God is the cause of all causes

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Mayavadis, or impersonalists, cannot glorify the name, form, and pastimes of

the Lord because they think that God has no form and that His pastimes are

maya, illusory. Why should God not have a form? We have a form because our

father has a form. So why should the supreme father not have a form? In the

Bhagavad-gita (14.4) Krsna says, aham bija-pradah pita: "I am the

seed-giving father of all beings." The Christians also believe that God is

the supreme father. If the sons all have forms, how is it that the father

has no form? We cannot be born of a father who is formless. Isvarah paramah

krsnah sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah: "Krsna is the supreme controller and the

cause of all causes, and He possesses an eternal form of knowledge and

bliss." (Brahma-samhita 5.1) Vigraha means "form." If God is the cause of

all causes, the creator, and He is creating all these forms, how can He be

formless?

 

God has a form, but it is not a form like ours. His form is

sac-cid-ananda, but ours is just the opposite. God's form is sat, eternally

existing, while man's form is asat, temporary. God's form is cit, full of

knowledge, but ours is acit, full of ignorance. And His form is full of

ananda, bliss, but ours is full of nirananda, misery. It is only because we

cannot conceive of a form so different from ours that sometimes it is said

God is nirakara, without form.

 

God's form is transcendental. That means His body is not material but

spiritual. His form is of a different nature than that to which we are

accustomed. In the Vedas it is said that God sees but that He has no eyes.

This means that God's eyes are unlike ours--they are spiritual, not

material. We can see only so far, whereas God can see everything because He

has eyes everywhere. His eyes, His form, His hands and legs are of a

different nature than ours.

 

- A Second Chance by Srila Prabhupada

 

 

rgds,

yathiraja.K