aham eväsam evägre

nänyad yat sad-asat param

paçcäd ahaà yad etac ca

yo ’vaçiñyeta so ’smy aham

 

Translation 

Sat means “effect,” asat means “cause,” and param refers to the ultimate truth, which is transcendental to cause and effect. The cause of the creation is called the mahat-tattva, or total material energy, and its effect is the creation itself. But neither cause nor effect existed in the beginning; they emanated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as did the energy of time. This is stated in the Vedanta-sutra (janmady asya yatah). The source of birth of the cosmic manifestation, or mahat-tattva, is the Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed throughout Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad-gita. In the Bhagavad-gita (10.8) the Lord says, aham sarvasya prabhavah: “I am the fountainhead of all emanations.” The material cosmos, being temporary, is sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest, but its energy emanates from the Supreme Absolute Lord. Before the creation there was neither cause nor effect, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead existed with His full opulence and energy.

 

Proof To God’s Existence :

In the arguments of the atheist they present that there can be no GOD because we cannot see him, we cannot hear him, touch him. Why? Such an important part of our direction in our life is the basis of faith beyond our sense perception. So the answer to such an argument, we must tell such people that Are You the spokesman for everyone through out History because you do not see God that means No one has seen God. If person is blind he cannot see, is that means Nobody can see .The fact is You can’t see God

And so many people of the past have seen God & their experiences through out all the great religions throughout history, at all times, the qualities of such people who have seen God, who have known god, who have loved God, realized God, they are all the same.

They are compassionate, gentle, they are loving, they are self-controlled, they are peaceful,They are well wishers of all living beings.

Is it possible that such exalted attributes are only found in those people who believe in God.

Is it possible although religion has manifested itself in so many places, so many times

the symptoms of all such religious realization is all the same, it’s all common.

Is that an accident ?

Or perhaps there is some possibility that there is a GOD.

The definition of god according to Vedanta Sutra is Janmady asya yatah – which means Him from whom everything emanates

And as Srila Prabhupad would say when people challenged him “ Can you prove to me that there is a GOD ?”

Prabhupad would say “Do you have a Father ? Did he have a Father ? Did he have a Father ? Did he have a Father ?Every person we find in this world has a Father. So God is that ultimate father, the supreme father, the father of all fathers, the cause of all causes. So much we hear this verse , sarva karana karanam the cause of all causes.

Isvarah param Krishna

Sat cid ananda vigrah

Anadir adir govindah

Sarva karana karanam

Lord Bramha begins the Bramha samhita that Krishna has an eternal body , full of knowledge & full of bliss & this Govinda is the cause of all causes. & similarly in the Gita Krishna says 7.19

bahünäà janmanäm ante

jïänavän mäà prapadyate

väsudevaù sarvam iti

sa mahätmä su-durlabhaù

That those who have actually attained True knowledge, they understand that they surrender to the Supreme lord Vasudev knowing him to be the cause of all causes.

Janamady asya yatah .. Vedanta sutra states that god is the cause of all causes that is the definition, he is the source of everything. So this is a very very important evidence to establish the supremacy of God, that he is the cause of all causes that everything is emanating from him & to understand this is the beginning of God realization.

 

Knowledge Of God :

To enter in to the divine lilas of god is something very high.It comes through tremendous purification and the awakening of Bhakti. But in the beginning we must have faith in the principle of the Supreme being on the basis of this philosophical statement that he is cause of all causes & everything is emanating from him. & therefore in the Srimad bhagavatam in the first of the nutshell verses Lord Krishna is emphasizing that prior to cosmic manifestation I exists & no phenomenon exists, either gross, subtle or primordial, after creation only I exists & after annihilation only I remain eternally.

So God is the source of everything & the atheist cannot possibly defeat this argument. It is undefeatable. The definition of God is he is the cause of all causes. As we are explaining before That something comes from something OR something comes from nothing.No one has experienced that something comes from nothing. Therefore it is logically inconsistent to all our present experiences to think in this way.

But, of something comes from something is perfectly aligned to our experiences in this world. So ultimately everything is coming from Supreme Nothing or Supreme something. That Supreme something is GOD. janamady asya yathah… that absolute TRUTH is the cause of everything. Therefore everything is God, but at the same time Krishna explains in the Gita Although I am everything, I am in everything, I am outside of everything, I am everything, Still, I remain separate.

