Guest (3): How can we as mere human beings define what God is? Surely God is indefinable?
Prabhupāda: God is indefinable, but when He comes before you as He is, then it is definable. God is indefinable, that's all right. But if He is so pleased to reveal Himself, then He is definable because He is defining Himself. If you define God by the words of God, then He is definable. Otherwise He is indefinable. By your mental speculation He is indefinable, but if you define God by the definition given by God, then you can define. That is not your definition. You can repeat the definition. Just like God said:
- ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
- mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
- iti matvā bhajante māṁ
- budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
- (BG 10.8)
He said that, "Everything emanates from Me. I am the origin of everything. So one who knows these things, he is actually learned and he becomes My devotee." So if you define God like that, "God is the origin of everything," where is your difficulty? There is no difficulty, because you are defining God by the words of God. If you manufacture any definition of God, then you cannot define. But if you take the words of God, then it is possible to define God.
This is very simple to understand. Suppose there is big man, you are trying to understand what he is. So you can speculate, that will never be perfect. But if the big man says: "I am like this. My position is like this, my bank balance is this, my business . . ." you cannot define like that. Where is the difficulty? God is indefinable, that is a fact, but when you take the definition given by God, then it is easy.