God Wants - The Supreme Desires of the Absolute Truth
It is a common philosophical assumption that desire only arises from a sense of lack or incompleteness. Therefore, many conclude that a perfect God must be entirely devoid of desires. However, Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals a much deeper, more dynamic understanding of the Absolute Truth. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is ātmārāma (fully self-satisfied), yet He still possesses unlimited desires. Because we are His tiny fragments, our instincts to love, to protect, to fight, and to build relationships are simply miniature reflections of what God wants to do on an absolute, spiritual platform.
The Desire to Reclaim Souls
The Lord's primary motivation for interacting with the material world is sheer compassion. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphatically states that God does not want to see His children suffer the miseries of birth, old age, disease, and death. He wants us back.
- The Lord does not want the living entity to become entangled in the reactions of activities, be they good or bad. He simply wants everyone to go back home, back to Godhead.
- For this business, sometimes God personally comes; sometimes He sends His representative, His son, or His devotee, His servant. This is going on. God wants that these forgotten souls should come back to home, back to Godhead.
- I am prepared to convince you in every respect that there is our Eternal Father and He wants you and all of us to go back to our permanent home.
- The Lord does not want His sons, the living beings, to suffer the threefold miseries of life. He desires that all of them come to Him and live with Him, but going back to Godhead means that one must purify himself from material infections.
The Infallibility of His Will
When the Supreme Lord forms a desire, there is no force in existence that can impede it. Śrīla Prabhupāda often reminds us that while our own desires are constantly frustrated by the laws of nature, whatever God wants is executed perfectly and immediately.
- If Krsna wants to kill someone no one can save him, and if Krsna wants to save someone no one can kill him.
- We may think to do something, but there are so many impediments, and sometimes it is not possible to do as we like. But when Krsna wants to do something, simply by His willing, everything is performed so perfectly.
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead does not need to do anything personally, for He has such potencies that anything He wants done will be done perfectly well through the control of material nature.
- Maya does not wait the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. She can understand what the Lord wants. Simply little indication, she can kill hundreds and thousands of demons in one stroke.
Glorifying the Pure Devotee
One of the most beautiful aspects of the Lord's character is His complete lack of false ego. Although He is the supreme doer, Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that the Lord specifically arranges situations so that His surrendered devotees get the credit for great victories.
- Everything is done by Krsna, and Arjuna is the devotee. As the devotee wants to serve Krsna, similarly, Krsna also wants to give credit to His devotee. That is the business between the Lord and His devotee.
- The Lord is so satisfied with His pure devotees that He wants to give them the credit for missionary success, although He could do the work personally. This is the sign of His satisfaction with His pure, niskama devotees, compared to the sakama devotees.
- The Lord actually wants to see His servants work more gloriously than Himself. For instance, on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra, Sri Krsna provoked Arjuna to fight because all the warriors on the battlefield were to die by Krsna's plan.
- Just as a devotee wants to satisfy the Lord in all respects, the Lord even more wants to satisfy the devotee. Such are the exchanges of loving affairs.
The Transcendental Desire to Fight
The fighting spirit—the drive for chivalrous combat—originates in the Absolute Truth. Because no ordinary living entity can withstand a fight with God, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Lord asks His most intimate associates to play the role of demons just to satisfy this desire.
- The Lord sometimes desires to fight. The fighting spirit also exists in the Supreme Lord, otherwise how could fighting be manifested at all.
- He wanted to exhibit such fighting spirit, so who will fight with Him? Ordinary living being cannot fight with the Supreme Lord. Therefore some of His devotees, some of His associates, must fight with Him.
- The demons who fight with the Lord in the material world are sometimes His associates. When there is a scarcity of demons and the Lord wants to fight, He instigates some of His associates of Vaikuntha to come and play as demons.
- In a sporting attitude, Krsna wanted to engage in a mock fight with His devotee. As we have experienced from the pages of Srimad-Bhagavatam, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has all the propensities and instincts of a human being.
Expanding for Romantic Love
The pinnacle of the Lord's desires is the exchange of transcendental romance. Śrīla Prabhupāda elegantly explains that the male instinct to be captivated by a beautiful female is a spiritual reality. To fulfill this, the Lord expands His own internal pleasure potency.
- As a common male wants to be attracted by a female, that propensity similarly exists in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He also wants to be attracted by the beautiful features of a woman.
- When the Supreme Lord wants to derive transcendental pleasure, He has to create a woman from His internal potency.
- When He wants to be attracted by a woman, He has to create such a woman from His own energy. That woman is Radharani.
- Lord Krsna wanted to exhibit Himself as being like an ordinary householder who delights himself by exchanging joking words with his wife. He therefore repeatedly requested Rukmini not to take those words very seriously.
Executing the Lord's Mission
The ultimate goal of bhakti-yoga is to seamlessly align our tiny, fractured desires with the supreme desires of the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda stresses that a true devotee, and especially a spiritual master, has no separate agenda; their only business is figuring out what God wants and doing it.
- Devotional service means every living entity has a specific duty towards God. God wants everyone to do a particular duty for Him, that is service. Just like God instructed Arjuna to fight, so to fight was Arjuna's duty.
- If you want to be servant of God, you must take instruction from God. That is wanted. You cannot manufacture idea that "God wants this." So first of all try to understand what is God's mission.
- One cannot become a guru if he does not know what the Personality of Godhead Krsna or His incarnation wants. The mission of the guru is the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead: to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world.
- Instead of satisfying one's own personal material senses, he has to satisfy the senses of the Lord. That is the highest perfection of life. The Lord wants this, and He demands it. One has to understand this central point of Bhagavad-gita.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category God Wants. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.