God Is The Enjoyer - The Supreme Purusa and Master of All
Śrīla Prabhupāda consistently teaches that the root cause of all suffering in the material world is a simple misunderstanding of identity. Conditioned souls falsely identify themselves as the proprietors and enjoyers of the material energy. The Vedic literatures, however, assert that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the one and only true enjoyer (puruṣa), and that acknowledging this fact is the ultimate formula for peace.
The Supreme Puruṣa
In Vedic philosophy, the enjoyer is called puruṣa (the predominator), and the enjoyed is called prakṛti (the predominated energy). Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that God is the supreme puruṣa, and all living entities and material manifestations are His prakṛti.
- Tvam adyah purusah. Purusa means enjoyer. God is not female. Sometimes they worship a female as God, like Durga, Kali, and so many others. But God is purusa. Everyone is prakrti. Prakrti means female. Everyone knows it.
- The Lord exists as purusa, or the male enjoyer, although there is no comparing Him to any male form in the material world. But all such forms are advaita, nondifferent from one another, and each of them is eternally young.
- The male or enjoyer is the Lord, and all manifestations of His different potencies are feminine by nature.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is actually the enjoyer in the transcendental sense, whereas all others are prakrti. The living entities are considered prakrti.
The Central Stomach of Creation
To understand how the Lord enjoys, Śrīla Prabhupāda frequently uses the analogy of the body and the stomach. Just as the limbs of the body gather food not for themselves, but to feed the stomach, the living entities are meant to serve the central enjoyer, Bhagavān.
- As in this body the stomach is the enjoyer, the central figure of the whole cosmic manifestation, material or spiritual, is Krsna, God. He is the enjoyer. We can understand this just by considering our own bodies.
- 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.
- 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 Supreme Lord is both the creator and the enjoyer, and the living entity, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is neither the creator nor the enjoyer, but a cooperator. He is the created and the enjoyed.
The Ultimate Beneficiary of Sacrifice
Any activity performed without the intention of satisfying the Lord becomes a cause of bondage. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate beneficiary (bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasām) of all austerities, rituals, and sacrifices.
- The sages, knowing Me (Krsna) as the ultimate enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attain peace from the pangs of material miseries.
- My Lord, You are the master of energy, and therefore You are the Supreme Person. You are sacrifice (yajna) personified. Laksmi, the embodiment of spiritual activities, is the original form of worship offered unto You, whereas You are the enjoyer of all sacrifices.
- Sukracarya said: My Lord, You are the enjoyer and lawgiver in all performances of sacrifice, and You are the yajna-purusa, the person to whom all sacrifices are offered.
- The bona fide enjoyer of the fruitive work is the Personality of Godhead, and thus when it is engaged for the sense gratification of the living beings, it becomes an acute source of trouble.
The Peace Formula
As long as an individual or a nation falsely claims to be the proprietor or enjoyer of the earth's resources, there will be conflict. Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals that real peace is achieved only when humanity acknowledges the true enjoyer.
- Krsna also claims to be the friend of all living entities. When a person understands that God is the proprietor of everything, the friend of everyone and the enjoyer of all, he becomes very peaceful. This is the actual peace formula.
- A person can be in full Krsna consciousness and become happy and satisfied if he knows but three things - namely, that the Supreme Lord Krsna is the enjoyer of all benefits, that He is the proprietor of everything, and that He is the supreme friend of all living entities.
- If you learn these three things: that God is the proprietor, God is the enjoyer and He is the real friend... Actually, He is the real friend. And our godlessness means we are claiming that we are proprietor.
- If we falsely claim that sitting here for one hour or half an hour, we have become proprietor, that is false impression. So one has to understand that we are neither proprietor nor enjoyer. God is the enjoyer, and God is the proprietor.
Curing the Material Disease
The conditioned soul's attempt to imitate God is the fundamental disease of material existence. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that this deeply ingrained desire to be the independent enjoyer can only be cured by full surrender to the Lord.
- The soul, part and parcel of God, wanted to imitate God's supremacy, and they wanted to enjoy. But in the spiritual world there cannot be second enjoyer.
- Tapasvi, jnani, yogi, they are trying to come to the liberated position, but thinking that "I shall become God." The same disease. Up to the end, the same disease. God means "enjoyer." This disease can be cured only by surrender. That is the only medicine.
- As soon as you give up this mentality that, "I am the enjoyer," as soon as we change our mentality that, "Krsna is enjoyer," then immediately we become liberated. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita.
- The enjoyer and the enjoyed both participate in enjoyment, but, deluded by the illusory energy, the living entities want to become the enjoyer like the Lord, although they are not meant for such enjoyment.
Conclusion
The cosmic manifestation is an expression of the Supreme Lord's desire to enjoy, and the living entities are meant to assist in that divine enjoyment. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the original creator, proprietor, and master of all energies, He alone is the absolute puruṣa, or enjoyer. The conditioned souls suffer in the material world simply because they try to usurp this position, attempting to independently enjoy the prakṛti (material energy) which actually belongs to God. True liberation, peace, and spiritual bliss are attained only when the living entity abandons this false ego of being the enjoyer and joyfully returns to their constitutional position as the predominated cooperator, perfectly rendering service for the transcendental pleasure of Bhagavān.
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