[Guruvayur/Guruvayoor] God, Demigods and Incarnations

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Hari OM !

 

There is only GOD, Ishavasya Upanishad says:

 

Isavasyam midakam sarvam

Yat kinjit jagatyam jagat.

 

There is not even one GOD there is ONLY GOD!

 

Whatever name we call it it is fine for HIM!

 

Human mind loves varities so different names.

 

Hare Guruvayurappa!

 

With Love & OM!

 

Krishna Prasad

 

 

On 9/10/06, vinita manikantan <vinitamanikantan wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am interested to know why Hinduism has more than1,000 gods. I have been given the answer thatdifferent people pray to god in different forms, oneas Shiva, another as Vishnu, but this is notconvincing. What you say is correct. Such arguments are not at allconvincing. The very minimal definition of God mustinclude " supreme " . In sanskrit God is described as " asamaurdhva " which means " none equal and none above " .

There can never be the existence of two supremes, asthey would mutually contradict each other's supremacy.To understand the actual position of the AbsoluteTruth we must take guidance from the divine words of

the shastras. In the ancient text known as BrahmaSamhita we find the following definition of God:ishvarah paramah krishnahsac-cid-ananda vigrahahanadir adir govindasarva karana-karanam " The Supreme Controller is Krishna. He possesses a

spiritual body composed of eternality, knowledge andbliss. He has no beginning, yet He is the first. He isthe cause of all causes. " The first line, ishvarah paramah krishnah, establishwho is the ultimate controller. At present do not be

stuck on the name Krishna, as it will only divert yourmind from the answer. First understand the system ofcontrol, and then everything will become clear. TheVedic texts describe 330 million devatas, or universal

controllers, but we should not confuse these beingswith God. God is beyond the purview of the materialuniverse. The devatas are controllers of variousaspects of nature within the material realm. Forexample, the scriptures describe a personality named

Agni who is in charge of the element of fire.Likewise, there is the description of the personalitynamed Indra who controls the rain. And finally thereis the greatest personality Siva (Maha-deva) who is in

charge of material destruction. All of thesecontrollers (ishvaras) belong to God's natural systemof material administration. Within the material realmGod has arranged a hierarchy of control for automaticadministration of nature. Each of these personalities

(numbering 330 million) can be called a controller(ishvara) as they are each in charge of a particularaspect of nature. They are actually secondarycontrollers. It is exactly like a government that hasmany levels of control, such as Prime Minister

(national controller), Chief Minister (statecontroller) and District Magistrate (districtcontroller). To an uneducated person, the DistrictMagistrate is supreme. If one gets his blessings, anygovernmental work one needs to get done will be

accomplished. But he is only supreme within hisdistrict. Above him there is a higher controller, whocontrols the entire state. If one surrenders to thestate controller and receives his blessings, one need

not fear the district controller. Thus one may thinkthe Chief Minister of a state is actually supreme. Butabove him is the Prime Minister, who controls theentire country. According to one's level of knowledge,

one will identify a particular level of supremacy. Butfactually there is only one supreme authority situatedabove all others. Thus this verse begins with thewords ishvarah paramah krishnah - " The supreme

controller among all controllers is Sri Krishna. " Thisis confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita as follows:mattah paratamam nanyatkincid asti dhananjayamayi sarvam idam protamsutre mani-gana iva

" There is no truth superior to Me. Everything restsupon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread. " na me viduh sura-ganahprabhavam na maharshayahaham adir hi devanammaharshinam ca sarvasah

" Neither the hosts of devatas nor the great sages knowMy origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I amthe source of the devatas and the great sages. " We must understand when we use the word Krishna, it

refers not only to the personality present beforeArjuna, but to the entire category of God known asVishnu-tattva. God, being absolute, has unlimitednames, the chief most of which is Krishna. The nameKrishna means " One who attracts everyone. " This is the

supreme quality of God. Similarly the name Rama means " the supreme enjoyer " , and the name Vishnu means " Onewho has entered everywhere. " As the Paramatma, God ispresent within every atom, within the heart of all

living entities, and between. This category ofVishnu-tattva includes all of the incarnations ofNarayana, the various Vishnu expansions (Maha Vishnu,Garbhodakashayi Vishnu, and Kshirodakashayi Vishnu),and the Lords eternal forms in the spiritual realm.

