Best Definition of God according to Vedas

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In the Vedas, it is said, parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate: “The varieties of energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are differently known." So let’s look at some of those varieties.

First off, God is the personal aspect of The Absolute Truth which encompasses the Supreme controller, the living entities, the spiritual and material universes, time and activity.

He is the original cause of all causes, an undifferentiated entity as there is no distinction between potency and the possessor thereof. He is the absolute substantive principle being the ultimate entity in the form of the support of all existence both natural and supernatural.

By necessity He is the origin, reservoir and possessor to an unlimited degree of all: Beauty. Knowledge. Wealth. Fame. Power. Renunciation.

From the personification of the Absolute Truth are manifest multifarious potencies, too many to list here, but the first group can be broken into three separate categories.

The hlādinī-śakti, or pleasure potency,

The sandhinī-śakti, or existential potency,

The samvit-śakti, or cognitive potency.

In short they are termed sat – cit –ananda. Eternity, knowledge and bliss.

Although Sri Krishna is one without a second, He has His own multiple forms corresponding to the degree and variety of His subjective manifestations. The subjective entity of Sri Krishna undergoes no transformation. His different forms are, therefore, aspects of the one form manifesting Themselves to the different aptitudes of His devotees.

The power of Sri Krishna is evidently transformable by His will. These transformations of power in the cases of the antaranga and tatastha shaktis are eternal processes. In the case of the bahiranga shakti the transformations of power are temporary manifestations. The phenomenal world is the product of the external power of Sri Krishna. The Absolute Realm is the transformation of the internal power. Individual souls are the transformations of the marginal power.

To clarify the differences I will elaborate a little on these three potencies/powers.

Antaranga-shakti

Antaranga is that which pertains to the proper entity of the Absolute Person. It is also called Swarupa-shakti for this reason. The literal meaning of the word antaranga is "that which belongs to the inner body." Shakti is rendered as "power."

Tatastha-shakti

Tatastha means literally that which is on the borderline as between land and water. This intermediate power does not belong to any definable region of the person of Sri Krishna. It manifests itself on the borderline between the inner and the outer body of the absolute and constitutes all the marginal living entities that may or may not be under the control of the Lord’s illusory potency Mahamaya.

Bahiranga-shakti

The power that manifests itself on the outer body is, bahiranga-shakti.

Because there is no distinction of quality between the body and entity of the absolute person - God - the distinctions as between the inner, outer and marginal positions of His body are in terms of the realization of the individual soul. Through the agency of the three modes of nature plus time, the Supreme Lord creates, regulates, maintains and destroys all activity of material nature.

Within the material universe the Supreme Lord is manifest in His different avatars.

(1) the purusa-avatara,

(2) the lila-avatara,

(3) the guna-avatara,

(4) the manvantara-avatara,

(5) the yuga-avatara,

(6) the Saktyavesa-avatara.

He is also present in His unmanifest form as Paramatma who resides within the atoms, and within the heart of all living entities. Leaving aside the entire material creation and the varieties of different manifest energies which modern science is gradually discovering and documenting, we should understand that God appeared personally in this material world in five different features 530 years ago. The Pancatattva manifest in Sridham Mayapur for the edification of those interested. Panch means five and tattva means truth. So the manifestation of Sri Pancatattva was to exhibit the five truths of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In his Anubhasya commentary Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura describes the Panca-tattva as follows:

The supreme energetic, the Personality of Godhead, manifesting in five kinds of pastimes, appears as the Panca-tattva. Actually there is no difference between them because they are situated on the absolute platform, but they manifest different spiritual varieties as a challenge to impersonalists to taste different kinds of spiritual humors (rasas).

From this statement of the Vedas one can understand that there are eternal varieties of rasas, or tastes, in the spiritual world. Sri Gauranga, Sri Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Sri Gadadhara and Srivasa are all on the same platform, but in spiritually distinguishing between them one should understand that:

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the form of a devotee,

Nityananda Prabhu appears in the form of a devotee’s spiritual master,

Advaita Prabhu is the form of a devotee incarnation,

Gadadhara Prabhu is the energy of a devotee,

Srivasa is a pure devotee.

Thus there are spiritual distinctions between them. The bhakta-rupa (Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu), the bhakta-svarupa (Sri Nityananda Prabhu) and the bhakta-avatara (Sri Advaita Prabhu) are described as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, His immediate manifestation and His plenary expansion, and They all belong to the Visnu Tattva category.

Although the spiritual and marginal energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are non-different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead Visnu, they are predominated subjects, whereas Lord Visnu is the predominator. As such, although they are on the same platform, they have appeared differently in order to facilitate tasting of transcendental mellows. Actually, however, there is no possibility of one being different from the other, for the worshiper and the worshipable cannot be separated at any stage. On the absolute platform, one cannot be understood without the other.

Sri Nityananda Prabhu is the immediate expansion of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as His brother. He is the personified spiritual bliss of sac-cid-ananda-vigraha. His body is transcendental and full of ecstasy in devotional service.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is therefore called bhakta-rupa

Sri Nityananda Prabhu is called bhakta-svarupa

Sri Advaita Prabhu, the incarnation of a devotee, is visnu-tattva and belongs to the same category.

There are also different types of bhaktas, or devotees, on the platforms of:

Neutrality. Servitude. Friendship. Parenthood. Conjugal love.

Devotees like Sri Damodara Swarupa, Sri Gadadhara and Sri Ramananda Raya are different energies. This again confirms the Vedic sutra parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate “The varieties of energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are differently known.”

All these bhakta subjects taken together constitute Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is Krsna Himself, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or God for short.

Because this condensed definition of God is largely incomprehensible to the average man or woman it is seldom presented. Instead, “A loving father who created everything and reaches out to individuals through His representative,” is more popular and, in fact, is enough for a person with unshakable faith, a connection with a genuine representative, and sincere determination to abide by the spirit of the representative’s instructions.

Author

Murari Das is supporter of ISKCON and Srila Prabhupada. He is preaching about Krishna consciousness and message of Bhagavad Gita.