 

Within, Without, Still Seperate :

This verse clearly explains the difference in the impersonal school of philosophy & personal school of philosophy. The establish the principle of existence of GOD first we have to establish that he is the cause of all causes, the source of everything & there is nothing outside of GOD. He is within & without everything, that means God is everything & that is TRUE. But then Krishna says at the same although I am within & without everything I remain separate. The example is the Sun. The suns rays are radiating everywhere & everything is within  the sun rays & the sun rays are within everything. But at the same time the Sun remains separate. “Parasher saktir vinirsheya sunyate” this is what the Vaishnavas acaryas have established that the Lord has innumerable energies , variegated energies & through his energies he is manifesting himself as everything existing in both material & spiritual worlds. But he always remain separate in the sense that his personality remains the source of all his energies.

 

Actual Faith :

After all in order to surrender to God we should have a very very strong, deep faith belief that there is a GOD. And so many people who follow religion, they have a very sentimental, superstitious belief system, but they never really, truly in their own minds & hearts face the reality that there is a GOD. Superficially “Yes, Yes, I believe, I believe. Yes I go to the Church, I go to the temple, I go to senigog ”. But that actual belief, that actual understanding, that actual faith is still very weak.

Therefore Srila Prabhupad used to tell us that Religion without Philosophy is simply sentiment or fanaticism & philosophy without religion is mental speculation. There must be harmony between the TWO, in order to develop our devotion and faith to be firmly founded on a strong foundation.

 

First Know God Then Enter his Lilas :

So, here Krishna before describing his beautiful lilas of vrindavan & before even describing most of his pastimes that he has with his devotees in the Bhagavatam such as Dhruva maharaj, Prahalad maharaj, these great souls, he is establishing the philosophical principle of How to understand Him in the beginning. That he is the cause of all causes, that he is the source of everything that nothing exists outside of HIM. Therefore first we have understand the greatness of GOD, before we can enter in to the lila of GOD. Infact in vrindavan there is no awe & reverence. All the relationships of Vrajvasis , Lord Krishna , Sri Radhika rani  are those of intimate friendship, intimate loving servitude, intimate parental affection or conjugal love. The concept that Krishna is the cause of all causes, that he is the Supreme being , that everything is within him & without him does not exists in the minds of the residents of Vrindavan, they are far beyond that.

But in order to come to that state first of all we have  to realize the greatness of GOD. When we understand the greatness of Krishna then we can truly appreciate what he is doing. And that’s the beginning stage of spiritual life & then after complete purification & detachment from this material world, the divine love awakens, then we forget all the greatness of GOD & then we simply enter into this intimate loving affairs.

 

And therefore it is very important, that is why in the bhagavatam Krsna is beginning in the verse in second canto “How great he is?” Once you understand how great he is then you would understand his pastimes, otherwise we take them to be ordinary.

Avajananty mana mudha

Manusim tarun astritam

Param bhavan ajananto

Mama bhutva maheshvaram

Fools deride me when I come into this world they, do not know my supreme position, my supreme domineer over all living being, over all that exists. So we should not artificially just try to shed tears loving Krishna in his divine lila but we should side by side understand the greatness of Krishna, the glory of Krishna, the wonder of Krishna, then we will not take his lilas so cheaply.

 

Translation :

The words paschad aham indicate that the Lord exists after the dissolution of the cosmic manifestation. When the material world is dissolved, the Lord still exists personally in the Vaikuntas. During the creation the Lord also exists as He is in the Vaikuntas, and He also exists as the Supersoul within the material universes. This is confirmed in the Brahma-saàhitä (5.37). Goloka eva nivasati: although He is perfectly and eternally present in Goloka Våndävana in Vaikuntha, He is nevertheless all-pervading (akhilätma-bhütaù). The all-pervading feature of the Lord is called the Supersoul. In the Bhagavad-gétä it is said, ahaà kåtsnasya jagataù prabhavaù: the cosmic manifestation is a display of the energy of the Supreme Lord. The material elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego) display the inferior energy of the Lord, and the living entities are His superior energy. Since the energy of the Lord is not different from Him, in fact everything that exists is Kåñëa in His impersonal feature. Sunshine, sunlight and heat are not different from the sun, and yet simultaneously they are distinct energies of the sun. Similarly, the cosmic manifestation and the living entities are energies of the Lord, and they are considered to be simultaneously one with and different from Him. The Lord therefore says, “I am everything,” because everything is His energy and is therefore nondifferent from Him.

One But Different :

Here is the beauty of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s philosophical treatise of acintya beda abeda tattva, which is the fullest, richest understanding of the conclusion of the siddhanta of the Vedas that everything that exists is simultaneously one & different from the Lord. The inferior energy, material energy, that we are seeing all around us & the superior energy, the jiva atmas or the spirit soul, they are all energies of the Lord & they are one with the Lord. In that it is the expansion of God himself BUT they are different than the Lord, in that Krishna is the complete whole, the living entity is always part & parcel like a sun ray to the sun. That is the difference between the jivatma and Krishna & the material energy also is nothing but Krishna, but at the same time it is different than Krishna.

