God Is The Original Person - The Supreme Ādi-puruṣa
Śrīla Prabhupāda continually emphasizes that the highest realization of the Absolute Truth is not an abstract energy, but a person. According to the profound conclusions of the Vedānta-sūtra and the Brahma-saṁhitā, the origin of all existence is the ādi-puruṣa, the supreme, original person, who eternally resides in the spiritual world while simultaneously maintaining the material universes.
The Supreme Ādi-puruṣa
To understand God, one must accept the definitions provided by the Vedic literatures. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the simplest and most profound definition of the Absolute Truth is that He is the primeval, original person from whom everything else emanates.
- The Vedanta-sutra says Brahman, the Absolute Truth, is that from whom everything has emanated. Very simple description. What is God, what is the Absolute Truth, very simple definition - the original person.
- As stated in the Brahma-samhita: I worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, who is the original person - nondual, infallible, and without beginning. Although He expands into unlimited forms, He is still the original.
- In the Brahma-samhita Lord Brahma offers his respect to the adi-purusa, Govinda, the original person, who has no beginning, whereas the creation of this material world has a beginning.
- The Absolute is mentioned here as the purusa, or person. The Absolute Personality of Godhead is mentioned in so many Vedic literatures, and in the Bhagavad-gita, the purusa is confirmed as the eternal and original person.
The Source of Creation and Living Entities
Everything we see in the material and spiritual worlds has its roots in Bhagavān. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that the original person is the supreme father, who transmits knowledge and life even to the greatest universal administrators.
- All the demigods, including Lord Brahma, are manifested from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore the original person, the cause of all causes, is Govinda, the adi-purusam.
- The Bhagavatam tells us that everything comes from the person who is abhijna, very intelligent and experienced, and that original intelligent person transmitted knowledge to adi-kavi, the original created being, Lord Brahma.
- The Lord, the Original Person, is the father of all other living entities, beginning from Brahma, the personality from whom all other living entities in different gradations of species are generated.
- In the Brahma-samhita the Lord is addressed as adi-purusam, the original person. Indeed, in Bhagavad-gita the Lord Himself declares, mattah sarvam pravartate: "From Me everything proceeds."
Beyond Material Time and Aging
Because material bodies degrade over time, mundane thinkers often falsely imagine God as an old man with a white beard. Śrīla Prabhupāda strongly refutes this material projection, clarifying that the original person is completely transcendental to time and aging.
- Sometimes they paint the picture of God as very old man. Because He is the original person, so by this time He must have become very old. This is imagination. This is not actually the form of the Lord. The form of the Lord is there in the Brahma-samhita.
- In the Brahma-samhita it is also stated: advaitam acyutam anadim ananta-rupam adyam purana-purusam nava-yauvanam ca. The original person is one without a second, yet He never appears old; He always appears as ever fresh as a blooming youth.
- A living entity is within the time of past, present and future. His life has a beginning, a birth, and in the conditioned state his life ends with death. But the Lord is adi-purusa, the original person.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not formless; He is purusam, or the enjoyer, the original person. He is the time element and is all-cognizant. He knows everything - past, present and future - as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita.
Worshipping the Supreme Person
Since the living entities are parts and parcels of the supreme whole, their perfection lies in satisfying the original person. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that by worshiping and decorating the Lord, the living entity automatically attains immense spiritual benefit and liberation.
- The purusa, the original person - Bhagavan, Visnu - can be understood only by devotional service. Bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah: only by devotional service can one understand the Supreme Person, who is behind everything.
- We should philosophically understand that if the original person benefits, the reflection also benefits. So if we decorate Krsna, we also shall be decorated.
- If one worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original person, even once, he receives the benefit of being promoted to the spiritual world and possessing the same bodily features as Visnu.
- If one changes his consciousness, however, and associates with the supreme, original person (purusam sasvatam), or with His associates, he can get out of the entanglement of material nature.
Conclusion
Mental speculation and ascending logic can never grant an individual access to the Absolute Truth. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ādi-puruṣa, the original person, who existed before the material creation and who remains completely untouched by its laws. Although He is the oldest being and the primeval cause of all causes, He is never subjected to the ravages of time, perpetually exhibiting the beautiful, eternal form of a fresh youth. By abandoning the false desire to act as independent enjoyers and instead redirecting our consciousness toward the satisfaction of this original person, we automatically satisfy ourselves. Through unalloyed devotional service, the conditioned soul is permanently rescued from the cycle of birth and death, returning to their natural, joyful relationship with Bhagavān in the spiritual sky.
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