These various Vishnu forms are one and the samesupreme personality.The second line of this verse, sac-cid-anandavigrahah, further defines what differentiates Krishnafrom the other devatas. Krishna has a spiritual body

composed of sat (eternality), cit (completeknowledge), and ananda (spiritual bliss). Within thismaterial world everyone takes birth according to one'skarma. When we take birth within matter, we areconditioned and bound within a body composed of

material elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether,mind, intelligence, and false identification). Bycombination of these elements we have a body of skin,blood, bones, vital organs, etc. Our true identity is

as a spirit soul, completely independent from thematerial body. The nature of this body is actuallyopposite from the qualities of the soul. The soul'snature is sat (eternality), cit (complete knowledge)

and ananda (bliss), but the qualities of the materialbody are asat (temporary), acit (full of ignorance),and nirananda (full of suffering). Krishna, or God,possesses a spiritual body, beyond material influence.

He is neither born, nor does He die. There is noseparate body and self for Krishna, as He is notconditioned by the material coverings. This is whatseparates Krishna from the 330 million devatas withinthis material world. The devatas, though very powerful

entities, are ultimately embodied beings just as weare. The various devatas are actually posts ofcontrol, and not individual eternal entities.According to one's karma, one is situated within theuniverse either in higher or lower planetary realms.

Those who are highly qualified with goodness (sattvaguna) take birth in the higher realms of existence asdevatas. They attain a post as controller within thematerial realm. But that post, being within the

purview of the material energy, must ultimately cometo an end. Just as we are an eternal spirit soul,covered by a human body due to illusion, in a similarway, even Indra, Ganesha and Brahma are eternal spirit

souls covered by a devata body due to illusion. Theonly difference is the quality of illusion that isconditioning us. We are conditioned more by the lowergunas of rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance) whereas

they are conditioned by the higher quality of sattvaguna (goodness). Everyone within this material world(including the devatas), up to the topmost planet ofBrahma Loka must ultimately face death. In the Gita

this is described as follows:a-brahma-bhuvanal lokahpunar avartino 'rjunamam upetya tu kaunteyapunar janma na vidyate " From the highest planet in the material world, BrahmaLoka, down to the lowest, all are places of misery

wherein repeated birth and death take place. But onewho attains My abode never takes birth again. " This is the definition of God. He must be situatedbeyond time. The higher controlling devatas (Agni,

Ganesha, Subrahmanya, etc.) have a life span of onekalpa (4,320,000,000 years). Brahma, the topmostmaterial entity, has a life span equal to the life ofthe universe. When the universe is destroyed by Lord

Shiva, even Brahma must face death and his karma, asall living entities do. Despite their tremendouslylong lives, still, having taken birth, they must alsoface death. Lord Krishna is " ajah " or unborn: ajo 'pi

sann avyayatma. Whereas the devatas possess materialbodies composed of subtle elements, Krishna's body iscompletely spiritual and not different from His self.Thus He is situated beyond birth and death. Lord

Krishna's body is eternality (sat), knowledge (cit)and bliss (ananda).The final two lines of this verse further describe thequalities of God:anadir adir govindasarva karana-karanamHe is anadih, without beginning. Krishna is situated

beyond the limitations of time and space. Yet he isalso adih, the source of everything. In theVedanta-sutras, the absolute truth, Brahman, isdefined as janmadyasya yathah - " From whom everythingemanates. " In the Gita Krishna also confirms this as

follows:aham sarvasya prabhavomattah sarvam pravartateiti matva bhajante mambudha bhava-samanvitah " I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds.Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly

know this engage in My devotional service and worshipMe with all their hearts. " Thus Krishna is the cause of all causes, sarvakarana-karanam. Within a government each level ofadministration is providing facilities to the

citizens, but ultimately all of the facilities arecoming from the central government. The stateadministrator may be providing roads and otherfacilities, but the funds have been allocated from thecentral government. The ultimate cause is the central

government, and the immediate cause is the stategovernment. Lord Krishna is the ultimate cause of allcauses, and the devatas are the immediate causes. Thisis described in more detail in the Narayana Upanishad.

Those who have a very limited vision think theimmediate cause to be supreme, and thus they create acult of devotion around a particular deity andproclaim them to be the supreme absolute truth.Krishna describes such people in the Bhagavad Gita as

follows:antavat tu phalam tesamtad bhavaty alpa-medhasamdevan deva-yajo yantimad-bhakta yanti mam api " Men of small intelligence worship the devatas, fortheir fruits are limited and temporary. Those who

worship the devatas go to the planets of the devatas,but My devotees ultimately reach My supreme abode. " Why these people are described as alpa-medhasam (ofsmall intelligence) is because the fruits they attain

are temporary. The devatas whom they are worshipingare themselves temporary, what to speak of theirbenedictions and blessings.Why they take to this worship is also explained byLord Krishna:

kamais tais tair hrita-jnanahprapadyante 'nya-devatah " Because their intelligence has been stolen bymaterial desires they surrender unto various devatas. " One can test this statement of Lord Krishna's. Go to a

temple, any temple, and ask the visitors why they havecome to worship. You will receive an assortment ofanswers, but they will all revolve around oneprinciple - expectation. Someone wants a seat in acollege, someone has taken an IAS exam, someone wants

a nice wife, someone wants money, someone else wantshis difficulties removed. Everyone is approaching " God " simply to gratify their senses. We are sofoolish that we offer 5 paisa worth of incense to

