is the material condition, and when one awakens from this ignorance, he is called liberated.
The Controller Within the Heart
The Lord's control is not merely distant or remote; it is intimately localized. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that as the Paramātmā, the Lord sits in the core of every living entity's heart, directing their wanderings and supplying the results of their activities.
- The Paramatma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is living in everyone's heart as isvara, as the controller, and that He is giving directions for the living entity to act as he desires.
- Because of His all-pervasiveness, He is able to enter not only into the hearts of the living entities, but even into the atoms also. As the Supersoul, He is the controller of all activities of the living entities.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is living within the body of a living entity, is the controller of all living entities all over the universe.
- One who studies carefully, under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master, can understand the real knowledge that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is actually the conductor of all the activities of the individual soul, and the controller of their results as well.
Choosing Who Controls Us
Every living entity must be controlled; the only choice is who the controller will be. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that if a soul refuses to be lovingly controlled by the Supreme Lord, they are forcibly controlled by the Lord's punishing material energy, māyā.
- God is the controller always. When one becomes a devotee, he is controlled by God; when he is a nondevotee, he is controlled by His agent, maya. But he has to be controlled.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the controller of everything, and the living entities are always controlled, either by the spiritual energy or by the material energy.
- A devotee, when he understands thoroughly that "Here is one Supreme Person, who is the leader, who is the controller, who is the maintainer of everything," then he surrenders unto Him and becomes His devotee.
- There is no profit in denying the supremacy of the Lord, who is the controller of all energies, but one should be constitutionally situated in one's own glory, namely to be situated in the pure consciousness of being the eternal servitor of the Lord.
Conclusion
To accurately grasp the reality of the cosmos, one must recognize the supreme authority managing it. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the absolute, original controller of both the spiritual and material energies. Atheists and impersonalists who deny His control are simply suffering under the stringent grip of His material nature. A sane human being, realizing their eternally subordinate position, abandons the false pride of independence. By voluntarily surrendering to the supreme īśvara, the conditioned soul is immediately transferred from the punishing control of māyā to the loving, protective control of Bhagavān, thereby achieving the ultimate perfection of peace and spiritual liberation.
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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 Controller. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.