God Is The Supreme Living Being - The Chief Conscious Force
Śrīla Prabhupāda often emphasizes that the Absolute Truth is not an abstract concept or a void, but the most dynamic, conscious person. The Vedic literatures clearly establish that both God and the individual souls share the quality of life, but God is the supreme living being who creates, maintains, and directs the entire cosmic manifestation.
Cetanaś Cetanānām - The Chief Conscious Entity
The Upaniṣads declare that there are innumerable eternal, conscious beings, but there is one singular conscious being who leads them all. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that understanding this distinction is the foundation of true spiritual knowledge.
- I am individual person. And the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is also individual person. Nityo nityanam. This is Vedic information. We are plural number, nityanam. Cetanas cetananam: He is the supreme living force amongst all other living forces.
- Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam. There is the Supreme Soul, or the supreme living being, and there are many individual souls, individual beings.
- God and we, are of the same quality, that is a fact. God is the supreme living being and we are also living being, but He is the head, supreme. That is the description in the Vedas: nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam.
- Individual consciousness and the supreme consciousness, God and we. We are all also the same principle. God is also living being, we are also living being, but He is the supreme living being.
The Director of the Material World
Atheistic thinkers often propose that the material universe operates on its own through chemical combinations and mechanical laws. Śrīla Prabhupāda refutes this by pointing out that dead matter cannot act without the touch and direction of the supreme living being.
- Matter can never work automatically, without a living hand, and therefore we must admit the existence of God, the supreme living being, behind the laws of nature.
- The supreme living being has created this material world of animation; it is not that He was created by this material world. When everything is silent, the Supreme Being stays awake as a witness.
- Apart from these eight material energies is the living force, or the antimaterial principle, which is described as the superior energy. These are called energies because they are wielded and controlled by the supreme living being, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna.
- Although it may be said that in the material world a living force is generated from matter, it must be admitted that originally matter is generated from the supreme living being. Nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam.
The Maintainer and the Maintained
To further clarify the difference between the supreme living being and ordinary living entities, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains their respective positions regarding power and maintenance. The greatness of God lies in His ability to provide for all others.
- God is also a living being. That is said in the Oxford Dictionary. God means, supreme being. So we are all beings, and God is the Supreme Being. We are limited by our power; God is unlimited by His power.
- God is the supreme nitya, eternal, and the Supreme Living Being. In the dictionary also it is said, God means the Supreme Being. They could not understand supreme Living Being.
- The Personality of Godhead Himself is also a living being, as much an individual as other living beings. But the Supreme Lord is the supreme living being, with the greatest mind and the supermost inconceivable energies in great variety.
- The Supreme Lord is the supreme living being, and He has the greatest mind and possesses the supermost inconceivable energies in great variety.
Our Eternal Relationship
Because the tiny living entity is a part and parcel of the supreme living being, its natural function is to be connected with Him. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that true happiness is found only when the soul revives its eternal, serving relationship with the Lord.
- The spirit soul can be happy only in the association of the supreme living being, the Personality of Godhead, and nowhere else.
- The whole process is that all living entities, being constitutionally parts and parcels of the supreme living being, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, have proportionately minute independence of action also.
- Every living being is controlled by the supreme living being, Paramatma, who resides within everyone's heart. He is the purusa, the purusa-avatara, who creates this material world.
- The Lord who associates with the living being is the Paramatma, or supreme living being. No one, therefore, should view the tiny living beings and supreme living being to be on an equal level.
Conclusion
The impersonalist philosophy that attempts to strip the Absolute Truth of consciousness and personality is fundamentally flawed. Śrīla Prabhupāda clearly establishes that both the minute soul and the Supreme Lord are eternal, conscious individuals. However, Lord Kṛṣṇa is the supreme living being (cetanaś cetanānām), the absolute master who possesses unlimited power and maintains the entire cosmic manifestation. Dead matter cannot organize itself; it requires the touch of the supreme living force. The material disease is simply the minute living entity's foolish attempt to claim equality with God. True spiritual life begins when the conditioned soul recognizes its eternally subordinate position. By abandoning the illusion of independence and utilizing its minute free will to serve the supreme living being, the individual soul returns to its natural, joyful state in the eternal association of the Personality of Godhead.
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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 Supreme Living Being. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.