God Is The Supreme Absolute Truth - The Ultimate Personality of Godhead
Śrīla Prabhupāda frequently addresses the fundamental inquiry of the Vedānta-sūtra: athāto brahma jijñāsā, "Now let us inquire into the Supreme Absolute Truth." The Vedic literatures systematically explain that this Absolute Truth is not an abstract concept or a dead energy, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the origin, maintainer, and ultimate shelter of all existence.
The Definition of the Absolute Truth
To avoid speculation, one must accept the definition of the Absolute Truth provided by the authorized śrutis (Vedic scriptures). Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Upaniṣads and the Vedānta-sūtra define the Supreme Absolute Truth simply as the source of all emanations.
- According to the injunction of the Upanisads ("the Supreme Absolute Truth is He from whom everything emanates"), it is understood that the whole cosmic manifestation emanated from Brahman, the Supreme Absolute Truth.
- According to a mantra in Taittiriya Upanisad (yato va imani bhutani jayante) this cosmic manifestation is but an emanation from the Supreme Absolute Truth, and it rests in the Supreme Absolute Truth.
- It is confirmed in the Taittiriya Upanisad: yato va imani bhutani jayante. "The Supreme Absolute Truth is that from which everything is born."
- The Vedanta-sutra in the very beginning affirms that everything is born from the Supreme, and thus, as explained in the previous verse, all individual living entities are born from the energy of the supreme living being, the Personality of Godhead.
The Incomplete Impersonal Conception
Many philosophers with a poor fund of knowledge conclude that the ultimate reality must be a formless void. Śrīla Prabhupāda vigorously refutes this, explaining that realizing only the impersonal Brahman is an incomplete understanding of the Complete Whole.
- The Complete Whole, or the Supreme Absolute Truth, is the complete Personality of Godhead. Realization of impersonal Brahman or of Paramatma, the Supersoul, is incomplete realization of the Absolute Complete.
- The poor fund of knowledge held by the impersonalists cannot accommodate how the Supreme Absolute Truth can be a person, because whenever they think of a person they think of a person of this material world. That is their defect.
- In order to distinguish His transcendental body from ordinary material bodies, some philosophers have explained Him as being impersonal. In other words, material personality is denied, and spiritual personality is established.
- The Supreme Absolute Truth Personality of Godhead is never impersonal. All the Vedic scriptures glorify the transcendental performance of His various personal activities and pastimes.
The Inconceivable Energies
The Supreme Absolute Truth does not undergo any change when He creates the material world; He acts entirely through His diverse potencies. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the cosmic manifestation and the living entities are simply by-products of these inconceivable energies.
- Although Vedic literatures confirm the fact that the Supreme Absolute Truth has multiple energies, the Mayavadi impersonalists still try to establish that the Absolute Truth has no energy.
- In the Svetasvatara Upanisad it is stated that the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead is full of inconceivable energies and that no one else possesses such energies.
- By His inconceivable energies, the Supreme Absolute Truth can remain unchanged and yet produce this cosmic manifestation with all its living entities, just as touchstone can produce unlimited quantities of gold and yet remain unchanged.
- For the Supreme Absolute Truth, there is no change. It is simply that a by-product results from His inconceivable powers of action. In other words, a relative truth - a by-product - is produced out of the Supreme Truth.
The Supreme Living Entity
The living entity (jīva) and the Supreme Lord are qualitatively similar, both being spiritual. However, Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that they are never equal in quantity; the Supreme Absolute Truth is the infinite master, and the individual soul is His minute, eternal servant.
- There are innumerable living entities, but there is one living entity who is the Supreme Absolute Godhead. The difference between the singular living entity and the plural living entities is that the singular living entity is the Lord of all.
- The Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, is compared to a blazing fire, and the innumerable living entities are compared to sparks emanating from that fire.
- If one does not accept the living entity to be a minute, infinitesimal spark of the Supreme but equates the jiva-tattva with the Supreme Brahman or Supreme Personality of Godhead, it must be understood that his entire philosophy is based on a misunderstanding.
- The impersonalist, they think, we are cent percent one with the Lord or the Supreme Absolute Truth, but that is not a fact. If one is cent percent one with the Supreme Lord, then how he has come under the control of maya? This question, they cannot answer.
Conclusion
Mental speculation and academic prowess are completely inadequate tools for comprehending the Absolute Truth. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Supreme Absolute Truth cannot be an impersonal void or a passive energy; He is the complete Personality of Godhead, the supreme sentient being from whom the entire cosmic manifestation is born. While the Māyāvādī philosophers struggle with the concept of a personal God and falsely equate the minute living entities with the Supreme, the pure devotees easily understand the truth through the authorized disciplic succession. The Lord possesses inconceivable energies that allow Him to expand into the material world while remaining entirely unaffected and unchanged in His spiritual abode. When a living entity abandons the illusion of being equal to God and instead engages in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Absolute Truth, they achieve the true perfection of Vedic knowledge and eternal blissful life.
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