In the various stages of philosophical development, here in India, we find that Sankar he taught the philosophy of monism, that there is no differentiation, everything is one, brahman is all in all, Bramha satyam jagat mithya … That there is only bramham & everything else is an Illusion. & to see that I am God, you are god ,table is God, everything is GOD, to see anything separate from God is an illusion. Because God is everything & everything is God .

That is true but  it is only partially true & Madhavaacraya he taught the dvaita school of philosophy which was to create balance from the monistic school of Sripad Sankaracarya & He taught that everything is different than God , Dvaita means everything is TWO, Dual .Monism means there is no duality, there is only the ONE.. Dvaita means that everything is Dual, there is always a separation. And Sri Caitanya mahaprabhu , actually according to ther Gaudiya Vaishnavas, they were both simply preparing the road for Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to come with the conclusion of all Philosophy. Sankar taught monism that everything is one, Madhavacarya taught dvaita that everything is separate, dual. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu came acintya beda beda tattva , that everything is simultaneously one & different. That we are…. Not only the jivatma, but everything exists is the energy of the Lord & there is no difference in the Lord & his energy.

The energy is nothing but Krishna, expansion of Krishna. But how wonderfully , inconceivably he expands himself in such a way that he remains the object of affection, the object of Love in all of this creation. Therefore acintya beda beda tattva, Inconceivable means how everything is one with God but at the same time different from God. It is inconceivable to the mind, it cannot be understood. We may superficially says YES YES I understand, how everything is one with God, but at the same time different, because we are the energy & he is the energetic source. It is easy to say that, But do you really comprehend ! what that means!. You cannot , the material brain cannot comprehend this principle truly of being simultaneously one & different than GOD therefore it is called acintya beda beda tattva. It is inconceivable. God is inconceivably one & different from this creation, now what does that mean.

That word inconceivable is so important it means it is only conceivable by the grace of GOD & this is the basic principle of Bhakti. And this is what sri caitanya mahaprabhu has taught , if it was conceivable we could figure out the highest understanding of Vedanta by our own futile brains but bcos it is inconceivable & that is the first word in Caitanaya mahaprabhus philosophy.

It means we can never figure it out, we can never understand, it is only by pleasing Krishna , by pleasing the spiritual master that Krishna reveals the truth, that how you are simultaneously one & different from HIM. It is something that must be revealed by the Lord himself & this concept of acintya beda beda tattva is of so vital importance to understand to all vaishnavas in the gaudiya line.

Because factually there is no philosophical argument that can be presented by any classess of men that cannot be properly dealt with, if we simply understand the principle of acintya beda beda tattva. Because all truths of all philosophies are included within this principle of acintya beda beda tattva & it establishes in a complete manner the most absolute need to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Sarva dharman paritajya man ekam saram vraja

Aham tvam sarva papebhyo moksha eshyami mam suchah

Abandon all varieties of Religion & just surrender to me & I shall protect you from all sinful reactions Do not fear.

It is through this surrender only that the inconceivable makes itself conceivable. There is no other way no other way.

 

Translation :

Yo ’vaçiñyeta so ’smy aham indicates that the Lord is the balance that exists after the dissolution of the creation. The spiritual manifestation never vanishes. It belongs to the internal energy of the Supreme Lord and exists eternally. When the external manifestation is withdrawn, the spiritual activities in Goloka and the rest of the Vaikuëöhas continue, unrestricted by material time, which has no existence in the spiritual world. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gétä (15.6) it is said, yad gatvä na nivartante tad dhäma paramaà mama: “The abode from which no one returns to this material world is the supreme abode of the Lord.”

 

Yogamaya And Mahamaya :

Srila Prabhupada is explaining us the difference between the material energy & spiritual energy. The material energy & spiritual energy are both eternal, the difference is within the material energy all manifestation are temporary but the energy itself is eternal. And the spiritual energy is eternal but all manifestation within it are also eternal.

The difference between Yogamaya & Mahamaya, it is really on a higher level. On the lower level we say that they are TWO energies, But on a higher level we understand that they are one energy that has been manifested in two ways.

Mahamaya or Durga devi is she that conducts all the affairs in the material world, to keep everyone in illusion. And in the spiritual world Yogamaya that same energy, in her representation in spiritual world, is creating illusions to increase the loving affairs between Krishna & his devotees.

Recently we were in one very beautiful place in Vraja Dham between Nandgaon & Barsana known as Sanket. & Sanket is where Sri Sri Radha & Krishna would meet in a very very intimate loving mood. It is described that, that place of Sanket was such a thick forest that the light of the Sun could not go through to touch the ground . It is always very dark, very quiet & very peaceful. And such a holy place that no males were allowed to enter in to that, It is only the confidential gopis , the sakhis , manjaris. And even cowherd boys, cowherd men, even Balramji, they would never feel themselves fit to come into that forest of Sanket. Even the gopis who did not have the most special intimate relationship with Radhika, they would never come into Sanket.

