View source for Prabhupada? How do we explain to impersonalists inductively the existence of the Personality of Godhead?

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[[Category:How Does]]
[[Category:We (Disciples of SP)]]
[[Category:Explain]]
[[Category:Impersonalist]]
[[Category:Inductive]]
[[Category:Existence]]
[[Category:Supreme Personality of Godhead]]
[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="General_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="11" parent="Lectures" text="General Lectures"><h3>General Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureSeattleOctober71968_0" class="quote" parent="General_Lectures" book="Lec" index="22" link="Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968" link_text="Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968">
<div class="heading">It is poor fund of knowledge only that these conclude that the ultimate Absolute Truth is impersonal. No. Because Vedānta says, Vedānta-sūtra says, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). The Supreme Absolute Truth, or Brahman, is that from whom everything generates, everything is born. Now, everything is born. Then you have got personality, I have got my personality, everyone has got personality. How you can think of Him that He is not person? We have got experience that a father is person, therefore his son is also person. So if we are born of the supreme father, then if we are person, how He can be imperson? It is simple reason.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968|Lecture -- Seattle, October 7, 1968]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Jaya-gopāla: Prabhupāda? How do we explain to impersonalists inductively the existence of the Personality of Godhead?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: This example I have given you several times. Just like you try to understand the sun. This is daily affair. Now when you try to understand what is this sun, you first of all come to the sunshine light. If you are covered with cloud and if you have not known what is sun, that is a different thing. Or even if it is covered, you can go up to the over the cloud and see the sunshine and sun. So the cloud is compared with māyā. So sun is compared with the kingdom of God, and the president of the sun planet is God. This is example. God is far away and He's the greatest. He has created so many millions of suns. But I am giving that example. Now to study the sun, first of all you come to the sunshine. The sunshine is distributed all over the universe, and the sun planet is situated in a localized place. And within the sun planet, there is the predominating deity who is called sun-god. But if you want to study all these things, first of all you come to the sunshine. The sunshine is impersonal. Similarly, there is a transcendental rays from the planet where Kṛṣṇa, or God, is there. Just a few minutes before I recited one verse from Bhagavad-gītā that na tad bhāsayate sūryo ([[Vanisource:BG 15.6|BG 15.6]]). That means it is illuminating. There is no need of sunshine. Just like this planet is not illuminating; therefore we want light from the sun, from the moon, from electricity. But Bhagavad-gītā says that the planet of the Lord, there is no... Why planet? The sky. There is no need of sunshine. Every planet in the spiritual world is illuminating. So because every planet is illuminating, the whole spiritual sky is dazzling illumination. So one who approaches that dazzling illumination called brahma-jyotir, they are called impersonalists. Is it clear?</p>
<p>Jaya-gopāla: But how does one show such an impersonalist with absolute proof logically? I was told Śrīla Bhaktivinoda has such a proof.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Apart from Bhaktivinoda, try to understand in your common sense.</p>
<p>Jaya-gopāla: Yes, I can see this.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Just like sun planet, there is sunshine. The sunshine is impersonal, but if you have got power to enter into the sun globe, then you will find there, there are so many persons, they have got fiery body. It is not a fact in other planets there is no life. That is a nonsense. Every planet there is life, but they have got different situation, different atmosphere. The moon planet is very cold. Even the modern scientists, they agree that the temperature in the moon planet is below two hundred degree zero. So it is very cold. Similarly, sun planet is very hot. Similarly, there are other planets which is made of air, some planets made of water. These five elements, earth, water, air, ether, this is the, these are the ingredients of material world. So some planet is made of something, some planet is made of something. But this earth is made of earth only, and water. So in the sunshine you see, you go by airplane, go in the "friendly sky" above the... You see everything impersonal. Simply glaring sunshine, that's all. But that does not mean it is impersonal. There are many planets within the sunshine, millions of planets, but you cannot see. Similarly, persons who cannot see beyond the brahma-jyotir, the transcendental rays of the spiritual sky, they are impersonalists. They are impersonalists. But one who goes to the transcendental planets, Vaikuṇṭhas, Goloka Vṛndāvana, they see God is there person. As you are person, I am person, you'll find person.</p>
<p>So it is poor fund of knowledge only that these conclude that the ultimate Absolute Truth is impersonal. No. Because Vedānta says, Vedānta-sūtra says, janmādy asya yataḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 1.1.1|SB 1.1.1]]). The Supreme Absolute Truth, or Brahman, is that from whom everything generates, everything is born. Now, everything is born. Then you have got personality, I have got my personality, everyone has got personality. How you can think of Him that He is not person? We have got experience that a father is person, therefore his son is also person. So if we are born of the supreme father, then if we are person, how He can be imperson? It is simple reason. But His personality is different, our personality is different. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ (Bs. 5.1). His body is different, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ. His power is different, His potency is different. Different means that is all spiritual. The difference of spiritual matter we can understand that spirit is the basic principle of movement of matter. Because the spirit soul is within this body, therefore it is moving. Because the spirit soul is there within this body, therefore it is growing. So spirit soul is the basic principle of all material expansion. Similarly, God being full spirit, whole spirit, He is the basic principle of all cosmic manifestation, but He is person. These things are there in the Bhagavad-gītā, you'll read. Arjuna says that "It is very difficult to understand Your personality." People are bewildered, but He is person. And in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad and many other Upaniṣads it is said, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām: (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13) "He is the chief eternal amongst all eternals." That means we living entities, we are also eternals, but He is the chief eternal. So if we are persons, then He is also person. In the Bhagavad-gītā also, the Lord says that "Myself, yourself, My dear Arjuna, and all these kings and soldiers who have come here, assembled here, they are all persons. They were all persons in the past, they are persons at present, and they will continue as persons in the future." These things are there. So individual soul or God, every one of us is person. Each and every one of us—person. Imperson is another feature of the person. Just like the same example. In sun planet there is person, the predominating deity, and his personal effulgence is the sunshine. The sunshine is imperson, but the planet is localized, and the predominating deity is person. The Bhagavata confirms it, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate ([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.11|SB 1.2.11]]). The Absolute Truth is one. Just like the sun, the sunshine, and the deity within the sun, that is one unit. But some portion is called sunshine, some portion is called sun planet, some portion is called the deity. Similarly, the Supreme Brahman is one. His person, His localized position, and His influence and energy, they are one. This is the śuddhādvaitavāda, pure monism. The Śaṅkarācārya's philosophy is monism, one, and Śrī Rāmānujācārya explains, "Yes, one—unity in diversity." So this is unity. The sun deity, the sun planet and the sunshine is one unit, but still, there is diversity. The division of the sunshine is different from the sun planet, the sun planet is different from the predominating deity in the sun planet. If you try to understand this way, then you will understand what is Paramātmā, the Supersoul; the individual soul; the impersonal Brahman; the personal Brahman—everything. Is that clear? So any other question? Yes?</p>
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