God Is The Reservoir - The Ultimate Source of All Qualities and Energies
Śrīla Prabhupāda frequently describes the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the ultimate reservoir. A reservoir holds and supplies water to an entire city; similarly, Bhagavān holds within Himself the totality of all existence, all energies, all living entities, and all transcendental qualities, constantly supplying them to the cosmic manifestation.
The Reservoir of the Cosmic Manifestation
The entire material universe is not an independent machine. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Supreme Lord is the origin, the maintainer, and ultimately the resting place into which everything withdraws at the time of annihilation.
- The Lord is the reservoir of all cosmic manifestation, animate and inanimate.
- The Supreme Lord is the cause of the cosmic manifestation, He maintains it after creation, and after annihilation the Lord is the reservoir of everything.
- In the Vedas it is said that only the Lord alone exists, and all others' existences depend on Him. He is the generating reservoir for everyone's existential capacity; He is the Supreme Truth of all other categorical truths.
- The Supreme Lord is the reservoir of the twenty-five elements, and as the Supreme Being, the conductor of cause and effect, He causes their manifestation.
The Reservoir of the Living Entities
While the living entities are countless in number, they all have a singular origin and shelter. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that specific expansions of the Lord serve as the direct reservoir for the individual souls.
- Sankarsana, the second expansion, is Vasudeva's personal expansion for pastimes, and since He is the reservoir of all living entities, He is sometimes called jiva.
- The senses and their reservoir source, the gigantic universal form as the second incarnation Garbhodakasayi Visnu, and all living beings, both moving and standing, which come out of the second incarnation, all became manifested.
- O lotus-eyed Lord, by concentrating one's meditation on Your lotus feet, which are the reservoir of all existence and by accepting those lotus feet as the boat by which to cross the ocean of nescience, one follows in the footsteps of mahajanas.
- My dear Lord, Your lotus feet are the reservoir that always deserves to receive worshipful homage from all great sages eager to understand the Absolute Truth.
The Reservoir of Good Qualities
Atheists and impersonalists often strip the Absolute Truth of all attributes. Śrīla Prabhupāda forcefully counters this by explaining that the Lord is not an empty void, but rather the complete reservoir of all positive, auspicious qualities.
- The Mayavadi philosophers take the Absolute Truth to be nirguna ("without qualities"), in accordance with the impersonalistic view, but actually the Lord is the reservoir of all good qualities.
- The Vedas confirm that the Supreme Absolute Truth is anandamaya, or full of blissful pleasure, and that He is abhyasat, by nature the reservoir of unlimited auspicious qualities.
- Kardama Muni says: Your Lordship is the reservoir of all that can be understood by the nomenclature of goodness, and by experiencing You face to face, eye to eye, the perfection of sight has now been attained.
- For Your pastimes, You act as the controller of time, but You are the reservoir of all good fortune. Let me offer my full surrender unto Your Lordship.
The Reservoir of Rasas and Happiness
Every emotion, interaction, and desire we experience in the material world is merely a reflection of the original spiritual reality. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that Kṛṣṇa is the source of all relationships (rasas) and the ultimate reservoir of the happiness everyone is desperately seeking.
- Akhila-rasamrta. Krsna is the reservoir of all kind of rasa. Sometimes fighting is also pleasing, therefore the fighting spirit is there in Krsna. And we have got also that fighting spirit also, in small quantity.
- Everyone is hankering after happiness in life, but in this age the members of human society, blind as they are, do not have the proper vision that the Personality of God is the reservoir of all happiness because He is the ultimate source of everything.
- The moonlike face of Krsna is the reservoir of nectarean songs and the abode of His flute. It is also the root of all bodily beauty.
- The Lord is called "Govinda," or the prime cause of all causes and the reservoir of all blessings. And the people in general can attain to perfect peace and tranquillity when they come to know Him by the gradual process of work with transcendental results.
Conclusion
A drop of ocean water contains the exact same chemical properties as the vast ocean itself, but it can never match the ocean's magnitude. Śrīla Prabhupāda uses this understanding to conclude that while the living entities possess certain qualities and capacities for happiness, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the unlimited reservoir from which all these qualities are drawn. He is the ultimate resting place of the cosmic manifestation and the generating source of all existence. Rejecting the dry, impersonal conception of a void Absolute Truth, pure devotees understand that Kṛṣṇa is the complete reservoir of all auspicious qualities, all good fortune, and all transcendental mellows (akhila-rasāmṛta). By realizing that Bhagavān is the infinite reservoir of all the happiness they are desperately seeking, conditioned souls can stop wandering aimlessly through material life and find perfect peace by taking shelter at His lotus feet.
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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 Reservoir. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.