God Is Transcendental - Beyond the Material Modes of Nature
Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly emphasizes that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternally transcendental. While conditioned souls are forced to accept material bodies made of earth, water, fire, and air, the Lord’s existence is purely spiritual. Because His body, mind, and activities are situated in śuddha-sattva (pure goodness), He is never contaminated by the material world, even when He descends to display His pastimes.
The Uncontaminated Supreme
Ordinary living entities acquire material bodies when they enter this world, which leads less intelligent men to assume the Supreme Lord does the same. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Lord's appearance is entirely different; He descends in His original, spiritual form and remains completely untouched by material qualities.
- Because He (God) is a person, He has many personal qualities, although He is transcendental to the material modes. We have already discussed the statement, ittham-bhuta-guno harih - Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.10.
- All the incarnations of the Lord mentioned above are transcendental and there is not a tinge of materialism in their bodies.
- Janma karma ca me divyam: (Bhagavad-gita 4.9) the activities and the appearance and disappearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are transcendental; they are not to be considered material.
- The Supreme Lord, being always transcendental to the material qualities (sattva-guna, rajo-guna and tamo-guna), is never affected by the influence of these qualities. This same characteristic is also present in the living being.
Beyond Mental Speculation
Modern scholars often try to understand the Absolute Truth through their own intellect, logic, and scientific instruments. Śrīla Prabhupāda warns that the transcendental Personality of Godhead is completely outside the scope of such mundane, ascending endeavors and can only be understood through devotion.
- With our present materialized senses we cannot perceive anything of the transcendental Lord. Our present senses are to be rectified by the process of devotional service, and then the Lord Himself becomes revealed to us.
- Material senses cannot approach the transcendental understanding of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He can be appreciated only by submissive devotional service when He reveals Himself before the devotee.
- Even the personal associates of the Lord do not know Him perfectly well, so what do the thesis writers or mental speculators know about the transcendental glories of the Lord.
- The form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is described to be transcendental, very subtle, eternal, all-pervading, inconceivable and therefore nonmanifested to the material senses of a conditioned living creature.
Spiritual Variegatedness
A common misconception is that if God is transcendental to the material world, He must be formless and devoid of variety. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that the transcendental realm is full of unlimited spiritual variegatedness, completely distinct from material illusion.
- The Personality of Godhead exists before the creation, and He exists with all transcendental variegatedness in the Vaikunthalokas.
- One should not consider the Supreme Lord an ordinary human being. Material names and forms are contaminated, but spiritual name and spiritual form are transcendental.
- The beauty of material nature is due to His (God's) personal beauty, yet He is always magnificently dressed and ornamented to prove His transcendental variegatedness, which is so important in the advancement of spiritual knowledge.
- The varieties of the transcendental Lord - His body, His form, His dress, His instruction, His words - are not manufactured by the material energy, but are all confirmed in the Vedic literature.
The Transcendental Controller
Although the Lord creates and directs the entire cosmic manifestation, He is not bound by it. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that because God is the ultimate creator of all laws, He is perfectly transcendental to the laws of karma and material reaction.
- If the Lord is able to change the reactions of one's past deeds, then certainly He is not Himself bound by any action or reaction of His own deeds. He is perfect and transcendental to all laws.
- He (God) is never the subject of reactions for any of His acts. He is transcendental to all such conceptions of actions and reactions.
- Even though the king sometimes comes in the prison, he is not bound by the laws of the prison house. The king is therefore always transcendental to the laws of the prison house, as the Lord is always transcendental to the laws of the material world.
- He is both the supreme cause and the supreme result, the observer and the witness, in all circumstances. Thus He is transcendental to everything. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead give me protection.
Refuting the Impersonal Misconception
The Māyāvādī philosophers claim that when the Lord takes a form, He assumes a material body. Śrīla Prabhupāda vigorously refutes this, explaining that God’s personality and form are entirely transcendental and never subjected to material conditions.
- We should understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Visnu is not impersonal. He is a transcendental person, and the basic principle of the cosmic manifestation is His energy.
- This impersonality means that He (God) is not a person of this material condition. He is a transcendental personality without a material body.
- The impersonalist, who gives more importance to the transcendental rays of the Lord as brahma-jyotir and who concludes that the Absolute Truth is ultimately impersonal and only manifests a form at a time of necessity, is less intelligent than the personalist.
- More or less, this kind of philosophical speculation (of the monist philosophers) is called Mayavada philosophy. The fact is, however, that the Absolute Truth never has anything to do with material qualities because He is transcendental.
The Purifying Power of Transcendental Topics
Because the Lord is absolute, there is no difference between Him and His names, forms, or activities. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that by hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, a conditioned soul associates directly with God and becomes purified.
- Srimad-Bhagavatam is full of the transcendental topics of the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotees. In the absolute world there is no difference in quality between the Supreme Lord and His pure devotee.
- One can attain to the highest perfection of life simply by attentive hearing of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord from the right sources, as Sri Narada heard them from the pure devotees (bhakti-vedantas) in his previous life.
- A devotee of the Supreme Lord who takes advantage of the beautiful and invigorating downpour of the transcendental descriptions of God found in Vedic literature finds his spiritual consciousness invigorated and refreshed.
- Hearing of the Lord's pastimes is itself transcendental association with the Lord because there is no difference between the Lord and His transcendental pastimes.
Conclusion
The supreme position of the Absolute Truth is established upon the principle of transcendence. Śrīla Prabhupāda repeatedly emphasizes that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternally situated in śuddha-sattva, completely immune to the dualities and limitations of the material world. To approach this transcendental Lord, one must abandon the futile methods of ascending mental speculation, logic, and empiric science. The Māyāvādī philosophy, which reduces the Absolute to a formless void, fails to comprehend the rich spiritual variegatedness of the Lord's eternal names, forms, and pastimes. God is a person, but His personality is entirely free from material contamination. By submissively receiving knowledge through the disciplic succession and engaging in bhakti-yoga, a sincere soul can connect with the supreme Transcendence, overcome the restless mind, and achieve eternal freedom from all material reactions.
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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 Transcendental. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.