JAI SRILA A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRAHUPADA, VAISHNAVAS, ACHARYAS AND SUPREMELORD WITH HIS ENERGIES!
HARI BOL
HARE KRISHNA
JAI NITYANANDA GAURANGA
Sometimes people hide their godlessness by saying that God cannot be described. Scriptures refute it and also Acharyas because Glories of Supreme Lord are unlimited. We can understand only very few glories of Supreme Lord.
Baladeva Vidyabhushana >> Vedanta Shyamantaka >> Jiva nirupanah >>
Excerpt
18 Some persons may believe that the scripture passage beginning with the words ‘tvam vaham asmi bhagavo’ describes a situation where the individual spirit soul and the Supreme are not different. The truth, however, is that the Supreme is the all-pervading supreme master, and the individual spirit souls are always dependent on Him. For his life-breath, for his ability to speak, and for other things also, the individual soul is always dependent on prana (life-breath). This is described in the following discussion of prana (life-breath) in Chandogya Upanisad (5.1.15):
“It is not said ‘the words independently speak’.Nor is it said ‘the eyes independently see’. Nor is it said ‘the ears independently hear’. Nor is it said ‘the mind independently thinks’. It is the prana (life-force) that arranges speech, sight, hearing and thought.”
That the Supreme Lord is present everywhere is described in these words of the Smrti-sastra (Vishnu Purana):
“Whoever comes before You, be he a demigod, is created by you, O Supreme Personality of Godhead.* You are the creator of the universes. You are present everywhere.”
In Bhagavad-gita (11.40) Arjuna tells Lord Krishna:
“O Lord, You are all pervading, and thus You are everything.”*
Thus the scripture passage beginning with the words ‘tvam vaham asmi bhagavo’ means that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is all-pervading, present in the bodies, senses, and all else of even the liberated souls. In this sense the Supreme Personality of Godhead is everything. Any other interpretation of that scripture passage is useless.
19 Here someone may protest: One may accept or not accept an indirect interpretation of the scripture passage beginning with the words ‘tvam vaham asmi bhagavo’. Still, one should ignore all varieties of qualities, qualities that begin with the Supreme’s all-pervasiveness and the individual soul’s minuteness, and instead think only of consciousness. Because they are both consciousness, the Supreme and the Soul are the same.
To this I reply: That is a foolish suggestion. You cannot simply choose to ignore the eternal qualities of the Supreme Lord and the individual souls. Anyway, you cannot say anything about the Supreme, for you think the Supreme is beyond the description of words.
20 Here the protester may say: In the Sruti-sastra (Taittiriya Upanisad 2.4.1) it is said:
“Words cannot describe the Supreme. Nor can the mind understand Him.”
Therefore, the Supreme cannot be described.
To this I reply: Please do not think in that way. This passage means that the Supreme cannot be described completely. Not that He cannot be described at all. In Shrimad Bhagavatam it is said:
“No one can describe the Supreme Lord completely.”
In the Sruti-sastra it is said:
“All the Vedas meditate on the feet of the Supreme Lord.”
In Bhagavad-gita (15.15) Lord Krishna affirms:
“By all the Vedas I am to be known.”*
The idea that the word ‘aprayah’ in Taittiriya Upanisad 2.4.1 means that the Supreme is beyond the descriptive power of words is refuted by all the quotes from the scriptures.
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