The term 'Godhead'

[Guest guest]

> Kindly define word 'Godhead' as used by you. Does it occur in your

> scriptures? Please quote related vedic text if there is any.

>

> Abdul Sattar Daudpota

 

Dear Mr Daudpota, Hare Krishna

 

thank you for your letter.

 

The word "Godhead" is one of the typical words used by ISKCON's founder-acarya

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in his books, translations and

commentaries of Vedic scriptures. He used it in a collocation of his own

making, the "Supreme Personality of Godhead", i.e. "God, the Supreme Person".

The Sanskrit word for "Supreme Person" is "Purushottama", one of the names of

Vishnu. He used to give very simple proof of God's existence: there are many

persons of various stature and the supreme one is called God.

 

Srila Prabhupada in his lecture on Bhagavad-gita 3.21-25 on May 30, 1965 in

New York, says: "Supreme Personality of Godhead means He is full with

opulence, all opulence." The same he also says in his commentary on Srimad

Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) 1.11.31. "Opulence" is his translation of the

Sanskrit word "bhaga". And the possesor of opulences, or bhagas (there are six

traditionally listed) is called Bhagavan, another name of Vishnu.

 

>From your name and domain I guess you are Muslim. And Muslims usually do have

problems with personhood of God. Yet it doesn't have to be so. Airavata Das,

member of ISKCON with Muslim background, wrote an elaborate study showing the

personhood of Allah using the Qur'an. In Chapter 8 he quotes the Qur'an 47.38:

Wallahul Ganiyu: "Allah is Rich." This is Bhagavan. And in Chapter 12 he

quotes the Qur'an 57.3: Huwa az-zahir wa huwa al-batin: "He is the Outward and

He is the Inward." This means Allah is omnipresent, all-pervading. The word

"Vishnu" means exactly that. I know it is hard to imagine how a person can be

all-pervading but this is described in detail in Vaishnava philosophy. God has

both personal and impersonal aspect.

 

There are so many verses with names of Purusottama, Bhagavan or Vishnu that I

don't know where to start with listing them. You may try yourself by checking

for example Bhagavad-gita, online at www.iskcon.org/sastra.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Yours, Jan

 

http://www.tattva.com (BBT Sweden)

http://www.iskcon.org