Ganesha and expect him to make us win the lottery!Such blind ritual benefits no one. We are enjoying andsuffering according to our karma built up over manylives, yet we believe by offering a stick of incense,

all of the reactions we have built up will simply bebrushed aside and we will be given a special areawithin the material nature for unlimited enjoyment.The fact is Ganesha has no interest whether we become

an IAS officer or not. And the " devotees " actually donot believe there is a personality named Ganesha. Theywill say it is only an image imagined to focus ourconcentration. Then why ask it for blessings? Will an

imagined entity who does not factually exist be ableto help us?The truth is these personalities are as real as youand I. Ganesha is living in his abode of Kailasha justas I am living in this ashram in Mysore. The Vedas

describe 64 dimensional planes of existence, of whichwe can experience only three. On the higher realms ofexistence, higher entities live, less limited by thematter - but still limited. The scriptures describe

400,000 species of human life, both higher and lowerthan our own. Species such as the vanara, gandharva,apsara, kimpurusha, kinnara, yaksha, rakshasa, etc.,up to the topmost material species of Brahma - whose

species contains only one entity.On the higher planes of existence these entities live.Sometimes species from the fourth or fifth dimensionwill interact with our third dimension. Thus all ofthe cultures of the world have stories of unknown

beings such as ghosts, goblins, and alien life. Theseare nothing more than yakshas, pishachas, bhutas, andeven lower entities. Just as they exist, so too do thehigher devatas. But such powerful exalted

personalities have little interest to interact withthe degraded people of this age.Through meditation one can perceive these higherentities - the gandharvas, apsaras, yakshas, anddevatas. By purifying our consciousness we can enter

these higher dimensional planes through oursukshma-sarira (subtle body composed of mind,intelligence, and identification) and see these beingsface to face, just as I can see you if you arestanding before me. Ultimately such experiences serve

no spiritual purpose. We have simply raised ourconsciousness to a higher material plane. Krishna saysin the Bhagavad Gita: yanti deva-vratan deva. " Thosewho worship the devatas attain to the abode of their

object of worship. " This worship is not the commonworship we see in temples, where a person simplytells, " Give me this, give me that. " Deva-vrata mustbe with full surrender to the particular devata. If

one surrenders unto Lord Shiva or Ganesha, one willattain to the abode of Kailasha in the next life. Inthat abode the enjoyment and opulences are thousandsof times greater than on this earthly plane. But from

there one will again return to this earthly planet bythe destructive influence of eternal time. Thus onewould have simply succeeded in wasting his valuabletime, while neglecting the actual goal of human life -

self realization.True religion or spirituality must be selfless andwithout material motive. We must actually dedicateourself to God, and not to external rituals. In theGita Krishna says:manushyanam sahasreshu kascid yatati siddhaye

" Out of many thousands of men, hardly one willendeavour for perfection. " We must become like Arjuna, who became the topmostyogi and bhakta while fighting a war on thebattlefield of Kurukshetra. How can one engaged in

killing his enemies be absorbed in complete meditationon God? If such a feat is possible, then it iscertainly possible for us to elevate ourselves whileworking within this world. Only we must cultivate the

spiritual knowledge of Bhagavad Gita and be fixed inthe understanding of the tattvas.Just as you have brought forth this question about thedevatas, your mind should be trained to think andchurn forth thousands of questions about reality.

Through internal meditation and self study theParamatma will reveal answers within your heart andyou will advance on the spiritual path.

-- dotcompals:

www.dotcompals.in .Org domain Names for just 2.5 USDKrishna PrasadDare to give up the comfort of the 'known' and venture into the 'unknown' The more we know, the more we will come to realize what we do not know.

If we want to achieve our true potential and live life to the fullest. As Poojya Gurudev said it, "Open your eyes. Burst your shell. Spread your wings and fly!"Swami ChinmayanandaHate not the sinner - hate the sin; and always hate the sin even with an excess of hatred. "