God Is The Ultimate - The Highest Realization of the Absolute
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that spiritual progress is a journey with a specific, final destination. While different paths and preliminary realizations offer partial understandings of the Absolute Truth, the Vedic literatures conclusively declare that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate realization, the ultimate doer, and the ultimate beneficiary of everything.
The Ultimate Realization
It is a common misunderstanding that the spiritual path ends in a formless light. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that while the impersonal Brahman is the first realization and the localized Paramātmā is the second, the ultimate stage of spiritual perception is recognizing the Supreme Person.
- Herein it is clearly indicated that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Brahman, is, in the ultimate issue, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore a person is the beginning of all things.
- Paramatma, the Supersoul, is the middle, the second stage in transcendental realization, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate realization of the Absolute Truth.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate issue, and in this verse Lord Siva confirms that ultimately the Absolute Truth is a person. He clearly says: tat tvam brahma param jyotir akasam iva vistrtam.
- As we are all individual living beings and have our individuality, the Supreme Absolute Truth is also, in the ultimate issue, a person, and realization of the Personality of Godhead is realization of all of the transcendental features.
The Ultimate Beneficiary
Because the Lord is the supreme creator and proprietor, He is naturally the owner of the results of all work. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that true peace is found only when we stop trying to enjoy the fruits of our labor and offer them to the ultimate beneficiary.
- The sages, knowing Me 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.
- The Supreme Lord is the seer of all worlds, both material and transcendental. In other words, the Supreme Lord is the ultimate beneficiary and enjoyer of all worlds.
- Let this temporary body be burnt to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now, O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You.
- By karma-kanda, sacrificial activity, one comes to the conclusion of jnana-kanda, speculative knowledge, and that after speculation one comes to the conclusion that worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate.
The Ultimate Doer and Cause
Material nature operates so perfectly that atheists mistake it for an independent force. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that while the Lord acts through His material energy and remains aloof from mundane reactions, He is always the ultimate doer and director.
- Because both the material and antimaterial energies are emanations of the Supreme Transcendence, the Personality of Godhead, it is proper to conclude that I am the ultimate cause of all creations and annihilations.
- My Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You because You are the director of the unmanifested total energy, and the ultimate reservoir of the material nature.
- Knowing the ultimate doer, one should not pose himself as ignorant of the actual performer. To answer this doubt, the reply is that the Lord is also not directly responsible, for everything is done by His deputed maya-sakti, or material energy.
- Although the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate doer of everything, in His original transcendental existence He is not responsible for the happiness and distress, or bondage and liberation, of the conditioned souls.
The Ultimate Shelter
When the living entity gives up the false attempt to master the material world, they naturally seek refuge. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that the Supreme Lord is the final resting place for the devotees, while appearing entirely differently to the nondevotees.
- O Lord, You are worshiped by all demigods like Brahma, the four Sanas and even the King of heaven. You are the ultimate rest for those who are really aspiring to achieve the highest benefit of life.
- Actually, I also am eternally subordinate to the Supreme Lord. He is my ultimate shelter.
- When Nrsimhadeva appeared, Prahlada Maharaja saw the Lord as the supreme solace, whereas his father, a demon, saw Him as the ultimate death.
- You are eternally the director of the conditioned souls. It is because You are the original cause of everything that everything appears real. The ultimate reality is Your Lordship, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.
Conclusion
Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that all religious paths and philosophical inquiries must eventually reach the same peak. To stop at the realization of the impersonal Brahman or the localized Paramātmā is to miss the complete picture. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate truth, the ultimate doer, and the ultimate reservoir of all energies. Because He is the supreme enjoyer, He is naturally the ultimate beneficiary of all our actions and sacrifices. When a living entity sheds their false ego and accepts the Lord as their ultimate shelter, they are immediately freed from all anxieties. For the atheistic demons, the Lord appears as ultimate death, but for pure devotees, He is the ultimate solace and the highest realization of an eternal, blissful life.
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