Inquiries into the Absolute: Digest 43

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Digest 43, Oct 30, 2002

 

Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

 

Forms of God

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Q.1) In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna claims Himself to be the only supreme Lord. But

in Siva Gita (which is in Padmapurana) Siva claims that He is the only supreme

Lord. Various puranas praise various Lords to be the supreme absolute truth.

This is very much confusing and this suggests the possibility of scriptures

being man made. It is obvious that Bhagavad Gita or Srimad Bhagavatam are not

special since Siva Gita and other puranas can sufficiently counter the claims

made by the above said scriptures. So how to know who the Almighty is?

 

 

 

Answer:

Different puranas and literatures are meant for those under different modes of

nature - goodness, passion or ignorance. Each emphasizes different objects of

worship according to the particular modes. According to the mode one is

situated in, one's faith varies (Ch 17, Bhagavad-gita). For example, someone

influenced by mode of ignorance may resort to witch-craft or violence or some

such unclean/harmful practices to attain their desires; someone in mode of

passion may rely on their own capabilities or the favor of someone influential,

but one situated in goodness may believe in righteous performance of duties and

performing sacrifices to God as the means to good fortune. The Vedic

literatures are meant to cater to all these classes of people, by strengthening

the kinds of faith they are already inclined to in such a way that gradually

they can be elevated to the mode of goodness and beyond. Because there are

literatures for different kinds of people, obviously such literatures!

glorify different objects and highlight different practices as the supreme

goal and means. Thus some fearsome practices of worshiping Goddess Kali may be

repulsive to one in the mode of goodness, but that is what a person in

ignorance can strongly place faith in.

 

Alternative to the hypothesis of scriptures being man-made, (the differences

being due to different authors' personal opinions), such differences may also

suggest the work of a higher intelligence to encompass and provide for the

spiritual upliftment of entire humanity regardless of the wide spectrum of

their modes of nature, their corresponding faith, and their level of spiritual

evolvement. This is the actual fact, because all the myriad Upanishads,

puranas, upapuranas and so on were all compiled by one person --- Srila

Vyasadev --- for the above said purpose.

 

A simple analogy may illustrate this idea: a professor in Math can outline

syllabus for Math instruction for elementary, high school and university Math

courses. Elementary math teaches that a greater number can never be subtracted

from a smaller number, but as one learns the concept of negative numbers in

higher grades, one knows better. Thus although the elementary and high school

math seem contradictory, it is taught by the same person for those with

different capabilities. If we understand that the same authority is behind all

the different instructions, then it is easy to reconcile all contradictions.

 

True, it could be bewildering to sort through these seemingly contradictory

statements and understand the final conclusion, and more often than not people

resign thinking that everything must be relative, or that the Absolute is

something void. Such conclusions are products of mundane logic and hence

fallacious. It is like concluding that all math is wrong. The fact is that in

such contradictory statements, both statements may be true, but one truth is a

higher truth than the other! One fool-proof way to understand the real

conclusion is to understand what the author himself has to say in conclusion.

 

At this point it becomes necessary to understand that Bhagavad-gita and Srimad

Bhagavatam are in fact special evidences even among the other Vedic literature.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam, especially, is called amala purana (or spotless purana)

meaning that it is beyond the three modes of material nature unlike the other

puranas which give instructions within the modes of nature; thus it is

identified as para-dharma. The Bhagavatam is described as the mature fruit of

the Vedic tree, just as of all parts of a fruit-bearing tree, it's ripened

fruit is the most desired. There is indication even within the other puranas

that among all the puranas Srimad Bhagavatam is the emperor, or ultimate

authority. The puranas themselves indicate that any contradictions among them

should be resolved by consulting Srimad Bhagavatam.

 

(The author's intention is not to confuse us, so he himself gives hints and

indications where to look for the final truth. Scriptural evidences of this are

quoted in Jiva Gosvami's Tattva sandarbha.)

 

The Bhagavatam was written by Vyasasdev in his complete maturity. As the

history goes, Vyasadev completed all the Vedic scriptures including the Vedanta

sutras and the puranas etc., and was still feeling despondent when he was

instructed by Narada to compose a literature simply dedicated to the Absolute

Truth without any distraction. (Please refer SB Ch 4-6) It was then that

Vyasadev writes Srimad Bhagavatam, wherein he himself declares that all other

literatures that don't exclusively glorify the Supreme Absolute Truth propound

"a cheating religion" but the Bhagavatam is devoid of all such cheating

mentality and that the only Supreme Truth is Vaasudeva, the son of Devaki. (Cf.

SB 1.1,2)

 

As mentioned before, other puranas do glorify some other Deity as exalted, and

in a sense, it is true. For instance, Devi Bhagavat may glorify Durga as the

creator, maintainer and annihilator of the cosmic manifestation and so on. This

is a fact, these are not to be taken as mere stories to impress faith upon less

intelligent. But as said before all these are relative truths, and thus

dependent upon an Absolute Truth which is Krishna. Durga is the immediate cause

of creation etc, whereas the efficient cause of all causes is Krishna. When

Lord Brahma receives transcendental knowledge after thousands of years of

penance, he offers prayers to the Supreme Lord and there he describes the

entire cosmic situation. He states there that Durga creates, maintains and

annihilates just as instrument to carry out the will of Govinda (Cf. Brahma

Samhita) Similarly, Lord Shiva is in one sense non- different from Krishna; he

is but a transformation of Vishnu, just as yogurt is but a transfor!

mation of milk. His glories cannot be minimized. Within the created region, he

is the `Mahesvara', the controller of all other isvaras, greater than even Lord

Brahma. Thus his supremacy in the material world is established, even within

Vaishnava literatures and the statements such as the one referred to by you are

not false. However, even Lord Shiva is NOT SUPREMELY INDEPENDENT of Krishna.

Sri Krishna alone claims "There is no other Truth beyond Me." (Bg. 7.7) Lord

Shiva is thus himself one of principal acaryas of the four bona fide

sampradayas teaching Krishna bhakti to his followers. Even Sankaracarya (who is

but an incarnation of Lord Shiva with a special mission to preach impersonalism

and bewilder the atheists) concludes that only Narayana is beyond the material

realm: `narayana paro `vyaktat' etc.

 

Finally, I would like to mention that transcendental truth cannot be

established merely by logical arguments and counter-arguments. Vedic authority

is the final evidence, and in order to reconcile different interpretations of

its conclusions, we may use logical inferences that establish the truth.

 

However, as Krishna recommends (Bg 4.34), the only way to conclusively

understand the truth is by receiving guidance from self-realized souls or as

said in Mahabharat, to follow such mahajanas as Prahlada, Bhisma, Brahma,

Shiva, Narada etc. and by the grace of God.

 

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----- Festivals over the next week ------

Nov 01 2002, Friday Ekadasi Rama (Break fast 06:36-10:07) (Fast)

Nov 04 2002, Monday Dipa dana, Dipavali, (Kali Puja)

Nov 05 2002, Tuesday Appearance Sri Rasikananda

Govardhana Puja, Go Puja, Go Krda

Bali Daityaraja Puja

(Worship of Govardhana Hill)

Nov 06 2002, Wednesday Disappearance Sri Vasudeva Ghosh

Nov 07 2002, Thursday Disappearance Srila Prabhupada (Fast)

(Fasting till noon)

 

*** NOTE: All times are for Washington D.C, USA, EST ***

For festival information for your city please go to http://www.iskcondc.org and

click on 'Calendar'

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