View source for If God is known by many different names, though, is it not possible, then, to know God then in many different ways, in many different traditions?

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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1975]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1975 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1975 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="GardenConversationwithProfessorsJune241975LosAngeles_0" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="109" link="Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles" link_text="Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles">
<div class="heading">No. Just like you are the same person, either as professor in the university or at home before your wife, you are the same person. Your wife may address you in a different name, and the students may address you in different name, but you are the same person.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles|Garden Conversation with Professors -- June 24, 1975, Los Angeles]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Dr. Pore: Do you believe that Christ said that Kṛṣṇa was his father?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: The name may be different. Just like in our countries we say this flower something. You say something, something. But the subject matter must be the same. Name is not... You can say in a different way, as you understand. But God is one. God cannot be two. You may give Him different names. That is different thing. But God is one. God cannot be two.</p>
<p>Dr. Wolfe: We may assume, Śrīla Prabhupāda, that God has innumerable names.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Dr. Wolfe: And most of them not known to us. If we can say "most" about innumerable.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: You can... Then you know from us. We can... There is Viṣṇu-sahasra-nāma. Then Caitanya Mahāprabhu also. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktiḥ. Nāma... Nāma means the name and the person. There are many hundreds and thousands of names, and each name is as good as the person. Because it is absolute, there is no difference between the person and the person's name.</p>
<p>Dr. Judah: If God is known by many different names, though, is it not possible, then, to know God then in many different ways, in many different traditions?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No. Just like you are the same person, either as professor in the university or at home before your wife, you are the same person. Your wife may address you in a different name, and the students may address you in different name, but you are the same person.</p>
<p>Dr. Judah: It's true.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: If the person is the same, so difference of name does not change the circumstances.</p>
<p>Dr. Wolfe: But there are many aspects of God, of Kṛṣṇa.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Then the aspect... The aspects have been summarized that God is realized in three aspects, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate: ([[Vanisource:SB 1.2.11|SB 1.2.11]]) impersonal Brahman, localized Paramātmā, and Personality of Godhead. Just like the sun. The sunshine is also sun, but you cannot say that you are in sun. Can you say that? But you are sunshine. The sunshine is not different from the sun. Similarly, in the Absolute Truth the first realization is Brahman, and the next realization is Paramātmā, and the ultimate realization is Bhagavān. The subject matter is the same. But according to the degree of advancement, the realization is partial. The subject matter is the same. Now you can study the sunshine, but it is not in your power to go to the sun planet and study what is actually sun. But because it is not in your power, it does not mean that sun planet is less. You cannot go there; it is not in your power. You can simply study the sunshine. But that does not mean the sun globe is false or there is no subject matter of study. You cannot go there.</p>
<p>Dr. Pore: In that illustration is Kṛṣṇa the sunshine or is Kṛṣṇa the sun?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Kṛṣṇa is the person. God is ultimately a person. And then, by His another potency, He is situated everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-sthaṁ paramānu-cay... He is situated within the atom also. That is called Paramātmā, Supersoul. And He is situated in His impersonal, the whole material creation or any creation. The example is given just like fire. Fire is one place but its heat and light is expanded to mines. Just like the sun. It is a fire light, but heat and light is expanded throughout the universe. So similarly, God is one and His energy is expanded everywhere. You can understand Him by His energies. Just like the government, the president, he is not here, but still, we are under government. Who can deny, that "I am not under government"? If you say, "I do not see who is president. What is the government?" That is not argument. You are. Simply you have to make your eyes to see how you are under Kṛṣṇa. That is required. But you are already.</p>
<p>Dr. Pore: But then God in His essence is Ātman, Brahman, not Kṛṣṇa. Is that what you're saying?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: God is three. I have already given you the example. The sunshine, then sun globe, and the deity within the sun globe, they are all one; still, they are different.</p>
<p>Dr. Pore: And we as human beings, are we part of that too?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Why human being? Even the trees, plants, everyone. We are part and parcel of God.</p>
<p>Dr. Pore: And how is Kṛṣṇa different from us?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: He is not different. Because we cannot realize Him we are thinking He is different from us. That is māyā. Just like father and son. They are not different, but the son, out of his foolishness, he is thinking father is different from him.</p>
<p>Dr. Judah: Wouldn't you say, though, that, in the case of us, that we are, as it were, jīva-śaktiḥ, we are the marginal energy, and so we do have, as it were, that aspect of Kṛṣṇa, but we also have in this world then the māyā-śaktiḥ. We are the combination, as it were, here in the...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is... That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā find out this verse,</p>
:mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ
:jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
:mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni
:na (cā) haṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 9.4|BG 9.4]])
:Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam.
<p>Revatīnandana: </p>
:mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ
:jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
:mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni
:na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 9.4|BG 9.4]])
<p>Translation: By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.</p>
<p>Purport: The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not perceivable through the gross material senses. It is said that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa's name, fame, pastimes, etc., cannot be understood by material senses. Only to one who is engaged in pure devotional service under proper guidance is He revealed. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated, premāñjanacchurita.... One can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Govinda, always within himself and outside himself if he has developed the transcendental loving attitude towards Him. Thus for people in general He is not visible. Here it is said that although He is all-pervading, everywhere present, He is yet not conceivable by the material senses. But actually, although we cannot see Him, everything is resting in Him. As we have discussed in the Seventh Chapter, the entire material cosmic manifestation is only a combination of His two different energies, the superior spiritual energy and the inferior material energy. Just as the sunshine is spread all over the universe, the energy of the Lord is spread all over the creation, and everything is resting in that energy.</p>
<p>Yet one should not conclude that because He is spread all over He has lost His personal existence. To refute such argument the Lord says, "I am everywhere, and everything is in Me, but still I am aloof." For example, a king heads a government which is but the manifestation of the king's energy; the different governmental departments are nothing but the energies of the king, and each department is resting on the king's power. But still one cannot expect the king to be present in every department personally. That is a crude example. Similarly, all the manifestations that we see, and everything that exists both in this material world and in the spiritual world, are resting on the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The creation takes place by the diffusion of His different energies, and, as is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, He is everywhere present by His personal representation, the diffusion of His different energies.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: (aside:) Just wait. I am coming. (break) Kṛṣṇa says that "I am present everywhere by My energy. But personally I may not be here, in here." But ultimately there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa's energy and Kṛṣṇa. Wherever there is energy... Just like electricity. Everywhere there is. If you are expert you can generate electricity from anywhere.</p>
<p>Dr. Pore: Is it possible to find Kṛṣṇa in the Christian tradition or in Islam?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Oh yes. Why not? Christians are seeking after God. You are going to the church. "O God." You accept God has created everything. Here also He says, "Everything is My energy." Where is the difference?</p>
<p>Dr. Pore: The Christians describe Kṛṣṇa in a different way. Are they making mistakes?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is... Just like the heat, the question of energy, the heat 93,000,000's miles away from the sun, heat may be different, and in the sun-globe the heat may be different. But the heat is there; and light is there. The same thing: heat and light is the same, but the degree of presentation of heat and light may be different.</p>
<p>Dr. Pore: Is chanting absolutely necessary in the knowing...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is the easiest way of being directly in touch with God. Because God and God's name, they are absolute, so your chanting the name of God means that directly in touch with God.</p>
<p>Dr. Crossley: Why is that better than loving your fellow man in the traditional bhakti-mārga?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: But you love your fellow man, but you don't love your fellow animal. You love man, but you send the animals to the slaughter-house. That is your love.</p>
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