There is one murti there, Sanket devi & she is the predominating goddess of Sanket & if you see the murti she is Durga with eight arms & everything like that, but she is in that manifestation of Yoga maya.Sanket devi she simply Creates an atmosphere where everything is most conducive to sri Radha & Krishna to meet. That was the favorite meeting place of Radha & Krishna. So, it is described that they would have certain signals of where to meet, when to meet & how to meet & of course they met in very secret arrangements. So, Sanket devi who was the controller of the nature of Yogamaya, She would create wonderful phenomenons just to have Radha & Krishna meet one another.

For instance the moon in the sky, she would create a beautiful smiling face on the moon. Eyes looking in a certain direction & Radha & Krishna when they would look at the moon, at night they were not suppose to leave the house, in the night they would see the smiling face would come upon the moon & this was the time to meet & the direction of moon would be facing the spot of meeting, looking they would go there.

Similarly sometimes she would create during the day double or triple rainbows in the Sky, this would be the signal aaahh Radha & Krishna would come together. So, you see the Yogamaya potency is nature, but that presiding deity over nature is simply in Vrindavan wonderful wonderful arrangements for Radha & Krishna to meet, for all the devotees to find great pleasure in Krishna and in his loving service.

Where as the same energy in this material world which is a separated energy in a sense it appears different, it is creating so many illusions just to keep people in the darkness of bondage. We look at the moon & we think Ohhh it appears this way but what actually is it ? That is why cannot take seriously what the scientist discover, for whatever they are seeing is under the spell of maya. When we read Srimad Bhagavatam we find that the description of universe is much different than it is by the scientist. But there everything they see is disguised by the spell of maya. Sukhdeva goswami is explaining Srimad Bhagavatam from completely transcendental point of view. So obviously he is going to see something different. In other words Yogamaya is going to reveal something different than Mahamaya is going to reveal.

So this is the difference between material manifestation & spiritual manifestation, is the yoga maya energy of the spiritual manifestation – everything is simply meant to increase ones remembrance & love for Krishna & the energy of material manifestation is all designed to make us forget Krishna. Yogamaya is trying always in the spiritual world to create an atmosphere where everybody is hankering more & more in the service of Krishna & the Mahamaya Energy is designing everything in such a way that they are trying to serve their own senses in lusty, passionate desires.

So to understand that the various principles of  various energies of the lord is the very very important foundation of our spiritual understanding. Why are we discussing these things because we want  when we come to the divine lila of Caitanya mahaprabhu we want to have very firm solid foundation of faith in the supremacy of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Krishna das kaviraj goswami is not beginning by telling the pastimes of the Lord, he ie beginning by establishing the position of Lord Sri Caitanya mahaprabhu as the absolute truth, as the cause of all causes, as the Supreme being. After thoroughly digesting this transcendental material, then when we hear the pastimes of the Lord Sri Caitanya mahaprabhu then with great awe & reverence & appreciation we would be able to approach the highest subject matter for the purification of our hearts.

Is there any questions?

Question: What is the difference between vishita adaviata & ….?

Maharaj: That we will discuss at other time a long subject matter, the 4 philosophies  of the acaryas. Is there any other questions ?

 

Question: Is Buddhism a mayavadi philosophies ?

Maharaj: Yes, Buddhism is nirvises sunyavad. One is voidist & one is impersonalist. what is the difference really ? There is a subtle difference. Voidist is no mention of God. Ultimately to become free from thoughts, free from personalities, Niravana means the state of utter voidness. What Sankaracarya has done, that he has define the same thing but called it God, brahman. Essentially, therefore it is a veiled form of Buddhism.

Buddhism is atheistic, where as Sankaracarya took a atheistic principle & put it as theistic.

Written by

Radhanath Swami

H.H Radhanath Swami is one of today’s most beloved and respected spiritual teachers. A Bhakti Yoga practitioner for 40 years, he is a guide, community builder, philanthropist, and acclaimed author.Born and raised in Chicago,at the age of 19 he discovered India's Mystical devotional tradition and now spread his message of compassion and love around the world.

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About Me

Radhanath Swami

H.H Radhanath Swami is one of today’s most beloved and respected spiritual teachers. A Bhakti Yoga practitioner for 40 years, he is a guide, community builder, philanthropist, and acclaimed author.Born and raised in Chicago,at the age of 19 he discovered India's Mystical devotional tradition and now spread his message of compassion and love around the world.